At Bioneers we have an amazing community – discerning, engaged, committed and reflective. These Community Conversations are an opportunity for us to come together around key topics to talk about what has real meaning and value to us. Stimulated by a brief ‘keynote’, or “conversation starter”, and captured by a creative ’synthesis’ from talented young spoken word artists, these community conversations offer a place to bring your best thinking forward in creative and innovative ways. Join us, and weave your heart, mind, and voice into the collective braid!

What is activism that holds art and beauty at its center? The soulful artist/activist and extraordinary world/folk musician Leah Song of Rising Appalachia and the Slow Music Movement will share her passion for the arts as active political resistance and peacekeeping. Join the conversation as she invites us into an essential exploration of art, change, movement, resistance, resilience, and beauty – and how they dance together to connect us in our common humanity.

With: Leah Song of Rising Appalachia, the powerful world.folk.soul duo with sister Chloe Smith, and the RISE Collective; Diné/Tsétsêhéstâhese poet, musician and activist extraordinaire Lyla June, who will be “harvesting” the highlights or our conversation and mirroring it back to us in spoken word performance; Amy Lenzo, weDialogue and the World Cafe Community Foundation; David Shaw, Santa Cruz Permaculture & UCSC Right Livelihood College.