Majora Carter

Legendary environmental activist Majora Carter will join Power Shift Canada at our opening on Friday, October 23 to share with us an inspirational speech.  You don’t want to miss this.

More about Majora:

Majora Carter is a visionary voice in city planning who views urban renewal through an environmental lens. The South Bronx native draws a direct connection between ecological, economic and social degradation. Hence her motto: “Green the ghetto!”

With her inspired ideas and fierce persistence, Carter managed to bring the South Bronx its first open-waterfront park in 60 years, Hunts Point Riverside Park. Then she scored $1.25 million in federal funds for a greenway along the South Bronx waterfront, bringing the neighbourhood open space, pedestrian and bike paths, and space for mixed-use economic development.

Her success is no surprise to anyone who’s seen her speak; Carter’s confidence, energy and intensely emotional delivery make her talks themselves a force of nature. (The release of her TED Talk in 2006 prompted Guy Kawasaki to wonder on his blog whether she wasn’t “every bit as good as [Apple CEO] Steve Jobs,” a legendary presenter.)

She served for a number of years as executive director of  Sustainable South Bronx, in New York. Her work has garnered numerous awards and accolades including a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, one of Essence Magazine’s 25 Most Influential African-Americans in 2007, and one of the NY Post’s Most Influential NYC Women for the past two years.

She is a board member of the Widerness Society, SJF, and CERES; and hosts a special national public radio series called “The Promised Land”. Her work now includes advising cities, foundations, universities, businesses, and communities around the world on unlocking their green-collar economic potential to benefit everyone as President of the Majora Carter Group, LLC.

“We could not fail to be inspired by Majora Carter’s efforts to bring green space for exercise to the South Bronx. We need more ideas like these to bring solutions to minority communities.”

~ Time Magazine

Dead Prez

Amazing hip hop artists Dead Prez will headline the Power Shift Canada opening night concert.  This show is not to be missed.

More about Dead Prez:

Continuing on the path of politically minded artists like Public Enemy, 2pac and KRS-One, the Florida-formed-New York based outfit known as Dead Prez has been crafting revolutionary but gangsta hip-hop since the late 1990s. Taking inspiration from the life and social activism of Malcolm X, Sticman and M-1, the duo who comprise Dead Prez, have released two proper albums, two underground mix-tapes and two solo albums of street level political hip-hop that is heavily aligned with challenging the status quo, prompting London’s Daily Telegraph to say, “Dead Prez uses music not to lie about having expensive cars or girlfriends with big bottoms, but to rail against the inequities in American society. They do so with an insight and honesty that is rare in any art-form, let alone hip-hop.”

Sustainable Campuses National Conference

The Sierra Youth Coalition’s Sustainable Campuses 11^th Annual National Conference will take place this year as part of Power Shift Canada.  Sustainable campuses’ workshops will be featured in all areas of Power Shift programming.  Power Shift Canada is very excited to be partnering with this amazing fellow youth organization.

Some of the programming that will be offered at Power Shift as part of the Sustainable Campuses National Conference includes:

• “Sustainable Campus” certification
• Communication: planning and tips
• Student Unions for Sustainability
• Campaign planning
• Avoiding Activist Burnout
• Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework
• Multi-Stakeholder process
• A National Strategizing Session

Awakening the Dreamer Symposium

The Symposium, which attracted 1200 participants at Power Shift 2009 in DC, is a profound and effective motivational tool where activists and non-activists alike become informed, hopeful, inspired and empowered to commit themselves to action towards a more just sustainable and fulfilling world.