2007 Speakers

A talk show host, investigative reporter, writer, and an entrance point for activist voices, Alan Siporin organized for civil rights and against the Vietnam War in Nebraska in the 1960s.  In the 70s he moved to Eugene and worked with organizations like McKenzie River Gathering and Growers Market.  He joined KLCC in 1981 as host for the Blue Plate Special – bringing us information that is so profoundly fundamental for

Anne Feeney is the granddaughter of an intrepid mineworker organizer who used music to carry the message of solidarity.   She has worked as an attorney representing the underserved and disabled. Anne exemplifies the spirit of the new/old guerilla minstrels working to build community, empower the people, and expose the naked imperialist. Illustrious cover song, Have You Been to Jail For Justice, from Anne’s newest CD Live From the Wholly Stolen Empire has been performed by Peter, Paul & Mary and others. Utah Phili

Teacher, performer, counter-cultural icon, lover of God: Bhagavan Das is as rich and manifold as Existence itself.   Born in California, Bhagavan Das was disturbed by suburban existence and materialism and set forth to explore the world.  Busking throughout Europe he headed east, hiking overland through Afghanistan and Pakistan into India. All possessions stolen, he threw himself into solitary retreat. Upon emerging he had an absolute devotion to God.  Bhagavan Das lived as an Indian sadhu, and met his guru, the great Neem Karoli Baba Maharaj.

Brad Lerch is a partner of Royal Blue Organics, purveyors of Café Mam organic, fair trade coffee. Joining the family business in 1991, Brad has been the driving force managing the company. Café Mam has been a leader in the Fair Trade movement, working closely with the farmers and paying a fair wage since its inception, long before there was a Fair Trade certification in the USA. Through these efforts, Café Mam has helped better the lives of countless Mayan farmers and their families in Chiapas, Mexico and Guatemala.

Celia Tagamolila Bardwell-Jones is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Philosophy and is also pursuing a Women and Gender Studies Graduate Certificate at the University of Oregon. Her dissertation analyzes the concept of travel as a way of thinking about the nature of cross-cultural identities and the notion of community within a transnational context. Her work addresses issues in feminist border politics, cosmopolitanism, multiculturalism and immigration in an age of globalization.

dahinda meda  is a powerful advocate for social justice.  He has been an activist and innovator for over 5 decades.  He started the U.S.’s first all-organic, fair trade coffee company (Cafe Mam) in 1989.  He has been involved in organic farming and cooperative businesses since the 60’s.  He is Vegmanec co-coordinator at the Oregon Country Fair.

Dave McAlinden grew up on the Oregon coast. He is an alumni of Southern Oregon University where he studied film.  At 23 years old, Dave has been involved with Slam for 3 years.  He has an affinity for the beat generation as well as the romantics. Ultimately, Dave is just a Star Wars geek who hates bio sketches with a passion and thinks Annie Nealy is the sexiest girl on the planet. He currently lives in Astoria, Oregon where he harbors an ongoing desire to have a monkey as a pet.

Dave Room is founder of Energy Preparedness, a consultancy on relocalization and municipal response to our energy predicament.  Previously, he played a key role in many aspects of Post Carbon Institute’s emergence including conceptual frameworks, web design and development, policy, outreach, and fundraising.  He is an interviewer for Global Public Media, as well as a frequent lecturer.

Dave Shapiro ~ An urban herbalist, solar infuser of massage oils, tracker, writer, prankster, didgeridoo player, naturalistorian, and papa, Dave has lived and grown in Portland, OR since 1999.  An avid appreciator of taoism and the power of place, Dave has been a student of nature since he can rememeber.  Dave has developed a knack for fun in the woods and part of that fun has been eating wild foods and getting to know the intimate details of landscape through its species.

A major evolution in the bioregional movement can be attributed to the organizing skills of homesteader and appropriate technology activist David Haenke, He published Ecological Politics and Bioregionalism, describing regenerative agriculture, appropriate technology, renewable energy sources, cooperative economics, land trusts, ecologically-based health policy.  David is co-founder of the first bioregional congress – still going strong 28 years later, providing a template for others.  His focus is on the politicization and inst

DJ Cocheze  was named for a Chiricahua Apache chief, Cocheze started spinning when he was 14 years old. Having opened for acts like the Alkoholiks & Blackalicious at a young age, Cocheze has recently toured extensively as KRS-ONE's DJ. Cocheze is now a recent addition to the Wisdom Creations Band family as well, bringing a crucial element of hip-hop culture to the foreground of the Wisdom sound.

Don Wirtshafter started the Ohio Hempery in 1990. He saw it as a creative solution to the environmental and criminal problems that frequented his Athens, Ohio law office. Don started inventing products and developing companies that produced a wide variety of consumer goods from hemp seeds and fiber. In 1998 the Drug Enforcement Agency began to restrict importation of hemp seeds forcing Don to move his oil pressing operation to Manitoba. This effort has evolved into the world’s leading hemp producer Hemp Oil Canada, Inc., 1-800-BUY-HEMP.

Arrested in 1964 for participating in the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley stimulated Doug Green to a committed dedication of protesting injustice.  Doug has photographed police brutality at Raise the Pentagon, Peoples Park, and S.F. State Park.   Doug worked as a staff photographer for M.L.K.’s Resurrection City in Washington.   For the last 25 years, Doug has worked as an activist M.C.

drea brown is a supa sista...a poem peddlin soothsay originally from st.louis, she's performed her work from the east coast to the west secretly, she's a california girl at heart, and imagines she is magic... 

drea is in eugene for the love of words, the space to create, and because there's no better place to be insane and broke...simply put, she is a graduate student in the MFA program at U of O.