Speaker Information 

 

Keynote Speaker Urvashi Vaid

LGBT Leader, Attorney, Community Organizer, and Author of The Irresistible Revolution Vaid depicts an award-winning analysis of the gay rights movement. As the Director of the Engaging Tradition Project, she studies the use of tradition in arguments by advocates of gender and sexuality-based social justice projects to shape legal and legislative strategies, frame public education messages, and strengthen arguments that advance the rights of groups seeking social justice. - Jodi Solomon Speakers Bureau

... intelligent, forthright book [that] contends that American homosexuals have achieved only the appearance of acceptance. Valuable ... and frightening.

- The New Yorker

 

Spoken Word Artist Andrea Gibson

Andrea Gibson, the first winner of the Women’s World Poetry Slam has headlined prestigious performance venues coast to coast with powerful readings on war, class, gender, bullying, white privilege, sexuality, love, and spirituality. Gibson's albums and publications include, Trees that Grow in Cemeteries, Yellow Bird, What the Yarn Knows of Sweaters, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns, Pansy, and The Madness Vase.

Gibson’s poems are a rallying cry for action and a welcome mat at the door of the heart’s most compassionate room. In 2013 (with Kelsey Gibb) Gibson launched the website and support system, Stay Here With Me ​"an interactive, safe space offering collective support while encouraging individual healing to keep those who visit alive today, and wanting to stay alive tomorrow." - Wikipedia

“Gibson is among the nation’s most admired and emulated poets. [Their] verse is at once personal and political, feminist and universal, filled with incinerating verbs and metaphor, and delivered with gut punching urgency.”  - Metaphor Media

 

Empowerment Workshop Facilitator Wagatwe Wanjuki

Wagatwe Wanjuki is an anti-sexual violence advocate activist, and author. She is the founder of F— Yeah Feminists, one of the first and most popular feminist blogs on Tumblr. Wagatwe is a prominent campus anti-sexual violence activist who recently received widespread media attention for starting the nationally-trending #SurvivorPrivilege hashtag on Twitter. She is a founding co-organizer of the Know Your IX ED ACT NOW campaign focusing on holding schools accountable to protect the civil right for an education free of sexual violence. She has written for Feministing, Mic, RH Reality Check, ESSENCE magazine, BuzzFeed, and the New York Times. Her appearances include The Daily Show, HuffPost Live, Democracy Now!, and MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes.

 

 

Featured Film and Discussion UnSlut: A Documentary Film

The UnSlut Project uses personal story sharing as a means to work against sexual bullying and “slut”-shaming in our schools, communities, media, and culture. Emily Lindin, founder of The UnSlut Project, made this film to inspire and motivate people everywhere to speak up about the dangerous, lasting effects of sexual bullying, “slut”-shaming, and all forms of gender-based discrimination.v. Through this film, The UnSlut Project aims to inspire women, girls, parents, partners, and people everywhere to rethink the misogynistic culture of compulsive “slut”-shaming we live in and together, create a world “where the word ‘slut’ doesn’t even make since as insult.