Keynote Speakers
Friday, 7:00-8:00 p.m.
Rebecca Rule, New England Storyteller and Humorist
“Stories: The Heart of Community”
Rebecca Rule, a.k.a. The Moose of Humor, collects and tells stories about New England life – stories, she believes, that reveal the heart of community. She is best known for her live presentations of humorous New Hampshire stories, many sponsored by the NH Humanities Council. She has entertained audiences from Stratford to Keene, prompting New Hampshire Magazine to name her "Thalia: the Muse of Comedy" in its list of notable New Hampshire muses. She will join us at this year’s conference to share her one-of-a-kind stories and humor.
Her books include The Best Revenge: Short Stories (UPNE); Could Have Been Worse: True Stories, Embellishments, and Outright Lies (Plaidswede Press); and a new book A Storyteller’s Guide to New Hampshire (Islandport Press, Spring 2008). She also writes a book review column for three New Hampshire newspapers, the Concord Monitor, Nashua Telegraph, and Portsmouth Herald, with the columns sometimes reprinted in Heart of New England, an on-line magazine. Since 1992 she has written more than 600 of these columns. She also hosts the “NH Authors Series” on NHPTV. Learn more about Rebecca by clicking here .
Saturday, 10:15-11:15 a.m.
Gibrán Rivera, Interaction Institute for Social Change
"Journeying Together: Community Building toward Inclusive Environmental Education"
How do we incorporate social and economic justice in our environmental education efforts? How do we value the lived experience of underrepresented communities in a way that makes a clearer connection between conservation and environmental justice? And how do we reach out to groups that have often been considered “the enemy”?
The climate crisis has brought environmentalism to the mainstream but its global wake up call has yet to become common parlance among traditionally excluded communities. Mr. Rivera will identify ways to bridge this gap between environmentalism in our mainstream culture and the persistent challenges to engaging underserved communities. We will look at community-building principles and ways of forming authentic relationships with those we serve. We address the issue from a foundation of common values and a commitment to visionary boldness. Together we can make change happen, and in this historical moment – we must.
Gibrán Rivera is a Senior Associate at the Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC). The mission of IISC is to ignite and sustain social transformation, catalyze collaborative action, and build collaborative skill that can bring alive our vision of a just and sustainable world. It has worked with the Mass Audubon Society, the Barr Foundation’s Environmental Educators Network, Conservation International and the EPA, among other groups, on environmental justice and sustainability projects. Rivera has been recognized for his scholarship as well as his grassroots work for social transformation. He has worked on community engagement, political and education efforts. Through his work at IISC, Rivera seeks to make innovative practices a more central part of grassroots work while exploring network building and decentralized approaches to the work of social change. Learn more about Gibrán by clicking here.