Piece Description

Action Speaks is a series of contemporary topic-driven panel discussions framed by the theme "Underappreciated Dates that Changed America."  Each panel draws three or four experts, academics, creatives, and other relevant guests into an open-ended discussion with the larger community in the casual atmosphere of the downtown Providence arts organization, AS220.  Action Speaks has partnered with RI's NPR station, WRNI, since 1995, and holds the honor of being been the first locally generated show aired on the station. Now you can tune in nationwide to Action Speaks to hear host Marc Levitt and an endless parade of perceptive intellects and insightful audience members!

The fall season of Action Speaks: Underappreciated Dates that Changed America is organized around the theme ‘What Now?’ With our country mired in its worst economic collapse since the great depression, history can be a guide for what actions our nation should or shouldn’t take to provide for its citizens and whether or not it is time to re-set our priorities.

In this discussion we ask, How has mobilizing the public changed in the world of Web2.0 from the days of the Highlander Center's multiracial labor and Civil Rights organizing? Does Internet based organizing mean less or more 'Bowling Alone'? Why is community organizer Saul Alinsky's 'Rule for Radicals' a favorite book of the 'Right'?

Featured Guests:

Heather Cronk is the Chief Operating Officer at the New Organizing Institute, overseeing NOI's growing operations and planning strategically for NOI's programs. The New Organizing Institute trains progressive nonprofits and political campaigns on new tools and strategies for organizing, emphasizing the areas of field and leadership, data and technology, and new media. Prior to her work at NOI, Heather worked with PledgeBank, a project of mySociety, reaching out to organizations and individuals across the country to encourage the use of PledgeBank and other web-based tools for local community organizing and citizen-centered collective action.

Mary Kay Harris is the Lead Organizer for the Providence organization Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE), and by extension a player in the national social justice alliance Right to the City. For over ten years, Harris has worked within coalitions of activists and community members, for greater police accountability in Providence. Together they have seen such victories as the passage of the nation's 7th Driving While Black Bill. Her training in outreach, strategy and leadership development, allowed for the creation of PERA, or Providence External Review Authority, an autonomous body for investigations on potential police misconduct incidents. Recently, Harris was honored as one of the two recipients of the National Organizers Alliance 2008-2009 Organizer Respite Award.

Pam McMichael is the director of the Highlander Research and Education Center and a national fellow with the Rockefeller Foundation leadership project. A social justice activist in her native community, Louisville, Kentucky, she is also the co-founder and eight-year co-director of SONG, Southerners on New Ground. 

Nicholas V. Longo, Ph.D. is the Assistant Professor of Public and Community Service Studies and Director of the Global Studies Program at Providence College.  He is the author of the book Why Community Matters: Connecting Education with Civic Life and a host of other scholarly articles on service learning and civic engagement.

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Action Speaks!, a co-production of AS220 and the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, would like to thank The National Endowment for the Humanities who provided major funding to our program; our Media Partners: WRNI, RIPBS & the Providence Phoenix.  Thanks to The What Cheer? Brigade for our intro music.

Find out more at http://actionspeaksradio.org/ 

Contact the production crew at actionspeaksradio@as220.org with any feedback, ideas for future shows for press info or to request a personalized ID. You can also write to us at Action Speaks! c/o AS220 Main Office, 95 Mathewson St. Dreyfus #204, Providence RI 02903. If you are a radio station and wish to receive a CD of Action Speaks! please visit Creative PR's website: creativepr.org to make a request or contact them at info@creativepr.org / 1-888-233-5650. After December 2009, please contact actionspeaksradio@as220.org with any CD requests.