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Discounted pricing is available at checkout.
- Use discount code PPGPARTNER and pay $200 if you are a current partner in the Partnership for the Public Good
- Use discount code HIGHROADALUMNI and pay $150 if you are a High Road Alumni.
- If you have a question about payment or need financial aid, please reach out to event organizers, (ks844@cornell.edu).
Program Description
*Registration for the conference is now free.
In cities across the United States, everyday people are working to transform our democracy by strengthening their voices in local government, shaping an economy that works for all, and reimagining public safety and health. They are organizing locally to imagine and build a new future where people have good jobs, affordable housing, climate justice, and a real voice in the decisions that affect our lives.
Join us in Buffalo for Uniting on the High Road, June 20-22, 2024, a conference bringing together leaders, advocates, researchers, and organizers from these broad movements for racial and economic justice and authentic democracy. The conference will include speakers from local and national organizations like PowerSwitch Action, Good Jobs First, ALIGN, Demos, Bargaining for the Common Good, Grassroots Collaborative of Chicago, New Yorkers United for Child Care, Starbucks Workers United, and local unions, universities, and partners in government. Come and take part in interactive workshops, field experiences in Buffalo neighborhoods, art performances, and collective artmaking as we learn from each other and imagine future collaboration within and across cities.
The conference is hosted by Cornell University ILR Buffalo Co-Lab and the Partnership for the Public Good. Since 1946, Cornell ILR’s education programs, action research, and public policy work have advanced the mission of an economy that works for everyone. Partnership for the Public Good, founded in 2007, is a community-based think tank that builds a more just, sustainable and culturally vibrant Buffalo Niagara together with its partner network of more than 360 community groups, nonprofits, and civic organizations. Our collaborative organizations are dedicated to advancing social, racial, and economic progress and the promotion of knowledge for the public good.
Buffalo is home to a vibrant network of organizers, advocates, researchers, artists, and workers who continue a great tradition of activism and organizing in our region. Buffalo was an epicenter for historic social movements including abolition, the Underground Railroad, labor organizing, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, and many other forms of grassroots activism. Now, residents and community groups continue to resist injustice and organize for a better future, including organizing the first Starbucks stores in the US and many other emerging unions.
A special thanks to additional sponsors: Hayes Dolce, Clean Air Coalition, UB Center for Urban Studies, UB School of Social Work, and Open Buffalo.
Agenda
THURSDAY, JUNE 20
Registration
Come early to visit the Burchfield Penney Art Center and tour its galleries, get to know fellow conference participants, and enjoy tea, coffee, and refreshments before we begin.
Transforming our Democracy to Build a People’s Economy
In this collective keynote the voices of local and national leaders will convey their vision for a solidarity economy and the movement building underway to get there. The keynote will share the work and long-term agenda of PowerSwitch Action, a national network of 21 powerful grassroots organizations. As PowerSwitch Action states, “Most of us want pretty similar things: a safe home, meaningful work, a livable planet, and time to enjoy with family and friends.” These are the priorities that our economy and democracy should center, and leaders from PowerSwitch Action’s network and local Buffalo leaders will reflect on how we build the people power and people’s institutions to achieve this vision.
- Lauren Jacobs, Executive Director, PowerSwitch Action, a national network of 21 grassroots organizations building people power in US cities
- Carlos Fernandez, Executive Director, Grassroots Collaborative, a community-labor coalition of ten membership organizations in Chicago and Peoria, Illinois
- Maria Noel Fernandez, Executive Director, Working Partnerships USA, working for a just economy in San Jose and Silicon Valley, California
- Dr. Henry Louis Taylor, Jr., Director, Center for Urban Studies, University at Buffalo, School of Architecture and Planning
- Franchelle Parker, Executive Director, Open Buffalo
FREE FRED BROWN!, Ujima Company, Inc. Theatre
Free Fred Brown! is a devised theatre piece about a young Black man who becomes the reluctant face of a movement while in prison for “theft of services” from the National Gas Company. Fred is from Uptown, a frontline neighborhood at the epicenter of economic, racial, and climate justice, in a rust-belt city that is identical to Buffalo, NY. When a surprise snow storm wreaks havoc on the region, Uptown suffers most and demands explanations: What happened? Who is responsible, and how do we make sure it doesn't happen again? In partnership with a climate justice coalition in Buffalo, this play was created in 2017 by Ujima Company, Inc., founded as a multi-racial and multi-ethnic theatre in 1978.
Reception to follow
Reception
Stay with us for dinner, drinks, and making new connections on the High Road!
FRIDAY, JUNE 21
Breakfast
8:30-8:50am Poetry with Annette Daniels Taylor, Award winning Theater Artist, Poet, and Artist-Filmmaker.
PLENARY PANEL
Public Goods for Public Money: Investing in Communities Instead of Corporations
Where should our tax dollars go? For childcare or for corporate welfare? For privatized or public control of public-funded healthcare? At a time when public investments in economic and social programs are being controlled by and for corporate interests, how can citizens counter-act the privatization of taxpayer-funded resources? What policies are being put in place around the country to redirect the use of public resources for the benefit of all, not just the corporate few?
- Greg LeRoy, Executive Director, Good Jobs First
- Rebecca Bailin, Executive Director, New Yorkers United for Child Care
- April Baskin, County Legislator (District 2) and Chair of the Erie County Legislature
- Sean Ryan, New York State Senator (61st District)
Moderator: Russell Weaver, Director of Research, Cornell ILR Buffalo Co-Lab
Coffee Break
CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS
Labor and Community Together: Fighting for Living Wages, Healthy Communities, and a Livable Planet
A founding ideal of the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the United States, is to assemble a broad progressive coalition for social and economic justice, understanding that the struggles of workers are inextricably interwoven with the struggles of communities. In this moment in time, how are labor and community partnerships faring? Why is building enduring labor and community alliances critical in a country facing accelerating deep divides and inequalities? How do we grow our memberships? How do we grow our allies? How do we grow our collective power?
- Bianca Cunningham, Campaigns Director, Bargaining for the Common Good
- Theo Moore, Executive Director, ALIGN
- Grace Bogdanove, Western NY Nursing Home Division Vice President, 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East
- Lara Skinner, Executive Director, ILR Climate Jobs Institute
- Michelle Eisen, Theatre Artist/Stage Manager, and Organizing Member of Starbucks Workers United
Moderator: Cathy Creighton, Director, Cornell University ILR Buffalo Co-Lab and Kathleen Mulligan, Interim Executive Director, Worker Institute, Director of Labor Leadership Programs, and Co-Director of the National Labor Leadership Initiative
A Just Economy is a Democratic Economy: Overcoming Race, Class, and Gender Inequalities
The economy can be a driver of inequity, such as racial health disparities, the gender pay gap, and lack of opportunity for those impacted by the justice system and incarceration. Or, it can be a better and just economy that helps families and communities thrive. How can we rebalance power in the economy and workplace so that workers have greater control of their work, earn their fair share, and have more decision-making power? This panel will explore workplace democracy and equity-driving policies and programs, from supporting worker cooperative development in disinvested communities to creating opportunities for the people and communities most affected by mass incarceration.
- Tori Kuper, Director of The School of Democratic Management, Democracy at Work Institute, and Founder and Board Member of Cooperation Buffalo
- Kim Smith, Rochester City Council Member (At-Large) and Political Director, VOCAL-US
- Jodi Anderson, Jr., Director of Technological Innovation, ILR Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative
- Erin Hatton, PhD, Professor, UB Department of Sociology
- Rev. George Nicholas, Executive Director, Buffalo Center for Health Equity
Moderator: Dejia James, Director of Policy Advancement and Media, Partnership for the Public Good
Lunch and Musical performance by the band Son BoriKua.
Son BoriKua performs traditional Afro Cuban–Puerto Rican music while incorporating their own influences.
PLENARY PANEL
Democracy on the Defense: What’s the Economy Got to Do With It?
Famously, Justice Louis Brandeis said, “We can have a democracy in this country or we can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” In the new Gilded Age of today, how are increasing inequality and concentrated economic power threatening American democracy? How are people mobilizing in communities across the country to secure political power and create a fair, multi-racial, inclusive democracy and economy? What are local communities and states doing to reimagine public goods and gain public governance over unchecked private corporate and financial power? What reforms are necessary to protect the democratic process, personal freedoms, and workers rights? Still asking: how do we achieve a government of the people, by the people, and for the people?
- Udochi Onwubiko, Director of Economic Justice, Demos
- Neda Khoshkhoo, Associate Director of Democracy, Demos
- Shelley Mayer, New York State Senator
- Derek Seidman, Writer, Researcher, Historian, Contributor to Truthout and LittleSis
Moderator: Rosemary Batt, Cornell ILR; Center for Economic and Policy Research
Guided Buffalo Field Trips and Dinner
See, first hand, high road policies and practices in action and have a chance to talk to other conference attendees, as well as local workers and activists. Transportation and dinner from a local restaurant will be provided. Space is limited-- first come, first serve!
Options:
- High Road Fellowship and Engaged Learning. Learn about engaged learning programs that develop genuine partnership between universities and community organizations to allow a unique place to create dialogue, build relationships, and that work in concert to tackle the awesome challenges facing America and the world. Intended to bring together High Road Fellows, alumni and supporters, explore some Buffalo silos and, over dinner, hear what changes fellows and alumni are working toward and how best to prepare young people for a better, more democratic society.
- "Digging" Deep into Ecological Justice. Connect with the land and get your hands dirty while learning about local, sustainable practices. We will have the opportunity to volunteer for a bit with Massachusetts Avenue Project, an urban farm that offers youth employment and job training, a community kitchen, and a mobile fresh market and tour 5 Loaves Farm. For dinner, we'll get (delicious!) pizza from Extra Extra, Buffalo's worker cooperative restaurant!
- "Reinvestment" Walking Tour. Walking tour of the Broadway-Fillmore area of Buffalo. We will explore "reinvestment," look at upcoming development projects in the area, and afterwards, will we'll go to Eugene V. Debs Hall for delicious Indian-Mediterranean food from Alibaba Kebab.
- Neighborhood Planning and Development on the East Side. How do you revitalize an entire neighborhood from the ground up? Dr. Henry Louis Taylor, Jr., Professor, Urban and Regional Planning, University at Buffalo will lead a tour of the East Side Neighborhood Demonstration Project Area- part of his "How We Change The Black East Side" initiative. Dinner will be delicious!
SATURDAY, JUNE 22
Breakfast and Poetry readings with Just Buffalo Writing Center Youth
Just Buffalo Literary Center’s mission is to create and strengthen communities through the literary arts. And for more than 45 years, they have brought the world’s greatest writers to Buffalo, hosted poetry events and readings, and supported the development of young writers.
The Just Buffalo Writing Center (JBWC) has long been a gathering place designed to aid young and emerging writers ages 12–18 in the cultivation of their writing skills, as well as adult writers of all ages and skill levels. The JBWC is also a great resource for encouraging and supporting the teachers and schools in our community.
Plenary Gathering
Local Movements for a More Equitable, Sustainable, Democratic Society: Building Democracy from the Ground Up
At the city level across the United States, community-based organizations are building social movements to win a more equitable and democratic future. We will hear from leaders and members of organizations in Buffalo, New York that are reimagining public safety, strengthening the voices of immigrants and New Americans in shaping our public policy, and winning environmental justice campaigns to repair the harms caused by extractive corporations. How are they using democracy in their own organizations to advance a more democratic future for us all? We will also look to organizing in Minneapolis, Minnesota to reflect on labor and community collaboration in our fight to change who governs our economies and communities. By building together at the local level, we can win more equitable American cities.
- Phylicia Brown, Executive Director, Black Love Resists in the Rust
- Member, Black Love Resists in the Rust
- Grace Karambizi, Executive Director, The Buffalo Immigrant Leadership Team
- Member, Buffalo Immigrant Leadership Team
- Bridge Rauch, Environmental Justice Organizer, Clean Air Coalition
- Member, Clean Air Coalition
- Amelia Pedrego, Research and Strategic Campaigns, SEIU Local 26 (Minneapolis, MN)
Moderator: Andrea Ó Súilleabháin, Partnership for the Public Good
Coffee Break
Democracy Sparks
What new (or old) idea will spark a change that will revolutionize how our society operates…how we think…or what we believe? `This series of 5 minute presentations, will showcase innovative ideas that serve the public good—either imagined or actualized—to ignite sparks of creativity and possibility. These ideas help our audience of advocates, researchers, lawyers, labor union members and others to imagine the future economy, democracy, and community that is possible.
Moderator: Jillian Hanesworth
Jillian Hanesworth is an EMMY award winning spoken word artist, the Poet Laureate Emeritus of Buffalo, New York and a community organizer and activist. Jillian was born and raised on the east side of Buffalo where she developed a vision to use art and advocacy to help her community reimagine justice and work together to create a system where all people can thrive.
Currently, Jillian travels the country performing poetry and speaking on various topics including; art for activism, the impacts of storytelling and the importance of honest and critical social and political conversations. In addition, Jillian oversees “Buffalo Books”, a nationally recognized program which aims to improve access to culturally relevant books for residents of the east side of Buffalo with the hopes of helping to increase literacy rates among Black and brown communities.
Closing Remarks
Closing Music with Curtis Lovell
Curtis Lovell is an artist, musician, actor, entrepreneur, and healer born and raised in Buffalo New York. Curtis Lovell began singing at the age of 4 years old when his mother, actress, poet, and playwright Lorna C. Hill, realized that Lovell had perfect pitch. He is a 2009 graduate of the Buffalo Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts.
As a solo musical artist, Lovell is known for creating his own looping accompaniment, singing the melody over the lush background of looped vocal phrases
