Posts Tagged Wangari Maathai

GREEN FESTIVAL CELEBRATES 10TH ANNIVERSARY IN SAN FRANCISCO

CONTACT:
SAEGERMEDIAGROUP, Inc.
Katy Saeger
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310.935.3883

Green Festival celebrates 10 years in San Francisco November 12-13, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO - The nation’s premier green living event returns to San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center November 12-13, 2011. This year, Green Festival celebrates a ten-year milestone with over one million attendees in eight cities.

This unique experience celebrates positive solutions working in our communities.  It’s where people come to meet renowned authors, actors, visionaries and community leaders; shop with hundreds of green businesses; participate in DIY workshops; enjoy live music and local vegan and vegetarian cuisine; and join friends at the organic beer and wine garden.

San Francisco leaders are supporting the 10th anniversary.  According to Mayor Edwin M. Lee,   “I applaud Green Festival on its tenth anniversary of bringing together key environmental thought leaders and the best in green economy innovations.” Supervisor John Avalos of the Board of Supervisors commented, “We welcome Green Festival back to San Francisco, it’s a great event to bring your families.”

Ten stages and pavilions will host more than 125 inspirational and educational speakers, including Amy Goodman, Rev Lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus, John Perkins, Frances Moore Lappe, Laura Flanders, Mark Hertsgaard, Anuradha Mittal, Q’orianka Kilcher, John Robbins, Jeffrey Smith, and a special tribute to Wangari Maathai.

With the holiday season just around the corner, Green Festival is the perfect location to support local businesses all in one location.  The Green Marketplace profiles hundreds of green and socially responsible businesses and organizations. Attendees browse everything from green, non-toxic home furnishings to organic clothing to Fair Trade gifts, children’s toys and much more.

“By bringing together all the parts of the next economy—the green economy—the Green Festivals follow the core principle of Mother Nature: unity of diversity,” says Green Festival co-founder Kevin Danaher. “Instead of waiting for elites to reform the economy from the top down, we are constructing a new economic model from the grassroots up.”

“Whether you go to shop, learn, or experience art and music, Green Festival has it all, it’s a great place to celebrate what’s working in our communities and find the sustainable solutions that fit your lifestyle,” says Denise Hamler, Green Festival Director.

Green Festival offers something for the entire family. Peruse the latest in earth-friendly fashions. View socially and environmentally impactful film shorts at the Sierra Club Green Cinema. Learn by doing at hands-on DIY workshops and gain practical green tips you can apply to your everyday life. Empower your inner entrepreneur with Green Business Seminars and find your next green career at the Green Career Resource Center.

With special performances by Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company, Evelie Delino Sales Posch with the Spiral Dance Chorus and Band, Banana Slug String Band, Valerie Orth, David Young and DJ Sister Yasmin.

Check out the latest in all-electric and hybrid transportation at the Ford Pavilion and enjoy a test drive right at the Green Festival.  Join Ford in celebrating social and environmental innovation in the community and vote for the finalists who will win a $5,000 Ford Community Green Grant.

A joint project of Green America and Global Exchange, Green Festival is a non-profit 501c3 event to explore and build sustainable solutions for successful communities and a healthier environment.

Engage with Green Festivals online at www.GreenFestivals.org.

Connect with Green Festival on Facebook and Twitter @GreenFestival.

Sign up for the Green Festival Newsletter at www.greenfestivals.org/newsletter for program updates and giveaway opportunities.

Become a Green Festival volunteer and get free admission volunteer@greenfestivals.org.

Green Festival Partners make the event possible: Clif Bar, Ford Motor, Renewal by Anderson, Ben and Jerry’s, New York Times, O Organics/Bright Green, New Resource Bank, Earth Balance,  BRITA, Calvert, Consumer Reports, DotGreen, Essentia, Four Green Steps, Green Bash, Manitoba Harvest, Numi Tea, Zu-Kay, Book Publishing Company, and Democracy Now.

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About Green America

Green America is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1982, providing the economic strategies, organizing power and practicing tools for businesses and individuals to address today’s social and environmental problems. Its Green Business Network is the largest national network of businesses screened for their social and environmental responsibility.  www.greenamericatoday.org

About Global Exchange

Global Exchange is a membership-based international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world. Since its founding in 1988, Global Exchange has successfully increased public awareness of root causes of injustice while building international partnerships and mobilizing for change. www.globalexchange.org

About Seven-Star, Inc.

Seven-Star, Inc. is the nation’s premier green full-service event company focusing exclusively on green events. Since 1999, Seven-Star has provided turn-key green event services for environmentally responsible and socially respectful (eR/sR) festivals, trade and consumer expositions, conferences and concerts. Events include the greening of the 2007 International Live Earth events, 2008 Democratic National Convention events, and Green Festivals. Seven-Star is the first event company to win the EPA’s Gold Waste Wise Award for Excellence in recognition for their proprietary system of event waste diversion, which has consistently achieved greater than 92%.www.sevenstarevents.com

San Francisco 2011 Green Festival Program Highlights:

  • Eco-Fashion Showcase
  • Sustainable Home and Garden Pavilion
  • Do-It-Yourself Workshops
  • Green Kids’ Zone
  • Green Business Pavilion
  • Green Jobs and Careers
  • Green Investing
  • Green Building Pavilion
  • Renewable Energy
  • Beer and Wine Pavilion
  • Organic Local Food
  • Ford Pavilion
  • Fair Trade Pavilion
  • Community Action Pavilion
  • Acoustic Music Café
  • Sierra Club Green Cinema
  • Youth Programs
  • Zero-waste Tour

San Francisco Green Festival

November 12-13

Saturday, 10 am – 7 pm

Sunday, 11 am – 6 pm

Concourse Exhibition Center

8th Street at Brannan, San Francisco

Pricing:

$10 all access weekendpass (online) with two gifts.

$10 day at the door

$15 weekend at the door

Green Festival Fan Package  – weekend pass for 2 — $48 (online) with gifts or $55 (at door)

Free Admission:
Youth under 18, seniors, union members, cyclists (with use of bike valet), volunteers and Green America and Global Exchange members.

Event contact: June Brashares

Event phone contact: 415-425-3733

Event email contact: june@greenfestivals.org

Second Event Contact: Bryan Ting

Second Event phone contact: 925-788-7797

Second Event email contact: bryan.ting@greenfestivals.org

Event category: green, family, festival, education, expo

Ongoing Event (y or n)  Y – annual event

Short Event Description:

Green Festival, the nation’s largest and most trusted green living event returns to San Francisco for its 10th year on November 12-13, 2011. This unique experience celebrates positive solutions working in our communities. Festivities include presentations by more than 125 renowned authors and inspiring visionaries, DIY workshops, cutting-edge films, enriching kid’s and youth activities, organic beer and wine, delicious organic vegan and vegetarian cuisine, music and art and an amazing marketplace of hundreds of green local and national businesses and organizations.

Shorter Event Description:

Green Festival, the nation’s largest, most trusted green living event returns to San Francisco for its 10th year on November 12-13, 2011.  Meet and hear renowned authors and  inspiring visionaries. Participate in DIY workshops. Enjoy films, fun kid’s activities, organic vegan & vegetarian cuisine, local beer & wine, music & art and a diverse marketplace of green businesses & organizations.

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Wangari Maathai: Death of a visionary

“Wangari Maathai’s compelling life story is inextricably linked with the social and political changes that so much of Africa has been through since the idea of throwing off European colonialism began to gain traction shortly after World War II.

Her unique insight was that the lives of Kenyans – and, by extension, of people in many other developing countries – would be made better if economic and social progress went hand in hand with environmental protection.

The Green Belt Movement, which she founded in 1977, has planted an estimated 45 million trees around Kenya.

The straightforward environmental benefits of that would have been important enough on their own in a country whose population has grown more than 10-fold over the last century, creating huge pressure on land and water.

But what made the movement more remarkable was that it was also conceived as a source of employment in rural areas, and a way to give new skills to women who regularly came second to men in terms of power, education, nutrition and much else.

Now, she has succumbed to a battle with cancer. But if cancer was new to her, battle was definitely not; it was a way of life.

Opposing a major government-backed development in Nairobi, she was labelled a “crazy woman”; it was suggested that she should behave like a good African woman and do as she was told.

Her former husband made similar comments when suing for divorce: she was strong-willed, and could not be controlled.

This alone gives some idea of the battles Dr Maathai fought in the politically active phase of her life, which encompassed and indeed wove together the ideals of helping Kenya develop sustainably and helping Kenyan women achieve equality…”

Wangari Maathai: Death of a visionary by Richard Black via BBC News.

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