About this event
We need you, experienced citizens of Wisconsin! Right now, our state looms large in the global and national campaign for climate justice. Wisconsin is one of a handful of states that will determine success or failure in the Presidential and U.S. Senate elections. Meanwhile, we are also facing multiple threats to our clean water and air, such as the outdated and dangerous Line 5 Pipeline, while fossil fuel financing continues unabated unless we work together to stop it. Join us for this lively Launch of Third Act Wisconsin–be inspired toward hope and action, and learn about the many ways you can get involved.
Bill McKibben
Founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice. He founded the first global grassroots climate campaign, 350.org, and serves as the Schumann Distinguished Professor in Residence at Middlebury College in Vermont. In 2014, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel,’ in the Swedish Parliament. He’s also won the Gandhi Peace Award, and honorary degrees from 19 colleges and universities.
Rebecca Solnit
Writer, historian, and activist, and the author of over eighteen books on feminism, western and indigenous history, popular power, social change and insurrection, wandering and walking, hope and disaster, including the books Men Explain Things to Me and Hope in the Dark. Rebecca has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism, and the Lannan Literary Award. A product of the California public education system from kindergarten to graduate school, she is a regular contributor to The Guardian
John Harrison Nichols
Liberal and progressive American journalist and author. He is the National Affairs correspondent for The Nation and associate editor of The Capital Times. Books authored or co-authored by Nichols include The Genius of Impeachment and The Death and Life of American Journalism.
Kimberly Blaeser
Former Wisconsin Poet Laureate and founding director of Indigenous Nations Poets, is a poet, photographer, and scholar. She is the author of six poetry collections—including Ancient Light, Copper Yearning, and Résister en dansant/Ikwe-niimi: Dancing Resistance. An enrolled member of White Earth Nation, Blaeser is an Anishinaabe activist and environmentalist. She is an MFA faculty member at Institute of American Indian Arts, and a Professor Emerita at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
Stephanie Janeth Salgado Altamirano
Stephanie (She/Ella/They/Ella) was born and raised in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, moved to Madison, Wisconsin in 2015. An activist since her high school days, she was a member of the Governor’s Task Force on Climate Change. Stephanie now works as the Youth Coordinator in empowering Latinx youth to find their sense of hope, dignity, and liberation.
Doug White
Eco-activist, musician, gardener, producer, teacher and community organizer from the Four Lakes Watershed area of South-Central Wisconsin.