Power to the People

If deconstructing invisible dominant power structures is your idea of a good time, you're not alone in Denver, where a well-knit network of activists brings creative flair to community organizing. Today, the best minds in local muck-racking launch the Art of Social Justice Conference, three days of information, liberation and...

By Laura Bond

April 5, 2012

Audio By Carbonatix

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If deconstructing invisible dominant power structures is your idea of a good time, you're not alone in Denver, where a well-knit network of activists brings creative flair to community organizing. Today, the best minds in local muck-racking launch the Art of Social Justice Conference, three days of information, liberation and deconstruction at the Auraria campus. Free workshops and activities will cover every-thing from food justice and corporate domination to cultural colonialism and alternative economies. There are presenters from GrowHaus, Woodbine Ecology Center and the Beehive Design Collective, which creates intricate large-scale works of art that defy both copyright and authorship.

"Social justice is not a set cause, platform or identity, but something we hope to make accessible to everyone and show that is it something anyone can do," says Dustin Lewis, a student leader with the Collective for Social Justice, which organized the conference.

Finally, who better than Dr. Cornel West -- activist, avowed socialist, spoken-word artist and professor -- to cap this radical effort? On Thursday at 7 p.m., West brings the funky keynote to the Tivoli Turnhalle on the Auraria campus. After all that heavy thinking, the conference culminates with a dance party at St. Cajetan's. Visit for more information.
April 10-12, 2012

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