Join longtime activist/educators Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn in an engaged conversation. In an era defined by mass incarceration, endless war, economic crisis, catastrophic environmental destruction, and a political system offering more of the same, radical social transformation has never been more urgent. Bill Ayers, author of the new book Demand the Impossible, and fellow activist/educator Bernadine Dohr (both former members of the Weather Underground) for an engaged conversation about the world, this historical (or hysterical) moment and where we go from here.

About the presenters

Bill Ayers is a social justice activist, teacher, Distinguished Professor of Education (retired) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and author of two memoirs, “Fugitive Days” and “Public Enemy.”

His new book, “Demand the Impossible,” is a manifesto for movement-makers. In an era defined by mass incarceration, endless war, economic crisis, catastrophic environmental destruction, and a political system offering more of the same, radical social transformation has never been more urgent. “Demand the Impossible” urges us to imagine a world beyond what this rotten system would have us believe is possible. In critiquing the world around us, insurgent educator and activist Bill Ayers uncovers cracks in the system, raising our sights for radical change, and envisioning strategies for building a movement to create a more humane, balanced, and peaceful world.

Bernardine Dohrn, activist, academic and children’s and women’s rights advocate, is a retired Associate Clinical Professor at Northwestern University School of Law, where she was the (founding) director of the Children and Family Justice Center for twenty-three years. Dohrn was national leader of SDS and the Weather Underground, and was on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List.

Dohrn is an author and co-editor of three books: “Race Course: Against White Supremacy (2009) with Bill Ayers; “A Century of Juvenile Justice” (2002); and “Resisting Zero Tolerance: A Handbook for Parents, Teachers and Students” (2001). Most recently she has written “In My Lifetime, Young People Have Changed the World: Children as Social Actors” in Diving In, and “The Surprising Role of the CRC in a Non-State Party” in Litigating the Rights of the Child.

She is co-editor of Sing A Battle Song: Documents of the Weather Underground, and wrote the introduction to Letters from Young Activists. Dohrn taught women and children’s human rights law at Northwestern, was a visiting professor over ten years at Leiden University faculty of law in the Netherlands and at Vrieje University in Amsterdam, and a Lecturer at the University of Chicago.

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