The Women’s Convention In Detroit Just Teased Its Guest Speaker Lineup & You Need To Get Your Tickets, Stat

At the end of the month, the Women’s Convention, put together by the organizers of the Women’s March, will take place in Detroit — and as these details about the Women’s Convention program show, it’s going to be an event to remember. The programming details for the convention, which will occur from Oct. 27 through Oct. 29, 2017, were announced in an email newsletter sent out on Wednesday; although complete details still have yet to be released, the current list of speakers, panels, and workshops sounds promising, indeed.

Previously, the Women’s Convention had described its goals as being to “provide a robust educational curriculum to train both first-time and experienced activists and better prepare each and every attendee for the resistance work ahead.” With those goals in mind, the programming for the convention is centered around three tracks: Issue-Based Education, Skills Training, and Civic Engagement. Two additional tracks, the Youth Track and Self-Care Track, are aimed at young people who are 11 or older and at “restoration and personal growth,” respectively.

The ways in which these tracks will be addressed are many. Speakers will be giving keynotes and addresses; workshops and panels will provide a hands-on approach; and a variety of other activities are on the docket, with more details about them on the way.

Here’s what we know so far:

Speakers

The list of speakers lined up for the Women’s Convention isstill growing, but right now, the following extraordinary activists will all bemaking appearances:

• Maxine Waters, U.S. Representative for the 43rd congressional district of California and proponent of reclaiming one’s time;
• Stacey Abrams, currently the House Minority Leader for the Georgia General Assembly and State Representative for the 89th House District, as well as a gubernatorial candidate for the state of Georgia in the 2018 election;
• Stosh Cotler, CEO of the activist organization Bend the Arc Jewish Action;
• Nina Turner, president of the nonprofit Our Revolution;
• Ai-jen Poo, domestic workers rights advocate, Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and Co-Director of Caring Across Generations;
• And Amber Tamblyn, actor, author, and activist.

Workshops And Panels

In addition to speakers, the three-day convention will include “a wide range of workshops, trainings, and panels that reflect our growing intersectional community,” according to the email announcing the program. Specific workshops and panels include:

• Say Her Name: Police Violence Against Women of Color is a Feminist Issue
• This Moment: Anti-Semitism and White Supremacy
• Texas Handmaids: Political Theater as an Organizing Strategy
• Not All Pussies Are Pink and Not All Women Have Pussies: Trans-Inclusive Feminism
• Fighting for Survivors of Sexual Assault in the Age of Betsy DeVos
• Self Defense and Healing: Security for Self and Community
• Making Waves: The Flint Healing Stories
• Out of Sight and Out of Mind: The Status of Women in the U.S. Colony of Puerto Rico
• Love Trumps Hate: Addressing the Rise of Hate in 2017

Other Activities

Details on these additional activities are still scarce, but according to the Women’s Convention organizers' email, the event will also include:

• Film screenings;
• A “Social Justice Concert”;
• A “Social Justice City,” which will include a Women’s Market where “socially conscious businesses can showcase their work”;
• And other opportunities for activists from all over the country to connect with each other.

If you want to join the Women’s Market, by the way, the convention is currently seeking submissions from women of color, queer, trans and gender non-conforming people, immigrant women, women from Detroit, and members of the Women’s March community in general; head here to apply.

The Women’s Convention will take place from Oct. 27 through Oct. 29, 2017 at the Cobo Center in Detroit, Mich. Registration is still open; head here to register to attend. The cost of the tickets will “help … cover the expense of holding a conference,” according to the Women’s Convention website, although if you applied early enough, scholarship funds were available (alas, though, the deadline to apply for both the general scholarship fund and the Heather Heyer scholarship havepassed). Tickets will be available at their current prices until Oct. 13.