Coffee Party Convention to be streamed live online starting Friday
John Avlon joins list of speakers, McKinnon, Lessig, Lt. Dan Choi
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 22, 2010
Louisville, Kentucky – Annabel Park, founder of the Coffee Party, announced today that the Coffee Party Convention will be available LIVE on a brand new UStream Channel and on the Coffee Party USA website. The event taking place September 24th-26th in Louisville, Kentucky will be the first face-to-face meeting of Coffee Party chapter leaders from across the U.S.
John Avlon, author and senior political columnist for 'The Daily Beast,' is latest addition to a long list of opinion-makers and advocates who share the aim of bringing Coffee Party members, and Americans together for a fact-based, civil, and solutions-oriented approach to politics. Dignitaries and speakers at the Coffee Party Convention will include:
Annabel Park is the founder of the Coffee Party USA and a documentary filmmaker. She was born in South Korea and emigrated to the United States with her family when she was nine years old. She grew up Houston, TX working at her parents’ truck-stop diner.
John Avlon is senior political columnist for ‘The Daily Beast’ and author of ‘Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America’ and ‘Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics.’ He is a CNN contributor, where he also created the ‘Wingnuts of the Week’ segment. Mr. Avlon has appeared on ‘The Daily Show with John Stewart’, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, PBS, and C-Span.
Lt. Dan Choi is a former American infantry officer in the United States Army who served in combat in the Iraq war during 2006-2007. He became an LGBT rights activist following his coming out on The Rachel Maddow Show in March 2009 and has been publicly challenging America’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, which forbids lesbian, bisexual and gay (LBG) service members from serving openly.
Amy Kremer is the Chairman of the Tea Party Express. Originally active in politics through social media from early 2009, she was one of the original founders of the Atlanta Tea Party and nationwide event coordinator for the original round of tea parties. Ms Kremer has appeared on Fox News, CNN, NBC and MSNBC as one of the movement’s original grassroots coordinators.
Mark McKinnon is an award-winning media producer and communications strategist who has served as principal media adviser for hundreds of corporate and political campaigns around the world. He has been awarded more than 30 Pollie and Telly awards, honoring the nation's best political and public affairs advertising.
Francis Moore Lappé is the author of 18 books including the three-million copy Diet for a Small Planet. She is the co-founder of three national organizations that explore the roots of hunger, poverty and environmental crises, as well as solutions now emerging worldwide through what she calls Living Democracy. Her most recent book is Getting a Grip 2: Clarity, Creativity and Courage for the World We Really Want.
Lawrence Lessig is the director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, and a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Prior to returning to Harvard, he was a professor at Stanford Law School, where he founded the school’s Center for Internet and Society, and at the University of Chicago.
Joseph McCormick is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and Yale University and a former officer in the U.S. Army Rangers, Joseph McCormick spent nearly a decade as a Christian Coalition activist and former Republican nominee for the U.S. Congress. Since 2004, Mr. McCormick has pursued his passion to facilitate cooperation between grassroots groups from all sides utilizing tools gained in a series of ground-breaking national retreats he organized to bring Americans into dialogue in search of opportunities to collaborate.
Zephyr Teachout is an Associate Law Professor at Fordham, where she teaches election law and writes about corruption and reform. She is a co-Director of A New Way Forward and was an active member of the structural reform subcommittee of Americans for Financial Reform. She was previously the National Director of the Sunlight Foundation and the Director of Online Organizing for Howard Dean’s Campaign.
A complete list of speakers can be found at www.democracymeetup.com/speakers-2
The convention and the web cast will wrap up Sunday night with a viewing party MTV Networks' television world premiere of “9500 Liberty.” Park and Byler's previous collaboration is being billed on twitter as "the movie behind the Coffee Party." Park and Byler will be joined by MTV executive Jason Rzepka for on-line web-cast Premiere Party and Q&A, also carried live on the Ustream and on the Coffee Party websites.
For organizations and citizens wishing to watch or embed the convention webcast,
please visit http://www.ustream.tv/channel/coffee-party-videos
Other event hi-lights include:
“Mock Constitutional Convention“ chaired by Lawrence Lessig, Founder of Fix Congress First & Professor at Harvard Law School and Mark McKinnon, communication strategist for John McCain and George W. Bush. This is a critical response to the “Citizens United”Supreme Court Decision, and other present-day constitutional issues. You can submit and discuss amendments here:http://convention.ideascale.com/
“Across the Political Divide: A Trans-partisan Dialogue” a round table moderated by Joseph McCormick. Confirmed participants include Amy Kremer of Tea Party Express, Annabel Park of Coffee Party USA, progressive blogger Elisa Batista, Lawrence Lessig,Mark McKinnon, and a representative from Independentvoting.org.
“Federal Deficit/Budget: Three Ways of Looking at the Elephant in the Room” presented by the Josh Gordon of Concord Coalition, Heather McGhee of Demos, & Carolyn Lukensmeyer of AmericaSpeaks
“Coffee Party Music Jam” a night of live music featuring Jonny 5 of Flobots and outstanding Coffee Party members, including The Dalliance, Andres Useche, Boss-B, Robyn Mackenzie, Toni Melton and others. Click here to hear more & here for more info! FREE to the public.
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CONTACT: Jenny Wilburn: jenny@triplejmediaconsulting.com
