State Rep. Roni Green’s professional life has been about helping people climb out of poverty and fighting for working class families.

She began her career serving the people as a human services caseworker with the Glendale County Assistance Office, working for nearly two decades to ensure that Philadelphia’s most vulnerable residents have access to a path out of poverty. Her experience has deeply informed her understanding of the systemic causes of economic, social and political inequality.

Roni won her first election with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 668 as a Shop Steward and through additional elections held the positions of Philadelphia Chapter 12 Chair, and statewide Secretary/Treasurer based in Harrisburg, while serving as a community and labor organizer for more than 30 years.

As a state representative Roni’s priorities include fighting for a living wage and workers’ rights, affordable housing to preserve neighborhoods and ensure that every working family has a home, sensible gun reform to combat the gun violence epidemic, equitable community and economic development that provides opportunities for all, and criminal justice reform with a focus on ending mass incarceration.

She joins us today to talk about the current struggle to get lawmakers in the state capital to finally raise the commonwealth’s embarrassing $7.25 per hour minimum wage.

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ALSO LISTEN TO:

• Interview: Solidarity Journalism Can Help the Mainstream Media Restore Public Trust and Strengthen Democracy, with Dr. Anita Varma
• ‘A Fight Fails Without A Dream’: DNC Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta on How The Democratic Party Will Meet This Dangerous Trumpian Moment
• Larissa Hopwood on the Newly Formed Doylestown Action League and Progressive Activism in Bucks County
• Interview: Kadida Kenner on Defending Democracy and Voting Rights in Pennsylvania
• Karen Downer Has Fought Racism Locally Since She Was a Child in Pre-Civil Rights Bucks County

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Photojournalist Michael Nigro reported a piece for the Bucks County Beacon earlier this month from the streets of Los Angeles which were turned into a war zone after Trump sent in the National Guard and Marines to quash anti-ICE protests. He was actually shot in the head with nonlethal bullet by police, though thankfully he was wearing a helmet. This multimedia journalist based in Brooklyn, New York joins us today to talk about his work and his penchant for ​documenting ​​world-changing stories that has put him at the forefront of some of the most crucial events of our times, including Occupy Wall Street, Standing Rock, Charlottesville, the Yellow Vest Movement in France, The January 6th Capitol Riots, and three assignments in Ukraine, to name a few.​ His work has been featured in dozens of publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, Vice, The Intercept, Rolling Stone, and Time​ Magazine.

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Photo Essay: Trump’s Militarized War on Immigrants Meets Citizen Resistance in Los Angeles, by Michael Nigro

Michael’s Website: https://www.nigrotime.com/

Michael’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nigrotime

Follow Michael on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nigrotime/

ALSO LISTEN TO:

• Interview: Solidarity Journalism Can Help the Mainstream Media Restore Public Trust and Strengthen Democracy, with Dr. Anita Varma
• From Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio to Bucks County’s Fred Harran: Why ICE 287(g) Partnerships Are So Dangerous, with Jessica Pishko
• How Donald Trump and the MAGA Movement Will Legalize and Deploy Vigilantes to Push Their Agenda, with David Noll
• Former FBI Agent Who Once Infiltrated Neo-Nazi Groups and Militias Explains Why Law Enforcement Fails to Take Far-Right Extremism Seriously

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On this special Earth Day episode of The Signal, we welcome Ben Price, education director at the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, where he has worked at since 2004. Ben is a trailblazer in the Rights of Nature movement and has a new book out: Wouldn’t You Say? A Collection of Essays About Environment and Community.

In this conversation, we discuss his book and how the rights of nature movement challenges us to rethink our relationship with the natural world while calling us to expand our political imaginations to not just dream of what a sustainable, just world looks like – but how each of us can work in our own communities to make that dream a reality.

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ALSO LISTEN TO:

• Larissa Hopwood on the Newly Formed Doylestown Action League and Progressive Activism in Bucks County
• Kadida Kenner on Defending Democracy and Voting Rights in Pennsylvania
• Solidarity Journalism Can Help the Mainstream Media Restore Public Trust and Strengthen Democracy, with Dr. Anita Varma
• Ralph Young on His New Book ‘American Patriots: A Short History of Dissent’

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Pennsylvania State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta was recently elected Vice Chair of the DNC. He joins us today to speak about the Trump administration’s dangerous and disastrous first few months in power and what Democrats are going to do to save our economy, our constitution, our democracy, and our future.

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ALSO LISTEN TO:

• Larissa Hopwood on the Newly Formed Doylestown Action League and Progressive Activism in Bucks County
• Kadida Kenner on Defending Democracy and Voting Rights in Pennsylvania
• Karen Downer Has Fought Racism Locally Since She Was a Child in Pre-Civil Rights Bucks County
• The Democratic Party Needs a Generational Change in Leadership, with Daily Beast Columnist (and Central Bucks Grad) Rotimi Adeoye

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On this week's episode, we welcome Larissa Hopwood, also known widely as “Lolly,” to the show. Larissa has lived in Bucks County since 1999. In addition to being a local activist and Democratic Committee Person, she's also a children's musician, author, teacher, designer, and proud mother of a trans son.

Recently, Larissa co-founded the Doylestown Action League, which has been organizing rallies and community forums in the County Seat. She joins us today to talk about her work with the newly formed Doylestown Action League, Bucks County’s local community of activists and organizers, and how you can get involved in the fight to save our country and democracy in your own neighborhood.

Listen on Apple, Spotify, and iheart

ALSO LISTEN TO:

• Kadida Kenner on Defending Democracy and Voting Rights in Pennsylvania
• Karen Downer Has Fought Racism Locally Since She Was a Child in Pre-Civil Rights Bucks County
• The Democratic Party Needs a Generational Change in Leadership, with Daily Beast Columnist (and Central Bucks Grad) Rotimi Adeoye
• This Bucks County Dad Took His Child’s School District to Court to Uncover a Secret Book Banning Scheme
• Peace Activism from Bucks County to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with Barbara Simmons
• Raising a Transgender Child in an Increasingly Transphobic Country, with Brett Freeman

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Shoumita Dasgupta is the daughter of Bengali immigrants, a woman of color in STEM, and a scientist, educator, and geneticist. She is Professor of Medicine and Assistant Dean of Diversity & Inclusion at Boston University, a Fulbright Specialist, and a member of the inaugural cohort of faculty affiliates at the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research.

Cyril first came across Shoumita’s work when the Beacon republished a piece she wrote for The Conversation entitled “Mass Deportations Don’t Keep Out ‘Bad Genes’: It’s Scientific Racism That’s Used to Justify Xenophobic Immigration Policies.” Well it turns out she grew up in Central PA and was childhood friends with our Publisher Emily Smith. So for today’s special International Women’s Day episode of the Signal, Emily takes over the hosting responsibilities and speaks with Shoumita about her work, and her new book Where Biology Ends and Bias Begins: Lessons on Belonging from Our DNA, which was just published in February.

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READ:

• Trump’s Executive Orders Seek to Erase Scientific Truth
• Mass Deportations Don’t Keep Out ‘Bad Genes’: It’s Scientific Racism That’s Used to Justify Xenophobic Immigration Policies

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Kadida Kenner is the founding Chief Executive Officer of the New Pennsylvania Project. Kadida is a tireless advocate for social and economic justice issues and is motivated to empower and excite the electorate to enthusiastically vote in every election — all the way down the entire ballot.

Kadida has led efforts to stop the passage of a judicial gerrymandering constitutional amendment, raise the minimum wage, fairly fund public education, protect federal courts from problematic judicial nominees, and protect the state courts from extremist attempts to undermine their independence.

Kadida also serves as co-chair of Why Courts Matter – Pennsylvania, an advocacy campaign of the New Pennsylvania Project, seeking to protect the independence of our state and federal courts and educate the electorate about their importance.

I first spoke to Kadida Kenner 3.5 years ago when I was writing a progressive column for the conservative Bucks County Courier Times when her voting rights organization the New Pennsylvania Project had just launched. Since then her group has grown to 65 full- and part-time staffers across the commonwealth, and Kadida and her colleagues tireless advocacy in defense of democracy and voting rights is needed now more than ever.

She joins us today on The Signal to talk about her lifelong journey in civil rights activism and what the New Pennsylvania Project is currently working on in order to defend, expand, and strengthen voting rights and voter engagement across the state.

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ALSO LISTEN TO:

• Author Elaine Weiss on the Four Little-Known Activists Who Were the ‘Beating Heart’ of the Civil Rights Movement
• Karen Downer Has Fought Racism Locally Since She Was a Child in Pre-Civil Rights Bucks County
• Black History Is a History of Resistance and Liberation, with Rann Miller

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