Oakland Local was incredibly excited to hear that two long-time Oakland activists - Ellen Choy and Esperanza Tervalon-Daumont - are being honored by the Redford Center in San Francisco as two exceptional activists, creating change in Oakland. 

They will be joined in an evening discussion with Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Cory Booker, who just received a $100 million dollar donation from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to improve Newark Schools. The three will talk about coalition-building, activism and social justice - and what they have each accomplished n the past few years.

Part of what makes this so cool for us is that Choy and Tervalon-Daumont and the organizations they worked for were real factors in starting Oakland Local. As a staffer at Redefining Progress, working to support climate change activism on college campuses with Nia Robinson and Kari Fulton, Choy helped me understand just what green youth activism is and how powerful the movement was.

Since then, she has gone on to become  an organizer with the Mobilization for Climate Justice West and a leader and mentor for local youth around climate justice.  She is also - with Kari Fulton, the co-founder of ChecktheWeather.net, a blog dedicated to young people of color - redefining "green." And as DJ Eln, she integrates music and art into all of her work.

Tervalon-Daumont, executive director of Oakland Rising, a non-partisan electoral force that recently contacted more than 17,000 Oakland residents to encourage them to participate in the U.S. Census, was another valued resource and influence as we started Oakland Local. From her we learned that a role we could play was to help small organizations like hers reach out to a broader audience; we also gave her and her team support in making their voices heard with social media, an area where they have done really well. Tervalon-Daumont is already a powerful Oakland leader, and I have no doubt she will run for city office one day.

Given how often Oakland feels left behind by San Francisco, it's wonderful to see two of our own honored for the good work they do - and to have their views be shared on the same stage with Cory Booker, who also started as a young activist and who has grown into a dedicated and inspiring leader.

Come out and take part

When: 7 to 9 p.m. Nov. 11 at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas.

Tickets: $20 - buy them here.

Two Exceptional Young Bay Area Leaders

Lee Bycel, Executive Director

Jill Tidman, Program Director,

http://www.redfordcenter.org/index.php?page=email-10-18-10