Praxis pivots to online format for stimulating lectures

One of Sonoma’s most venerable speaker series has continued to operate for the past year and a half despite the severe restrictions on public meetings.

Public health restrictions brought an end to the popular Sonoma Speakers Series (its April 13, 2020 Willie Brown talk was canceled and no further ones scheduled) and the Barn Talks speaker series from the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation (last held Feb. 27, 2020). But Sonoma-based Praxis Peace Institute forged ahead and even increased their lectures, from quarterly to almost every week, by adapting and moving everything to Zoom.

When the stringent, paralyzing pandemic shelter-in-pace rules were announced in March 2020, Praxis founder Georgia Kelly said, “What’s going to be our plan now? I knew it would last awhile, that’s part of the reason I moved fast, knowing this is our new reality.”

Quickly pivoting from quarterly live lectures often held at the Vintage House, Kelly realized she could get the same intellectual firepower in a Zoom room for a fraction of the cost, and thus be able to keep the conversation going among her group’s membership. Under the title “Planetary Pause,” Kelly has conducted more than 30 programs online, with a wide range of thinkers, economists, environmentalists, activists and writers whose progressive politics complement the Praxis mission as a nonprofit organization “dedicated to systemic peace, social and economic justice, environmental sustainability and informed civic participation.”

While that viewpoint may not be universal, it’s fairly common in Sonoma, and participation in the new Praxis Zoom meetings usually hovers around 20-30, including a number of Sonoma locals, many from Marin County, Southern California and as far away as the East Coast. Those numbers are lower than they used to draw to their live lectures, but so are the events’ costs to organize and participate in.

The guests in the Planetary Pause series ranged widely, from journalist Marc Frank who has live in Cuba for 30 years, to former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, long-time anti-nuke activist Dr. Helen Caldicott, founder of the Center for Food Safety Andrew Kimbrell, brother and sister journalists David Talbot (Salon.com) and Margaret Talbot (The New Yorker), and many others.

All of these and more will see their 90-minute Zoom sessions with Praxis resurrected during what Kelly is calling the Praxis Ideas Festival, from Nov. 15–30. In addition to the video replays of the initial lecture and interaction, some of the speakers will return to have discussions about the themes or ideas presented.

Registrants will receive links for approximately 30 programs hosted over the past 18 months, which can be watched at their convenience over the two-week period. New events will be scheduled at specific times throughout the two-week period as listed at praxispeace.org, where details will be announced soon.

Meanwhile the frequent Planetary Pause lectures, usually on Fridays, continue this week with Hilary Abell and Kim Coontz on worker-owned businesses, on Oct. 22 with Rebecca Duff and Michael Lenox on transforming the global economy through decarbonization, and on Oct. 25 when economist Richard Wolff (a frequent Praxis guest) talks about “When Capitalism Fails to Save Us.”

Kelly, a former New Age harpist who returned to school to study conflict resolution at Sonoma State University, has lived in Sonoma for 24 years – though she recently moved out of the house she rented outside the city limits to the east side. She calls herself “the oldest director of a nonprofit in Sonoma,” and shows no signs of slowing down.

Also returning in 2022 will be a five-day tour and seminar on collective capitalism and cooperatives she will lead to Mondragón, Spain next May 15-21. It will mark the first time in three years Kelly has led a group to the Basque region, where the notion of collective ownership is strong.

Meanwhile, the other two speaker series mentioned are planning their comebacks in 2022. Laura Stanfield, who with Megan Kaplan produced and organized Barn Talks, said they are planning to return in the first quarter of the year.

Kathy Witkowicki, one of the founders of the Sonoma Speakers Series, said that the series was just on a “temporary hiatus” until it was clear enough people would be willing to buy tickets to “sit next to each other indoors in a crowded room.“