Speakers

Rebecca Traister is writer-at-large at New York Magazine, where she covers politics, media, and culture from a feminist perspective. Traister has written for The New Republic, Salon, The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, the Washington Post, Elle, and other publications. Winner of a 2018 National Magazine Award and 2016 Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism, Traister is the author of Good and Mad, a New York Times bestseller and among the Washington Post and People’s ten best books of 2018; All the Single Ladies, a New York Times best seller and Notable Book of 2016; and Big Girls Don't Cry, a Times notable book of 2010. She is at work on a new book.

We are delighted to welcome Rebecca to Maine, and to offer copies of her book, “Good and Mad,” available to purchase in partnership with Back Cove Books in Portland.

René Goddess

Embodied Equity, Cultural Broker

René (Re) Goddess brings deep experience in embodiment work, community organizing, and cross-cultural relationship building. As founder of Embodied Equity, they specialize in supporting organizations and individuals in developing sustainable practices for social justice work through somatic awareness and intentional play. Their approach centers healing justice principles while maintaining focus on actionable strategies for systemic change.

Arisa White is an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Colby College. She is the author of Who’s Your Daddy, co-editor of Home Is Where You Queer Your Heart, and co-author of Biddy Mason Speaks Up, the second book in the Fighting for Justice Series for young readers. In collaboration with composer Jessica Jones, Post Pardon: The Opera is Arisa’s librettist debut. Her poetry is widely published, and her collections have been nominated for an NAACP Image Award and a Lambda Literary Award, and have won the Per Diem Poetry Prize, the Maine Literary Award, the Nautilus Book Award, an Independent Publisher Book Award, the Golden Crown Literary Award, and the Airlie Press Prize. Her poetry is widely published, and the poem installation look after your heart is on permanent display at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. She is a Cave Canem fellow and serves on the Community Advisory Board for Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance.