Highlander staff member Susan Williams – coordinator of our Education Team and our Library/Resource Center – was one of the keynote speakers at the eighth annual California Association of Freirean Educators (CAFE) conference in Los Angeles on May 9th.

In addition to the keynote address, Susan presented Highlander’s 75th anniversary DVD, talked about popular education, and facilitated our “living history” exercise, an interactive introduction to Highlander’s history. She also attended a number of interesting workshops, including a session with participants from the Instituto de Educcacion Popular del Sur de California, who are organizing day laborers. One interesting thing they are doing is using cell phones to document people’s stories at day laborer centers, on busses and at workplaces.

CAFÉ’s goal is to open up dialogue around the themes of education and social justice in and outside of our classrooms. The conference was sponsored by the Paulo Freire Institute at UCLA in collaboration with Los Angeles Trade-Technical College (LATTC) and held at the Los Angeles Trade-Technical College on May 9-10. It was attended by students and teachers from around California and representatives from community groups in L.A.