The Wallace Stegner Lectures feature writers, thinkers and activists who explore important issues related to land, nature and conservation. Our 2021 season, “The Path Forward,” features leaders who offer perspectives on how we as a community can address the myriad social and environmental issues we’re confronting today. This is the first time we’ve offered the Wallace Stegner Lectures in an online format, and we’re excited to lead you through an inspiring journey of communal learning. Proceeds fund POST’s work to protect open space on the Peninsula and in the South Bay for the benefit of all.
Dolores Huerta & Luis Valdez
Date: 7 p.m., January 26, 2021
Join Peninsula Open Space Trust and our partners the Dolores Huerta Foundation, Puente and Latino Outdoors in welcoming American civil rights leader and United Farmworkers cofounder Dolores Huerta for a conversation with founder of El Teatro Campesino and renowned American playwright Luis Valdez.
In this special talk, Dolores and Luis will reflect on their long history in the Santa Clara Valley, their work in the struggles for social and environmental justice, and perspectives on relationships between history, land and people in California. The conversation will be moderated by Jose Gonzalez, Founder of Latino Outdoors.
This event is hosted as part of POST’s Wallace Stegner Lectures, featuring writers, thinkers and activists who explore important issues related to land, nature and conservation. While this talk will be provided as a free event to the community, please click here to subscribe to our additional lectures. Lectures subscribers do not need to signup separately for this event.
Erin Brockovich — Environmental Activist
Date: 7 p.m., February 23, 2021
While working as a file clerk at a Los Angeles law firm in 1992, Erin Brockovich uncovered documents that ultimately led to more than 600 residents of Hinkley, California, filing a lawsuit against utility giant PG&E. Since then, Erin has worked on a host of a environmental issues across the country.
Immortalized in the 2000 film, Erin Brockovich has never stopped her consumer advocacy efforts since she began her work in the 90’s. She has been involved in dozens of legal cases and campaigns over the past three decades including a variety of groundwater contamination issues, oil and natural gas pollution, fracking, and pharmaceuticals.
Erin is a believer in the power of people. She will share inspiring stories of how bringing people together to address environmental issues can have an enormous impact.
“Be informed, ask questions, band together with your community, and fight at the local level. And make sure you take your local elections as seriously as the national ones.”
“Be informed, ask questions, band together with your community, and fight at the local level. And make sure you take your local elections as seriously as the national ones.”Michael Mann — Climate Scientist and Author
Date: 7 p.m., March 9, 2021
“Although scientific revolutions in how we see the world do occur, the bulk of our scientific understanding comes from the cumulative impact of numerous incremental studies that together paint an increasingly coherent picture of how nature works.”José Andrés — Chef, Restaurateur, Humanitarian
Date: 7 p.m., April 6, 2021
“The business of feeding people is the most amazing business in the world.”