Check out our list of events and parties, including happy hours, networking events, comedy shows, karaoke, pub quiz and more!
All events affiliated with Netroots Nation, whether on or off site, must adhere to the Netroots Nation Community Guidelines.
All events at the Convention Center are ADA accessible and open to all ages. Netroots Nation credentials are required for all events at the Convention Center. Anyone wishing to purchase alcoholic beverages at the Convention Center must provide a valid photo ID.
Organizers with events off site have been asked to ensure that events are ADA accessible and are safe and inclusive of people of every race, sexual orientation, and gender presentation. We’ve noted which events have age restrictions, require a RSVP, and/or Netroots credentials to attend. Organizers may make changes to their events that we might not be aware of, so be sure to check corresponding links for the most up to date information.
Wednesday July 10th
Statehood Train
4:53PM – 6:53PM
DC Union Station to Philly 30th Street Station
Coming to Netroots from DC? Get on the Statehood Train. Our private train car from Union Station to Philly with Special Guest, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton!
(SOLD OUT)
SHEROES
6:00PM – 8:00PM
Lenfest Plaza at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
118-128 N Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19102
RSVP Required
Please join City Councilmember Helen Gym, New American Leaders Action Fund, and She the People for a welcome reception to kick off Netroots 2019. Sponsored by Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Featuring light hors d’oevres and drinks.
Drinking Liberally Philly Welcomes Netroots Nation
7:00PM – 9:00PM
Vietnam Palace
222 N. 11th St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Facebook event
Meet and Greet with fellow progressives and Netroots attendees! Share some libations and get your grassroots on.If you are new to our fair city, we can also give you some advice as to where to go while you are here. All are welcome.
Thursday July 11th
Green New Deal Happy Hour
Thursday, July 11
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Roy-Pitz Barrel House
990 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
Eventbrite RSVP Required; Facebook Event
Join us for the first-ever happy-hour party for Green New Dealers at Netroots Nation. Enjoy food and drinks to fuel our fight for the Green New Deal. Co-Sponsors: One Earth, 350.org, Oil Change U.S., CREDO Action.
Questions? E-mail Brad at climatebrad@gmail.com.
Election Security Happy Hour
5:30PM – 8:30PM
Franky Bradley’s
1320 Chancellor St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Facebook event
Please join us on Thursday for a casual meet-and-greet with SMART Elections’ Lulu Friesdat, who will moderate the Netroots Nation 2019 election security panel on Saturday, other panelists, and Philadelphians who are working to #StopTheMachine. Hosted by Protect Our Vote, Philly. For questions or special requests, contact Caroline at caroline.leopold@gmail.com or 610-220-7863
2nd Annual Advocacy Awards & LOVEfest
6:30PM – 8:30PM
Convention Center Room 126A
Facebook event
Please join us for the 2nd Annual Digital Grassroots Awards Celebration. The celebration immediately follows the Netroots’ Opening Keynote. Enjoy cheesesteaks, cocktails and other small bites as we celebrate this year’s winners and kick off this year’s Netroots Nation!
re:power Mixer
6:30-8:30 PM
Smokin’ Bettys
116 South 11th Street, Philadephia (near Amy Sherald mural)
RSVP Requested. 21+
Netroots Nation Credentials Required
Join us for snacks and social time. Downstairs space is ADA accessible but the upstairs is not.
POWER’s 10 Years of Organizing Reception
6:00PM – 8:00PM
Magggiano’s
1201 Filbert Street Philadelphia, PA 19107
RSVP required
Join us for hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and fellowship in celebration of 10 years of organizing at POWER! Following Executive Director Rev. Gregory Holston’s opening keynote at the Netroots Nation Conference, we invite friends and colleagues to learn more about how POWER built a faith-justice movement in Pennsylvania. All are welcome – no fee for this event!
2nd Annual Netroots/Phone2Action Advocacy Awards LoveFEST
6:30PM – 8:30PM
Convention Center Room 126A
Join Phone2Action and Netroots to recognize our community awardees for their work and dedication to the progressive community. Join us as we uplift community efforts with food, drink and fun.
Asian American Arts Showcase
6:30PM – 8:30PM
Asian Arts Initiative
1219 Vine St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Facebook event
Join 18 Million Rising and Asian Arts Initiative, a Philadelphia Chinatown arts organization, for a night of poetry and live music with local Asian American artists! We’ll also be joined by special guest, Councilmember Helen Gym! Light Filipino snacks by LALO and drinks will be provided.
Philly Youth Organizing Benefit & Mixer
7:00PM – 8:30PM
Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures School
1023 Callowhill St, Philadelphia, PA 19123
RSVP Encouraged
Join youth organizers, partners, funders, and Netroots attendees to support young people political power in 2019 and 2020! This event is FREE and open to all, whether or not you are attending Netroots. Suggested donation for those who can support. There will be food, performances from local youth artists Z-Best & Derick Knox, and presentations from a range of local groups who are organizing for racial and social justice and building the next generation of progressive power!Sponsored by Pennsylvania Student Power Network, Alliance for Youth Action, The Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing – FCYO, Movement Voter Project, and the Education Not Incarceration Network.
Bites & Brews
7:00PM – 9:00PM
Milkboy
1100 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Eventbrite RSVP Encouraged; Facebook Event
On the first night of Netroots Nation, GetThru & M+R are teaming up to host a happy hour at MilkBoy. Just a 5 minute walk from the conference center, MilkBoy is the flagship music venue, bar and restaurant of the world -amous MilkBoy Recording Studio. OF COURSE, we’ll have drink tickets for everyone and lots of food to go around! Come through, grab a cold beverage and a hot slider, and start your evening off right.
Laughing Liberally Comedy Jam
7:30PM – 8:30PM
Field House
1150 Filbert St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Netroots credentials required
All ages but may contain mature content and/or explicit language
Let comedy cut through the chaos and may laughter trump hate. Join a performance of progressive political comedians and commentators at the annual Laughing Liberally Jam at Netroots Nation. Join us for some comedy, then stay for karaoke! For 15 years, Laughing Liberally has been giving comedians a stage to pursue their political passions, audiences a comedic catharsis, and progressive partners the chance to laugh to keep from crying.
Netroots After Dark: Sex, Politics and Karaoke Sponsored by Planned Parenthood Action Fund
9:00PM – Late
Field House
1150 Filbert St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Netroots credentials required
All ages but may contain mature content and/or explicit language
Join us for what’s become an annual tradition at Netroots Nation! Whether you can’t hold a tune or have ambitions to be on The Voice, we want you on that stage. Join us at Field House, just one block away from the Convention Center! Sponsored by Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
Friday July 12th
Groundwork Collaborative and Tax March
5:00PM – 7:00PM
Field House
1150 Filbert St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
RSVP Required
Bring friends, colleagues, and your desire for a fair and just economy to the Field House! We will have an open bar, plenty of hors d’oeuvre’s, and opportunities for you to get involved.
The Groundwork Collaborative is a new project focused on the advancement of an economic system that produces strong, broadly shared prosperity and true opportunity for all Americans. When all of us—white, Black and brown—work together, we build a thriving economy that delivers meaningful opportunity and prosperity for everyone.
Tax March is a growing national organization led by working Americans who are tired of systems that are rigged in favor of the rich. We maintain that any reform to the tax code should be about closing loopholes for the wealthy and big corporations and building an economy that invests in working people, whether white, black, or brown, and prioritizes economic justice particularly for communities of color. Through its new Tax the Rich Movement, Tax March is fighting for an economy that works for all of us, not just the wealthy few.
MobilizeAmerica Happy Hour
5:30PM – 7:00PM
Convention Center Entrance Foyer
RSVP at Mobilize.US
MobilizeAmerica is where progressives go to volunteer, and where progressive campaigns and organizations go to find them. Open to all, just like our platform, come join us in the Entrance Foyer on Friday, July 12 starting at 5:30 pm for drinks. Come for the drinks, stay for volunteer opportunities in your community, and learn why 15 Democratic Primary contenders use Mobilize as the backbone of their organizing programs.
Freedom to Prosper Happy Hour
5:30PM – 7:00PM
Convention Center Entrance Foyer
Hate student debt? Like free booze? Come to a happy hour sponsored by FreedomToProsper.org, the movement to cancel all student debt.
Innovate + Connect: Join VOQAL and Mobile Citizen for Happy Hour!
5:30PM – 7:00PM
Convention Center Room 125
Facebook event
Join VOQAL and Mobile Citizen for a light reception to learn more about the Voqal Fellowship and the low-cost and, in some cases, free mobile internet provided to nonprofits by Mobile Citizen. Voqal’s fellowship program invests in the next generation of progressive social entrepreneurs by providing $30K and mentoring to help bring an early stage idea focused on creating positive social change to life. Mobile Citizen makes high-quality mobile internet available at an affordable price to create a more engaged public and more equitable democracy.
Netroots Candidate Event sponsored by DFA + CPD
5:30PM – 7:00PM
Convention Center Room 126A
We’re proud to bring back the annual Netroots Candidate Event featuring progressive candidates from around the country. Sponsored by Democracy for America and Center for Popular Democracy.
BlueVote Happy Hour
5:30PM – 7:00PM
Convention Center Room 124
Join BlueVote for drinks! Learn about the newest cutting-edge technology platform exclusively for progressive campaigns and organizations. Designed and built by the tech and data nerds at PDI National, the machine behind California’s democratic majority.
Building Power Happy Hour with Demos
5:30PM – 7:00PM
Convention Center Room 123
Come join us this Friday for a night of deepening relationships and sharing of ideas. Demos will be highlighting some new work that will expand and ensure the right to vote, end the system of debt-for-diploma, create a democracy and an economy rooted in racial equity, and recent accomplishments with our partners. We are always pushing for policies that address a history of racial inequity in this country, proposing bold changes that directly serve the communities most affected. This event is sponsored by Demos.
ActBlue Happy Hour at Netroots
5:30pm – 7:00pm
Philadelphia Convention Center, Room 122B
Facebook event
ActBlue is excited to be hosting a happy hour at Netroots 2019! If you’ll be attending the conference this year, stop by our happy hour for snacks, drinks, and some ActBlue swag.
We’re excited to connect with the small-dollar donors, candidates, and activists who are using our fundraising tools to transform power structures!
Pennsylvania: Was, Is, Will Be (One PA’s Annual Fundraiser)
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Friends Center
1501 Cherry St, Philadelphia, PA 19102
Eventbrite event
Come learn about the history of freedom fighters of Pennsylvania while celebrating One Pennsylvania- a movement to build working class power in this crucial state. We will have heavy appetizers, live music, and a chance to honor current heroes in our movement.
Pub Quiz
6:30PM – 8:30PM
Convention Center Terrace I-III (keynote room)
Really, it’s all been building to this moment: twelve years of preliminary competitions across this great land of ours, often touching upon issues of local concern, but there will be nothing like a trivia competition hosted in the gritty birthplace of the Declaration of Independence, Boyz II Men, the ice cream soda, and your quiz host. This year’s group trivia contest promises to be even more raucous than usual, while requiring only intermediate-level knowledge of William Penn’s real estate practices, mascot genealogy, or M. Night Shyamalan’s oeuvre. We’ll supply the refreshments, prizes, and a lot of good trivia; you bring the teams of 8-10 and the chanting. (Don’t have a team yet? No problem: they’ll form on-site as well.) Cheese whiz is decidedly optional; sharp provolone preferred.
“South Asians at Netroots” Mixer
6:30PM – 8:30PM
Twelve Gates Arts
106 North 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
RSVP required
Join SAADA and ASATA Friday, July 12 evening at Twelve Gates Arts for light refreshments, a cash bar, and an opportunity to connect with other progressive South Asians attending the conference. Local community members are invited to attend as well.
While there, check out the Friends, Peace, and Sanctuary exhibit on display at Twelve Gates Arts, Philadelphia’s only South Asian-owned art gallery.
Climate Not So Sad Hour — Let Freedom from Fossil Fuels Ring
7:30PM – 9:30PM
Uptown Beer Garden
1735 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19103
Netroots credentials required
Join climate folk to celebrate freedom from fossil fuels, liberty for clean energy, and climate justice for all! Sponsored by 350.org, Oil Change U.S and Climate Hawks Vote.
Saturday July 13th
Feeling Race and Resistance in Philly: A Black Radical History Tour
11:00AM – 1:30PM
Friends Center
1501 Cherry St, Philadelphia, PA 19102
RSVP required
To get a true taste of what it means to “feel race” in Philadelphia, it is essential to bear witness to the state-sanctioned atrocities and terrorism conducted by the city on its Black and Brown populations; and to understand how ordinary citizens have organized themselves to resist structural oppression and cultivate hope for social and political change.
This bus tour will be led by Michael Africa, Jr. – a Philly native, a lifelong MOVE family member and the son of two wrongfully imprisoned “MOVE 9” members; recently, Mike’s mother Debbie Africa was released from prison, almost 40 years after she gave birth to her son, also while incarcerated. Also, Mike’s father, Mike Africa, Sr., was released in October of 2018. This tour invokes the spirit of the Black Radical Tradition by embarking on a journey through Philly’s living Black history.
Pointing out historical sites along the way, we first drive to the site of the MOVE family home (Powelton Ave) that witnessed the brutality of police terror in August 1978, where Mike navigates us through the incident that led to the incarceration of the “MOVE 9” (including his parents) among other members of the MOVE family.
Next, we visit the 6200 block of Osage Avenue, the West Philadelphia site of the infamous MOVE bombing, where on May 13, 1985, the City of Philadelphia authorized the Philadelphia Police Department to drop two-one pound bombs on the MOVE family’s home and barricade the family inside the blazing fire. 11 members of the family, including 5 children, were murdered in the tragedy, and the entire block of homes went up in flames. The irony of this atrocity is that family member Ramona Africa was imprisoned for seven years after surviving the fire. Although she later won a civil suit, not a single city official has ever been charged or imprisoned for the bombing. Despite the city’s shameful legacy, two years ago, elementary & middle-schoolers at the Jubilee School in West Philadelphia successfully petitioned the city of Philadelphia to commemorate the tragedy and lives lost by requesting the Philadelphia Historical Society to place a historical marker outside the site of the homes. Stories like these encourage us to feel connected to the radical legacy of resistance and healing in Philly.
Next we head to the Church of the Advocate (COTA) – a historic North Philly haven and sanctuary. For decades, the Church of the Advocate has opened its doors to ordinary members of the community: historically, to organizations like the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and presently, to the Saturday Free School and immigrants claiming sanctuary. COTA’s commitment to offering a space of refuge in times of heightened racial, economic and xenophobic oppression is invaluable. A symbol of hope and healing for Philly’s Black communities, the Church of the Advocate is a living place of love and freedom that sustains Philly’s social movements. The COTA is the final stop of the tour before returning to Center City.
If participants have accessibility needs, please email to let us know, and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.
Proceeds from the tour will go towards supporting the MOVE family.
Roots IRL: Abolition, Global Solidarity and the Future
6:00PM – 9:30PM
Friends Center
1501 Cherry St, Philadelphia, PA 19102
RSVP required
White nationalist regimes escalate campaigns of criminalization and border militarization in the United States and abroad, while working hand in hand with weapons manufacturers and petrochemical corporations dedicated to destroying life and rapidly increasing mass environmental devastation. Outside of Netroots we are building a communal space in Philadelphia grounded in organizing practices that are accountable to visions of divesting resources away from state violence at home and elsewhere, and investing instead in a future for our children, and in people power that remakes the world.
We want to bring organizers and radicals in Philadelphia into conversation with groups working for liberation and a more abundant world across Turtle Island and beyond. Dream Defenders, AFSC, War Resisters League, Adalah Justice Project, and other partners are cocreating a space to bring those in Netroots interested in people-powered movements who have been transforming Philadelphia and the planet into where the real work happens, in community and struggle.
We believe world-making starts within our communities so these sessions will share skills, experiences, and tactics that apply an abolitionist and internationalist framework through local specific strategies that can be enacted wherever you live. Towards a future without war, settler occupation, prisons, and police. Building a future with environmental justice, community safety, global accountability, and abundance.
834 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19107