4/25/26 | ANN ARBOR, MI
The EJ: AI Data Center Statewide Summit is a gathering for organizers, advocates, and Michiganders who are fed up with data centers popping up in our communities and concerned about the future of our democracy, economies, and environment!
AT THE SUMMIT
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Enriching workshops
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deep discussions
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Interactive activities
Participants will leave with concrete ways to challenge data center developments, deepen connections with fellow organizers, and create the strategies needed to successfully oppose these projects across Michigan.
Join us as we Organize for Democratic rights to Save the Great Lakes from Tech Billionaires and Protect Michiganders!
SUMMIT AGENDA
MORNING
8:30 - 9:30 AM Registration, Refreshments, and Music
9:30 AM Welcome
10:30 AM Data Center Nation
12:00 - 1:30 PM Lunch
1:30 - 3:00 PM
WORKSHOPS
Who the What?:
Local Government & Decision-Making
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What can the local government do about data centers?
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Hosted by Local Progress, AI Now Institute
Legislative Fights & Democratic Rights
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What is happening in Lansing right
now and what can voters do? -
Hosted by Michigan Environmental
Justice Coalition
Breaking down data center ownership and Financing
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How are data centers financed? What is private equity and how are they financing data centers? How is our public money used?
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Hosted by Private Equity Shareholder Project
Data Centers on the Grid
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What impact do data centers have
on energy bills and the energy grid? -
Hosted by Vote Solar
Moving Toward Sustainable Conflict Resilience
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Reflect deeply on the ways conflict shows up in your relationships and communities, how these things are connected, and the ways it influences the successes and failures of movements.
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Hosted by Interfaith Council
for Peace and Justice
3:00 - 4:30 PM
Wild Times: An open space for conversations about these wild times
3:00 - 4:00 PM
WORKSHOPS
Local Fights on the Line
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What is happening on the ground in Michigan?
How can I connect to what is happening around
the state? Listen to local leaders. -
Hosted by local residents
How to Tell My Story: Zine Workshop
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Learn from storytellers and artists about how
to write your own story creatively. This is a
creative maker-space workshop. -
Hosted by Riverwise Magazine
Break Through the Noise
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Identifying tech propaganda and
combating the media consolidation. -
Hosted by Media Justice
Water Rights and Fossil Fights?
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What are the ecological risks? Hear from
a non-profit lawyer about impacts of data
centers and water rights. -
Hosted by Great Lakes Environmental Law Center
Nuclear Energy and Data Centers from Indigenous Rights Perspectives
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The narrative about data centers is that they can
be carbon neutral with nuclear energy. Indigenous leaders are interrupting that with facts on impacts
of nuclear on water, health and our future. -
Hosted by Citizen’s Resistance Against
Fermi Two (CRAFT)
WRAP UP
4:30 PM Reflections and Regional Commitments
5:00 PM Closing
There is a growing surge of unregulated data centers in the Great Lakes region, increasing prices, threatening water and energy infrastructure. They are subsidized by our tax dollars andtheir existence has the potential to erode our workforce and democratic ownership of data with surveillance.
Small communities all over Michigan are fighting a Goliath, and the problem is much bigger than the township level, it’s reshaping our economy, ecology, and threatening our future.
Join us if you are ready to reclaim our Democracy and stop AI Data Centers!
