Kristen Jordan Shamus | Detroit Free Press

Detroit Free Press

Editor's Note: This article has been updated to clarify Tamika Mallory's statements regarding Bernie Sanders.

The Women's Convention will feel the Bern later this month, when Bernie Sanders visits Detroit to address more than 3,000 women and progressive activists as they get ready for the 2018 midterm elections.

J. Scott Applewhite, AP

The senator from Vermont, an independent who challenged Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, is to address the crowd the evening of Oct. 27, on the first day of a three-day convention organized by the Women's March.

“I’m honored to join the women at the front lines of our struggle for economic, social, racial and environmental justice. In January, millions of women came out in an extraordinary and unprecedented display of power and resistance," Sanders said in reference to the Women's March on Washington and sister protests in cities around the world on the first day of President Donald Trump's administration. "Now more than ever, we must support the leadership of women across the country and fight together to advance our progressive agenda."

KishaBari/Women's March

Sanders' unconventional campaign for president led a mini revolt within the Democratic Party, splintering off millennials and other supporters who raged along with him about economic disparities in America, a need for campaign finance reform, ways to rein in the cost of a college education and raise the minimum wage.

When Women's March Co-founder Tamika Mallory was asked: "People are going to say, wait a minute, there’s a man as the headliner at the Women’s Convention, the first women’s convention in 40 years?" she replied:

"I would say that (U.S. Rep.) Maxine Waters is also coming to the conference, and we know she has been a very, very powerful voice in terms of all we’ve seen happening in terms of this administration, particularly, and she’ll be at the conference as well. And a lot of other people have been invited to the conference and we’re hoping to hear back from these folks. Thankfully, Sen. Sanders has agreed to attend."

Mallory also noted Sanders knows how to mobilize a new generation of activists.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

"I think that right now, no one can deny that Bernie Sanders is probably one of the most powerful U.S. senators ... on progressive issues, women’s issues, mobilizing millennials," Mallory told the Free Press in an exclusive interview Wednesday night. "He is really in line with the principles of the Women's March."

Those principles involve working toward collective liberation for women of all races, ethnicities, ages, abilities, sexual identities, gender expressions, immigration statuses, religious faiths, and economic statuses.

Charles Sykes, Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

"There will definitely be a focus on the 2018 election and how we build political power," Mallory said, "but there will certainly be an educational component to help people who are new activists and give them the tools they need to do work in their communities that may not always be political but certainly is important."

Sanders, Mallory said, brings the experience of a long-time Senator who continues to work to bring progressive change to government.

"We believe as women ... that we ought to have more than just women at the Women's Convention," Mallory said. "People want to hear from the leadership from within our government who can give us some insight about what's happening … so we can know what we need to do to be able organize."

NICHOLAS KAMM, AFP/Getty Images

The Women's Convention, which will take place at Detroit's Cobo Center, is themed "Reclaiming Our Time," a play on the words spoken by Waters, a California Democrat, who pushed back against Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin as he tried to derail her line of questioning.

Waters also is expected to address convention-goers, as will other politicians, activists and celebrities, including actress Amber Tamblyn. Her personal account of sexual harassment in Hollywood was published in the New York Times in September. In it, she denounced the way society dismisses women's reports of their sexual abuse, assault and harassment, drawing attention to why women so often don't speak up.

Less than a month after Tamblyn's story was published, the Times came out with an exposé revealing decades of sexual harassment and assault claims against producer Harvey Weinstein.

"The overall message is that this conference is really designed as a way to empower voices in exactly the way that you see women coming forward with their stories about Harvey Weinstein," Mallory said, whether those stories involve sexual violence, harassment, domestic violence, police brutality or any other form of mistreatment in their lives.

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"We want to make sure that women know they have the power in unity to come forward and tell their stories, whatever their stories may be, and we have the obligation to protect their voices. We hope that at this conference more women will feel empowered to speak out, to tell," she said.

"Whether that means they’re an undocumented person that wants to tell their story. Whether that means they've been abused by police and they want to tell their story. Whether that means they've been sexually violated and they want to tell their story. We want every person to feel that this is a safe place to tell their stories, to learn and organize in their local communities to do something to help others that may be experiencing the same."

Other speakers at the convention include:

Actress and producer Piper Perabo

Sally Kohn, CNN political commentator and columnist

Nomiki Konst, co-founder and executive director of The Accountability Project

Leah Greenberg, co-founder of the Trump resistance group Indivisible

Liliana Reyes, a transgender Latina activist

Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams

Stosh Cotler, CEO of Bend the Arc Jewish Action

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution

Ai-jen Poo, executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance

Michigan state Rep. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit,

Detroit City Councilwoman Raquel Castañeda Lopez

Michigan Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmer

For more details about the convention, go to www.womensconvention.com. Conference tickets are available online at http://www.womensconvention.com/register.html. The ticket cost for all three days of the conference is $295 for adults and $125 for students. Single-day tickets are available for $125.