mass humanities fall 2015 edition
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Witness the impact of the humanities on lives around our state. Our fall newsletter tells these stories and more!TRANSCRIPT
In This Issue
Letter from the Directorpage 2
Board Memberspage 6
Recent Grantspage 6
Gilded Age homes line the Connecticut River in western Massachusetts, an area known colloquially as the Pioneer Valley and, as its nickname would have you assume, the legacies of white European settlers are enshrined around the region’s still pastoral landscape. The waves of late 19th-century arrivals from across the Atlantic brought Irish, Ital-ian, and Polish immigrants, among others, to the basin for mill work and agriculture. Towns in the area carry mostly English names, attributable either to their founders or the landholders’ cities of origin. Their infrastructure memorial-izes notable historical figures like Daniel Shays. A lesser-told story, that of the Latino Americans who have contributed to the Valley for more than a century, is occluded by the canoni-cal narrative about western Massachusetts, but with the sup-port of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the American Library Association (ALA), and Mass Humani-ties, Herencia Latina will bring that history to the fore.
Over the course of nine months, from September, 2015 to May, 2016, Herencia Latina will endeavor to find and pres-ent the Latino history and culture of the Pioneer Valley and beyond. The expansive event series includes fourteen film-and-discussion panels, four exhibits, and six cultural programs and festivals, as well as related events in Springfield, Holyoke, Northampton, and Turners Falls. The PBS documentary series, Latino Americans: 500 Years of History, is at the heart of Herencia Latina, which will include multiple screenings of the
series’ six episodes in area libraries and museums, many followed by commu-nity discussions moderated by local scholars. Art and culture exhibits will take place at the Springfield Muse-ums, the Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke, and in Turners Falls. Two of those sites, Springfield and Turners Falls, will also host festivals and music performances.
The convener of these events, the Pioneer Valley History Network (PVHN), was selected to receive a competitive Latino Americans: 500 Years of History grant from
the NEH and the ALA. The grant is part of a joint nationwide public programming initiative that supports the exploration of the history and experiences of Latinos. The national effort awarded grants to over 200 organi-zations—libraries, museums, state humanities councils, historical societies, and other nonprofits—to produce pro-gramming like Herencia Latina. Mass Humanities advised on the grant application and supplemented the national funding with financial and logistical support for Herencia Latina’s outreach and program planning.
The award-winning Latino Americans series chronicles the history of Latinos in the United States from the 16th century to present day. The series was created for PBS in 2013 by the WETA public television station, and it is the first major docu-mentary series for television to record the story of the largest US minority group. At the conclusion of the project, PVHN will do-nate DVDs of the documentary series to Holyoke Public Library and to Holyoke Community College.
Continued on page 5
¿Quiénes Somos? Who Are We?
A publication of Mass Humanities Fall 2015
Fall Forum
Citizenship, Justice, and Racial Conciliationpage 8
The Latino Americans: 500 Years of History series culminates with a question: is a new Latino world being created or will Latinos in America
eventually assimilate into invisibility? Photo still from PBS series trailer.
“ Latino Americans have been present in our Pioneer Valley communities for more than a century, yet many people are unaware of their rich and varied history and culture.”
In a speech at to the National Press Club launching the current National Endowment for the Humanities initiative, “Common Good: The Humanities in the Public Square,” NEH Chairman William D. “Bro” Adams argued that a more “public-facing” humanities profession will be good for the academy and good for the nation. Regarding the latter point, he elaborated as follows:
The challenges that define our times and determine our future are not essentially scientific or technical in nature. They are about our values, our fundamental beliefs, ideas and assumptions, our histories and our cultures. These are the proper domains of humanities learning and thinking. The public-facing humanities can help us under-stand where we’ve been, what we value and believe, and where we’re headed.
By way of example, and at the risk of being a bit too topical and slightly provocative, consider the scorching experience we have been through in the last few months in this country regarding the issue of race. This is hardly a new topic in modern American life and history, but it’s one that appeared to some, for a brief time, to have become less pressing. It’s hard to believe now, but recall that in the wake of the election of 2008, some people even spoke of a post-racial society.
Then came Ferguson, Staten Island, and Bedford-Stuyvesant. It’s not clear how this difficult passage, and the broader conditions from which it comes, will be resolved, and what exactly resolution might mean. But I think most people would agree that there can be no adequate understanding of our current situation without a better appreciation of the history of race relations in the United States, of our cultural as-sumptions and divisions, and of the ways in which we actually live and perceive the world. . . . The result is not the sudden disappearance of the things that vex us, but a deeper understanding of who we are, how we got here, and how we might lead better lives.
I have been thinking a lot about these “vexing” events (and the more recent ones in Cleveland, Charleston, and Baltimore—sadly, they occur all too frequently) and the public response to them and how Mass Humanities might contribute to the much needed public discussions around issues of racial injustice.
At about the same time as the Chairman’s National Press Club appearance, in an interview on NPR’s All Things Considered regarding the NYPD’s work slowdown in the weeks fol-lowing the shooting deaths of two police officers (alleged by some to be in retaliation for police killings of unarmed black men), NewYork City (and former Boston) Police Com-missioner William Bratton acknowledged that African American men experience harsher treatment than their white counterparts, but noted it was not just at the hands of the police (citing “shopkeepers” as another example). “We’re talking about a much more complex, larger national issue—don’t go blaming the police,” he went on to say. “I’m sorry; we’re not going to be the whipping boy . . . for this issue in America.”
Setting aside the astonishing fact that one of the nation’s pre-eminent law enforcement officials appears to be excusing blatant acts of racial injustice perpetrated by the police on the grounds that racial prejudice is endemic in our society, the question remains why —150 years after the nation fought a bloody war over the issue and a half century after the passage of the Civil Rights Acts (of 1964, 1965, and 1968)—does racial injustice persist in America? Can we imagine, with Dr. King, an America in which “sons of former
MASS HUMANITIES66 Bridge StreetNorthampton, MA 01060tel (413) 584-8440 fax (413) 584-8454www.masshumanities.org
STAFF
David Tebaldi EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Pleun BouriciusDIRECTOR OF GRANTS & PROGRAMS
Carolyn CushingASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT
Deepika FernandesFISCAL OFFICER
David MorganCOMMUNICATIONS OFFICER
EDITOR OF MASS HUMANITIES
Anne RogersSYSTEMS MANAGER
Rose Sackey-MilliganPROGRAM OFFICER
John SierackiDIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT
AND COMMUNICATIONS
Jeannemarie TobinADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
Melissa WheatonADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT AND
GRANTS ADMINISTRATOR
Mass Humanities promotes the use of history, literature, philosophy, and the other humanities disciplines to deepen our understanding of the issues of the day, strengthen our sense of common purpose, and enrich individual and com-munity life. We take the humanities out of the classroom and into the community.
Mass Humanities, a private, nonprofit, educational organization, receives fund-ing from the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency; and private sources.
Letter from the Director
We Have to Decide By David Tebaldi
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slaves and sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brother-hood?” What needs to happen in order to make this dream a reality? Clearly, legislation alone is insufficient.
In one of several opinion pieces about the police controversy, New York Times op-ed colum-nist Charles Blow wrote, “We have to decide what racial conciliation should look like in this country” (“Who Should Apologize in Police Conflict?” January 7, 2015). He then poses three pointed questions:
“ Does [racial conciliation] look like avoidance and go-along-to-get-along obsequiousness, or does it look like justice and ac-knowledgment of both the personal parts we play and the nox-ious structural bias enveloping us?”
“ How is mutual understanding achieved without mutual respect being given and blame taken?”
“ How do we reconcile ourselves to one another without the fail-ures of the systems that govern us being laid bare before us?”
These may appear to be rhetorical questions, but just below the surface lay crucial and difficult issues that demand and deserve both personal soul searching and vigorous public discussion. What is (racial) justice and what does it require of us? How do we achieve mutual respect and understanding? There are costs associated with the elimination of racial injustice; who should bear these costs?
These are humanities questions and we plan to explore them at our November 1 forum with classicist and political philosopher Danielle Allen, author of Talking to Strangers, Anxieties of Citizenship Since Brown v. Board of Education (among other works) and newly-named director of the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University; Yale Law School Professor James Forman, Jr., a former Washington DC public defender currently writing a book about African American attitudes towards crime and punishment in the age of mass incarceration; Tommie Shelby, profes-sor of philosophy and African American studies at Harvard and author of We Who Are Dark: The Philosophical Foundations of Black Solidarity; and Beverly Daniel Tatum, former Mt. Holy-oke College professor, former president of Spelman College, and author of books on the psychol-ogy of race (Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?) and the re-segregation of schools since Brown v. Board (Can We Talk About Race?).
Our forum moderator will be the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian Douglas Black-mon, author of Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II and director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. Blackmon is currently at work on a project, called “The Harvest,” documenting the legacy of the Civil Rights Acts among an entire generation in the small town of Leland, Mississippi where he grew up.
This is an important conversation. Please join us on November 1 at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute at Columbia Point, Boston. Full details about our forum can be found on page 8.
MASS HUMANITIES66 Bridge StreetNorthampton, MA 01060tel (413) 584-8440 fax (413) 584-8454www.masshumanities.org
STAFF
David Tebaldi EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Pleun BouriciusDIRECTOR OF GRANTS & PROGRAMS
Carolyn CushingASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT
Deepika FernandesFISCAL OFFICER
David MorganCOMMUNICATIONS OFFICER
EDITOR OF MASS HUMANITIES
Anne RogersSYSTEMS MANAGER
Rose Sackey-MilliganPROGRAM OFFICER
John SierackiDIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT
AND COMMUNICATIONS
Jeannemarie TobinADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
Melissa WheatonADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT AND
GRANTS ADMINISTRATOR
Mass Humanities promotes the use of history, literature, philosophy, and the other humanities disciplines to deepen our understanding of the issues of the day, strengthen our sense of common purpose, and enrich individual and com-munity life. We take the humanities out of the classroom and into the community.
Mass Humanities, a private, nonprofit, educational organization, receives fund-ing from the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency; and private sources.
2015 BOARD OF DIRECTORS
CHAIR
Nancy NetzerBOSTON COLLEGE
VICE CHAIR
James R. BurkeHINCKLEY, ALLEN & SNYDER LLP
TREASURER
Jeffrey MusmanSEYFARTH SHAW, LLP
CLERK
Ellen BerkmanHARVARD UNIVERSITY
Glynda Benham MEGAWAVE CORPORATION
Lauren CohenPURE COMMUNICATIONS
Javier CorralesAMHERST COLLEGE
Elliot Bostwick DavisMUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
Alice DeLanaCAMBRIDGE
Elizabeth Duclos-OrselloSALEM STATE UNIVERSITY
Alfred L. GriggsNORTHAMPTON
Andrew HeleneRBS CITIZENS, N.A.
Ronald B. HertelWELLS FARGO ADVISORS, LLC
Lindsey KiangCHESTNUT HILL
Michael PapponeGOODWIN PROCTER LLP
Marisa ParhamAMHERST COLLEGE
Thomas PutnamJOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY & MUSEUM
Margaret ShepherdBOSTON
Lisa SimmonsMA OFFICE OF TRAVEL & TOURISM
Ron SlatePOET AND LITERARY CRITIC
Kathleen StoneATTORNEY AT LAW
Ken VacovecVACOVEC, MAYOTTE & SINGER LLP
Bianca Sigh WardNYSTROM BECKMAN & PARIS, LLP
G. Perry WuSTAPLES, INC.
September 16 Kick-off at Forbes Library, Screening of Episode I: Foreigners in Their Own Land
September 17 Latino History Day in Turners Falls, Screening of Episode VI: Peril and Promise
September 22 – March 20 “Faces of the North End” at Springfield Museums
September 24 Screening of Episode II: Empire of Dreams at Springfield City Library
September 24 “Latino Migrants and Agriculture in Franklin County” at Great Falls Discovery Center
September 30 Ibero-American Film Festival at Holyoke Community College: Cows Wearing Glasses (Las Vacas con Gafas)
October 6 Ibero-American Film Festival at Holyoke Community College: 339 Amín Abel Hasbún. Memory of a Crime (339 Amín Abel Hasbún. Memoria de un Crimen)
October 9 – November 8 “A Commitment of a Lifetime: the Instruments of Will Cumpiano” at Springfield Museums
October 14 Ibero-American Film Festival at Holyoke Community College: Paradise (Paradiso)
October 15 Screening and Discussion of Episode IV: The New Latinos at WGBY, Springfield
October 17 Family Fiesta Day at Springfield Museums, Screening of Episode V: Prejudice and Pride
October 21 Ibero-American Film Festival at Holyoke Community College, Screening of Episode III: War and Peace
October 22 Ibero-American Film Festival at Holyoke Community College: Southern District (Zona Sur)
October 28 Ibero-American Film Festival at Holyoke Community College: Mr. Kaplan
November 3 Screening of Episode I: Foreigners in Their Own Land at Holyoke Public Library
November 5 Screening of Episode II: Empire of Dreams at Holyoke Public Library
November 10 Screening of Episode III: War and Peace at Holyoke Public Library
November 12 Screening and Discussion of Episode IV: The New Latinos at Holyoke Public Library
November 17 Screening of Episode V: Prejudice and Pride at Holyoke Public Library
November 19 Screening and Discussion of Episode VI: Peril and Promise at Holyoke Public Library
November 19 Screening and Discussion of Episode VI: Peril and Promise at Springfield Technical Community College
December 3 “Celebracion: Film Festival, Food, Families, and Fun” at Chestnut Middle School, Springfield
March – April 2016 “Nuestras Abuelas/Our Grandmothers” at Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke
April 16, 2016 Screening and Discussion of Episode II: Empire of Dreams at Holyoke Community College
Spring 2016 “The Immigrant City” exhibition at Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke
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Herencia Latina Pioneer Valley 2015-16 Event Listings
Close Collaboration
Supported by Mass Humanities, the Pioneer Valley History Network is working in collaboration with Latino organizations to sponsor the Herencia Latina
events. Partners include Casa Latina Northampton, Holyoke Community College, L.I.S.A. (Latin Ameri-
can Students Association at H.C.C.), Holyoke Public Library, Springfield Museums, Springfield Public
Library, Turners Falls RiverCulture, and Wistariahurst Museum. Programming is also supported by El Sol
Latino, Nuestras Raices, and WGBY Public Television.
Herencia Latina is the result of local organizing by the Pioneer Valley History Network in response to a call from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association.
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Events within the Herencia Latina series offer first-hand knowl-edge of the issues facing Latinos in the Pioneer Valley. At many events, community members and facilitators alike will share personal stories of their American journey, Latino identity, and the histories that shape both. “The migration of Puerto Ricans is as relevant today as it was 100 years ago,” Holyoke City Coun-cilor Jossie Valentin explains. This November, she will moder-ate a discussion following a screening of episode two of Latino Americans, which chronicles the Depression-era deportations of Puerto Rican, Mexican, and Cuban migrants. Originally from Puerto Rico herself, Councilor Valentin came to Massachusetts in 1998 to attend graduate school and stayed to contribute to a city she loves. “The search for employment and educational opportunities are some of the many reasons why Puerto Ri-cans continue to leave the island and venture into the States, leaving behind family members, memories, and their patria. The number of Latinos leaving Puerto Rico to come to the US continues to increase, particularly members of the young professional community who are coming to the states in search of more opportunities to grow.”
Personal stories such as these will enable Herencia Latina to connect a racially segregated area through the humani-ties. This spring, near the end of the series, Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke will host a bilingual exhibit on Latino heritage in collaboration with local residents. Guest cura-tor Waleska Santiago will work with members of the local Latino community to develop an exhibit focused on the relationships of the subjects with their grandmothers who, due to the family’s migration history, may be far away, yet remain figures of towering importance and formative influence. The city-owned museum is a large mansion with gardens situated in the middle of an economically struggling migrant population. Wistaria-hurst is using the exhibit as an opportunity to rekindle its relationships with Latino community organiza-tions and to reach out to its neighbors. This kind of effort isn’t unique to the Herencia Latina series; the museum is one of the few in the area that have re-sponded to changing demographics by collecting, for
example, the archival history of area Latino organizations. To encourage and support Wistariahurst’s track record of serving Latino audiences, Mass Humanities has awarded Wistaria-hurst a grant for their upcoming program under its Engaging New Audiences initiative.
“Latino Americans have been present in our Pioneer Valley communities for more than a century, yet many people are unaware of their rich and varied history and culture,” said Cliff McCarthy, president of the Pioneer Valley History Network. “I’m thrilled that PVHN has this opportunity to celebrate Latino culture and bring this history to our muse-ums, libraries, and our communities.”
The Herencia Latina series launched September 16th, 2015, with a kick-off at Forbes Library in Northampton. The rich offerings continue through spring of 2016. Herencia Latina’s substantial content and involvement with Latino communities has drawn support from a considerable coali-tion. The public intellectuals and scholars on its schedule agree with University of Massachusetts Amherst Professor Mari Castañeda, who is participating in the series, that the program is “critical for all of us to better understand the history of Latino communities in the region as well as acknowledge the vast contributions these communities are making today.”
Episode V discusses the leadership of organizers Eliseo Medina and Dolores Huerta, pictured above at a march in Chicago in 1971. Photo courtesy of Eliseo Medina.
A group of Puerto Ricans that arrived at Newark airport, 1947. Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division.
Continued from page 1
Property owners in Fall River will be recognized for maintaining their historic homes.
At its June 19, 2015, meeting, the Mass Humanities board of directors approved $120,120 in awards to 21 organizations serving 16 different communities.
Northeast$5,000 to the Tsongas Center for Industrial
History at the University of Massachusetts
Lowell for the production of a 3-minute film
for an upcoming exhibit that focuses on im-
migration NSC
$4,630 to the Essex National Heritage Com-
mission for a one-day symposium familiar-
izing regional historic and cultural resource
organizations with the history and legacy of
slavery in the north and helping them develop
programming and materials NSC
Southeast$10,000 to the Center for Independent Docu-
mentary in Sharon for short-film social media
efforts to support the creation and distribu-
tion of the full-length documentary film
DAWNLAND, about the Maine Wabanaki-
State Welfare Truth & Reconciliation Com-
mission Media SMOG
$2,500 to the Fall River Preservation Society
for research for and fabrication of six histori-
cal plaques to be awarded to property owners
for their efforts in maintaining the historical
integrity and condition of their property
Recent Grants CCCC: Crisis, Community, and Civic Culture ENA: Engaging New Audiences RIG: Research Inventory Grant
Several of the grants fall under special categories: Media NSC: Negotiating the Social Contract SMOG: Social Media Outreach Grant
Welcome to New Board Member
MARGARET SHEPHERD is a noted
calligrapher and author who brings with
her a well-known talent for making the
humanities more public and accessible.
A Sarah Lawrence College graduate
and Boston resident, she has written
and hand-lettered 17 titles, all books on
communication and calligraphy. She taught high school
in pre-war Saigon, and continues to educate about the
history and practice of her art. She takes special interest
in presenting calligraphy and its history for beginners and
for artisans in related fields. Her most recent book is Learn
World Calligraphy, from Watson Guptill/Random House.
Margaret lives in Boston with her husband, David Friend.
And a Fond Farewell
JAMES LOPES, practicing attorney and
adjunct professor of entertainment law at
Southern New England School of law, ends six
years of board service.
JOHN STAUFFER,
leading Civil War and antislavery scholar at
Harvard University, completes five years of
service to the Mass Humanities board this year.
JESSIE LITTLE DOE BAIRD, a linguist known
for her efforts to revive the Wampanoag lan-
guage, was appointed by Governor Deval Patrick
in 2013 and rounds out her term this year.
Mass Humanities welcomes nominations for board membership, including self-nominations, at any time. Members serve once-renewable three-year terms. Nominees must live or work in Massachusetts and share a deep commitment to the public value of the humanities. Anyone interested in knowing more about the responsibilities and rewards of board service may contact Mass Humanities Executive Director David Tebaldi.
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Board Member Salutations
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$5,000 to the New Bedford Fishing Heritage
Center to develop an educational website about
the history of the commercial fishing industry
in New Bedford, providing online access to oral
histories and other materials gathered by the
Working Waterfront Festival
Central$4,000 to The Gardner Museum to support a
community art and discussion project that will
engage former chair manufacturing workers in
producing 400 copies of eleven oral histories
recorded in 2009, after the closing of the city’s
last chair manufacturer
Greater Boston$5,000 to Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cam-
bridge for the creation of two short films by
Roberto Mighty featuring historical figures,
their monuments, and the cemetery landscape,
to be included in a series of twenty shorts that
will be the basis of a walking tour mobile app
$5,000 to the USS Constitution Museum in
Boston for a short film featuring an animation
of the 1790s building of the USS Constitution
to be shown while Old Ironsides is in dry dock
and can be seen in her entirety
$9,848 to the William Monroe Trotter Institute
for the Study of Black History and Culture in
Boston for a reading, discussion, and perfor-
mance program for Boston cab drivers based on
Dmitry Samarov’s memoir Where To? ENA
$5,000 to the Asian American Resource
Workshop in Boston for the seventh Boston
Asian American Film Festival, a four-day
themed festival on intergenerational
immigrant experiences
$10,000 to MataHari: Eye of the Day in
Boston for a multimedia oral history project
with workers and employers about the MA
Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, including
two public events NSC ENA
$10,000 to Documentary Educational Re-
sources of Watertown for preproduction work
on a documentary covering the role of music
in the maintaining of cultural identity among
Tibetan exiles Media
$1,500 to the Chinese Historical Society of
New England in Boston to inventory, translate,
and assess client files from the Harry H. Dow
papers archived at the Suffolk Law School
Library RIG
Metrowest Boston$10,000 to the Indochina Arts Partnership in
Wellesley to create a trailer, script, and fund-
raising plan for a one-hour documentary film
by Bestor Cram about the post-war realities
in Vietnam and American veterans’ ongoing
involvement there Media
Connecticut River Valley$5,000 to WGBY in Springfield for a five-to-
twelve minute pilot video about Portuguese
cuisine and its history hosted by Manny Lopes
of Cooking with Dad TV Media
$5,000 to the Springfield Public Forum to
support the 80th season of the speaker series
consisting of five free public lectures
$2,900 to Silverthorne Theater Company
in South Hadley, in residence at Greenfield
Community College, to produce a play by
Yussef El Guindi, host post-performance
talks with the playwright, and host a free,
public symposium on the role of the arts in
challenging stereotypes
$5,000 to the Mary Lyon Foundation in
Shelburne Falls for a local history day at
Mohawk Trail Regional High School unit-
ing teachers, students, and the public with
local history organizations
$6,200 to Wistariahurst Museum for a
bilingual exhibit on Latino heritage created
in consultation with Holyoke residents and
focused on the relationships of the subjects
with their grandmothers ENA
Berkshires$3,542 to the Lenox Library Association for
the production of an 80-minute documentary
featuring footage from more than 50 oral-
history interviews of elderly Lenox residents
to mark the town’s 250th anniversary
Cape & Islands$5,000 to the U.S. Slave Song Project in
Oak Bluffs for the writing of the libretto of
a “folk opera” about the mid-nineteenth-
century African American experience on
Martha’s Vineyard
CCCC: Crisis, Community, and Civic Culture ENA: Engaging New Audiences RIG: Research Inventory Grant
Several of the grants fall under special categories: Media NSC: Negotiating the Social Contract SMOG: Social Media Outreach Grant
Gardner, the former capital of chair manufacturing, will reflect on its history through oral history and bookmaking.
1854 is a folk opera inspired by an abolitionist movement on Martha’s Vineyard in the mid-19th century.
How do first-generation immigrants interface with their new country? A play performed by Silverthorne Theater Company ventures to find out.
Killings of black men and women by police have ignited an already potentially explosive issue, that of the state of racial equity in our country. Black Lives Matter protesters have taken up the mantle of responding to these issues and, in doing so, have brought a new vibrancy to civil rights orga-nizing, challenging the status quo and would-be allies alike to recognize and elevate the issue of race. In this context, our fall forum will inquire after the question posed recently by New York Times columnist Charles Blow, “Does [racial conciliation] look like avoidance and go-along-to-get-along obsequiousness, or does it look like justice and acknowledgment of both the personal parts we play and the noxious structural bias enveloping us?”
CITIZENSHIP, JUSTICE, AND RACIAL CONCILIATION
Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States SenateColumbia Point, Boston
Panelists
Register now for this free public forum: masshumanities.org/programs/symposium
Danielle AllenPolitical Philosopherand Author
Co-presented by and the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate
Sunday, November 1, 2015 3:30 – 5:00 PM
FREE and open to the public
James Forman, Jr.Former PublicDefender and Law School Professor
Tommie ShelbyAuthor and Professor of Philosophy and African AmericanStudies
Beverly Daniel Tatum Author and former President of SpelmanCollege
Douglas BlackmonPulitzer Prize-winning Historian and Journalist (moderator)