Tuesday, January 28 | 3:00-6:00pm | Harrison Small Special Collections Library

Increase your cultural competency; participate in a game and dialogue that helps one better understand structural inequality in America.  The University Library will participate in the University MLK Celebration through FACTUALITY, a facilitated dialogue and board game that simulates real-life stories in America. Participants will take on the role of one of the diverse group of characters that encounter limitations or advantages based on the intersection of their race, sexual orientation, faith, and gender. 

Attendance for this event is capped at 96. Please register at https://cal.lib.virginia.edu/event/6333863. 

Co-sponsored by the University Library and the Office for Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights.

Wednesday, January 29 | 7:30pm | Old Town Hall (3999 University Dr., Fairfax, Va.) - George Mason University 

The Center for the Arts at George Mason University welcomes the return of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company with a thrilling world premiere co-commissioned by the Center, entitled What Problem? Saturday, February 1 at 8 p.m. Conceived and directed by Bill T. Jones—and featuring choreography by Jones with Janet Wong and the Company—What Problem? provokes the tension between belonging to a community and feelings of isolation during these divisive political times. As part of the company’s weeklong residency with the Center for the Arts, Jones will be hosting a town hall discussion open to the public. Jones will be joined in conversation with Franklin Dukes, Ph.D., who is a mediator and facilitator within the Institute for Engagement & Negotiation and founded University & Community Action for Racial Equity (UCARE) at the University of Virginia, and Wendi-Manuel Scott, who is an Associate Professor in Integrative Studies and the Department of History/Art History at George Mason University, focusing on Race, gender, the African American experience, and the history of black women in the Atlantic World. 

The event is FREE but reservations are requested here.

Thursday, January 30th | 4pm | The Rotunda

Reviewing the long history of demands for reparations and looking closely at the current movements, Joan Scott will argue that although material compensation is certainly part of the effort, the demand for reparations is best understood as a critique of the conventional writing of American history.  It is an example of a critical politics that takes its aim at the way history represents the past.

Joan Scott is Professor Emerita in the School of Social Science in the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. Her groundbreaking work has challenged the foundations of conventional historical practice, including the nature of historical evidence and historical experience and the role of narrative in the writing of history. She is the author of numerous books that have been important for numerous disciplines and debates. These include Gender and the Politics of History (1988), Only Paradoxes to Offer: French Feminists and the Rights of Man (1996), Parité: Sexual Equality and the Crisis of French Universalism (2005), The Politics of the Veil (2007), The Fantasy of Feminist History (2011), Sex and Secularism (2017), and Knowledge, Power, and Academic Freedom (2018).

Prof. Scott’s visit is co-sponsored by the Institute for Humanities and Global Cultures, Political Theory: An International Journal of Political Philosophy, the Departments of Politics and of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, The Virginia Center for the Study of Religion, and the Power, Violence, and Inequality Collective

Healing Hate: A Public Health Perspective on Civil Rights in America

Thursday, January 30 - Friday, January 31 | Various Times | Caplin Pavilion (directly in front of the entrance to Clay Hall) & Pinn Hall Conference Center Auditorium, School of Medicine

A conference hosted by the University of Virginia Schools of Law and Medicine will focus on the impact of racial and ethnic discrimination in driving public health disparities.

The event will bring together scholars, clinicians, policymakers and community leaders to take a public health approach in treating and reducing violence, disease and injury due to racism, hate speech, crimes and violence. At the conclusion of the event, participants will announce a civil rights framework to combat health disparities, and generate and disseminate evidenced-based proposals and tools aimed at eliminating health disparities.

"Racism is a potent psychosocial stressor that is characterized by both social ostracism and blocked economic opportunity,” said conference organizer and law professor Dayna Bowen Matthew '87, director of The Equity Center at UVA, a sponsor of the event. "Racism also has led to inequitable access to social, educational and material resources — resources that have both direct and indirect effects on health status. This conference is taking a data-driven approach to start addressing some of these problems."

The conference is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Parking is available at the Law School in D2 and D3 lots. Information about parking at the Medical School is forthcoming.

The Imagining a new Democracy Summit is an endeavor to explore new ways for the community and the city to engage one another. For more information regarding dates, times and places, visit their website.

• February 6 - Legislative Theatre Workshop

• February 7 - Reflection & Action Symposium

The New York Times' 1619 Project (@The Haven)

Monday, February 17 | 7-8:15pm | The Haven

In August 2019, on the 400th anniversary of the arrival of 20 enslaved Africans to the shores of Virginia, The New York Times published a special issue of the Times Magazine titled “The 1619 Project,” as an invitation to reframe how the United States discusses the role and history of black Americans.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, Times Magazine writer and 2017 MacArthur fellow, will engage in a discussion with her colleague and UVA alumnus Jamelle Bouie as we continue to explore the history of slavery and how it has touched nearly every aspect of contemporary life in our country. The UVA Democracy Initiative hopes this will be an opportunity to continue to acknowledge and understand slavery's origin and legacy, and to take part in an honest dialogue in our community.

Questions? Contact Chrissy Linsinbigler at cl9hw@virginia.edu.

Jordy Yager, a Fellow with the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, will be giving a special presentation of his Mapping Charlottesville project.

With the help of a team of community volunteers, Jordy has reviewed thousands of local property deeds that contain racial restrictions against African Americans. He is creating a digital map of these covenants and is investigating how they have contributed to racial and economic disparities that exist in our area today. The project is a starting point for shaping more equitable regional policies.

As part of IMCC’s effort to promote racial justice and equity, we hope you’ll come and bring your friends. February 20^th , from 7 to 8:30 pm at JABA. Refreshments will be provided.

There is no charge. Donations will be gratefully accepted.

Map

Preserving African American Historic Places Mini-Conference

Join us at the Alexandria History Museum at the Lyceum for a one-day conference to provide networking opportunities and tools to help build capacity and strengthen organizations preserving African American historic sites in Virginia.

Building on the success of past programs focused on advocating for African American historic resources, including schools (Rosenwald-funded and otherwise) and cemeteries, this one-day conference will provide attendees with advocacy, documentation and funding tools with time built in for collaboration and networking.

Parking information: A limited number of handicap parking spaces are available at the Lyceum parking lot. For all other attendees the Courthouse Square Parking Garage, located at 228 S. Washington Street, is the closest (2-minute walk) parking option. The Alexandria Amtrak Station and the King Street Metro Station are 1 mile from the Lyceum. City of Alexandria parking map.  

General admission is $60 (coffee and lunch included).

Register today!

 Roxane Gay Calls for Compromise in ‘Age of Inelasticity’ at MLK Event

"Author and cultural critic Roxane Gay spoke Thursday night to a full house at the Paramount Theater about “the age of inelasticity” and how that makes it difficult to create a global community.

The keynote speaker for the University of Virginia’s 2020 Community MLK Celebration, Gay took a casual approach, sitting in a comfortable chair on stage, yet delivered the honest, witty, on-point commentary for which she is known in her writing.

Critics praised her 2017 book, “Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body,” as “an amazing achievement” and “a memoir that’s so brave, so raw, it feels as if she’s entrusting you with her soul.” She also published The New York Times best-selling collection of essays, “Bad Feminist,” in 2014, as well as the novel, “An Untamed State,” and short stories..."

"University of Virginia President Jim Ryan and Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Kevin G. McDonald today announced the University’s adoption of an initiative known as “Inclusive Excellence,” a model that will advance the critical role that diversity and inclusion play in UVA’s ability to reach its highest aspirations as a public institution.

'Inclusive Excellence is this notion of really meaningfully connecting our inclusion, equity and diversity efforts to our true organizational pursuits of excellence,' McDonald says in a video conversation with Ryan about the initiative.

'We can’t even hope to achieve organizational excellence in this day and age unless inclusion is part of that discussion,' says McDonald, who came to UVA in August from the University of Missouri system, where he led diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and led the process for a similar framework there.

'Diversity and inclusion aren’t in tension with excellence,' Ryan says in response, 'but instead, are a means to excellence.'