Tandem Speaks!

TONIGHT, March 8 | 7pm | PVCC Dickinson Center | $35-125

Tandem Friends School has launched a new community event, TANDEM Speaks!, featuring Dahlia Lithwick, a past Tandem Friends parent, former Charlottesville resident, and current senior editor at Slate; and Khizr Khan, a Muslim-American U.S. Gold Star Parent as well as a lawyer and constitutional rights advocate. Mr. Khan and Ms. Lithwick will offer their unique perspectives on the issues of social justice, human rights and constitutional interpretation in a conversation moderated by Risa Goluboff, Dean of the UVA School of Law and Tandem Friends parent. The event will be held on Friday, March 8, 2019 at 7 pm at The Dickinson Fine and Performing Arts Center at Piedmont Virginia Community College.

Goals of the event include:

• to build on our Speaker Series model to foster community through participating in a compelling conversation.
• to forge partnerships with local businesses and organizations.
• to raise funds to support the school’s financial aid program.

“A Tandem Friends’ education, which emphasizes the Quaker values of Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship, is in perfect alignment with the work being done in Charlottesville, and elsewhere, to take care of each other, speak out against injustice, and integrate our values into the choices we make every single day,” says Deborah Arenstein, event co-Chair and Tandem Friends parent.

We expect this event to sell out quickly! Benefactor tickets priced at $125 per person include a pre-event cocktail reception, with event speakers, held at Tandem Friends, as well as preferred seating and recognition at the event. Please consider purchasing a Benefactor ticket! General admission tickets are $35 in advance.

We appreciate the generous support of our corporate sponsors, including: S.L.Williamson Co., Inc., Martin Horn, Inc., Tucker Griffin Barnes P.C., Attorneys at Law, Downtown Dental and Picante Creative. Additional support provided by Nest Realty, Crutchfield and Johnston & Co., LLC.

TICKETS ON SALE NOW (click here)

$35 General Admission
$40 At Door (if available)
$10 Tandem Friends and PVCC Students and Faculty
$125 Benefactor

Corporate Sponsorships available now - please contact Event Co-Chair Larry Goldstein for details. If you are unable to attend, but would like to support this event with a donation, please use the ticketing page to make your gift.

We look forward to seeing you on March 8!

Saturday, March 9 | 10am | Jefferson School African American Heritage Center

On Saturday, March 9th, 2019, the Holsinger Portrait Project will host a Family Photo Day at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center from 10am to 3pm. Project members invite the public to help them discover and tell a new story about African American families in Charlottesville and the region through photographic portraits of more than 500 African Americans who visited Rufus Holsinger’s photography studio on West Main Street in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This will be the first time that prints of all the portraits, an important visual record of the black community, will be on public view.

Visitors can browse the images and help project members learn more about the people in the portraits, some of which may have descendants still in the area. The project encourages visitors to bring their family photo albums with them to the event, where researchers will help them to date the photos and identify people in them. Experts will also be on hand to teach the basics of photographic preservation and genealogical research. As an added attraction, visitors can sit for a free, professionally-made family portrait (printed immediately on site).

Community Strategy Session

Join us as Chief Louis Dekmar, International Association of Chiefs of Police, discusses “Trust, Race, and Police: The Contemporary Challenges of History and Resulting Implications for Police Legitimacy”. – hosted by Professor Brian Williams.

This event is free and open to the public. As always, lunch will be provided. 

Please join us for two opportunities to hear talks by Ruth King. They are being sponorsed by CSC.

Tuesday, March 19
Transforming Racism from the Inside Out 
3:00-4:30pm
Location: UVA's Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, Auditorium
An internationally revered teacher, King shines a compassionate, provocative, and practical light into a deeply neglected area relevant to us all. In these talks, we explore our racial conditioning and its detrimental impact, and explore ways to increase our inner capacity to face racial ignorance and suffering with a wise and caring heart.

This talk is free and open to the public. Registration is recommended. Register here.

Wednesday, March 20
Mindful of Race
6:00-7:30pm
Location: Unity of Charlottesville
CSC is co-sponsoring King's talk as part of the Virginia Festival of the Book. For details, please visit the VA book festival website. The Facebook event is here.

Friday, March 22 | 9am-1pm | Dome Room, The Rotunda | REGISTER HERE

Keynote Speaker: 
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES R. ROEBUCK, JR.

Representative James R. Roebuck Jr. is a Democratic politician who represents the 188th Legislative District (West Philadelphia) in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He was first elected in a special election on May 21, 1985. Roebuck is a 1963 graduate of Central High School. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1966 from Virginia Union University. He earned a Ph.D. in 1977 from University of Virginia. In 1969, Roebuck became the first African American Student Council president at UVA. Roebuck is a member of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus.

Speakers:
ALEX CINTRON was elected as the first Latinx president of UVA's Student Council in February 2018. He has been a member of the Student Council since his first year at UVA and served as the Vice President for Administration.

CEASAR L. McDOWELL holds an Ed.D. (88) and M.Ed. (84) from Harvard.  He is Professor of the Civic Design at MIT. Ceasar's current work is on the development of community knowledge systems and civic engagement. He is also expanding his critical moments reflection methodology to identify, share, and maintain grassroots knowledge. His research and teaching interests also include the use of mass media and technology in promoting democracy and community-building, the education of urban students, the development and use of empathy in community work, civil rights history, peacemaking, and conflict resolution. He is Director of the Global Civic Engagement Organization, Dropping Knowledge International, MIT's former Center for Reflective Community Practice (renamed Co-Lab), Co-founder of The Civil Rights Forum on Telecommunications Policy, and founding Board member of The Algebra Project.

KAREN ABRAMS is the program officer for Equitable Development at the Heinz Endowment in Pittsburgh. She has over a decade of economic, sustainability and community development experience, serving most recently as manager of Diversity and Community Affairs for the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh (URA). Her tenure with the URA included creation and management of Urban Matters, an arts and design-based civic engagement program for residents in distressed Pittsburgh neighborhoods. While with the URA, Ms. Abrams founded and coordinated the URA Equity Working Group, and worked with neighborhood stakeholders to increase their capacity to address urban regeneration and sustainability in economically challenged communities. Ms. Abrams earned undergraduate degrees in history and African American history from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville and a Master of Science degree in sustainable systems from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. In May 2017, Ms. Abrams was honored with a Loeb Fellowship at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.

This event is part of a larger Symposium + Presentation Series, The Road to Charlottesville: Revisiting Education, Equity & Engagement. 
This series revisits and reimagines education and equity through the lens of important events in the life of Charlottesville and the University of Virginia. In 1969, students elected the first African American president of the Student Council, 30 years ago President George H.W. Bush gathered all the nation’s governors in an educational summit in Charlottesville, and currently, our community is addressing the distribution of equitable opportunities for enrichment and learning in the public schools. In short, it is a moment for reflection and action. 
A Symposium hosted in partnership by the Bicentennial Commission; UVA Student Council; UVA Carter G. Woodson Institute; Office of the Provost; Office of the Vice President and Chief Officer for Diversity and Equity; Community Design Research Center; UVA School of Architecture's Office of the Dean; and the Cavalier Daily. 

Hard Conversations: Introduction to Racism

March 26-April 26
Live Seminars on April 2, 9, 16, and 23

This is a month-long online seminar program hosted by authors, speakers, and social justice activists Patti Digh and Victor Lee Lewis, who was featured in the documentary film, The Color of Fear, with help from a community of people who want and are willing to help us understand the reality of racism by telling their stories and sharing their resources.

There are two learning spaces for this course: An online classroom and our weekly live seminars. Content and course details will be delivered to your email daily. The live seminars that take place from 8-9:15pm Eastern via telephone conference begin one week after the course begins. The calls will be recorded, should you not be able to participate live.

My White Perceptions, Silence, and Fragility
A SURJ Cville Discussion Group        
 

Who is the group for?

This discussion group is targeted at people who identify as white or as having race and/or class privilege. Participants should be interested in asking questions like:

• How does my racial identity impact the way in which I view and move through the world?

• How will a deeper understanding of my racial identity impact my behavior?

• How can I get better at talking about privilege, oppression, and what to do about it?

What are the goals of the discussion group?

• Participants will be able to define white supremacy and racism (multiple levels) and explain the ways they see these forces operate in themselves and the world around them.

• Participants will reflect on their level of understanding of the myriad ways white supremacy impacts them, and those around them, and design a plan for how to continue to develop this lens. This plan will include potential blindspots and how they will be combated.

• Participants will reflect on their evolving engagement with antiracist work and design a plan for deeper involvement. This plan will include identified obstacles that might cause participants to avoid antiracist work and how they will overcome them.

How is the group structured?

Each week, participants  prepare by reading 1-2 short articles (approx. 20 - 30 minutes worth of reading). Then, they meet and discuss during in a 90 minute facilitated session, leaving with an action that they commit to for the following week, aiming to disrupt patterns of behavior that preserve white supremacy. These disruptions can be as simple as breaking a pattern of silence between two friends who know they share liberal ideology, but who avoid talking about whiteness, privilege, oppression, etc.

What is the content of the group?

The eight sessions are organized into three sections. The first focuses on the ways in which white racial identity impacts perception of privilege, racism, and anti-racism work. The next focuses on how these perceptions influence what we say (or don’t say) and do (or don’t do) in the face of racial injustice. The final sessions are informed by the very helpful concept of white fragility, which is the notion that because white people are so insulated from race-based stress, when we are exposed to any racial tension we are unprepared and overly defensive. Common to all weeks is the goal of better understanding ourselves, so we can more fully and effectively participate in anti-racism efforts.

Deadline: April 1st 2019 at 5:00 pm EST

Overview: The Citizen Justice Initiative (CJI) is a project at UVA’s Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies that investigates issues of race and history through digital storytelling resources, creative productions, and events for University students, professors, and staff as well as students and residents in the Charlottesville-Albemarle community.

Each year, the CJI facilitates a summer research assistantship program that exposes a cohort of undergraduate students from the University of Virginia and students from local area high schools to academic research and experiential learning opportunities. The output of the 2017 program was an interactive StoryMap entitled “The Illusion of Progress: Charlottesville’s Roots in White Supremacy.” The summer 2018 program began work on the podcast series, “Notes on the State” which engages with Thomas Jefferson’s history and complexities.

For the 2019 summer program, the Citizen Justice Initiative will place students in teams across different research projects pertaining to public history, digital humanities, and archiving. The larger Citizen Justice cohort will meet weekly to discuss connections between and among these projects.  Research topics include, but are not limited to:

• Digital archiving

• G.I.S. mapping

• Oral history and media production

The summer interns will get hands on experience in public history and African American studies with the opportunity to build skills for college, learn digital tools, and engage with the history of the environment around them.  

Responsibilities:

• Conduct research on-site at UVa’s Citizen Justice Lab or in the location of one’s research team placement

• Meet regularly to discuss activities and brainstorm opportunities for creative productions and/or digital projects

• Work independently and in groups to plan, analyze, and execute a short-term project

• Track and/or write regular reflections / blog posts on project work

Preferred Skills and Experience:

• Interest in one or more of the following areas: African-American studies, history, community engagement, social justice, social studies, public history, and/or digital storytelling

• Demonstrated track record of leadership, mentorship, and/or creative ability

• Communication and organizational skills, including the ability to work independently, stay focused on assigned tasks, and work with team members professionally.

The position is 20 hours/week from June  – August, 2019. This is a paid position.

Application Instructions:

To apply, please follow the below instructions:

1. submit a resume to the following email address:

citizen-justice-initiative@collab.its.virginia.edu

2. complete the following form:

Citizen Justice Initiative 2019 Summer Research Assistantship

Guidelines:

• The GoogleForm serves as your application. Please use a professional tone and discuss specific examples relevant to what best qualifies you for working with our organization.

• Be sure to showcase also your intellectual interests, and provide us with a sense of your voice, personality, and work style.

• As with most cover letters, read up on our work and the larger organization. Be sure to proofread your responses before submitting.

• We recommend that you compose your responses in a separate document, then to paste into the above form once you're ready to submit your full application.

University of Virginia Announces $15 Living Wage

By Wesley P. Hester | Original Publication: UVA Today | Photo: Dan Addison | Published March 2019

"The University of Virginia today announced that it will pay all full-time, benefits-eligible employees in its academic division and medical center a living wage of at least $15 an hour, beginning Jan. 1.

“As a University, we should live our values – and part of that means making sure that no one who works at UVA should live in poverty,” UVA President Jim Ryan said in a message to the University community on Thursday. 

The living wage adjustment will increase the paychecks of 1,400 full-time, benefits-eligible workers, which represents about 60 percent of employees currently earning less than $15 an hour. UVA is considering how to address wages for the remaining 40 percent of full-time workers making less than $15 an hour, who are employed by contractors.  

Over the next few months, my team will be working on a plan to extend the same $15 commitment to contract employees,' he said. 'This is legally and logistically more complicated, but our goal is to make it happen...'"

Among several local events this weekend for Liberation and Freedom Day, which commemorates the ending of slavery in the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County on March 3, 1865, the University held an additional ceremony: for the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers, which is in the early stages of construction..."

Each weekday in February we are releasing a new episode of "Race and Place in Charlottesville," which follows UVA Professor Louis Nelson as he gives a tour of the history of race and racism in Charlottesville, starting with Jefferson's era on Grounds and leading toward the Downtown Mall, site of the August 11-12 rallies. The research-based tour is motivated by Jesus' command to love our neighbors.

Please feel free to share the tour with your community! You can use this link: https://www.studycenter.net/race-place-cville