Black History Month Events and Recordings

This month-long series of events is in support of our ongoing effort to become an antiracist campus, and was organized by the Antiracism and DEI Education Subcommittee of the President's Commission on Diversity and Community with support from the Provost's Office. Our ultimate goal of becoming an antiracist college is aspirational and therefore perpetually imperfect. However, we are dedicated to reimagining the inner-workings of the college, propelling individual and institutional growth beyond this month of programmed events in order to sustain movement towards this aspirational goal.

Recordings of Past Events

March 1, 2022 The Tulsa Massacre: Is Racial Justice Possible 100 Years Later?

Who: Dr. Mihir Desai - Harvard Business School

Description: The Tulsa Massacre: Is Racial Justice Possible 100 Years Later?
Examining Black Wall Street and The Tulsa Massacre, followed by a general discussion about how we can account for social injustices.

Presented by Corning Incorporated, SUNY Corning Community College, and SUNY Center for Professional Development

February 23, 2022 Racial Literacy and Equitable Change: From the Writing Classroom to the Campus

In this talk, Dr. Mara Lee Grayson will discuss the necessity of incorporating racial literacy into writing classrooms as part of an integrative approach to antiracist work on a college campus. Participants will be invited to reflect upon their assumptions about writing, language, teaching, and learning and to consider how these assumptions are informed by their own identities and positionalities. Dr. Grayson will offer strategies for students and teachers alike to identify practices that may initially appear benign or even beneficial, but which may in fact perpetuate educational inequity, and to explore antiracist practices and pedagogies that challenge white cultural hegemony. Ultimately, this presentation will encourage teachers and learners of writing to see how writing and literacy instruction are informed by local contexts, cultural practices, and sociopolitical ideologies, and imagine how the writing classroom can become a site for transformation and antiracist change.

February 23, 2022 In This Moment - Herb Smith Unlocking Classical Music & the Intersection with Race

Who: Amanda Chestnut and Herb Smith

Description: Popular music changes with the times. Once, Beethoven, Verdi, Mozart, Stravinsky and other classical composers created the popular music of the day. The same skills we use to listen to today's pop music can be carried over into Classical music of yesteryear. The language spoken by classical music may not be as well known today, but you can learn. Join Herb Smith, guest conductor and 3rd trumpet of RPO, as he helps you interpret and unlock the language of Classical music. 

February 17, 2022 Dr. Louise Edwards - Galaxy Evolution in Cluster Cores and Outskirts

Who: Dr. Louise Edwards is an assistant professor at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. She is an observational extragalactic astrophysicist, studying the large scale structure of the universe and today's most massive galaxies. Before her position at Cal Poly, she was a visiting lecturer/scientist several institutions, including Yale University, Trent University, Mount Allison University, and CalTech. Dr. Edwards identifies as Canadian, with Trini roots. She also has two small children, and describes her life right now as filled with family and astronomy.

Description: When and how does environment impact the evolution of galaxies? We will approach this question by considering two extreme environments. First: The cores of massive clusters. Here, the largest, reddest galaxies of the local universe are found, Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs). These galaxies are found mixed with diffuse intracluster light (ICL) and often on top of the cooling intracluster medium (ICM). We'll explore recent results from an integral field unit survey of local cluster cores which provides photometric and spectroscopic evidence of a break in age, between the old red and dead BCG cores, and the ICL that surrounds them. Second: Cluster scale filaments. Here, galaxies find themselves in moderate density environments, where they are potentially able to interact with each other and the intracluster medium, initiating starbursts and undergoing quenching. Recent SITELLE observations from CFHT provide clear examples of merging filament galaxies. We'll discover how within these environments, the galaxy’s ability to interact with the surrounding medium and surrounding galaxies has the potential to drive its own evolution. 

February 16, 2022 In This Moment - Social Determinants, Human Trafficking, and Health Implications

Who: Amanda Chestnut and Dr. Celia McIntosh

Dr. Celia McIntosh, DNP, RN, FNP-C, PMHNP-BC, SCRN, CEN, CCRN, CNRN, is president of the Rochester Regional Coalition Against Human Trafficking.

The purpose of this talk is to highlight the social issues that increase individuals' vulnerability to being trafficked. This talk will also discuss the health implications that victims of trafficking face.

• Discuss the intersection of social determinants, human trafficking, and health consequences
• Discuss the intersection of race as an indicator for human trafficking

February 9, 2022 In This Moment - Shawn Dunwoody on Public Art

Who: Amanda Chestnut and Shawn Dunwoody

Shawn Dunwoody is a Rochester based multi-disciplinary creative force for change with experience as a director, producer, designer, maker, influencer, developer, and artist. Dunwoody's practice in creative implementation and innovative planning focuses on urban interventions and community forms of urban development. Shawn believes in contextual knowledge, an original approach, and imagination as the basis for crafting new forms of appropriation of space, common producing, and creative development.

February 2, 2022 The Making of In This Moment - Revolution Reckoning Reparation

Who: Amanda Chestnut and Jeanne Strazzabosco

Description: Hear from curator Amanda Chestnut and volunteer coordinator, Jeanne Strazzabosco as they discuss the inspiration and process behind the creation of the project that culminated in 10 teams of Black leaders from across the city of Rochester. Among those profiled are musician and attorney, Danielle Ponder, New York State Senator, Samra Brouk and artist, Shawn Dunwoody.

February 26, 2021 In This Moment Panel: Black Women's Health

Debora McDell-Hernandez and Dr. Celia McIntosh will provide an overview on how systemic racism impacts the health and healthcare outcomes of Black women. In this presentation they discuss the historical long standing, deeply rooted inequities related to social determinants of health, structural inequality, and system failures that continue to perpetuate the cycle of inadequate care. They will also discuss barriers to treatment and political implications that may improve or harm health outcomes.

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Debora McDell-Hernandez is the senior director of public & community affairs for Planned Parenthood of Central & Western New York, and Dr. Celia McIntosh, DNP, RN, FNP-C, PMHNP-BC, SCRN, CEN, CCRN, CNRN, is president of the Rochester Regional Coalition Against Human Trafficking.

In This Moment: Revolution Reckoning Reparation is a project where teams of Black writers and photographers were invited to profile ten Black leaders from across the city of Rochester resulting in a series of 10 chapbooks produced by VSW Press. ITM’s goal is to elevate and celebrate the breadth and scope of the revolutionary work being done by Black leaders, photographers and writers. The theme, In This Moment, is a challenge to the euphemism often used in lieu of talking about revolution, reckoning and reparation. We look to take the euphemism and ask it back to those most likely to use it. What is this moment? Amanda Chestnut-ITM Curator and Jeanne Strazzabosco-ITM Coordinator.

February 25, 2021 Discussion of DuVernay's "13th" with Historian Kevin Gannon

Dr. Kevin Gannon, Professor of History, Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Grand View University, leads a discussion of Ava DuVernay's documentary film "13th". Dr. Gannon appears in this film that explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation's prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans.

13TH Full Feature

February 22, 2021 Teaching Antiracism through Sports History and Jackie Robinson

This presentation will center on history professor Justin Behrend's experience teaching an Intersession course with antiracist content, discussing the benefits of developing antiracist curriculum, as well as the challenges of teaching an Intersession course.

February 19, 2021 In This Moment Panel: Monuments, Memorials, & Movement

In this panel discussion, Rochester artist Shawn Dunwoody and photographer Arturo Hoyte will discuss the idea of Place-activation through art to engage the communities during times of social unrest.

BIOS

Arturo Hoyte has over 15 years of photography experience, but every snap is still full of anticipation for him. As a child he absorbed the stories of George Eastman with Kodak and felt using a camera to create images was the way to tell stories. From monthly art gallery openings at the Fourwalls Art Gallery, local political events, to fashion & portraiture Arturo has always sought to capture images that puts the viewer right there. Everyone deserves a great picture of them.

Shawn Dunwoody is a Rochester based multi-disciplinary creative force for change with experience as a director, producer, designer, maker, influencer, developer, and artist. Dunwoody's practice in creative implementation and innovative planning focuses on urban interventions and community forms of urban development. Shawn believes in contextual knowledge, an original approach, and imagination as the basis for crafting new forms of appropriation of space, common producing, and creative development.

In This Moment: Revolution Reckoning Reparation is a project where teams of Black writers and photographers were invited to profile ten Black leaders from across the city of Rochester resulting in a series of 10 chapbooks produced by VSW Press. ITM’s goal is to elevate and celebrate the breadth and scope of the revolutionary work being done by Black leaders, photographers and writers. The theme, In This Moment, is a challenge to the euphemism often used in lieu of talking about revolution, reckoning and reparation. We look to take the euphemism and ask it back to those most likely to use it. What is this moment? Amanda Chestnut-ITM Curator and Jeanne Strazzabosco-ITM Coordinator.

February 18, 2021  "CODED BIAS" Director Q&A (and Film Screening)

"CODED BIAS" is a documentary that explores the fallout of MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini's startling discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately, and her journey to push for the first-ever legislation in the U.S. to govern against bias in the algorithms that impact us all. 

February 16, 2021 Dr. Maria Lima - Black Humanities: the 1619 Project

Dr. Maria Lima, a scholar of Black Atlantic writing who taught the first "Black Lives Matter" course at SUNY Geneseo in 2015, discusses the use of Project 1619 in her Black Humanities course and the importance of understanding anew the foundational narratives of American culture.

February 15, 2021 Dr. John Jones - Race and Media Representation

Dr. John Jones, Social Foundations/School of Education, will focus on changes in the ways that African-Americans and other minorities have been depicted in American media and will end with an examination of the ways that those depictions are changing in media today, particularly in online streaming content and Hollywood movies. I will also present a short section on depictions (or the lack thereof) of Blacks in the media of Brazil and other Latin American countries.

February 12, 2021 In This Moment: Blackness & Intersectionality

Taurus Savant and Luticha Doucette will discuss intersectionality from their perspectives; Taurus defines intersectionality as encompassing several different crosses of identities in a person, and how they overlap, creating complex and unique life experiences and challenges while Luticha leads with the disability justice principle of recognizing wholeness; where we are whole human beings who cannot be segregated into boxes. This dynamic discussion will flow from these unique and complementing viewpoints and challenge the audience to think critically about themselves and how they view others.

BIOS

Taurus Savant is a queer Black artist, writer, musician, and community advocate that uses his crafts in creativity to invoke, influence and promote individuality, freedom of expression, and change on a variety of different mediums.

Luticha André Doucette graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with a degree in Bioinformatics where she developed protein surface prediction algorithms. After graduating, she was a Fellow at the University of Rochester where she worked in a genomics lab that focused on analyzing the venom of parasitoid wasps to develop new drug therapies for various diseases. In 2017 she authored a report on wage disparities across race, gender, and disability in Rochester and Monroe County in conjunction with the Rochester-Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative and in 2018 authored a follow-up report on employment barriers for disabled people in Rochester and Monroe County. She is a graduate of the Leadership and Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) Fellowship program and an AUCD Emerging Leader. She is the owner of Catalyst Consulting, which helps organizations examine equity across race, gender identity, and disability in policies, practices, procedures, and relationships. 

In This Moment: Revolution Reckoning Reparation is a project where teams of Black writers and photographers were invited to profile ten Black leaders from across the city of Rochester resulting in a series of 10 chapbooks produced by VSW Press. ITM’s goal is to elevate and celebrate the breadth and scope of the revolutionary work being done by Black leaders, photographers and writers. The theme, In This Moment, is a challenge to the euphemism often used in lieu of talking about revolution, reckoning and reparation. We look to take the euphemism and ask it back to those most likely to use it. What is this moment? Amanda Chestnut-ITM Curator and Jeanne Strazzabosco-ITM Coordinator.

February 11, 2021 Frederick Douglass and the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives

Kenneth B. Morris, Co-Founder & President Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives, is the great-great-great-grandson of Frederick Douglass and the great-great-grandson of Booker T. Washington. He is reviving the critical work of his ancestors in the key leadership role at FDFI.

Morris continues a family legacy in anti-slavery, education and antiracism while helping to craft and implement innovative programming to address these persistent issues still facing communities today.

February 10, 2021 Dr. Stacey Robertson - "Stamped from the Beginning" Part III Book Discussion

Provost Stacey Robertson (History) leads a discussion of Part III of Ibram X. Kendi's "Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America."

February 10, 2021 Sonya Bilocerkowycz, MFA - Trauma-Informed and Antiracist Writing Classroom

Sonya Bilocerkowycz (English & Creative Writing) will discuss how trauma manifests in our students and impedes learning, offer strategies for cultivating a trauma-sensitive classroom, and draw connections between trauma support and antiracist pedagogy. This presentation will use the creative writing classroom as a case study to explore these interrelated concerns and a springboard for open conversation about resisting white supremacy across academic disciplines.

Sonya is the author of On Our Way Home from the Revolution, which won the Gournay Prize for a debut essay collection and was published in 2019 by Ohio State University Press. Sonya is managing editor of the journal of Speculative Nonfiction, and her essays and poems have appeared in Literary Hub, Colorado Review, Guernica, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere.

Slides for Trauma Informed and Antiracist Writing Classroom Presentation

This presentation was developed in collaboration with Geneseo creative writing faculty as part of a TLC Innovation Grant.

February 5, 2021 Dr. Maria Lima - "Stamped from the Beginning" Part II Book Discussion 

Professor Maria Lima (English) leads a discussion of Part II of Ibram X. Kendi's "Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America."

February 4, 2021 Shane Wiegand - Racist Policy and Resistance in Rochester

This talk examines how federal and local policies like redlining, racially restrictive covenants, and urban renewal segregated Rochester, built wealth for its white citizens and disenfranchised people of color. It explores how local civil rights leaders like Howard Coles, Alice Young and many others fought back. Finally, it connects these past policies to the disparity and inequality we see in Rochester today and invites us to learn from and apply the activism of Rochester's past to its present.

Speaker Bio

Shane Wiegand is a fourth grade teacher in the Rush-Henrietta School District and the Co lead of the Antiracist Curriculum Project at the PathStone Foundation. He has researched, compiled, and taught Rochester's history of structural racism and resistance in his classroom for the past eight years. Starting with several fourth grade teachers in his school district, Shane has now trained over 900 hundred teachers in anti-racist curriculum across multiple school districts. Shane is also a board member of Connected Communities, The Police Accountability Board Alliance, and City Roots Community Land Trust. He is an adjunct faculty instructor in the URMC Department of Neurology. He and his wife live in the Beechwood neighborhood of Rochester. Shane graduated from SUNY Geneseo in 2011 with a degree in Childhood and Special Education and completed his masters in childhood multicultural education from Geneseo.

February 4, 2021 Dr. Melanie Medeiros - The Myth of Biological Races

Dr. Melanie Medeiros (Anthropology) presents "The Myth of Biological Races: Race as a Social & Cultural Construction."