- February 4, 2021–February 25, 2021
Join us for a month's worth of speaker-led events!
Thursday, February 4, 2021 | 4 p.m.
Speaker: Dr. Willie Jennings, Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale Divinity School
Building Life Beyond Whiteness
To educate is to build and today we must ask ourselves what does it mean to build in the aftermath of white supremacy and racial inequality? This talk explores the status of the work of building for Christians in this challenging moment.
Wednesday, February 10th, 2021 | 3:30 p.m.
Speaker: Lyonel LaGrone, Program Coordinator for the Center of Intercultural Student Development at Calvin University
Stewards of Adamah: The intersection of race, theology and the environment
LaGrone will discuss the Grand Rapids Environmental justice report in light of the Creation mandate to “subdue” the earth. Participants will be encouraged to reflect on space and bodies through a missiological hermeneutic lense.
Thursday, February 11, 2021 | 4 p.m.
Speaker: Dr. Mark Hopson, Director of African and African American Studies at George Mason University
What is the Value of Black History Month? Exploring Race, Time, and Space in America
Hopson will speak to the notions of race and time in US History including origins of Black History Month. He emphasizes the value and symbolism of marginalized groups and contributions to social justice and social construction as well as lessons learned and next steps.
Thursday, February 18, 2021 | 4 p.m.
Speaker: Nicole Parker, Co-founder of Sisters in Business and ANP Consulting
Ain’t I an Innovator: The Missing narratives of Black Women in the field of Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Ain’t I an Innovator examines the Six I’s of Black innovation theory that centers Black women as change agents. This will be examined through the context of social innovation and entrepreneurship as Black women are the fastest-growing demographic of entrepreneurs in the country.
Unpacking this phenomenon demonstrates the innovative and liberating power Black Women have always possessed. In addition, highlight how Black women are utilizing social innovation and entrepreneurship as a tool to fight back against systemic racism by reclaiming economic autonomy through business ownership to create social change. The framework will be demonstrated by tracing the lives of historic Black Women.
Monday, February 22, 2021 | 3 p.m.
Speaker: Rev.Dr. Shively Smith, Assistant Professor of New Testament at Boston University School of Theology
Watching Jesus Hang: Reading the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ Crucifixion through African American Biblical Histories
This presentation explores the literary representations of Jesus’ death on the cross in the gospels through the lens of African American Biblical interpretative histories. In particular, the presentation considers the artistic interpretations of crucifixion as a pathway for clarifying the spectacle of violence and execution in the Roman World and America’s lynch culture.
Thursday, February 25, 2021 | 4 p.m.
Speaker: Richard Rothstein, Research associate of the Economic Policy Institute, and Fellow at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund
The Color of Law A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
An explosive, alarming history that finally confronts how American governments in the twentieth century deliberately imposed residential racial segregation on metropolitan areas nationwide.
“Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law offers an original and insightful explanation of how government policy in the United States intentionally promoted and enforced residential racial segregation. …[H]is argument, which calls for a fundamental reexamination of American constitutional law, is that the Supreme Court has failed for decades to understand the extent to which residential racial segregation in our nation is not the result of private decisions…, but is the direct product of unconstitutional government action. The implications of his analysis are revolutionary.” —Geoffrey R. Stone, Professor of Law (and former dean) at the University of Chicago Law School
