Bold Conversations at the Global Activism Expo 2013.
Bold Conversations is presented by The Public Square, Social Justice Initiative at UIC, and WBEZ.
— Mariame Kaba, founder and Director of Project NIA
— Ryan Lugalia-Hollon, Justice Fellow at the Adler School and member of the SJI team at UIC (co-moderator)
Brutal war has engulfed villages and cities in Mali. Violence in Colombia has forced people out of their homes and left anger, fear and poverty in its wake. Does post-apartheid South Africa offer a vision and a model for war-torn societies? Many countries that have been torn apart by civil war ask: how do we rebuild, how can we make amends, or does accountability trump reconciliation?
“The Global Activism Expo is an opportunity for people to see their community and their world as a caring, thoughtful, and generous place,” says emcee Jerome McDonnell. “Join us as we make a difference with our love, respect, and compassion.”
The struggles we face are bigger than any one person, but we can each take a step to make a difference. Join Worldview host Jerome McDonnell and meet lots of engaged, world-focused people. You’ll learn about all the work that folks who’ve been featured on Worldview‘s long-running series, Global Activism Expo, have been up to, and they’ll show you how you can get involved.
Learn more about the Global Activism Expo.
More about our guest speakers:
Cheryl Graves is the Founder and Co-Director of the Community Justice for Youth Institute, a nonprofit organization committed to building a movement of peacemakers. She has more than 15 years of experience in training and implementing restorative justice practices in Chicago communities, schools and the juvenile justice system. Her work focuses on developing capacity to facilitate peacemaking circles and restorative approaches that keep youth in school and out of court, build community, address conflict, prevent violence and support healing
Ali Issa is based in New York City and is the national field organizer for War Resisters League. He earned a Master’s Degree in Arabic studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008. He is a contributor to the e-zine Jadaliyya on Iraqi social movements and his translations have appeared in Banipal and the PEN World Atlas Blog. He is a contributor and co-founder of the independent online magazine about everything Iraqi, shakomakoNET. His father is from Baghdad, Iraq.
Mariame Kaba is an organizer, educator, and writer who lives in Chicago. She is the founder and director of Project NIA, a grassroots organization with a mission to end youth incarceration using a transformative justice approach. Mariame has also co-founded several other organizations including the Chicago Freedom School, the Rogers Park Young Women’s Action Team (YWAT) and the Chicago Taskforce on Violence against Girls and Young Women.
Alice Kim, Director of The Public Square, received her Bachelor of Arts in English and Women’s Studies from Northwestern University and her Master of Arts in English from DePaul University. She is an activist and writer who is involved in local and national social justice efforts. She is on the editorial board of In These Times magazine and the advisory board of the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University. She also works with prisoners and their family members to work towards death penalty abolition and criminal justice reform. She is currently teaching a course on gender at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
In order to create safer urban environments, we must find ways to help city dwellers play more active roles in neighborhood peacemaking. Ryan Lugalia-Hollon works towards this goal by supporting community-based restorative justice efforts and working to redirect public resources away from punitive modes of justice that reinforce cycles of poverty and violence. He works as a Justice Fellow at the Institute on Public Safety and Social Justice at the Adler School of Professional Psychology, and is on staff with the UIC Social Justice Institute.
Born on Chicago’s West Side, “Prexy”(Rozell W.) Nesbitt has spent more than five decades as an educator, activist, and speaker on Africa, foreign policy, and racism. Prexy’s career has also included extensive consulting and training on race, multiculturalism and diversity. A teacher and lecturer for many years all over the USA, he additionally has worked as a “red cap,” social worker, union organizer, special assistant to Chicago’s Mayor, the late Harold Washington, and a senior program officer with the MacArthur Foundation in Chicago. Today, he teaches African history courses at Chicago’s Columbia College and takes people on educational, cultural and political tours to various ‘Third World’ countries, regions and situations, both abroad and in the United States.
Barbara Ransby is an historian, writer and longtime activist. She is a Professor of African American Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, and History at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) where directs both the campus-wide Social Justice Initiative and the Gender and Women’s Studies Program. She previously served as Interim Vice Provost for Planning and Programs (2011 -2012) at UIC. Prof. Ransby is author of the multi-highly acclaimed biography, Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision. Her most recent book is Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson (Yale University Press, January 2013). Ransby has also published in numerous scholarly and popular publications and lectures widely.
Sangeetha Ravichandran, born and raised in India, moved to Chicago to pursue her fine art and then an art therapy career at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As a survivor of gender violence, she chose to adhere her training to ending violence against women and has worked with survivors of Domestic Violence at Apna Ghar and Haymarket in Chicago. She has worked at the International Center for Crime Prevention and Victim Care in Chennai, India, with survivors of Domestic Violence where she envisioned and co-created the “Redrawing Resistance”, an art show that traveled through India, United States and Canada to showcase the resilience of South Asian survivors of Domestic Violence. Sangeetha is currently the program coordinator of A Long Walk Home’s Girl/Friends Leadership Institute, that focuses on using art therapy, visual and performing arts to end violence against girls and women.
Astrid E. Suarez is the founder of Colombia vive Chicago which is focused on supporting Internally Displaced Women in Colombia as well as supporting the Colombian immigrant women in Chicago. Her academic interests have been focused on understanding the current global policies and their implications in local communities, global education policies, and global youth violence issues. She has organized and trained parents and educational leaders to advocate for policy reforms to support and increase parent participation in public schools.
Free and open to the public.
Questions or Comments?
Email Don Hall at dhall@wbez.org or give him a call at 312.948.4644
If by car, parking is $8.00 in Lot 5 (located at 1135 W. Morgan) – once that lot is full, attendants will divert cars to additional lots.