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In Our Own Words
Courageous survivors of Larry Nassar and the leaders of organizations fighting sexual assault unite for a panel discussion on the landmark case against the former Michigan State University physician convicted of abusing hundreds of girls and women.
Wayne County SAFE’s Trinea Gonczar and three other Nassar victims Larissa Boyce, Jessica Smith and Christina Baker Barba will conduct a panel discussion on the impact of these historic cases at a launch event for inourownwords.us. They will joined by Brigitte Gurden from Lansing’s Eve Inc., Natalie Rogers of Reclaim MSU, Michigan Public Radio Reporter Kate Wells and Alexa St. John, editor of the Michigan Daily.
On November 8th, the Heartland Independent Film Forum with the support of its media sponsor, the Michigan Daily, will launch a new website with a searchable database presenting more than 1,400 pages of unabridged victim impact statements at inourownwords.us. This resource is designed to help students, their professors, families, journalists and attorneys understand this decades-long pattern of abuse so that it never happens again. Created by web designer James Sparling, the site also honors the brave women who, with the help of the Indianapolis Star, broke this story.
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Author Event | Herb Boyd discusses Black Detroit: A People's History of Self-Determination
Author Herb Boyd visits the Library to discuss his award-winning book, Black Detroit: A People's History of Self-Determination, a 2018 Michigan Notable Book.
Black Detroit looks at the evolving culture, politics, economics, and spiritual life of Detroit–a blend of memoir, love letter, history, and clear-eyed reportage that explores the city’s past, present, and future and its significance to the African-American legacy and the nation’s fabric. It brings into focus the major figures who have defined and shaped Detroit, including William Lambert, the great abolitionist; Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records; Coleman Young, the city’s first black mayor; diva songstress Aretha Franklin; Malcolm X; and Ralph Bunche, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Herb Boyd is an award-winning author and journalist who has taught African American History since 1969 when he was a founding member of the Black Studies Department at Detroit’s Wayne State University. He currently teaches African American History and Culture at the City College of New York in Harlem where he lives.
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Nerd Nite #56 - American Race Riots: Our National Sport?
The United States has been the site of hundreds of race-based disorderly confrontations that can be described as race riots. By now, most everyone has seen images from riots on TV whether it’s a riot from the 1960s, or from the more recent unrest in Ferguson, Missouri or Baltimore, Maryland.
But what is a riot? Why do they happen? What are the trends? Common themes? While one can learn quite a bit from the study of any of these individual events, taking on the topic broadly has different lessons for us.
This talk discusses the overall trajectory of race riots in the United States, exploring the greater context for mass race-based conflict.
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Future is Female: Advice to Young Women in Male-Dominated Fields
Young adult women with experience working in male-dominated fields, including science, math, and engineering discuss the real experiences of women working in male-dominated spaces and how they have overcome adversity relating to gender.
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AACHM Oral History: Gwendolyn Calvert Baker
Gwendolyn Calvert Baker was born in 1931. She talks about growing up in Ann Arbor where she began her distinguished career teaching at Wines Elementary and winning Teacher of the Year. She was also faculty at the University of Michigan’s School of Education; National Executive Director of the YWCA; a member of the New York School Board; and president and CEO of United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
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AACHM Oral History: Essie Shelton
Essie Shelton was born in Mississippi in 1930 and moved to Ann Arbor with her father in 1946. She recalls her experience entering an integrated high school for the first time and how she came to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a licensed practical nurse at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital. Essie also met her husband at the hospital and together they raised three children.
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AACHM Oral History: Joetta Mial
Joetta Mial was born in 1931 in Jackson, Michigan, and later moved to Ann Arbor. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan and spent her career as an educator in the Ann Arbor Public Schools. In 1987, Joetta became principal of Huron High School after serving as a teacher, administrator, counselor, and class principal at Huron and Pioneer High Schools.
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AACHM Oral History: Premail Freeman
Premail Freeman was born in 1947 in Mississippi and later moved to Ypsilanti. He reminisces about his childhood in Ypsilanti and some of the jobs he had growing up. Inspired by friends who ran a successful hair salon, Premail studied cosmetology and eventually opened his own salon where he continues to work to this day. His wife helped him run the business in the early days and together they raised a family of three.
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AACHM Oral History: Larry Hunter
Larry Hunter was born in 1951 and has lived in both Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. He’s worked in public service for years, served on Ann Arbor City Council, and earned a Juris Doctor degree in law in 2000. Larry recalls how he became politically active as a young man, organizing walkouts at his high school as a leader in the Black Student Union, as well as his involvement with the Black Panthers.
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A Conversation With Chef and Writer Tunde Wey
Nigerian-born chef and writer Tunde Wey opened a restaurant in Detroit in 2013. A year later, realizing that the influx of capital to the city was not contributing to an inclusive revival but to the profit of those already "fluent in the language of privilege," Tunde left the restaurant and moved to New Orleans.
He now travels around the country holding dinners, using food as a medium to have conversations about race, equity, and cultural values. Recently, the has received national press for Saarti, his lunch counter in New Orleans where white patrons were asked to pay $30 per plate and people of color were charged $12 per plate as a way to call attention to racial wealth disparity. Participants of color could “opt-in” to receive the profit redistribution.
In this video, artist and Stamps School Professor Rebekah Modrak (whose works, such as Rethink Shinola, critically intervene in consumption) moderates a conversation with Tunde about his work as a chef, his decision to use food as provocation, the possibility of transforming consumptive acts through dinners and pop-up restaurants, discriminatory development, racial wealth disparity, and the importance of self-determination in affecting the outcomes of your life and community. While in Ann Arbor, Wey also hosted two private dinners for local residents and advocates concerned with equity and race and offered food truck conversations for four nights.