Radical Imagination: Afro-Futurism, Health Equity & Racial Justice
Schedule
Fri Nov 11 2022 at 11:30 am to 01:00 pm
Location
Drexel University MacAlister Hall | Philadelphia, PA
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Join us as we celebrate one year and discuss Afro-futurism as a framework to advance health equity and racial justice.About this Event
About the Event
Join the Ubuntu Center on Racism, Global Movements & Population Health Equity at the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University as we celebrate our one-year launch anniversary! To commemorate the occasion we will be in conversation with Karla Roberts, Jacobie Smith, and Li Sumpter PhD discussing Afro-Futurism as a framework to advance health equity and racial justice. We will also be joined by Philly-based percussionist and poet, Karen Smith, of Weez the Peeple and Sistahs Laying Down Hands with Love.
This is event is open to scholars, students, activists, organizers, community residents, our colleagues inside and outside of Drexel University and all committed to building the just and equitable world we all deserve.
Masks will be required to attend. Lunch will be provided. About The Ubuntu Center
Born out of the Pain and Power of this moment, the Ubuntu Center is a new research center at the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health in Philadelphia, PA established to bring together a vibrant mix of activists, researchers, and community residents – especially those historically excluded within the Academy – whose range of perspectives, expertise, and experience will mobilize our strengths and capacities. Our aim in this regard is to provide the platform and organizational infrastructure to advance collective anti-racism scholarship, training, and action. We embrace a radical imagination and envision a just future free of systems of oppression, full of new possibilities through bold collective action, and an equitable world in which all individuals and communities are healthy and thriving.
For more information, visit ubuntucenter.org or email us at [email protected].
About Our Speakers
Moderator: Michael O'Bryan
Michael O’Bryan is a practitioner and researcher in the fields of community development, organizational culture, and human well-being. He is a Distinguished Resident Fellow at Drexel University’s Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation and most recently served as Director of Learning at The Village of Arts and Humanities. Michael is the founder of Humanature, a design strategy firm working with nonprofits, businesses, and government agencies to transform how they understand and support human development, interaction, and performance. Past and current clients include NeighborWorks America, The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, New Jersey Community Capital, Strada Education Network, The Opportunity Finance Network, and The United Negro College Fund. Mr. O’Bryan has spoken about his work at such venues as Cornell University's Institute on Employment and Disability, SOCAP, and the Apollo Theater in New York. He is on faculty in Career Studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, a lecturer in city planning at the University of Pennsylvania’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design, and serves on the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Commission on the Arts and the boards of the Samuel S. Fels Fund and the Philadelphia Cultural Fund.
Speaker: Jacobie Smith
Jacobie has always been an outspoken voice at Drexel within the Architecture & Interiors disciplines in the Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, and she is a force to be reckoned with concerning protecting Black people. After experiencing the regular frustrations of being the "only" Black woman in a class of so many, she started a club to increase awareness and create a safe space for Black Interior Design & Architecture students to gather. The club was one of the first of its kind in the architecture department and inspired her colleagues' moves for increasing campus awareness around Black sociocultural issues. Her interests in Black futures continued to grow through her Masters studies at the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania by positioning Black activists as space makers and architects of the built environment. She is an architecture history & theory doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania, an adjunct professor at Drexel University, and an activist around Black issues in society & ecological changes impacting Black liberation.
Speaker: Karla Roberts
Karla Roberts is an interior designer and Afro-Futurist scholar. Her thesis entitled, "RESISTANCE: Speculative Design Confronts Systemic Trauma of the Black Diaspora," received the Westphal College of Media Arts and Design distinction as the Most Original and Creative Work. For the project, Roberts uses the visual medium of graphic novel to highlight a speculative world, basing the project in a historical moment. Fourteen African women freed themselves from a slave ship during their transatlantic crossing. In Karla’s narrative, eight of these women survive and pass through a portal to an alternate universe called the Sovereign Republic of Uhuru. The narrative embeds the dual nature of their lives and freedoms on Uhuru with the lives they might have lived had they been recovered to the slave ship. The actual spaces Karla has chosen to tell her story, highlight Black struggle and triumph, from plantations and slave auctions to free Black communities such as Seneca Village. These recaptured spaces in Karla’s narrative now nurture and feed Black life and creativity, and are no longer rooted in trauma. Karla has drawn upon this research in curating a Westphal College film series highlighting different aspects of the BIPOC experience.
Speaker: Li Sumpter, PhD
Li Sumpter, Ph.D. is a multidisciplinary artist and independent scholar who applies strategies of worldbuilding and mythic design toward building better, more resilient communities of the future. Li’s creative research and collaborative design initiatives engage the art of survival and sustainability through diverse ecologies and immersive stories of change. Li is a cultural producer and eco-arts activist working through MythMedia Studios, the Escape Artist Initiative and various arts and community-based organizations in Philly and across the country. She holds an MA in Art and Humanities Education from NYU and a MA/Ph.D. in Mythological Studies and Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Li has been a visiting professor at Haverford College and Moore College of Art and Design and has taught special topics for youth and adult courses at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Barnes Foundation, and Fleisher Art Memorial. She has completed various Philly-based residences for arts and technology, arts and ecology and the literary arts and will begin her term as Afrofuturist-in-Residence with the Village of Arts and Humanities in the Fall of 2022. Li is a recipient of the 2018 Sundance Institute and Knight Alumni grant, a 3-time recipient of the Leeway Art and Change Grant, a 2020 recipient of the Leeway Transformation Award, a 2022 recipient of the Velocity Fund, and a 2022 Leeway Media Artist x Activist-in-Residence with the Theatre in the X.
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Where is it happening?
Drexel University MacAlister Hall, 3250 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
