Winning: The Black Resistance Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Join us for a discussion with Esther Iverem and Makani Themba, two social justice innovators, as we discuss the Black resistance in its many forms as the challenges shift from slavery to lynching, segregation, inequality, discrimination, profiling, mass incarceration, police violence, and more.  May we take inspiration from the past and honor those who continue to fight for freedom, justice, and equality.

Esther Iverem is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer, and independent journalist.   She is creator, produce,r and host of “On the Ground: Voices of Resistance From the Nation's Capital" on Pacifica Radio, founder of the pioneering Black website, SeeingBlack.com, and a founding member of DC Poets Against the War/Split This Rock. She is a recipient of numerous awards and honors. She is a 2018 Fellow in the Humanities for the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and received a National Arts Journalism Fellowship at Columbia University. Her latest book, Olokun of the Galaxy, uses poetry and images to tell a story of Olokun, an African spirit for the deepest ocean, and to honor the Earth’s ecosystem and the millions who perished during or descended from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. She is also the author of We Gotta Have It:  Twenty Years of Seeing Black at the Movies (Hachette Book Group) and two other books of poems,  The Time: Portrait of a Journey Home and Living in Babylon  (Africa World Press).

Makani Themba is Chief Strategist at Higher Ground Change Strategies based in Jackson, Mississippi. A social justice innovator and pioneer in the fields of change communications and community-led, justice-centered policy development, she has spent 30 years supporting organizations, coalitions, and philanthropic institutions in developing high-impact change initiatives. Higher Ground Change Strategies provides her an opportunity to bring her strong analytical skills, organizing knowledge, and institution-building expertise in support of organizations working to make powerful, transformative, vision-based change.