Spokane Racism

Author Sandra Cisneros has called Martin Espada “the Pablo Neruda of North American authors”. He has won many awards including the American Book Award and was invited to Chile as part of the Neruda’s centenary.

At Eastern Washington University on May 30, 2008, Espada will give a lecture in the afternoon and later that evening read from his poetry.

Winners of the “Diversity with Diversity” writing contest will also participate in the evening reading event.

The February 20, 2008 online edition of The Easterner ran the following information on the event in an article by Easterner staff writer Russell Stahlke:

“Diversity within Diversity,” an essay/poetry writing contest, is currently accepting submissions. The due date is April 4, 2008. Entries can be delivered to the Writers’ Center in PUB 354, or submitted via e-mail at writers.center@mail.ewu.edu.

Essays can be a maximum of 2,000 words, and should be double-spaced and written with 12-point font. Poems can be a maximum of two pages with the same specifications.

“An essay is always non-fiction in nature,” said Dani Ringwald, one of the Writers’ Center Responders. “There are all types of essays: personal, argumentative, descriptive, cause and effect, compare and contrast, division and classification, and we welcome all approaches,” said Ringwald.

“This contest is also open to the various forms that poetry provides,” said Ringwald. “For inspiration, students might want to look up Martin Espada’s poetry, or stop by the Center and take a look at the bulletin board we’ve created to celebrate his work.”

Winners of the contest will have an opportunity to read their work at a community reading on May 30th alongside award-winning poet and essayist Martin Espada, as well as receiving a $100 gift card for Eastern’s bookstore. Also, the winning submissions will be published in an anthology.

“We invited Martin Espada, ‘the Latino poet of his generation,’ to come to EWU as our guest speaker because of his dedication to using writing as a tool for democracy which fit exactly with our intention for this diversity project,” said Ringwald.

“All of the winning authors will be invited to read at the public community reading in Showalter Hall the evening of May 30th,” said Ringwald.

For more information on the writing contest, go to www.ewu.edu/writerscenter

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Amy Goodman interviews Martin Espada on Democracy Now about the life and works of Pablo Neruda. (Available in print, audio and video on the Democracy Now website).

Dr. Yakubu Saaka, former Foreign Minister of Ghana presents ‘The Legacy of Kwame Nkrumah and It’s Implications for the Future of Africa’

Date: Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Time: 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
Place: Monroe 205

Dr. Yakubu Saaka is currently a professor of African American studies at Oberlin College. Before joining Oberlin, Dr. Saaka was a Member of Parliament in his native Ghana and served for four years as a deputy foreign minister. Dr. Saaka is an accomplished scholar and has published in many areas such as politics, literature, and culture.

Presentations are free and open to Eastern students, faculty, staff, and the Cheney & Spokane community.

(Originally posted at Eastern Washington University Diversity website)

[Listen to Dr. Nkrumah's 1960 UN Speech]

[Note: Several years ago, while working as a diversity recruiter for the state of Washington, I had the opportunity to hear Jane Elliott speak in Seattle. Her "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise was stunning when she did it nearly 40 years ago. Her reflections on race -- including her view that white women have ridden their "minority" status to greater stature in U.S. society without looking back to offer a hand up to their minority brothers and sisters -- are powerful, compelling, and important. -- Blog author]

Jane Elliott Developed Famous ‘Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes’ Exercise

Jane Elliott, internationally renowned teacher, diversity trainer and recipient of the National Mental Health Association Award for Excellence in Education, will speak in Spokane three times in Spokane on February 14 and February 15, 2008.

* Thursday, Feb. 14, 8:30 -11:30 a.m., at Spokane Community College’s Lair Auditorium

* Friday, Feb. 15, 9 a.m.- noon, at Gonzaga University’s Cataldo Hall, Globe Room

* Friday, Feb. 15, 7 p.m., in the Lair Auditorium of Spokane Community College

Elliott will expose prejudice and bigotry as representative of an irrational class system based upon purely arbitrary factors. Those who think this does not apply to them may be in for a rude awakening.

In response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. nearly 40 years ago, Elliott devised the controversial and startling, “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes” exercise. This powerful exercise, which is now famous, labels participants as inferior or superior based solely upon the color of their eyes and exposes them to the experience of being a minority.

For more information contact Ann Price via e-mail or at (509) 323-3667.

Daniel Beaty, Emergence-SEE!

This highly-acclaimed off Broadway production comes to Spokane for one performance only!

What do centuries of slavery do to the human psyche? And how free are we really at the dawn of the 21^st century? Beaty’s provocative play explores these questions as he portrays a cast of 40 characters including a homeless man, a scientist, a Republican business executive, an 11-year-old boy from the projects, and a slam poet named Rodney, who all weave a stirring commentary on modern black life.

February 27, 2008 7pm Spokane Falls Community College Music Auditorium

(Tickets $15 at TicketsWest, 200 free student tickets will be available in the SUB).

New York Times Theater Review A Ghost Slave Ship Arrives, So Skip the Poetry Slam?

Emergence — SEE — Daniel Beaty at the Apollo Theater (YouTube)

On Point! — Daniel Beaty interviewed by Tom Ashbrook about Emergence — SEE!

Variety Review

Beyond “Diversity”: Challenging Racism in an Age of Backlash

Spokane Falls Community College, March 5, 2007 11:30 t0 12:45 PM SUB Room AB

Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and activists in the U.S. He will explore how being white creates privilege and the many daily and systemic advantages that come from being a member of the dominant racial group. He’ll also look at the substantial consequences paid by society for the maintenance of such privileges, both the costs to people of color (who by definition cannot generally partake in white privilege) and the costs to whites. Wise will also address the way in which “divide and conquer” tactics have prevented working class whites from joining with people of color to eliminate the inequities that weaken them both.

Wise has spoken to over 300,000 people in 48 states, and on over 350 college campuses, including Harvard, Stanford, and the Law Schools at Yale and Columbia. Wise has provided anti-racism training to teachers nationwide, and conducted trainings with physicians and medical industry professionals on how to combat racial inequities in health care. He has trained corporate, government, and law enforcement officials on methods for dismantling racism in their institutions, and has served as a consultant for plaintiff’s attorneys in federal discrimination cases in New York and Washington State.In Summer 2005, Wise served as adjunct faculty member of the School of Social Work at Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he taught a Master’s level class on Racism in the U.S. In September 2001, Wise served as adjunct faculty at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he trained journalists to eliminate racial bias in reporting.

From 1999-2003, Wise was an advisor to the Fisk University Race Relations Institute, and in the early ’90s was Associate Director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism: the largest of the many groups organized for the purpose of defeating neo-Nazi political candidate, David Duke.

Wise is the author of two books – White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son (Soft Skull Press) and Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White (Routledge). He has contributed essays to a dozen books and anthologies including White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism and Should America Pay?: Slavery and the Raging Debate on Reparations. Wise is also featured in White Men Challenging Racism: Thirty-Five Personal Stories (Duke University Press).

Wise received the 2001 British Diversity Award for best feature essay on race issues, and his writings have are taught at hundreds of colleges and have appeared in dozens of popular, professional and scholarly journals. Wise serves as the Race and Ethnicity Editor for LIP Magazine, and articles about his work have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle. He has been a featured guest on hundreds of radio and television programs, worldwide. He appears regularly on the ESPN program “Quite Frankly, with Stephen A. Smith” to discuss racial issues in the world of sports.

Wise has a B.A. in Political Science from Tulane University, where his anti-apartheid work received international attention and the thanks of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He received training in methods for dismantling racism from the People’s Institute for Survial and Beyond, in New Orleans. He and his wife Kristy are the proud parents of two daughters.

Links Click here for Tim Wise’s latest essay on the Jena 6 and the cost of white complicity – “Complicity Has Its Cost: An Open Letter to Mayor Murphy McMillin of Jena, Louisiana” (October 8, 2007)