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Past Conversations:
This Free & Virtual fireside chat will be moderated by Dr. Khalid Akil White, Professor of Ethnic Studies and African American Studies at San Jose City College and scholars from the Greene Scholars Program.
The Dr. Frank S. Greene Scholars Program helps youth of African ancestry in San Francisco Bay Area communities successfully complete higher education in science, technology, engineering and/or math (STEM), and serve as positive role models and contributors to their communities.
For more information about Greene Scholars, visit here: https://www.greenescholars.org/
Following up on our bold conversation with Dr. Francisco Jimenez from our last session, this session brings the unique stories of a diverse panel coming from different professions and generations. How did they break through? We hope you can hear the stories of their challenges and successes and what/who has influenced our panelists over the years.
We invite you to join our roundtable with the following guest speakers:
1. Frank Carbajal - Author & Founder
2. Carlos Singh - Lawyer & San Jose State University Professor
3. Teresa Marquez - East Side Union High School District Assistant Superintendent
4. Jose Gonzalez - Assistant Superintendent in the Santa Clara Unified School District
5. Lisanna Dominguez - Executive Vice President of Strategy & Advocacy of the Eastside Education Initiative
6. Valeria Cazares - Program Coordinator at SVEF
7. Valerie Valle - San Jose State University Student
Author and educator, Francisco Jiménez recounts his experience growing up in a migrant worker family and emphasizes the importance of education. He and his family emigrated from Tlaquepaque, Mexico to California, and as a child worked alongside his parents in the fields of California. Through personal images and stories, he'll also explain his process and why he writes.
Jiménez’s autobiographical books The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child (Cajas de cartón, Spanish edition), Breaking Through (Senderos fronterizos, Spanish edition), Reaching Out (Más allá de mí, Spanish edition), have won several national literary awards, including the John Steinbeck Award, which "is given to writers, artists, thinkers, and activists whose work captures Steinbeck’s empathy, commitment to democratic values, and belief in the dignity of people who by circumstance are pushed to the fringes.”
Joining SVEF's last session of this school year is the acclaimed memoirist and book author. Danté Stewart. Throughout SVEF's #BoldConversations journey, we have used Glenn Singleton's six Courageous Conversation principles. In this session, Danté shared with us his personal journey on defining "What Do You Mean by 'Race'?" and lead the bold conversation of "Let's Talk about Whiteness".
Danté Stewart is a writer and speaker whose voice has been featured on CNN, The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Sojourners, The Witness: A Black Christian Collective, Comment Magazine, and more. He is the author of the debut memoir Shoutin’ in the Fire. As an up and coming voice, he writes and speaks into the areas of race, religion, and politics. He received his B.A. in Sociology from Clemson University. He is currently studying at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.
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Glenn Singleton's Fourth Condition is all about keeping us all at the table to have a courageous conversation. This session consisted of an amazing panel of children's book authors who have devoted their lives to celebrating racial and cultural diversity. They have shared how they have written their unique stories through the lens of equity to teach young adults many valuable lessons about self-identity.
1. Joanna Ho, New York Times bestselling author of "Eyes that Kiss in the Corners" and many more
2. Kirsten Liepmann, author of "Little Book for Big Changes: Activities and tips to make the world a better place"
3. Wafa Shami, author of the latest release "When Za'atar Met Zeit"
4. Tam Le, Founder of Tiny Wrist Bilingual Vietnamese Books
Moderating our panel is Colleen Thomas, author of "Beautiful Skin: A Children's Book about Overcoming Racism".
The Third Condition will normalize the social construction of knowledge, thus engaging multiple racial points of view in order to surface critical perspective. This concept acknowledges the process through which racial meaning is inherited, interpreted, and passed on from one generation to the next. Each attendee creates meaning around our current racial reality based on how we have experienced and understood our near and distant pasts It enables educators to develop will, skill, and capacity for listening to and engaging with conflicting racial perspectives and experiences. Where and in what manner we have grown up creates the lens through which we see the world racially. When individuals bring their unique construction of racial knowledge to the conversation, then there will necessarily be multiple racial points of view to consider…thus surfacing different perspectives.
Moderating this session's bold and diverse panel is Ingrid Hadley, a Global Diversity and Inclusion Expert and Leadership Coach for over 20 years from ILH Possibilities, Inc.
The second condition encourages us to isolate race while acknowledging the broader scope of diversity and the variety of factors that contribute to a racialized problem. The condition focuses on the critical need to address race explicitly and intentionally. Educators deepen their understanding of race and develop skills to acknowledge and address those other diversity-related factors, such as economic status and gender. Through the careful examination of race, educators discover new meaning in race and can authentically recognize the intersection of race and other critical aspects of human diversity. It is extremely difficult to keep the conversation on race. This condition assists educators in avoiding the tendency to divert attention from race. Joining this session is Dr. Marck Abraham, a transformational leader with a wealth of experience in urban education. He is committed to providing a world-class educational experience that ensures all students achieve their goals of post-secondary college and fulfilling careers. His mission has been to create environments that assist students to reach their maximum potential in life.
The purpose of this conversation is to examine the degree to which race affects your life personally, and immediately. When the discussion focuses initially on our own racial consciousness, identity, and experiences, we can better understand the way in which we may be interpreting our students’ academic interests and their families’ engagement. Examining the impact of race in our own lives serves as a precursor to examining the impact of race in the larger context of a school. Becoming more personally aware of our own racialized existence enables us to more deeply understand the racial experiences of others. Joining us in this session is Chris Singleton, a former professional athlete drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 2017. Following the loss of his mother in a racially motivated mass shooting, Chris has now become an inspirational speaker and best-selling author who has shared his message of unity and racial reconciliation with clients such as: Microsoft, Biogen, Houston Texans, Washington Wizards, etc.
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Through Courageous Conversation, educators attempt to break down racial tensions and ignorance that hobble our progress as a school system. By engaging in this dialogue, those who possess the knowledge get the opportunity to share it, and those who do not have the knowledge learn and grow from the experience. Participants will be involved in engaging activities and conversations to push their thinking, review, and commit personally to the Four Agreements of Courageous Conversation.
We will observe conversations from individuals of different ethnicities discussing the topic of race and observing how the Four Agreements were exemplified. We will examine the Racial Consciousness Flow Chart. And move from “I don’t know” through the different stages until we reach “I know, I know”. This is the process to ensure that we live more authentically within our own racial experience and deal more honestly with the racialized existence of others.
Join us for an evening of Courageous Conversations with a mini keynote and fireside chat with the renowned author and speaker, Glenn Singleton. We invite you to interact with fellow participants in small groups to share your wonderings and experiences.
Race: What's Equity Got to Do With It?
Join us for an afternoon of courageous conversations where we explore the meaning of "equity" and how it relates to race. Meet and talk with prominent individuals in our community from diverse backgrounds. Interact with the panel in small groups and ask your questions and wonderings.
Join us for an evening of courageous conversations and hear as men share their story of being a black male in America. Meet and talk with individuals from across the county as we collaboratively reflect on issues of race and equity in society that have impacted black men and their educational journey. Interact with the panel in small groups and ask your questions and wonderings.
Thank you to our generous sponsors!
Questions? Comments? Ideas?
Contact us: events@svefoundation.org
