What is it like to inhabit a black or brown body in America? In central Louisiana? Are the issues of race and privilege that dominate national headlines tapping at our own door? Are we living in a political bubble, immune to the social upheaval spreading across our nation? Are we disinterested? Fearful? How can the black and brown communities of central Louisiana and our allies help address the controversial issues of race and privilege? How can we—all of us—talk meaningfully about all the ways that #blacklivesmatter in central Louisiana?
We're starting the conversation. Join us for a screening of Fruitvale Station and a discussion of Ta-Nehisi Coates' award-winning book, Between the World and Me. Let's talk.
On Friday, February 26 at 6:30pm, the #BlackLivesMatter Film and Book Symposium will feature a screening and discussion of the film Fruitvale Station at the Westside Regional Library, 5408 Provine Place, Alexandria. Fruitvale Station is a biographical drama based on the events leading to the death of Oscar Grant, a young man who was killed in 2009 by a BART police officer at the Fruitvale Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Station in Oakland, California. Written and directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan and Forrest Whitaker, the film garnered the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for U.S. dramatic film at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and the Best First Film Award at the Cannes Film Festival that same year.
The symposium will continue at 1:00pm on Saturday, February 27, at the Main Library, 411 Washington Street, Alexandria, with a discussion of the #1 New York Times Bestseller and 2015 National Book Award-winning Between the World and Me, by journalist and blogger Ta-Nehisi Coates. Written as a letter to Coates’ teenaged son, Between the World and Me explores the feelings, symbolism, and realities associated with being black in the United States. Coates is a native of Baltimore and his articles have appeared in local and national publications, including the Washington Post, the New York Times Magazine, Time Magazine, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic, where he is currently a national correspondent.
The Symposium also will feature performances by multi award-winning poet, Sha'Condria "iCon" Sibley and special presentations by other community partners.
Registration for the symposium is free and can be made at http://bit.ly/BLMSymposiumAlex. For more information about Sankofa’s Black History Season events and other cultural arts programs, visit the website http://www.sankofacc.org/ or contact Sankofa Cultural Collective at sankofacc.org@gmail.com.