Black Life Matters Conference

The UA Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, The Feminist Wire, Lehigh University, the Human Rights Campaign and more than 30 units across the UA campus are sponsoring the Black Life Matters Conference, which will be held January 15th-17th in Tucson. 30 Minutes spoke with three of the local conference organizers: Monica J. Casper, UA’s Department of Gender and Women’s Studies head; April Petillo, Ph.D. candidate in American Indian Studies; and Matice Moore, Program Director for UA African American Student Affairs.

The Black Life Matters Conference, which is free and open to the public, will be held Jan. 15 and 16 in the South Ballroom of the Student Union Memorial Center, 1303 E. University Blvd; on Jan. 17, the conference will be held at the Dunbar Cultural Center, 325 W. Second St.

Hundreds of scholars, writers, artists, activists, policymakers and general community members are expected to attend. The conference will focus on six main themes: disparities, global “blackness,” the criminalizing of African-American communities, sexuality, violence against women and immigration.

Registration is available online, and instructions for a live stream that will run during the conference will be posted on the conference page. The conference will include keynote presentations, hands-on workshops, collaborative panels, arts and performance, and community engagement.

Casper said the conference was inspired more than a year ago by conversations at The Feminist Wire around violence against African-Americans and given more urgency after the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York and subsequent protests.

The full conference schedule is available online.

Text is excerpted from Black Life Matters Conference to Address Violence by La Monica Everett-Haynes and Monica J. Casper, University Relations – Communications | January 7, 2015

Recorded and produced by Amanda Shauger.

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