All Events
Cup of Culture
Power to Heal Medicare and the Civil Revolution
Producer, Barbara Berney, PhD, MPH
MCC Theater
POWER TO HEAL tells a poignant chapter in the historic struggle to secure equal and adequate access to healthcare for all Americans. Central to the story is the tale of how a new national program, Medicare, was used to mount a dramatic, coordinated effort that desegregated thousands of hospitals across the country practically overnight.
Before Medicare, disparities in access to hospital care were dramatic. Less than half the nation's hospitals served black and white patients equally, and in the South, 1/3 of hospitals would not admit African-Americans even for emergencies.
Using the carrot of Medicare dollars, the federal government virtually ended the practice of racially segregating patients, doctors, medical staffs, blood supplies and linens. POWER TO HEAL illustrates how Movement leaders and grass-roots volunteers pressed and worked with the federal government to achieve justice and fairness for African-Americans.
Bio: Dr. Barbara Berney is a distinguished scholar in public health, environmental justice, and the U.S. health care system. Dr. Berney is an Emeritus Associate Professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate School of Public Health and Health Management. She was inspired to produce Power to Heal by hearing eyewitness accounts from physicians, nurses and government staffers involved in the effort to desegregate hospitals and those who struggled to provide health services in rural areas lacking the most basic medical care.
She taught health policy analysis, the US healthcare system, and documentary production for public health practitioners at CUNY. Prior to teaching at CUNY, she did advocacy and community and worker education on environmental and occupational health and HIV/AIDS. She got her MPH in health administration from UCLA. She has a PhD is public policy from Boston University. She earned a BA in political science from Reed College.
Cup of Culture
Princess Mononoke
MCC Theater
A beautifully realized tale of civilization versus nature, PRINCESS MONONOKE is a true epic by Japan's master animator Hayao Miyazaki.
While protecting his village from a rampaging boar-god, the young warrior Ashitaka becomes afflicted with a deadly curse. To find the cure that will save his life, he journeys deep into sacred depths of the Great Forest Spirit's realm where he meets San (Princess Mononoke), a girl raised by wolves. It's not long before Ashitaka is caught in the middle of a battle between iron-ore prospecting humans and the forest dwellers. He must summon the spirit-powers and all his courage to stop man and nature from destroying each other. 1997. 2h 14m
Post Film Discussion w/ Nikkei Student Union
Conscious Conversations Series
Protecting the Sacred, Understanding the Connection Between Land Defense and MMIWG2S
Online
Across the Turtle Island and transnationally our Indigenous mothers, sisters, and community are under attack. Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirits organize for our communities in hope of a more just future. Join the MCC for a panel discussion with Anishinaabe and Chumash organizers that highlights the connection between the defense of indigenous land and the defense of indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirits.
Resilient Love Series
Psalms of A Living Sea: A Choreo Poem with Lady Dane
Lady Dane
Online
Follow the story of four generations of women as the past clashes with the present and offers glimmers of a brighter future. From the kingdoms of Africa, to the war against white supremacy, to the battle for liberation, to a future free of oppression the women of the Smith family rely on their love to craft a better world for those who will come after. Through poetic monologues and soul stirring text, Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi performs a reading of a new play centered on revolutions, revelations and rebirth.
Dubbed the Ancient Jazz Priestess of Mother Africa, Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi is a Black Nigerian, Cuban, Indigenous, American Performance Artist, Author, Educator, a Helen Hayes Award winning Playwright (Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem), a 2021 Helen Merrill Award Winner, Advocate, Dramaturg, a 2x Helen Hayes Award Nominated choreographer (2016, 2018) and co-editor/co-Director of the Black Trans Prayer Book. She is the curator and associate producer of Long Wharf Theater’s Black Trans Women At The Center: An Evening of Short Plays. Her radio play, Quest of The Reed Marsh Daughter, can be heard on the Girl Tales Podcast. She wrote episode 1 of Untitled Mockumentary Project and acted on the series as well, was featured as Patra in King Ester and acted as a story consultant for the series and wrote episode 9 (Refuge) of Round House Theater’s web series Homebound. She also narrated The Netflix Docu-series Visions of Us.
