All Events
Race Matters Series
Unbreakable Resolve: Building Free-Dem Foundations in New Orleans
Jerome Morgan and Robert Jones
MCC Theater
Jerome Morgan and Robert Jones will make a powerful presentation about mass incarceration in New Orleans and their efforts to rescue young people from its grasp through mentoring and community development projects.
Morgan and Jones spent more than forty years combined in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola before they were exonerated and released. While in prison, at a time when it appeared they had no real chance to be free, they made a pact to one day reunite in New Orleans to set up a cooperative business and mentoring program that would serve young people in danger of being swept into jails and prisons. They enrolled in prison education programs, studied law, and learned trades. With the help of allies outside prison walls they won their freedom. Today Morgan and Jones run the Free-Dem Foundations, a non-profit community-based youth organization in New Orleans that fulfills the vision they created while incarcerated. Morgan works as the Dean of School Culture at Rooted School in New Orleans while Jones serves as Director of Community Outreach and Lead Client Advocate at Orleans Public Defenders. Morgan is also the Dean of School Culture at Rooted School.
Their presentation will cover their own personal experiences with incarceration that they have delineated in their co-authored book (with Daniel Rideau) Unbreakable Resolve as well as a report on the curriculum, mentoring, business start-up, and apprenticeship programs they are implementing in the work of the Free-Dem Foundations. Morgan will speak about his participation in the collectively written book Go To Jail, an archive of twenty years of writing by public school students and teachers, people incarcerated in prisons, academics, attorneys, and their community allies.
Conscious Conversations Series
Understanding the Sacred: Listening to Indigenous People and Land
Mauna Kea Protectors, Uprooted and Rising, and Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation
Online
Under the leadership of Chancellor Yang, the University of California has invested millions of dollars into the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) despite the protest of Native Hawaiians. Join the MCC in learning from the Mauna Kea Protectors, Uprooted and Rising, and Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation who will lead a discussion and Q&A on the University of California and it’s ongoing legacy of land acquisition. Engage with the knowledge shared by Native elders, grassroots leaders, and activists; and learn how you can support Indigenous sovereignty in our local communities and on-campus.
Co-sponsor: Mauna Kea Protectors
Photo credit: @kapzphotography
Conscious Conversations Series
Undocumented & Surviving the Pandemic: A Conversation with Organizers and Activists
Online
Under the Obama, Trump and now Biden administrations the treatment of immigrants has become increasingly violent; the past several decades have witnessed a boom in the role of the carceral state in controlling and containing immigrant communities. In addition, the global pandemic has exacerbated unethical and inhumane practices by ICE and in detention centers. Join UCSB’s MultiCultural Center in a panel discussion and Q&A with community and campus organizers on the experiences of undocumented folks in this time, and how documented comrades can best serve as co-conspirators to the undocu community.
Panel Discussion
Until Freedom
TAMIKA MALLORY, ANGELO PINTO AND TAMIKA PALMER
Online
This event, facilitated by the Black Studies Department and Center for Black Studies Research, will discuss the art of protest, its impact on social change, and emphasize Black women as leaders in the fight for liberation against police brutality. Members of Until Freedom will be joined by Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot by Louisville Metro police department in March 2020, by three plain clothed officers executing a “no-knock” search. This event was made possible by the generous contributions of the VC for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, VC for Student Affairs, Associated Students, CAPS, MultiCultural Center, the Black Studies Department and the Office of Black Student Development.
Register to join the webinar at:
