In 2016, UCSB’s Division of Student Affairs launched the Resilient Love series to explore how we might respond ethically and honorably to hate and violence through love-driven conversation and creative work.
This year, join the UCSB MultiCultural Center for Healing Beyond Survival, an evening exploring what it means to Survive → Heal → Love → Thrive. Featuring a fireside conversation with Dr. Gaye Theresa Johnson, UCSB Professor of Black Studies and historian of freedom struggles and cultural politics, the event will explore what becomes possible when survival is no longer the only goal. Through powerful conversation, reflection, and an opening student performance, this evening will explore how we can build relationships and communities rooted in safety, trust, joy, softness, and collective care.
Come as you are and imagine what we can build beyond survival.
Gaye Theresa Johnson is Professor of Black Studies and Director of the Blum Center on Poverty Inequality and Democracy at UCSB. She is a historian of freedom struggles and cultural politics and an award winning author who has published four books on various topics from Black radicalism, cultural politics, and migration and practices of sanctuary. Gaye is deeply invested in community, and as part of this work is the lead facilitator and trainer for the Central Coast Social Justice Academy and a frequent learner in movement spaces.
She is a past Board President of the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE) in Ventura, California, a board member with California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, and an advisory board member for the Goldin Institute and the Rosenberg Fund for Children. She wrote the curriculum and trained high school teachers to offer the first Ethnic and Social Justice Studies courses in the Ventura Unified School District.
Her proudest achievement is being a mother and a part of the circle of friends and family that constitute the core of her life.
