Monday, January 17^th – MLK Day – UConn Day of Service

9:00-3:00 pm

UConn Community Outreach/Campus-Wide Service Initiatives invite you to join us on Monday, January 17^th, 2022, to honor Martin Luther King Jr. and have a day of acknowledgement, educational panels, and service to give back to the Mansfield community. Within this event will be various speakers and topics of focus, along with services that are directly impacting and helping the lives of others. Panels will include the following topics: environmental racism, the incarceration system, and racism as a public health crisis. Our goal is to give everyone something to leave with and remember to stand up for. We want to remember why MLK fought for social justice, and how we can keep his efforts alive.

Event link: https://uconntact.uconn.edu/event/7593062.

*Note: In-person service opportunities to be done later in the semester.

Tuesday, January 18^th – National Day of Racial Healing

2:00-3:30 pm

The Office for Diversity and Inclusion is hosting a virtual event in honor of the National Day of Racial Healing:

Topic: Racial Healing: The Need for Radical Action in Institutions

Guest Speaker: Feminista Jones

Feminista Jones is a Philadelphia-based feminist writer, public speaker, community activist and social worker. She is an award-winning writer and the author of the critically acclaimed Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminists Are Changing the World From the Tweets to the Streets (Beacon). Her work centers around queer identity, critical race theory, intersectionality, mental health and social work. She also teaches a course on the African American Queers Experience at Temple University. Jones’ passion and talent for writing have led to her being published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Time, Essence, Out, Complex, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Salon, and EBONY magazine to name a few publications. She currently operates her own subscription-based platform, and contributes to various publications as a freelancer and commissioned writer. She’s also been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Network. Because of her work, Jones has been extensively featured in publications around the world, including The Boston Globe, Detroit Free Press, Huffpost, Jet magazine, Ms., The New York Times, NBC News, Newsweek, NPR, The Washington Post, USA Today and The Intercept. Jones is also a mom, an organizational leadership, management, culture and diversity consultant, a mentor to young girls and women, a Ph.D. student at Temple University and an outspoken advocate for the homeless, people living in poverty and those living with psychiatric disabilities.

Please submit questions for the Q&A portion of the event here:  https://forms.gle/r7jNbodin2bgZ4xY7.

Join link:

https://uconnvtc.webex.com/uconnvtc/j.php?MTID=mc897d9c6b3c4a1e1efc7498199bb28bc 

Webinar number: 2624 547 5896

Webinar password:  yCMMHVVX579 (92664889 from phones)

Join by phone: +1-415-655-0002 US Toll

Access code: 262 454 75896

Wednesday, January 19^th, “What Did MLK, Jr., Ask of Us? Striving to Meet his Ideals on Campus”

12:30-1:15pm

UConn Avery Point Global Café and the Avery Point Director’s Office invite you to join Michael Bradford, a renowned playwright who was a student at Avery Point, later taught drama here, and is now UConn’s Vice Provost for Faculty, Staff, and Student Development.  He and the Global Café coordinators will lead a virtual discussion using MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”.pdf.pdf as a launching point as we reflect on how we’re striving to live King’s dream in our own personal and professional lives. Contact Laurie Wolfley for details.