Citizen Upstander: an Introductory Training to Interrupting Racism  

Citizen Upstander is a participatory workshop for anyone who wishes to expand on their abilities to conspire for a more racially equitable future. Along with that, Freedom Summer is a weekly web series and a safe space where open and honest discussions on racism and its various intersecting biases are examined. What is the connection of past events, on our current realities and struggles? Where do we go from here?

In Freedom School Session #4, we welcome those stepping into their allyship and new to co-conspirator work. This workshop is led by Instructor of Commuication Angela Kariotis Kotsonis from the College of Communication and the Arts and facilitator of the arts and advocacy program, Walking the Beat. She is an applied and devised theatre artist whose focus is art-making as a liberatory practice.

The focus of the workshop is to enable white people and non-Black people with the language to talk about this moment in ways that won't re-traumatize Black community members, colleagues, and friends. Language that will help them interrupt harmful moments they witness and conversation starters to help them talk with loved ones. This workshop was created as a response to community call: "Ask yourself – how can you speak up, call out intolerance, educate yourself?"

All are welcome to attend on July 30 7-8:30 p.m. To register for the event, visit here.

About:
The Jackson-Miller Freedom School at Seton Hall University was created by Rev. Dr. Forrest Pritchett, the Director of Special Projects in Freshman Studies and director of The Martin Luther King Scholarship Association. Sessions 1, 2, 3 focused on Independence Day from an African American perspective, reparations with Dr. Kelly Harris, Director of Africana Studies program, and reconstruction with Dr. Larry Greene, Professor of History.

Categories: Arts and Culture