Race to Justice Spring 2021 virtual events include: Olympian Allyson Felix; Gullah musicians Ranky Tanky; Father of the Environmental Justice Movement Dr. Robert Bullard; Urban Planner, Artist and Activist Theaster Gates; Author of the bestselling memoir Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson; Advocate and Public Policy Expert Heather McGhee; and UCSB Reads Author Patrisse Cullors
Plus a FREE Community Film Screening of We Are the Dream –
The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest
Thursday, June 3 / 8:30 p.m. Pacific / West Wind Drive-in
SUMMARY
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UCSB Arts & Lectures announces Race to Justice Spring 2021 events, part of A&L’s season-long effort that engages leading activists, creatives and thinkers to expand our understanding of racism and how race impacts society and to inspire an expansive approach to advancing racial equality
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Virtual events include: olympian Allyson Felix; gullah musicians Ranky Tanky; father of the environmental justice movement Dr. Robert Bullard; urban planner, artist and activist Theaster Gates; author of the bestselling memoir, Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson; advocate and public policy expert Heather McGhee; and UCSB Reads author Patrisse Cullors
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Plus a FREE community film screening of We Are the Dream – The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest Thursday, June 3 / 8:30 p.m. Pacific / West Wind Drive-in
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Arts & Lectures is proud to present this series in association with the following UC Santa Barbara campus partners: Department of Black Studies, Center for Black Studies Research, Division of Social Sciences, Division of Humanities and Fine Arts, Division of Mathematical, Life, and Physical Sciences, Division of Student Affairs, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, Graduate Division, Bren School for Environmental Science & Management, College of Creative Studies, College of Engineering, MultiCultural Center, Carsey-Wolf Center, The Program in Latin American and Iberian Studies, UCSB Library | UCSB Reads, Office of the Chancellor, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor
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Race to Justice Spring 2021 complete series package is available for $60
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Single tickets for Race to Justice virtual events are $10 for the general public and FREE for UCSB students (registration required)
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Tickets and info available at www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu or by calling (805) 893-3535
? ? ? Editors/Reviewers: Please include the full name of UCSB Arts & Lectures in all media coverage, including reviews.
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) announces Race to Justice Spring 2021 events, part of A&L’s season-long, in-depth look at systemic racism. This initiative engages leading activists, musical artists, authors and creative thinkers to expand our understanding of racism and how race impacts society and to inspire an expansive approach to advancing racial equality. Race to Justice Spring 2021 virtual events include: Allyson Felix; Ranky Tanky; Dr. Robert Bullard; Theaster Gates; Bryan Stevenson; Heather McGhee; and Patrisse Cullors.
These virtual events are created exclusively for UCSB Arts & Lectures and can be purchased by anyone, anywhere. Presentations will be followed by Q&As with the audience. Most virtual programs are an hour long starting at 5 p.m. Pacific and will be available for replay by ticket buyers for one week following the broadcast.
Spring 2021 LINEUP
The Most Decorated Track & Field Olympian in History
Advocacy and Equality in Sports and in Life
Tuesday, April 6 / 5 p.m. Pacific
$10 / FREE for UCSB students (registration required)
Running time: approx. 60 min. Ticket holders will be able to replay this event for one week
“Everyone sees the glory moments, but they don’t see what happens behind the scenes.”
–Allyson Felix
“Felix has been all about the fight – for her health, for her daughter, for women and mothers, and for what she and other working athlete mothers deserve.”
Sports Illustrated
The most decorated Track & Field Olympian in history, Allyson Felix is a nine-time Olympic medalist, six-time Olympic Champion, World Record Holder and one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People. An advocate in many areas of life from pregnancy discrimination in athletics to advocating for underserved children and fighting for maternity rights, Felix shares about her experience with racism and discrimination even as a professional athlete. As she gears up for the Tokyo Olympics, Felix remains at the forefront of the fight for equality for all in sports and in life.
This conversation with Dr. Ingrid Banks, Chair of the UC Santa Barbara Department of Black Studies, will be followed by a Q&A.
Gullah Music of the Carolina Coast
Thursday, April 15 / 5 p.m. Pacific
$10 / FREE for UCSB students (registration required)
Running time: approx. 60 min. Ticket holders will be able to replay this event for one week.
“Wowing audiences the world over with their soulful, get-up-and-dance versions of Sea Island spirituals and work songs.”
Charleston Magazine
Charleston’s Ranky Tanky exploded onto the music scene with their inspired take on the soulful songs of South Carolina’s Gullah culture, taking home the 2020 Grammy win for Best Regional Roots Music Album. With a name that translates loosely as “Get Funky,” Ranky Tanky is a relentlessly upbeat ambassador of Gullah, a culture known for retaining more African linguistic and cultural heritage than any other African-American community in the United States. Preserving and paying homage to a vanishing way of life, the dynamo quintet introduces audiences to the language, rhythm and music of the region with a distinctly American sound that incorporates jazz, blues, gospel and R&B.
This performance will be followed by a Q&A moderated by Charles Donelan, Santa Barbara Independent executive arts editor.
The Father of Environmental Justice
The Quest for Environmental and Racial Justice
Wednesday, April 21 / 5 p.m. Pacific
$10 / FREE for UCSB students (registration required)
Running time: approx. 60 min. Ticket holders will be able to replay this event for one week.
“Whether by conscious design or institutional neglect, communities of color in urban ghettos, in rural ‘poverty pockets’, or on economically impoverished Native-American reservations face some of the worst environmental devastation in the nation.”
– Dr. Robert Bullard
“America is still segregated and so is pollution,” says Dr. Robert Bullard, Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University. With more than four decades of action advocating for racial equality and fair environmental and urban planning, Bullard is widely considered the father of the environmental justice movement. He was founding director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, and is the award-winning author of 18 books that address sustainable development, environmental racism, climate justice, community resilience, regional equity and more. In 2019, Apolitical named him one of the world’s 100 Most Influential People in Climate Policy and, in 2020, the United Nations Environment Program honored him with its Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement Award.
This presentation will be followed by a Q&A moderated by Dr. David N. Pellow, UC Santa Barbara Dehlsen Chair of Environmental Studies and Director of the Global Environmental Justice Project.
Presented in association with the Central Coast Climate Justice Network, Community Environmental Council, UCSB Bren School for Environmental Science & Management and UCSB Environmental Studies.
Urban Planner, Artist and Activist
Thursday, April 29 / 5 p.m. Pacific
$10 / FREE for UCSB students (registration required)
Running time: approx. 60 min. Ticket holders will be able to replay this event for one week.
“Neighborhoods, music, trades, building detritus or even mud before the potter’s wheel: to Gates, they are containers waiting for the transfiguring and redeeming power of creation.”
Time
An artist, musician and “cultural planner,” Theaster Gates creates work that focuses on space theory and land development, sculpture and performance. Drawing on his interest and training in urban planning and preservation, he redeems spaces that have been left behind, upturning art values, land values and human values. Gates is a professor at the University of Chicago and founder and president of the Rebuild Foundation, which restores the cultural foundations of underinvested neighborhoods and incites movements of community revitalization. The winner of Artes Mundi 6, Gates is also a recipient of the Nasher Prize for Sculpture, the Urban Land Institute Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development and France’s Légion d’Honneur and was recently named co-chair of fashion label Prada’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council.
This presentation will be followed by a moderated Q&A.
Founder of the Equal Justice Initiative
American Injustice: Mercy, Humanity and Making a Difference
Friday, April 30 / 5 p.m. Pacific
$10 / FREE for UCSB students (registration required)
Running time: approx. 90 min. Ticket holders will be able to replay this event for one week.
“[Stevenson] believes that the opposite of poverty is not wealth but justice; that all human beings are more than the worst thing they’ve ever done; and that racial healing cannot take place until the country faces the truth about its history.”
The Washington Post
One of the nation’s most visionary legal thinkers and social justice advocates, Bryan Stevenson has spent nearly four decades seeking to eradicate racial discrimination in the criminal justice system. A MacArthur Fellow, he is an attorney, human rights activist and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. He spearheaded Alabama’s Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, the first national memorial to victims of white supremacy, which opened in 2018. Stevenson is the subject of HBO’s 2019 documentary True Justice, and his bestselling memoir Just Mercy was adapted into an acclaimed feature film of the same name.
This presentation will be followed by a moderated Q&A.
Event Sponsors: Natalie Orfalea Foundation & Lou Buglioli
Author, Advocate and Public Policy Expert
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
Tuesday, May 4 / 5 p.m. Pacific
$10 / FREE for UCSB students (registration required)
Running time: approx. 60 min. Ticket holders will be able to replay this event for one week.
“This is a book for every American, and I am grateful for McGhee’s research, her humanity, and her never-more-important teachings.”
– Elizabeth Gilbert
“Now more than ever today, racial division as a tool wielded by those who are the most wealthy, the most powerful, and the most self-interested… it makes us demonize one another when, in fact, we should be linking arms to improve all of our lives.”
– Heather McGhee
Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy – and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. She played a leadership role in steering the historic Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and was one of the key advocates credited for the adoption of the Volcker Rule. McGhee’s compassionate and deeply-stirring New York Times bestseller, The Sum of Us, reveals the devastating true cost of racism for everyone and offers an actionable roadmap during one of the most critical – and most troubled – periods in history.
This conversation with Dr. Sharon Tettegah, UC Santa Barbara professor and director of the Center for Black Studies Research, will be followed by a Q&A.
UCSB Reads Author Event
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Dialogue
Wednesday, May 12 / 5 p.m. Pacific
FREE Event (registration required)
Running time: approx. 75 min. Ticket holders will be able to replay this event for one week.
Artist, organizer and educator Patrisse Cullors is co-founder and executive director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network, founder of Dignity and Power Now and co-author (with asha bandele) of When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir. A Los Angeles native, she co-founded the global Black Lives Matter movement in 2013 after sparking the viral Twitter hashtag. The movement has since expanded into an international organization with dozens of chapters around the world campaigning against anti-Black racism. Cullors’ work for Black Lives Matter was recognized in Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020 list and its 100 Women of the Year 2020.
This event will be followed by a Q&A moderated by Dr. Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley, UC Santa Barbara Professor of Black Studies.
Presented as part of UCSB Reads, sponsored by the UCSB Library and the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor with additional support from UCSB Arts & Lectures and a variety of campus and community partners
FREE COMMUNITY EVENT
Race to Justice FREE Film Screening
We Are the Dream -The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest
Thursday, June 3 / 8:30 p.m. Pacific / West Wind Drive-in
FREE film admission is first come, first served (no advance registration).
Every year, hundreds of school children participate in the Oakland MLK Oratorical Festival, a stirring public speaking competition featuring poetry and speeches inspired by the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This uplifting documentary directed by Emmy-winner Amy Schatz and executive produced by Academy Award-winner Mahershala Ali follows students from schools across the city as they hone their speeches, hoping for a coveted spot in the finals. Heartwarming and inspiring, We Are the Dream presents a portrait of passionate young people presenting speeches on issues they care about – racial injustice, immigration and more – and a community that celebrates their powerful voices. (Amy Schatz, 2020, G, 70 min.)
Masks and social distancing required. Distanced parking includes room to put chairs in front of your car.
EDUCATIONAL AND COMMUNITY IMPACT
Paramount to Arts & Lectures is amplifying Race to Justice’s impact In the community. An extensive educational and community outreach schedule will be integrated with Race to Justice programming, providing additional opportunities for UCSB students and members of the community to engage with the speakers and creators and their ideas.
For virtual events taking place from April through May, Race to Justice speakers will be meeting virtually with UCSB students from across the campus.
In addition, UCSB Arts & Lectures’ Thematic Learning Initiative is creating FREE opportunities for further engagement through partnerships with Santa Barbara County organizations focused on human services, at-risk populations and leadership, as well as tools for interested individuals and small groups to further explore race in society and promote racial equality. Members of the community interested in the Thematic Learning Initiative can learn more about how to participate in Race to Justice activities throughout Santa Barbara County at www.thematic-learning.org.
RACE TO JUSTICE SPONSORS AND PARTNERS
Race to Justice Advisory Committee: Susannah Scott, Divisional Chair of the Academic Senate; Sharon Tettegah, Director of the Center for Black Studies Research; Ingrid Banks, Chair of the Department of Black Studies; Kim Yasuda, Chair of the Department of Art; Charles Hale, SAGE Sara Miller McCune Dean of Social Sciences; and Belinda Robnett, Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Lead Sponsors: Marcy Carsey, Connie Frank & Evan Thompson, Patty & John MacFarlane, Sara Miller McCune, Santa Barbara Foundation, Lynda Weinman & Bruce Heavin, Dick Wolf, and Zegar Family Foundation.
Arts & Lectures is proud to present Race to Justice in association with the following UC Santa Barbara campus partners: UC Santa Barbara campus partners: Department of Black Studies, Center for Black Studies Research, Division of Social Sciences, Division of Humanities and Fine Arts, Division of Mathematical, Life, and Physical Sciences, Division of Student Affairs, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, Graduate Division, Bren School for Environmental Science & Management, College of Creative Studies, College of Engineering, MultiCultural Center, Carsey-Wolf Center, The Program in Latin American and Iberian Studies, UCSB Library | UCSB Reads, Office of the Chancellor, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor.
Race to Justice Lead Sponsors: Marcy Carsey, Connie Frank & Evan Thompson, Patty & John MacFarlane, Sara Miller McCune, Santa Barbara Foundation, Lynda Weinman & Bruce Heavin, Dick Wolf and Zegar Family Foundation.
Special Thanks: Santa Barbara Independent, KCRW, Voice Magazine and Noozhawk.
UCSB Arts & Lectures gratefully acknowledges our Community Partners the Natalie Orfalea Foundation & Lou Buglioli for their generous support of the 2020-21 season.
UCSB ARTS & LECTURES
UCSB Arts & Lectures brings unique, world-class performances, films and lectures to Central Coast and campus audiences. With a mission to educate, entertain and inspire, Arts & Lectures is the largest performing arts and public lectures presenter between San Francisco and Los Angeles, beloved by audiences for its award-winning, diverse and innovative programming that deeply enriches lives and extends the intellectual life of the community beyond the classroom.