Volunteers are needed for the the Culturally Responsive Campus Community (CRCC) Fall 2017 Conference. Volunteer registration is available.
Under the theme of Bridging Divides, Becoming Allies, the conference will run November 6-7 at Illinois State University’s Bone Student Center. The event will include panels, presentations, and interactive workshops on a wide range of topics, including ageism, LGBTQ issues, race, and the wage gap.
“The goal of the conference is to create spaces that work to bridge divides and challenge us all to become better allies,” said CRCC member Stacey Hardin. “The conference will explore current systems of oppression in place in the surrounding community, and understanding what it means to challenge and dismantle systems of oppression.”
More information is available at the CRCC website. Lunch is capped for the event, but those still wishing to attend can register on the website.
Keynote speakers for the conference will be award-wining author Carole Boston Weatherford and popular video blogger Franchesca Ramsey.
A New York Times best-selling author, Weatherford is one of the leading poets writing for young people today. Mining the past for family stories, fading traditions, and forgotten struggles, her work spans poetry, nonfiction, biography, and historical fiction. Her latest releases are Freedom in Congo Square, You Can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen, and The Legendary Miss Lena Horne. She received the Ragan-Rubin Award from North Carolina English Teachers Association and the North Carolina Literature Award, among the state’s highest civilian honors. A professor of English at Fayetteville State University, she teaches courses such as Hip Hop: Poetry, Politics, and Pop Culture.
Ramsey is an actress, writer, and video blogger based out of New York City. With over 200,000 subscribers on her two YouTube channels, she produces original videos which include song parodies, impersonations, and original characters along with socially conscious and topical comedy sketches. In 2012 her viral video, “Sh*t White Girls Say…to Black Girls” was viewed over 5 million times in just 5 days, garnering coverage on MSNBC, ABC, Ebony Magazine, The Daily Mail, and the Anderson Cooper talk show to name a few. Most recently she was a writer and contributor for The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore on Comedy Central. Today she’s the host and head writer for the award-winning web series, “MTV Decoded.”
The mission of the Culturally Responsive Campus Community is to enlighten, educate, and ignite conversation and action around campus to create a more equitable and just campus environment for all students, faculty, and staff at Illinois State University.
For questions on the conference, contact CRCC@ilstu.edu.
