March 15 – March 17, 2012 SHERATONVisions HOTEL ON Capitol Square – COLUMBUS, OH of Change welCome! table of Contents We are so pleased to welcome you to Transforming Race: Visions of Change. Thank you for choosing to spend your valuable time with us during the next few days, exploring some of the pivotal issues linked to race in our time. We look forward to an informative and energizing few days as we gather with fellow advocates, activists, scholars, students, spoken-word artists and other performers and practitioners of all stripes. Our 45-plus plenary sessions KEYNOTE SPEAKERS ..........................................3–4 and panels, workshops and performances should evoke plenty of challenging questions and provocative insights. ENTERTAINMENT....................................................5 This year, we are challenging the speakers and attendees to look ahead—to take seriously the challenge of envisioning and forging the path to the country and world we want to live in and help shape for our children and WORKSHOPS AND SESSIONS future generations. Author Lewis Carroll cautioned that if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you THURSDAY, MARCH 15TH ......................................6–7 there. Over the next few days, we will take a long moment to deliberate upon, discuss, and debate where we want FRIDAY, MARCH 16TH ..........................................8–15 to go, what road(s) will help take us there, and what course corrections might be necessary right now to get us to that destination. SATURDAY, MARCH 17TH ...................................16–21 As always, the Transforming Race conference is designed to develop insights, tools, and networks that will be HOTEL MAPS ........................................................22 critical to the task of transforming the landscape of racial discourse and practice in and beyond the United States. LOGISTICS ............................................................23 The issue of collaboration is one we take seriously. At the Kirwan Institute, we recognize our efforts as part of a much larger fabric of transformative work that predates the origins of this country and extends to, and beyond, ABOUT THE KIRWAN INSTITUTE .....................24–27 its present borders. Please join us over the coming days and years in actively exploring ways to link your own work to ours and that of others here. SPONSORS .....................................................28–33 As the sponsorship pages of this program book confirm, this conference is made possible by the support of a large and growing group of colleagues and partners. We are deeply grateful for their support, which has taken many forms. We also thank The Ohio State University for its generous and unfailing support of the Institute’s work. Finally, special appreciation to all of our colleagues at the Kirwan Institute who with their diligence, excellence, and good humor have made this conference possible. Sincere thanks to all of you, and enjoy the next few days. Sharon L. Davies, Executive Director and the Transforming Race 2012 Team WHAT WOULD A GENERATION OR TWO OF RACIAL progress LOOK LIKE? keynote speakers WHAT SEEDS OF Change ARE IN PLACE RIGHT NOW? HOW DO WE GET FROM HERE TO there? Van Jones has emerged as a leading champion of smart solutions for America’s middle class. why transforming raCe? As an advisor to President Obama, he helped run the inter-agency process that oversaw $80 Race is not the only edge along which we divide in the United States and around the world, but it remains perhaps billion in green recovery spending. A Yale Law School graduate, he has a 20-year track record the sharpest. The Kirwan Institute, and this conference, are dedicated to the proposition that we can transform as a successful, innovative, and award-winning social entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of three the meanings and operations of race through informed dialogue, practices, and policies that create and expand successful nonprofit organizations: the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change, opportunity for all. We invite you to contribute your ideas and your insights. and Green For All. He is a globally recognized, award-winning pioneer in human rights and the clean energy why Visions of Change? economy, and a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and American Progress Action In ways big and small, a great many people are working to advance the cause of racial equity and social justice Fund. He holds a joint appointment at Princeton University as a distinguished visiting fellow in both the Center for African in the United States and around the world. What would the United States look like in a generation or two if the American Studies and in the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of successes of that work matched our aspirations? If the seeds of transformation are in place right now, what are Public and International Affairs. they and how can we recognize and nurture them? How do we move from here to there? Who has what role to Jones is on the board of several organizations and non-profits, including Demos, the Natural Resources Defense Council, play in that movement? These are questions we very rarely ask, much less try to answer. This must change. If we the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, and the Campaign for America’s Future. cannot articulate a positive vision of a racial future distinct from and preferable to our racial present, how can we expect skeptics to embrace the struggle – and, yes, perhaps the sacrifice – required to get there? TIME Magazine called him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2009. He is also the best-selling author of the definitive book on green jobs, The Green Collar Economy. He’s comfortable leading the charge both on the ground and on the airwaves, and his vast connections can unite organizations and high-profile individuals in ways that would otherwise be difficult. 2 3 keynote speakers entertainment PERFORMER LYNN MANNING Lynn Manning will perform “Weights,” a solo autobiography and his most-produced play to date. Changed from black man to blind man by the pull of a trigger, Manning lifts emotional weights as he takes his audience on a mesmerizing journey through his life before and after his “profound metamorphosis.” Dr. Vandana Shiva is a physicist, environmental activist, ecofeminist, philosopher, and Fresno-born and L.A.-raised, Lynn Manning is an award-winning poet, playwright, actor, author known for her work as a leader in the food sovereignty movement. Dr. Shiva has fought and former world champion Paralympic judo player. He accomplished all of this after for changes in the practice and paradigms of agriculture and food. She has also contributed being shot and blinded at age 23. A product of The County of Los Angeles’ foster care intellectually to the fields of intellectual property rights, biodiversity, biotechnology, bioethics, system, Lynn grew up in both the slums of South Central and the suburbs of South Bay. and genetic engineering. She has assisted grassroots organizations of the Green movement This diversity of life experiences deeply informs his work. in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Ireland, Switzerland, and Austria with campaigns against genetic engineering. Dr. Shiva and her team at the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Lynn has written several critically recognized plays, including “Weights,” “Ochre and Ecology – a network of researchers specializing in ecology, health, and sustainability – have Onyx (The Langston Hughes Project),” “Up from the Downs,” “Private Battle,” “The Last successfully challenged the biopiracy of neem, basmati and wheat; validated the ecological value of traditional farming; and Outpost,” “Shoot,” and “Central Ave. Chalk Circle.” stopped destructive development projects in India. She has led the fight against genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by In 1996, Lynn co-founded Watts Village Theater Company in partnership with late actor successfully challenging Monsanto’s introduction of genetically modified cotton through the Supreme Court in India. Besides and community activist, Quentin Drew. The company develops and produces new plays of relevance to the underserved her activism, she has also served on expert groups of government on biodiversity and intellectual property rights legislation. Afro-Latino community of Watts. Lynn is currently Chair of the Board of Directors. He is also President of The Firehouse Dr. Shiva speaks on “Earth Democracy, Organic Solutions to Hunger and Malnutrition, and Hunger in the Design of Industrial Theater Company, which is dedicated to including artists with disabilities in all aspects of the theatre arts. Lynn is Agriculture.” In 1993, Dr. Shiva won the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize (the Right Livelihood Award) and the United Nations presently a member of Katselas Theatre Company’s Playlab. Environmental Program (UNEP) Global 500 Award. In 2010, she was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize for her commitment to Lynn serves on The Performers with Disabilities Committee of The Screen Actors Guild, as well as the Actors’ Equity social justice. She is the author of many books, including Making Peace with the Earth (2012), Soil not Oil, and Staying Alive. Association’s Equal Employment Opportunity Committee (West). Dr. Shiva is trained as a physicist, and completed her Ph.D. on the subject “Hidden Variables and Non-Locality in Quantum Theory” at the University of Western Ontario in