The Karson Institute for Race, Peace, and Social Justice will offer an evening of social artivism designed to explore the institution of slavery, Loyola’s connection to it, and where to go from here. “Loyola’s Quilted Peculiar Narrative,” timed with Black History Month, will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, from 6:30 – 8 p.m. in McManus Theatre on Loyola’s Evergreen campus.
The event is free and open to the public, but space is limited. Reserve your space on The Bridge (for internal community) or EventBrite (for external community). The event will also be livestreamed, and you can register to watch it live through this registration link.
The evening will feature poetry and readings from The 1619 Project, The 272, and Four Hundred Souls read by Loyola students; music by Chosen Generation—Loyola’s Gospel choir; reflections by panelists, and discussion. The evening will offer an opportunity to reflect and process the report Loyola released last month on its historic connections to slavery and its ongoing legacies.
“Frederick Douglass once said, ‘If there is no struggle there is no progress,’” said Karsonya Wise Whitehead, Ph.D., founding executive director of the Karson Institute. “So, in order for us to move beyond the moment we find ourselves in, we must sit with it. We must wrestle with it. We must seek out ways to repair and restore. We must hold it up to the light and then we must progress beyond it. This is a moment for all of us to come together.”
Whitehead will moderate a discussion with panelists John Keiss, Ph.D., associate professor of theology at Loyola and co-chair of Loyola’s President’s Task Force Examining Loyola’s Connections to Slavery; Oghenetoja Okoh, Ph.D., assistant professor of history at Loyola; Abena Lewis-Mhoon, Ph.D., associate professor of history at Coppin State University; Teisha Dupree Wilson, Ph.D., assistant professor of history at Coppin State University; and Jujuan Lawson, Loyola Class of 2026.
Learn more about other upcoming events hosted by the Karson Institute on the Karson’s events page. See upcoming events related to Loyola’s report on the University’s connections to slavery on the Universities Studying Slavery site.
The Karson Institute for Race, Peace & Social Justice, located in the Loyola/Notre Dame Library at Loyola University Maryland, provides a scholarly space for professors, students, social justice workers, and activists to come together to research, discuss, debate, and explore topics of inequality, injustice, and racial inequity in the United States. The Karson Institute consists of three centers: the Center for Public Engagement that hosts outward-facing monthly conversations on race and equity; the Center for Teaching and Learning that provides training and resources in culturally responsive teaching and diversity, equity, and inclusion to K-12th grade teachers; and the Center for Research and Culture which provides spaces for junior and senior scholars to collaborate on research projects. Karsonya “Kaye” Wise Whitehead, Ph.D., professor of communication and African and African American studies, founded and directs the center.
