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COMMUNITY VOICES
Night Doctors in the Age of COVID:
On the Ownership of the Black Body in White America
By Cynthia Stephens
This video provides an unvarnished account of the exploitation of Black people for free and cheap labor, sexual gratification, and medical experimentation. Comprised of monologues, quotes from famous speakers, news reports, and excerpts from Painted Red (a play about Henrietta Lacks, the African American woman from whom the first immortal human cell line was stolen), this presentation highlights the atrocities perpetrated against African Americans in the name of medical and scientific advancement. Night Doctors helps us connect the historical dots and exposes the bases for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, suspicion, and distrust — which are justified, appropriate reactions to centuries of medical abuses of Black people.
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This hour-long video presentation helps us sift through the rumors and conspiracies and helps people of color — who suffer higher numbers of deaths and severe illness from COVID-19 — find trusted sources for information and health care to combat the pandemic.
I AM A MAN
I Am A Man, a monologue written by Marcus Gardley, is a deeply heartbreaking invitation to imagine a visualization of the human being behind one of the countless hashtags we see all too often and how they would like to be honored. In this video, Julian Tushabe takes away the choice to imagine and uses his own voice and physical being to humanize the message further.
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Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate NY
Reflections on the Troy Police Reform Collaborative
By Bob Blackmon (Justice Center of Rensselear County)
I watched/listened to the speakers Monday (2/22) evening as well as the discussion that followed. The issue of racism is still being ignored. Several speakers challenged Chief Owens’ continued denial. Why doesn’t someone on the Collaborative turn to the chief and demand that he acknowledge the racism that EVERYONE knows exists in the TPD.
Womanist
A Multimedia Art Experience
Womanist, a term coined by Alice Walker, is the name we've chosen for this multimedia art exhibit that is in requiem and in celebration all that is Black femme! Created by Keion Hennessey & D. Colin, the show is an expression of our layered identities. We find it important to tell our stories without apology as act of resistance and as an act of love!
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Watch Colin's short film for the Womanist Art Show here.
Policing, Racism And The Black Lives Matter Movement In Albany
By Jackie Orchard (WAMC)
WAMC journalist Jackie Orchard speaks to Dr. Alice Green, executive director of the Center for Law and Justice, about identifying and fighting against systemic racism in the Albany Police Department. Orchard also interviews APD officer Devin Anderson during a ride-along. The article provides context for how a tumultuous year of uprisings in the face of police violence have shaped far-reaching conversations on racial injustice in the policy and street level.
"I Need Transformation"
Shawn Young (co-founder of All of Us), Queen Simba Fox (founder of Community Matters) and Brielle Sophia (community and transgender activist) discuss why transformation of policing is needed, and methods for achieving lasting change.
Magpie
By D. Colin
"I wrote this poem after seeing the video of Ahmaud Arbery gunned down while around the same time dealing with the stress of my mother recovering from Covid-19. It is deeply unconscionable that simple things like walking, jogging, sleeping, waiting, driving...among so many other ordinary daily life activities could be a Black person's last in the presence of police and racist vigilantes. While it speaks to the presence of two pandemics, the one of systemic racism has been with us for far too long and what I want the reader to pull from this piece is the urgent necessity to speak out."
RESOURCES
Slavery By Another Name
By Douglas A. Blackmon and the Public Broadcasting System
Slavery by Another Name is a 90-minute documentary that challenges one of Americans’ most cherished assumptions: the belief that slavery in this country ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. The film tells how even as chattel slavery came to an end in the South in 1865, thousands of African Americans were pulled back into forced labor with shocking force and brutality. It was a system in which men, often guilty of no crime at all, were arrested, compelled to work without pay, repeatedly bought and sold, and coerced to do the bidding of masters. Tolerated by both the North and South, forced labor lasted well into the 20th century.
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Capital Region Antiracism Training Initiative
This dynamic and inclusive training initiative is designed to provide our community with the tools they need to identify and combat racism at all levels. The initiative seeks to provide robust interactive training with a variety of experts intended to cultivate your inner antiracist.
ABOUT
“The Time for Reckoning: Confronting Systemic Racism, Seeking Justice and Reimagining Society” premieres October 26th at 9:00pm on WMHT's NY Now.
"The Time for Reckoning" addresses systemic racism in the Capital Region’s justice systems, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer.
Its overarching goal is to imagine a just society free of systemic racism, where Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) truly have no reason to fear that they or a loved one will lose their lives at the hands of police.
“The Time for Reckoning” achieves this by providing a multi-media, interactive and collaborative forum for the voices of local leaders and impacted community members, local elected and city officials, and nationally-known experts.
Symposium Activities
See, Learn, and Act against systemic racism in the Capital Region, by exploring media and participating in live online discussions developed in collaboration with symposium media partner WMHT. View a month-long campaign of interactive activities that tackle the complex issue of systemic racism in policing.
Symposium History
The Time for Reckoning symposium is part of a two-year-long project organized by the Center for Law and Justice (CFLJ) in response to the 2018 shooting of 19-year-old African-American Ellazar Williams by Albany Police Department Detective James Olsen. Learn details about the actions that the Center for Law and Justice has taken and events from the Capital Region and around the US that have influenced this project since then.
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