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Inclusiveness and Diversity

Celebrate Black History Month in 2024
By Mike Pulsifer
Posted: 2024-01-30T05:00:00Z

Several times a year the Penn's Village Inclusiveness and Diversity Committee recommends several resources to help our members and friends to be more aware of the racial biases in each of us and in our society, and the resulting inequities, past and present. It is the committee’s hope that this information may even inspire us to make corrective changes. These resources assembled by Penn’s Village members represent different mediums, different perspectives and experiences, and diverse authors.


Penn’s Village welcomes and actively encourages an inclusive and diverse community of members, staff, Board of Directors and volunteers. Inclusiveness and diversity mean welcoming all and excluding no one because of age, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, physical abilities, religious beliefs or political beliefs.


At the very bottom of this page, blog readers have the opportunity to comment. The Inclusiveness and Diversity Committee welcomes your opinions about any of our suggested resources and any suggestions about their mission. 


February, 2024 Black History Month


Magazine Article: Opportunities to Celebrate Black History Month in Philadelphia 


Click here to read an article provided by the Philadelphia Magazine that describes many ways to celebrate and learn about Black History. This link will enable you to learn about such opportunities as the African American Walking Tours in Philadelphia; a Franklin Institute program on February 3 that recognizes the contributions of Black scientists, inventors, and engineers; the Academy of Music February 23-25 presentation of Revelations by Alvin Ailey’s American Dance Troupe; and the National Constitution Center’s Four Harriets of History, a show exploring the lives of Harriet Tubman, Harriet Robinson Scott, Harriet Jacobs, and Harriet Beecher Stowe and much more.


Film: Origin


Origin is a biographical drama written and directed by Ava DuVernay. It is based on the New York Times number one best-selling book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. The film, which is now showing in many theaters in the Philadelphia area, depicts racism in the Untied States as an aspect of a caste system. To read an Associated Press article about this film and its director click here.

 

YouTube Video:  What the Black Intellectual Tradition Can Teach Us about Democracy


On November 14, 2023, the National Constitution Center hosted a conversation exploring the ways major African American intellectuals and artists like Fredrick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Billie Holiday and James Baldwin reimagined U.S. democracy. This conversation starts with New York Times columnist Jamelle Boule and political scientist Melvin Rodgers, author of The Darkened Light of Faith: Race, Democracy, and Freedom in African American Political Thought. To view this video click here.


Podcast: African American Visionaries


To commemorate Black History Month in 2021, the National Constitution Center produced a podcast sharing the courageous stories and legendary lives of African American constitutional visionaries throughout history. It included well-known figures like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X, as well as some lesser-known but groundbreaking figures like Monroe Trotter and Pauli Murray. This podcast highlighted their efforts to bring about constitutional change, from abolition and suffrage to the civil rights and voting rights movements. Judge Theodore McKee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and professor Theodore M. Shaw of UNC Law, former director-counsel of the NAACP, join host, Jeffrey Rosen. To listen to this podcast click here.


Newspaper Story:  New Black Clergy President Bishop J. Louis Felton Shares Vision for their Organization


The new president of the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity didn’t hold back in sharing his vision for the organization with The Philadelphia Tribune. Bishop J. Louis Felton spoke candidly on a wide range of topics from strengthening the Philadelphia schools, to establishing corridors to keep Philadelphia students safe before and after school, to his opinions on the 76ers controversial arena proposal. To read this article click here.


The Philadelphia Inquirer Opinion Article: Exploring Philly’s Seventh Ward By Elizabeth Wellington


Tayyib Smith spent three years reading historical markers as he walked from his home in Fitler Square to his girlfriend’s spot in Queen Village. His journey took him through the old Seventh Ward — a swath of Center City bounded by Spruce and South Streets and extending from Seventh Street to the Schuylkill. He passed markers for the Institute for Colored Youth at Ninth and Bainbridge and the home of abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor William Still on South Delhi Street. Considered one of the oldest Black neighborhoods in Philadelphia, the Seventh Ward is at the heart of W.E.B. Du Bois’ landmark 1899 study, The Philadelphia Negro. “The markers just weren’t enough,” said Smith. “The 20 to 25 words on those blue signs, to me, just weren’t enough.”


This inspired Smith to design an interactive experience that would teach the Seventh Ward’s rich history to Philadelphians, especially those new to the neighborhood. He partnered with the Philadelphia City Archives and the Mayor’s Fund in 2019, and was awarded a $240,000 grant from the Pew Center for the Arts & Heritage Foundation the next year. In November, Smith launched “Legacy Reclaimed: A 7th Ward Tribute,” a walking tour, series of talks, and exhibitions that celebrate the history of the Seventh Ward. To read the complete Inquirer article click here. To learn more about this tour and how to join it click here.



 



Tagged as I&D Blog 2/2024
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