#StayWoke: Social Justice through Hashtag Activism

Saturday April 30, 2016 | 8:30am-12pm | 308 Congress St. Boston 02210 6th Floor

To stay woke is to keep informed of the lesser known stories and facts going on in times of turmoil and conflict, specifically on occasions when the media is being heavily filtered. How does the media help or hinder our ability to #StayWoke with people from diverse perspectives? How can we effectively use online tools to promote messages of social consciousness?

Welcome!

The Collective Vision is grounded in the belief that achieving educational equity is possible within our lifetime and that alumni of color play a unique role in eliminating educational inequity, The Collective is committed to continuous development of alumni of color as transformational leaders, thought partners and agents for change. We are anchored in both our collective experience as corps members and alumni of color as well as our belief in the solvability of this issue. Our vision is that through the exchange of ideas, resources and vision we will change the educational trajectory of children in low-income communities.

Agenda Time Event + Notes

8:30-9:00 Registration & Light Breakfast 9:00-9:10 Welcome 9:10-9:20 Opening Speaker: Tony 9:25-9:35 Second Speaker: Jenn 9:40-9:55 Student Performance: Boston Pulse

10:00-10:10 Closing Speaker: Zellie 10:10-10:25 Break/Transition

10:25-11:35

Workshops (1 rotation) 10:25-10:55

10:55-11:00 (5 min transition) 11:00-11:35

11:35-12:00 Evals, Networking, & Lunch

Workshop 1: Gina Physics

Location: Space G (5th floor) Social Media Handles

Twitter: @GinaTweets Instagram: @gina.etc

Website: http://ginaphysic.com/

Biography Gina Physic attended Grinnell College as a Posse scholar and received her master's in African American Studies from Boston University. Her graduate research dealt with mass incarceration as it works to uphold statehood ideals. Prior to attending BU, she began a career in communications, focusing on consumer marketing and social media. She is currently researching the unique needs of Massachusetts' female prison population; looking at the ways social media is used to amplify social movements; and developing a digital media program for Boston's planning & economic development agency. What Will this Workshop Be About? My workshop will focus on an aspect of hashtag activism that can be considered both powerful and problematic: the ways we choose to communicate when navigating limited character space. From memes and hashtags to Twitter stories and Instagram captions. What do the ways we communicate reveal about and beyond the social movements we represent?

Workshop 2: Michael Sanders Location: Space I (5th Floor)

Social Media Handles

Twitter: @mdwightlkeller Instagram: @mdwightlkeller

Biography Michael Sanders is a performer, publicist, communications and media advocate who champions informal learning through the media. Michael's work includes communications and media projects for Lincoln Center Theater, BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Loyola University New Orleans, PBS Kids and Sustain Arts, an arts technology based project out of Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership. He currently serves as Digital Communications Lead at Howard University and teaches communications courses online at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin and Lamar University; as an artist, he has performed in traditional and experimental theater in Louisiana and New York and hosted Harvard Graduate School of Education's TEDxHGSE. He is a co-founder of the Harvard Alumni Association shared interest group, Harvard Alumni for Education (HAEd) and serves as a director-at-large on the Harvard Club of Washington DC's board of directors. Michael holds a BA in Mass Communication from Xavier University of Louisiana, an MA in Communication Studies from Louisiana State University, and an Ed.M from Harvard Graduate School of Education. What Will this Workshop Be About? This workshop presentation will broadly discuss one university’s activity on and in social media, including its management of social media crises and its use of social media campaigns to engage and broaden its reach traditionally and digitally. The workshop will allow participants to understand and engage in managing a social media crisis for a University perspective and creating a University-brand specific social media campaign.

Workshop 3: Christina Houle Location: Space B (6th Floor)

Social Media Handles

Twitter: @Sukhgian Facebook: Christina Sukhgian

Houle

Biography Christina Sukhgain Houle is an artist, activist and public art producer. She has worked with Creative Time (NY), the Center for Urban Pedagogy (NY), 596 Acres (NY) and is currently the Creative Placemaking Fellow at [bc] workshop in the Rio Grande Valley (TX). Her video trilogy, "Migration Patterns During Wartime" was awarded the Andy Warhol Foundation Idea Fund Grant and filmed onsite along the US/ Mexico border. Additionally Houle is on staff at the Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy and the Journalist Resource at the Shorenstein Center at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. What Will this Workshop Be About? “Participatory Media: Tools and Training for Educators and Citizen Activists” Some media scholars argue that the shape of activism, journalism and informal education has forever changed and that we are entering a new, more democratic era that cultivates citizen journalists with an increased reliance on participatory media. What will your voice be? How can you develop your own digital media persona and help your students to develop theirs? In this workshop we will overview key tools for the digital age of social activism, address some critical trends and look at the different roles involved in shaping this new digital landscape.

Workshop 4: Zam Hassan and B.L.A.C.K Location: Space C (6th Floor)

Social Media Handles

Twitter: @Zayumm Facebook: Zam Hassan

Biography Zam Hassan is a senior at Boston Latin School (BLS), and has been heavily involved in spreading messages about social justice and activism since her school recently came under fire for alleged racial and socially motivated injustices against Black students. After a number of students were dissatisfied with their school’s response, they organized themselves to share their stories through social media. The hashtag #blackatbls become a way of gathering a community to share stories of social and racial injustices not only at BLS but also in the Boston Public Schools system (with the hashtag #blackatbps). Zam and her fellow schoolmates formed a student group called B.L.A.C.K. to keep the conversations about racial and social injustices alive both in her school setting and all schools which are facing similar situations. Zam is hoping to study international business with a minor in Arabic in the near future. What Will this Workshop Be About? “How we found our voice through #blackatbls” This workshop presentation will share how a group of concerned high school students organized themselves to share racial and social injustices in their school through social media. The main topic will be around the question: How can you to take control and be a leader in your environment when challenged with adversities? This workshop will highlight how social media can be used to connect many communities and unite them on one important issue.

Workshop 5: Zellie Imani Location: Space A (6th Floor)

Social Media Handles

Twitter: @zellieimani Instagram: @zellieimani

Tumblr: black-culture

Biography Zellie Imani is a community organizer and educator living in NJ. Zellie has served in diverse K-8 settings as an English/Math teacher and curriculum developer. Most recently, Zellie has been organizing against anti-black state violence with St Louis based Millennial Activists United and #NJShutItDown, a social justice network of college and high school students in the state of NJ. He is also a co-founder of the Black Liberation Collective, a collective consisting of Black students who are dedicated to transforming institutions of higher education through unity, coalition building, direct action and political education that has initiated the #StudentBlackOut movement across campuses in the United States and Canada. What Will this Workshop Be About? “Organizing in the 21st Century” On Saturday, August 9, 2014, unarmed Black teenager Michael Brown was killed by Darren Wilson, a White police officer, in Ferguson, MO. In the wake of the killing of yet another unarmed young Black man by an agent of the state under suspicious circumstances, protests, outrage, and organizational efforts immediately began to emerge across the United States and globally. As more and more people have taken action in the name of justice for Mike Brown, and others lives stolen by state violence, a national dialogue on the systemic criminalization of Black people, racial power disparities, civil rights, and the American justice system has grown. This workshop will explore the ways in which movements, built through systemic outreach, will form the backbone of the mass grassroots Black Lives Matter movement. Participants will discuss how engaging and empowering community members through dialogue strengthens and empowers the community. By the end of this session, participants will be able to identify sensitive and relevant issues to their community and develop social media campaigns to best engage with their target groups.

Workshop 6: Jenn Fang Location: Space E (5th Floor)

Social Media Handles

Twitter: @reappropriate Website:

http://www.reappropriate.co Facebook:

facebook.com/reappropriate.co

Biography Jenn Fang is founder of Reappropriate.co, one of the web’s oldest and most popular blogs dedicated to Asian American feminism, pop culture, and politics. Her writing has been featured in Quartz, BlogHer, Asian Pacific Americans for Progress, Asian Americans for Obama, Angry Asian Man, Northwest Asian Weekly, Change.org, Blog for Arizona, and The Nerds of Color. Jenn is also co-curator of AAPI Rewind, a weekly digest of AAPI news and commentary. What Will this Workshop Be About? “Reappropriating Anger: AAPI Activism and the Digital Age” Consideration of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community reveals a rich history of active resistance against racism and other forms of oppression, often in partnership with other communities of color. Yet, mainstream misconceptions about Asian Americans as a “model minority” position us as a wedge against Black liberation, while it both silences and erases our advocacy efforts. In this talk, we will explore how contemporary AAPI progressives are using digital spaces to fight back against the Model Minority Myth and its perpetuation of anti-blackness, as it appears both within and outside of our community.

Workshop 7: Rosa Otieno Location: Space F (5th Floor)

Social Media Handles

Twitter: @thatkenyan_rosa Instagram: @thatkenyan_rosa

Facebook: Rosa Achieng

Biography Rosa is a middle school science teacher in Dorchester and a graduate student at the Boston University School of Education. Rosa earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and public health from Boston University. She is interested in tackling several of our nation's pressing issues including educational inequity, prison reform, and health disparities among minorities in the United States. Rosa completed research at Harvard with the Boston Reentry Study team on prison reentry. She was involved in various student organizations including the Student Alliance for Prison Reform and the Boston University Varsity Track team. Rosa currently serves as a teaching assistant at a women’s prison with the Petey Greene Program. She believes everyone should have access to equal opportunities, quality healthcare, and an excellent education. Rosa was born and raised in Brockton, Massachusetts and is excited to work in a community she knows and loves. What Will this Workshop Be About? Are you new to social media? Are you confused and/or stressed out by tweets and posts? Unsure of what to say in 140 characters? Than this workshop is for you! In this workshop, we want the audience to learn about the different social media platforms, ways to engage in different communities within a social media platform and above all, ways to get involved in social justice movements and/or conversations through social media. All are welcome to attend!

Workshop 8: Tony DelaRosa Location: Space H (5th floor)

Social Media Handles

Instagram: @delarosas_r_read (Personal), @bostonpulsepoetry

(boston pulse instagram) Website: Indypulse.org

Biography Tony is California-by-chance, Indiana-by-choice and Massachusetts-by-MATCH (Education). He served TFA in many capacities: Fundraising Committee Head, Diversity and Inclusion Committee Chair, Operations Director at Chicago Institute (2014) and he was chosen as the 2012 Ambassador for the TFA 25th Anniversary Summit. As a corps member, he co-founded a spoken word youth organization called Indy Pulse to offer the time, space and resources to strengthen literacy and promote social change through spoken word. This past year, he has partnered with Teach For Mexico to carry out an international teaching exchange called "Classrooms without Borders." He was recently invited by the Secretary of Foreign Relations of Mexico to give an address on "The Impact and Implications of International Exchange in Education." He was recently awarded the Teacher Creativity Grant by Eli Lilly Endowment (2015) to carry out an identity study in the Philippines where he partnered with Teach For the Philippines to coach teachers in best practices. Now going into his 5th year of teaching, he is the founder and Executive Director of Boston Pulse Youth Spoken Word, where he empowers youth in Boston to strengthen their sense of agency and voice through poetry. He is proud that his team was able to present at the 14th Annual Harvard Alumni of Color Conference on "Intersectionality, Identity and Poetry." What Will this Workshop Be About? “StayWoke: Sustainability vs. Martyrdom” How can we not fall into racial discussion fatigue syndrome, when you are clearly the only one that is pushing the work across OR if you are the one at your professional circle that has the “inherent responsibility” to teach others about the topic to build a movement of people awakening, or #stay(ing)woke? Where do we draw the line? This will be discussion based, in hope to leverage multi-faceted experiences that help us create tangible ideas on how to draw the line between sustainability and martyrdom.

MAP

This event is generously supported by Teach For America-Massachusetts and Citizen Schools. For more information, contact us at tfamass.collective@gmail.com. Join our Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/tfamasscollective/ or visit our website at http://tfamass.org/the-collective/ to stay in touch with our future events.