ANTHONY JOSEPH - T.S. Eliot Award-winning Poet, Novelist & Musician, Lead vocalist of The Spasm Band

ANTHONY JOSEPH - T.S. Eliot Award-winning Poet, Novelist & Musician, Lead vocalist of The Spasm Band

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T.S. Eliot Award-winning Poet, Novelist & Musician, Lead vocalist of The Spasm Band
Author of Sonnets for Albert

The life of Caribbean people is not really documented. So this idea of Caribbean life being fragmented is something that I've had in my mind for a long time. So when I came to write this collection for my father, I realized that it was the same process and what I had were fragments, especially with him, because he wasn't around in a physical sense all the time. So all I had were little photographs, scattered memories, and remembrances. They're little parts of his life and parts of my experience with him... I never disliked my father. I always loved him and always was fascinated and captivated by him.

Highlights - Richard Thompson Ford - Author of “Dress Codes”, “Rights Gone Wrong”, “The Race Card”

Highlights - Richard Thompson Ford - Author of “Dress Codes”, “Rights Gone Wrong”, “The Race Card”

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Stanford Professor of Law · Expert on Civil Rights & Antidiscrimination Law
Author of Dress Codes · Rights Gone Wrong · The Race Card

One of the things that I've tried to do in my work is demonstrate the way that laws that don't seem to be directly related to social equality, to equality of opportunity, to racial justice in fact are and that it's only through also reforming these kind of systemic and institutionalized forms of discrimination that we could truly achieve an egalitarian society. So what I've really wanted to argue against is the idea that civil rights are kind of a magic bullet and that those kinds of laws alone would be sufficient to achieve.

Richard Thompson Ford - Author of “Dress Codes” - Stanford Prof. of Law - Expert on Civil Rights - Antidiscrimination Law

Richard Thompson Ford - Author of “Dress Codes” - Stanford Prof. of Law - Expert on Civil Rights - Antidiscrimination Law

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Stanford Professor of Law · Expert on Civil Rights & Antidiscrimination Law
Author of Dress Codes · Rights Gone Wrong · The Race Card

One of the things that I've tried to do in my work is demonstrate the way that laws that don't seem to be directly related to social equality, to equality of opportunity, to racial justice in fact are and that it's only through also reforming these kind of systemic and institutionalized forms of discrimination that we could truly achieve an egalitarian society. So what I've really wanted to argue against is the idea that civil rights are kind of a magic bullet and that those kinds of laws alone would be sufficient to achieve.

Highlights - Anthony Joseph - Award-winning Writer & Musician - “Sonnets for Albert”

Highlights - Anthony Joseph - Award-winning Writer & Musician - “Sonnets for Albert”

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Award-winning Poet, Novelist & Musician, Lead vocalist of The Spasm Band
Author of Sonnets for Albert

The life of Caribbean people is not really documented. So this idea of Caribbean life being fragmented is something that I've had in my mind for a long time. So when I came to write this collection for my father, I realized that it was the same process and what I had were fragments, especially with him, because he wasn't around in a physical sense all the time. So all I had were little photographs, scattered memories, and remembrances. They're little parts of his life and parts of my experience with him... I never disliked my father. I always loved him and always was fascinated and captivated by him.

Anthony Joseph - Award-winning Writer & Musician - Author of “Sonnets for Albert”

Anthony Joseph - Award-winning Writer & Musician - Author of “Sonnets for Albert”

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Award-winning Poet, Novelist & Musician, Lead vocalist of The Spasm Band
Author of Sonnets for Albert

The life of Caribbean people is not really documented. So this idea of Caribbean life being fragmented is something that I've had in my mind for a long time. So when I came to write this collection for my father, I realized that it was the same process and what I had were fragments, especially with him, because he wasn't around in a physical sense all the time. So all I had were little photographs, scattered memories, and remembrances. They're little parts of his life and parts of my experience with him... I never disliked my father. I always loved him and always was fascinated and captivated by him.

Highlights - Isabel Sandoval - Director of "Lingua Franca" - “Under the Banner of Heaven”

Highlights - Isabel Sandoval - Director of "Lingua Franca" - “Under the Banner of Heaven”

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Director of Lingua Franca & Under the Banner of Heaven

Before coming on board Under the Banner of Heaven, I had very little knowledge of Mormonism, but having read the script by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who is also the showrunner for the show, I resonated deeply with Jeb Pyre (played by Andrew Garfield) when it comes to his growing ambivalence and his crisis of faith. And the more he learned about the gruesome, grisly history of the founding Mormonism, and also about the case that he was investigating, the more disillusioned and disenchanted he was becoming. And that resonated with me because I was raised Catholic in the Philippines, but as I grew older, actually went to Catholic schools and universities from kindergarten until college, and then the more I learned about the history of the Catholic Church and the atrocities and the injustices that it has committed, especially in the name of colonialist and imperialist pursuits in the Middle ages, the more I questioned its control over me and my life.

Isabel Sandoval - Director of “Lingua Franca” - “Under the Banner of Heaven”

Isabel Sandoval - Director of “Lingua Franca” - “Under the Banner of Heaven”

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Director of Lingua Franca & Under the Banner of Heaven

Before coming on board Under the Banner of Heaven, I had very little knowledge of Mormonism, but having read the script by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who is also the showrunner for the show, I resonated deeply with Jeb Pyre (played by Andrew Garfield) when it comes to his growing ambivalence and his crisis of faith. And the more he learned about the gruesome, grisly history of the founding Mormonism, and also about the case that he was investigating, the more disillusioned and disenchanted he was becoming. And that resonated with me because I was raised Catholic in the Philippines, but as I grew older, actually went to Catholic schools and universities from kindergarten until college, and then the more I learned about the history of the Catholic Church and the atrocities and the injustices that it has committed, especially in the name of colonialist and imperialist pursuits in the Middle ages, the more I questioned its control over me and my life.

Highlights - Memory Banda - Founder and Director Foundation for Girls Leadership

Highlights - Memory Banda - Founder and Director Foundation for Girls Leadership

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Human & Girls’ Rights Activist
Founder & Executive Director of Foundation for Girls Leadership

One thing that we should remember as young people is that everything allowed us is political by nature. We shouldn't be really scared of getting ourselves into different political aspects of issues around us. Be bold enough to speak out on the biggest challenges that are around you. And at the same time, it's in us to understand what kind of environment I am in? What is it that I can contribute to the problems that I am facing? That young people or people in general facing? So just go on. Be a part of that, and you'll be surprised that you will be the biggest game-changer.

Memory Banda - Human and Girls’ Rights Activist - Founder of Foundation for Girls Leadership

Memory Banda - Human and Girls’ Rights Activist - Founder of Foundation for Girls Leadership

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Human & Girls’ Rights Activist
Founder & Executive Director of Foundation for Girls Leadership

One thing that we should remember as young people is that everything allowed us is political by nature. We shouldn't be really scared of getting ourselves into different political aspects of issues around us. Be bold enough to speak out on the biggest challenges that are around you. And at the same time, it's in us to understand what kind of environment I am in? What is it that I can contribute to the problems that I am facing? That young people or people in general facing? So just go on. Be a part of that, and you'll be surprised that you will be the biggest game-changer.

(Highlights) Tey Meadow · Author of “Trans Kids: Being Gendered in the Twenty-First Century"

(Highlights) Tey Meadow · Author of “Trans Kids: Being Gendered in the Twenty-First Century"

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Author of Trans Kids: Being Gendered in the Twenty-First Century
Assistant Professor of Sociology, Columbia University
Co-editor of Other Please Specify: Queer Methods in Sociology

So while there is no kind of one size fits all story, there are plenty of times when...kind of like clusters of activity. And some kids don't come out as trans. They come out as wanting to begin a process of exploration around gender, wanting to sort of bend things a little bit or begin to present themselves in slightly different ways without a concrete cross-identification.

Tey Meadow · Author of “Trans Kids: Being Gendered in the Twenty-First Century"

Tey Meadow · Author of “Trans Kids: Being Gendered in the Twenty-First Century"

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Author of Trans Kids: Being Gendered in the Twenty-First Century
Assistant Professor of Sociology, Columbia University
Co-editor of Other Please Specify: Queer Methods in Sociology

So while there is no kind of one size fits all story, there are plenty of times when...kind of like clusters of activity. And some kids don't come out as trans. They come out as wanting to begin a process of exploration around gender, wanting to sort of bend things a little bit or begin to present themselves in slightly different ways without a concrete cross-identification.


(Highlights) Dolen Perkins-Valdez · NYTimes Best-selling Author of “Take My Hand”


(Highlights) Dolen Perkins-Valdez · NYTimes Best-selling Author of “Take My Hand”

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NYTimes Best-selling Author of the books Take My Hand · Balm, & Wench
Chair of the Board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation

My dad graduated from Tuskegee, and he often told me about the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. He really wanted me to understand the history, not only of medical experimentation but more specifically, medical experimentation in the state of Alabama. So my feeling about medical experimentation is that there's a long history in this country of medical experimentation on black bodies, particularly based behind this racist notion that black people don't feel pain in the same way. And so I've always sort of known that, but once I started to research this book, I began to really understand more specifically what it has meant for black women.

Dolen Perkins-Valdez · NYTimes Best-selling Author of “Take My Hand”

Dolen Perkins-Valdez · NYTimes Best-selling Author of “Take My Hand”

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NYTimes Best-selling Author of the books Take My Hand · Balm, & Wench
Chair of the Board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation

My dad graduated from Tuskegee, and he often told me about the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. He really wanted me to understand the history, not only of medical experimentation but more specifically, medical experimentation in the state of Alabama. So my feeling about medical experimentation is that there's a long history in this country of medical experimentation on black bodies, particularly based behind this racist notion that black people don't feel pain in the same way. And so I've always sort of known that, but once I started to research this book, I began to really understand more specifically what it has meant for black women.

(Highlights) Ami Vitale · Award-winning Photographer, Filmmaker & Exec. Director of Vital Impacts

(Highlights) Ami Vitale · Award-winning Photographer, Filmmaker & Exec. Director of Vital Impacts

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Award-Winning Photographer & Filmmaker
Executive Director of Vital Impacts

When are we all going to start to care about one another? Because all of our individual choices do have impacts. And I just think the demands that we place on this planet, on the ecosystems, are what are driving conflict and human suffering. In some cases, it's really the scarcity of resources, just like water. In others, it's the changing climate and the loss of fertile lands to be able to grow food. But in the end, it's always the people living in these places that really suffer the most. All of my work today, it’s not really about wildlife, and it's not just about people either. It's about how deeply interconnected all of those things are. People and the human condition are the backdrop of every one of the stories on this planet.

Ami Vitale · Award-Winning Photographer, Filmmaker & Exec. Director of Vital Impacts

Ami Vitale · Award-Winning Photographer, Filmmaker & Exec. Director of Vital Impacts

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Award-Winning Photographer & Filmmaker
Executive Director of Vital Impacts

When are we all going to start to care about one another? Because all of our individual choices do have impacts. And I just think the demands that we place on this planet, on the ecosystems, are what are driving conflict and human suffering. In some cases, it's really the scarcity of resources, just like water. In others, it's the changing climate and the loss of fertile lands to be able to grow food. But in the end, it's always the people living in these places that really suffer the most. All of my work today, it’s not really about wildlife, and it's not just about people either. It's about how deeply interconnected all of those things are. People and the human condition are the backdrop of every one of the stories on this planet.

(Highlights) TREVA B. LINDSEY
TREVA B. LINDSEY
(Highlights) ALICE SCHMIDT
ALICE SCHMIDT
(Highlights) MARYBETH GASMAN

(Highlights) MARYBETH GASMAN

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Author of Doing the Right Thing: How to End Systemic Racism in Faculty Hiring
Executive Director of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Leadership, Equity, & Justice & Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions

We all have things to learn when it comes to these diversity-related issues or issues of identity. We have so much to learn. Just because, let's say, you’re a person of color, it doesn't necessarily mean that you are going to be accepting of transgender individuals. You might have some real hangups. Or you could be transgender and have some hangups around people of color, all around the spectrum. You can be a woman who doesn't support women. You can be a woman who doesn't support women trans-women. There are all of these kinds of things that I think we have to be open to, and we have to be open to learning and also open to making mistakes because sometimes people are going to make mistakes around these issues.