Taproot: A Play on Justice & Judgment by v.f. thompson, tells the story of Food Not Bombs, a radical activist group, as they grapple with how to hold a member accountable for abuse while adhering to their core value of consensus. The play unfolds during a meeting where members debate the best course of action, raising questions about transformative justice and the challenges of balancing principles with real-world situations.
Date & Time: Monday, April 27 | Sushi dinner at 5:30 p.m. | film screening begins at 6:30 p.m. | Location: Dewing 103, 1219 Academy Street, Kalamazoo, MI 49006 | Fee: No cost to attend
Join Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL) for a 2.5-day gathering as we unpack and strategize around the urgent threats posed by rising fascism and the rollbacks on hard-won rights […]
The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership welcomes Comedian, Actor, and Director Dame Grant as he performs sketches of his narrative about growing up in a small midwestern town as a black person. He addresses common microaggressions and misconceptions often projected onto Black folks, and the resilience we must cultivate to maintain our identities and thrive in small towns.
While for some this moment of uprising that has spread to over 700 cities and towns in the US and in cities in the Global North and South might be a surprise; for us who have been oppressed, murdered, exploited, and disproportionately affected by poverty, Covid 19, infant and maternal mortality, and more, it is not. As James Baldwin penned in 1966, writing on a 1964 Harlem police murder and uprising, it is simply the overflow of the “unimaginably bitter cup” of four hundred years of trauma and pain. To quote Toni Morrison, who was asked the question about “riots” in 1992 after the beating of Rodney King, “What struck me most about those who rioted was how long they waited. The restraint they showed. Not the spontaneity, the restraint. They waited and waited for justice and it didn’t come. No one talks about that.”
