social justice

Sustainability Goes Fourth at Kalamazoo College

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Kalamazoo College will host the fourth annual Sustainability SIP Symposium on Monday, April 29, 6-9 p.m., in 103 Dewing Hall on the K campus (1200 Academy St.), co-sponsored by the College’s Guilds and Environmental Studies Program. Free and open to the public, the event will feature student presentations of sustainability-related Senior Individualized Projects (SIPs) ranging in topic from English to Economics. Audience members will have time for questions following each presentation, and an opportunity to meet student researchers at the interactive poster session and reception beginning at 8 p.m. in Dewing Hall Commons. Refreshments will be provided by the People’s Food Co-Op.

Student presentations include:

Mysha Clarke: Energy Recovery in Landfills: A Jamaican Case Study

Monika Egerer: Ecosystem Services on the Mariana Islands: Implications of bird loss for a wild chili pepper species

Rebecca Rogstad: Zane, the Curious Little Zooxanthellate

Shoshana Schultz: Inverting the Atlas: Mapping Geographically Based Food Security in Kalamazoo

“The annual symposium recognizes the scholarship and research that many K seniors devote to their SIPs (a graduation requirement) and showcases the breadth and depth of sustainability-related work taking place at the College,” said Joan Hawxhurst, Director, Center for Career and Professional Development.

This year’s Symposium is the first since the reorganization and expansion of the Guilds to include seven career path clusters: Arts & Media, Business, Education, Health, Law, Nonprofit & Public Service, and Science & Technology. Sustainability infuses the conversations and collaborations in all seven Guilds, and the Sustainability SIP Symposium showcases how this value cuts across disciplines and departments and informs the work of all professionals.

Washington March Culminates in Campus Event

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Kalamazoo College students joined the National March for Immigration Reform
Kalamazoo College students joined the National March for Immigration Reform.

Kalamazoo College sophomore Mariah Hennen, a member of MiRA, an advocacy program of the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Institute for Service-Learning, organized 13 Kalamazoo College students to attend the National March for Immigration Reform on April 10. Those 13 students will be part of a special campus event called “What is Immigration Reform?” That event features a keynote address by Susan Reed. Reed has practiced immigration and immigrant rights law since 2003. She has also served as a staff attorney at Farmworker Legal Services of Michigan and as a regional attorney for Justice for Our Neighbors, the immigration legal services program of the United Methodist Committee on Relief. Her particular interests include the intersection of family and immigration law, the rights of unaccompanied immigrant children, immigrant eligibility for public benefits and programs, and civil rights matters. Reed is Secretary of the Steering Committee for the Michigan Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and co-chairs the Advocacy Committee of the Michigan Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. She has served as an adviser to several State Bar of Michigan committees and initiatives. Her research and commentary has been published in Clearinghouse Review among other publications. “What is Immigration Reform?” will occur Wednesday, April 17, at 4 PM in Dewing Hall Room 103.

K Team Presents at Food Justice Meeting

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A Kalamazoo College (and Kalamazoo-area) food justice partnership coordinated by the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement (formerly the Institute for Service-Learning) came together as a plenary session team and presented at Michigan State University’s First Annual Workshop on Food Justice & Peace. Team members included Alison Geist, director of the Center for Civic Engagement; Associate Professor of English Amelia Katanski; K students Shoshana Schultz ’13 and Charlotte Steele ’14; Ben Brown of the People’s Food Co-op; and Guillermo Martinez of the Van Buren Intermediate School District. Martinez also works with the College’s Hispanic Health and Disease class (Spanish 205). Steele is a former Civic Engagement Scholar of the organization Farms to K. Most of the MSU conference presenters discussed theoretical aspects of food justice and peace. The K team discussed how theory has translated into action in the Kalamazoo area. According to Schultz, the K team demonstrated the “ecology of food justice work in Kalamazoo,” how the parts work together in a manner that integrates theory and practice. Said Schultz: “People were blown away and very impressed by the collaboration that takes place in Kalamazoo.

Kalamazoo College Announces Finalists for $25,000 Global Prize for Collaborative Social Justice Leadership

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Kalamazoo College is pleased to announce the finalists for its inaugural $25,000 Global Prize for Collaborative Social Justice Leadership.

Fifteen finalist projects are collaboratively led by scholars and activists from eight U.S. cities (Columbus, Ohio; Detroit; Los Angeles; New York; Oakland, Cal.; Olympia, Wash.; South Bend, Ind.; and Urbana, Ill.; and ten nations including Germany, Honduras, Hungary, India, Malawi, Palestine, Rwanda, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. One of these projects will earn the $25,000 Global Prize.

Three finalists—two from Kalamazoo and one from Marshall—are eligible for a $5,000 Regional Prize for a project that originates in Southwest Michigan.

All finalists will present their work May 9-11 in Dalton Theatre on the K campus to jurors and attendees who will discuss and deliberate over the course of a three-day “Prize Weekend.” Global and Regional Prize winners will be announced by Kalamazoo College President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran, on Saturday, May 11 at 7:15 in Dalton.

“The Kalamazoo College Global Prize creates an opportunity for our students, faculty, and the local community to interact with scholars and activists who are at the leading edge of collaborative social justice leadership practices around the country and around the world,” Wilson-Oyelaran said.

“The Global Prize also matches up with K’s mission to prepare its graduates to better understand, live successfully within, and provide enlightened leadership to a richly diverse and increasingly complex world,” she said.

Visit https://reason.kzoo.edu/csjl/clprize/finalists  to see a brief description of each finalist and link to its video entry. Facebook users may also view each video and “Like” their favorites (https://www.facebook.com/GlobalPrizeFinalists).

Each Global Prize applicant submitted a video (8-10 minutes) describing a social justice project, its innovative approach, and its collaborative leadership structure. A total of 188 entries were received from 23 countries and 25 U.S. states (including 14 from Southwest Michigan) by the March 8 deadline.

“The Global Prize undertaking truly presents an excellent opportunity for K students and the entire community to see social justice theory in action and to reflect on what we see as promising practices in the pursuit of a more just world,” said Lisa Brock, academic director of Kalamazoo College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, which is administering the Global Prize competition.

According to Brock, a wide variety of social justice issues are addressed among the finalists, including: education access and equity, environmental sustainability, food sovereignty, health inequities, human rights violations against prisoners and LGBTQI people, immigration, international development, racism, workers’ rights, and more.

“Several finalists involve projects and partners that cross state and international borders,” Brock said. “One project from India, for example, includes partners in Columbus, Ohio and South Bend, Indiana. And the project from South Africa includes collaborators in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.”

More than 50 people, including K students, faculty, and staff members, as well as social justice advocates in Kalamazoo and elsewhere, juried the semifinal round of the competition and selected the 18 finalists. Jurors included: author, political activist, and University of California-Santa Cruz scholar Angela Y. Davis; former Executive Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission Cary Alan Johnson; and shea howell, Detroit-based author, educator, columnist, and board member of the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership.

The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership was launched in 2009 with support from the Arcus Foundation (www.arcusfoundation.org), including a $23 million endowment grant in January 2012. Supporting Kalamazoo College’s mission to prepare its graduates to better understand, live successfully within, and provide enlightened leadership to a richly diverse and increasingly complex world, the ACSJL will develop new leaders and sustain existing leaders in the field of human rights and social justice.

Kalamazoo College (www.kzoo.edu), founded in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1833, is a nationally recognized liberal arts college and the creator of the K-Plan that emphasizes rigorous scholarship, experiential learning, leadership development, and international and intercultural engagement. Kalamazoo College does more in four years so students can do more in a lifetime.

Kalamazoo College Will Host a Ceremonial Groundbreaking for New Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership

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3D model of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College
A 3D model of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership will be on display in Upjohn Library Commons through Spring Quarter 2013.

EDITOR′S NOTE: DUE TO RAIN, THE GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY WILL BE MOVED INDOORS TO LOUNGE OF TROWBRIDGE HALL, IMMEDIATELY TO THE EAST OF TROWBRIDGE LANE.

Kalamazoo College will host a ceremonial groundbreaking for its new Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership on Friday, April 19, at 4:30 p.m. The ceremony is open to the public and will take place on the construction site located at the corner of Academy St. and Monroe St. on the K campus. Attendees are asked to gather on Trowbridge Lane that runs south off Academy St. along the east side of the construction site.

K students, faculty, staff, alumni, and board members will participate in the ceremony along with representatives of Chicago-based Studio Gang Architects.

An Arcus Center staff member and Studio Gang architect will discuss the building’s use and design in the lobby of Upjohn Library Commons at the corner of Academy St. and Thompson St., at 12:15 and 3:00 p.m. on the day of the groundbreaking ceremony. On display will be architectural drawings, a 3D model, and a sample section of the distinctive wood masonry siding planned for the building.

Construction for the single-story, 10,000 sq. ft. building began in late fall 2012 with contractor Miller-Davis Company of Kalamazoo. The building is scheduled to be completed in late winter 2014 at a cost of approximately $5 million—paid through a generous gift from K alumnus and trustee Jon Stryker.

Upon completion, the Center will be the world’s first purpose-built structure for social justice leadership development and will support the College’s mission in multiple ways. It will feature study, meeting, and event space where students, faculty, visiting scholars, social justice leaders, and members of the public will come together to engage in scholarship, dialog, and activities aimed at creating a more just world.

The Center is sited to engage its three immediate contexts—the K campus, a residential neighborhood, and an old-growth grove of trees—by drawing their topography into the building and outwardly projecting the activities taking place within through transparent façades.

The gently curving walls connecting these façades are constructed with wood masonry, a low-carbon, highly insulating building method traditional to the upper Midwest, updated to respond to the needs of a contemporary institutional building for the first time. A LEED Gold rating is targeted.

The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership was launched in 2009 with support from the Arcus Foundation (www.arcusfoundation.org), including a $23 million endowment grant in January 2012. Supporting Kalamazoo College’s mission to prepare its graduates to better understand, live successfully within, and provide enlightened leadership to a richly diverse and increasingly complex world, the new social justice center will develop new leaders and sustain existing leaders in the field of human rights and social justice.

Kalamazoo College (www.kzoo.edu), founded in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1833, is a nationally recognized liberal arts college and the creator of the K-Plan that emphasizes rigorous scholarship, learning by practice, leadership development, and international and intercultural engagement. Kalamazoo College does more in four years, so students can do more in a lifetime.

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Kalamazoo College Global Prize Entries Total 188

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Kalamazoo College is pleased to announce receipt of 188 entries for its inaugural Kalamazoo College Global Prize for Collaborative Social Justice Leadership. Entry deadline for this juried competition was March 8.

Applicants hailed from 25 states and the District of Columbia, and from 23 countries. Numerous entries came from Michigan, including 14 from Southwest Michigan and the Kalamazoo area. A handful of entries came from Kalamazoo College students and alumni.

“We are awestruck by the number and scope of entrants, and at the same time not surprised by the incredible outpouring of brilliance and innovation among our applicants,” said Jaime Grant, executive director of K’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL) which is coordinating the competition.

Lisa Brock, ACSJL academic director noted that, “Movements for social justice all around the globe are making daring experiments and breathtaking commitments to their vision for a more just world. This is clearly reflected in the entries we received.”

Brock reported that entries came from Argentina, Canada, Columbia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, India (3), Jamaica, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal (2), Palestine, Pakistan, Rwanda, South Africa (2), Switzerland, Thailand, Uganda (2), and Yemen.

Applicants submitted 8- to 10-minute videos describing their collaborative structure, vision, and strategic approach to addressing a variety of human rights and social justice issues including: mass incarceration, health inequities, economic injustice, youth empowerment, food justice, racism, environmental sustainability, healing and self-determination, arts and theatre activism, educational access and equity, faith organizing, workers’ rights, immigration, micro-lending and social entrepreneurship, community organizing, indigenous activism, restorative justice, housing rights, LGBTQ liberation and peace and conflict resolution.

Finalists will be announced April 15 and invited to the Kalamazoo College campus for a two-day event, May 10-11, during which their work will be presented, discussed and voted upon by audience members and jurists. Two winners—one to receive a $25,000 Global Prize and one to receive a $5,000 Regional prize from Southwest Michigan—will be announced on Saturday, May 11 at 7:15 pm by Kalamazoo College President, Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran.

Jurors for the $25,000 Global Prize include author, political activist, and University of California—Santa Cruz scholar Angela Y. Davis; former Executive Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission Cary Alan Johnson; and Detroit-based author, educator, and columnist shea howell. Howell is also a board member of the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership, in Detroit.

Jurors for the $5,000 Regional Prize include members of the Arcus Center Advisory Board, a panel of K students, faculty, staff, and Kalamazoo community members.

More information about the Kalamazoo College Global Prize for Collaborative Social Justice Leadership is available at www.kzoo.edu/SocialJusticeLeadershipPrize.

The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (www.kzoo.edu/socialjustice) was launched in 2009 with support from the Arcus Foundation (www.arcusfoundation.org), including a $23 million endowment grant in January 2012. Supporting Kalamazoo College’s mission to prepare its graduates to better understand, live successfully within, and provide enlightened leadership to a richly diverse and increasingly complex world, the ACSJL will develop new leaders and sustain existing leaders in the field of human rights and social justice.

Kalamazoo College (www.kzoo.edu), founded in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1833, is a nationally recognized liberal arts college and the creator of the K-Plan that emphasizes rigorous scholarship, experiential learning, leadership development, and international and intercultural engagement. Kalamazoo College does more in four years so students can do more in a lifetime.

K Senior’s Documentary Poetry Project Cited in “Gay Military Signal”

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English major Gabriella Donofrio ’13 completed what English professor Diane Seuss calls “a remarkable Senior Individualized Project!”

Donofrio wrote a book of documentary poetry about life in the military (before and after the repeal of the “Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell” policy) for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and queer soldiers serving their country. She was on study abroad when the policy was repealed in September, 2011, and didn’t give it too much thought until three months later.

She wanted her SIP to be a book of poetry, and based hers on Mark Nowak’s collection of documentary poetry titled Coal Mountain Elementary. “I first interviewed several military members about their experiences of being gay in the military,” wrote Donofrio. “I then transcribed the interviews and framed poems around the stories that seemed most poignant to me.

The result is a collection of pieces in the voices of seven members of the LGBTQ+ military movement.” Her SIP includes some 75 pieces, some of which were published with a story about Donofrio and her project in the monthly web publication Gay Military Signal.

K Biennial Social Justice Prize Debuts in Spring; Apply Now

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The first Kalamazoo College Global Prize for Collaborative Social Justice Leadership will be awarded the weekend of May 10-11 on the Kalamazoo College campus. Entries for the prizes are due by March 8. Jurors include human rights activist Angela Davis and Cary Alan Johnson, former executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

Two prizes will be awarded–a $25,000 Global Prize (for which regional entrants are also eligible) and a $5,000 Regional Prize that will go to projects/applicants based in the following Michigan counties: Berrien, Cass, St. Joseph, Branch, Calhoun, Kalamazoo, Van Buren, Allegan, Barry, Kent, Ottawa, and Muskegon.

From all entries 20 finalists will come to campus to share their work and application video with Kalamazoo College students and the local social justice learning community. “We envision the competition as a ‘social justice TED’ sort of format,” said Jaime Grant, executive director of Kalamazoo College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. “Applicants upload an 8-10 minute video onto our application site and fill out the one-page form there. No grant application!”

The accessible format will help uncover original grassroots thinking and practice in social justice collaboration around the globe. “We’re encouraging people to put out their breakthrough thinking and aspirations even if they don’t have a fully formed project,”explained Grant. “This competition should unearth possibility and show us new ways forward. We are equally excited to see ‘veteran’ works that demonstrate unsung and breathtaking outcomes.’’

“Prize weekend” will be a great opportunity for social justice learners. Throughout that weekend applicants will present their work in person, and K students, faculty, staff, and community members will discuss ground-breaking work with finalists in small break-out sessions.

Apply now! The deadline for entries is March 8.

What’s Love Got To Do With It?

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Willina Cain sings "Wake Up Everybody" while Corrine Taborn accompanies
Willina Cain ’15 sings “Wake Up Everybody” while Corrine Taborn ’13 accompanies.

“What’s Love got to do with it? Anti-Racist Activism in the Creation of Beloved Communities” was the topic of the Winter Quarter Week Four (Feb. 1) Community Reflection in Stetson Chapel, co-sponsored by the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL) and the Black Student Organization (BSO). The Reflection centered around love as an underlying motivator for social change and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s philosophy of “the beloved community” as an end result of non-violent social change. Members of BSO shared their own spoken word pieces, poems, stories, and facts on the subject of leaders from the African-American movement against racism.

Rob Relief III ’13, president of the Young Men of Color student organization, discussed the 87-year history and original aims of Black History Month. Willina Cain ’15 sang the R&B song “Wake Up Everybody” while Corinne Taborn ’13 accompanied her on piano and sang backup vocals. Rian Brown ’16 spoke about how her identity relates to Black History Month. “My ancestors fought for me to gain the privilege to stand before you today,” she said. “But has their work been completed? I know the answer to that question is ‘No.’” She encouraged audience members to shed their complacency and continue the fight for justice and equality.

Jeffery Washington ’15 read a poem he wrote with the refrain “I Black.” “My light friend says I can’t-be-seen-in-the-night-time black/ I’m too black to find that funny,” he read. “I guess I got a dark sense of humor.” Marquise Griffin ’15 read a reflection on his recent trip to Washington D.C. to attend the National Youth Leadership Forum, and his meditations on Christ’s love, which he discussed at the forum. “Dr. King stressed love when combating hate and racism, violence and discrimination,” he said. Bryce Pearson ’16 read a poem called “The Overlooked King,” reflecting on racism. “They didn’t know who I was/ They don’t know who I am/ And they really have no clue of who I will be,” he read. Brittany King-Pleas ’13 closed the Reflection by saying she hoped the audience left with more questions than answers.

Community Reflections offer a unique forum for discussion, worship, performance, and community expression each Friday at 10:50 a.m. in Stetson Chapel. Refreshments at 10:30. The entire campus community and general public are invited.

The Week Six (Friday Feb. 15) Community Reflection is entitled “Why We Play” and features K student athletes discussion why they love to play Division III athletics. This is an annual event always full of heartfelt passion and humor. Special guest speaker is Rebecca Gray ’81. Currently a research scholar at Duke University, Becky majored in mathematics and played basketball for the Hornets. She is also Kalamazoo College’s only Rhodes Scholar.

Story and photo by Elaine Ezekiel ’13

Alumna Selected to United Nations Commission Session

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Marlene Guerrero Chavez ’08 was selected to serve as a youth delegate for the 51st session of the United Nations Commission for Social Development. The priority theme of the 10-day conference is “Promoting empowerment of people in achieving poverty eradication, social integration, and full employment and decent work for all.” The session takes place in New York City and will feature panel discussions, more than 30 side events, five draft resolutions, and the Civil Society Forum’s recommendations on promoting people’s empowerment to achieve social development goals.