Conversations in Color

The Amistad Research Center in partnership with Tulane University's Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Office for Gender and Sexual Diversity and Newcomb College Institute will host Alicia Garza and Elizabeth Alexander Monday, Jan. 22, in a conversation about the importance of developing and centering cultural narratives in sociopolitical activism.

The event begins at 6:30 p.m. in McAlister Auditorium on the uptown campus and is part of Conversations in Color, a free public cultural series that features artists, educators and community activists in talks about their work and its impact on social change.

Alexander is the author of six books of poetry, including American Sublime, a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize; two collections of essays; and The Light of the World, her critically acclaimed memoir on love and loss. She has taught with distinction at the University of Chicago, where she won the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching; New York University, in the graduate creative writing program; and Smith College, where she was Grace Hazard Conkling Poet in Residence and director of the Poetry Center. She was on the faculty of Yale University for 15 years and served as chair of Yale’s African American Studies Department. Alexander was recently named the Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University.

Garza is an Oakland-based organizer, writer and public speaker who is currently the Special Projects Director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the nation’s leading voice for dignity and fairness for the millions of domestic workers in the United States. Garza, along with Opal Tometi and Patrisse Cullors, also co-founded the Black Lives Matter (BLM) network, a globally recognized organizing project that focuses on combating anti-black state-sanctioned violence and the oppression of all black people. Since the rise of the BLM movement, Garza has become a powerful voice in the media. Her articles and interviews have been featured in Time, Mic, The Guardian, Elle.com, Essence, Democracy Now!, and The New York Times.

In addition, her work has received numerous recognitions including being named on The Root’s 2016 list of 100 African American achievers and influencers, the 2016 Glamour Women of the Year Award, the 2016 Marie Claire New Guard Award, and as a Community Change Agent at the 2016 BET’s Black Girls Rock Awards.