Dear LREI Families,
I hope this note finds you well and having enjoyed the long Thanksgiving weekend. We have a few weeks before winter break and they are chock-a-block with activities and events. I hope you are able to take advantage of them.
Two important invitations for you this week.
#1 – Raising Race Conscious Children
From former First Lady Michelle Obama’s new memoir, Becoming, on her arrival at Princeton University: Black students made up less than 9 percent of my freshmen class. If during the orientation [for students of color] program we’d begun to feel some ownership of the space, we were now a glaring anomaly –poppy seeds in a bowl of rice…. I’d never stood out in a crowd or a classroom because of the color of my skin. It was jarring and uncomfortable, at least at first, like being dropped into a strange terrarium, a habitat that hadn’t been built for me.
Mrs. Obama shares that she spent much of her time in the community of black and Latino students, “The hope was that all of us would mingle in heterogeneous harmony, deepening the quality of student life across the board. It is a worthy goal…. But even today, with white students continuing to outnumber students of color on college campuses the burden of assimilation is put largely on the shoulders of minority students. In my experience, it’s a lot to ask.”
Followed by, when writing of her classmates “rising” to these challenges, “It requires effort, an extra level of confidence, to speak in those settings and own your presence in each room. Which is why when my friends and I found one another at dinner each night, it was with some degree of relief. It’s why we stayed a long time and laughed as much as we could.”
I encourage you to join Chap and your parent colleagues at our first Open PA Equity Meeting: Raising Race Conscious Children. This series, formerly known as How to Raise an Ally, will take place on Friday, December 7, 2018, 8:45 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. in the Sixth Avenue Cafeteria.
We will use a framework called Narrative 4 and you can learn more about it by visiting this link. An RSVP is needed to ensure we have sufficient space. Use this form to let us know if you will attend.
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#2 – Literary Evening, 2018
This year marks the 22nd anniversary of the LREI Literary Evening!
Literary Evening is an adults-only event that brings together authors to read from their latest work and participate in a moderated panel and Q&A. The evening is for book lovers, but it’s not a book club. You do not need to have read all the books to attend. All we ask is for your rapt attention and thoughtful questions. We’ve got foodies covered, too. The evening includes a catered dinner and wine. This year we are also offering childcare. Sign up for this service by December 3rd.
Join us on Tuesday, December 4th, 6:30 p.m., for a lively conversation about Restless New York. We are pleased to present three authors writing in three genres about the city we love! Joseph O’Neill, Netherland, Kim Phillips-Fein, Fear City, New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics and Albert Samaha, Never Ran, Never Will: Boyhood and Football in a Changing American Inner City. LREI History Faculty Member Charlene Cruz-Cerdas, Ph.D., will moderate the evening.
Tickets at $25 will be on sale in the Sixth Avenue lobby on Tuesday, Nov. 27, Wednesday, Nov. 28, and Thursday, Nov. 29. You can purchase tickets onlinehere.
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