6 p.m. ET Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021
Solidarity Town Hall: Imagining Decolonized Futures
Online Livestream
FREE with RSVP
Join us for our annual Solidarity Town Hall program, an anchor discussion as part of AANM’s theme for Fall 2021 – Spring 2022: Istiqbal al Mustaqbal (Welcoming the Future). This year, the Town Hall is themed Imagining Decolonized Futures, highlighting futurist and sci-fi narratives as we imagine a world without colonial concepts. The Town Hall will feature keynote speaker: Anishinaabe academic and author Grace Dillon; and panelists: British Palestinian fiction writer Selma Dabbagh, multidisciplinary Afrofuturist artist Bryce Detroit, Canadian and Anishinaabe filmmaker Lisa Jackson; with moderator Hina Baloch, leader of the Research & Analytics team at GM. This is a virtual event taking place via Zoom.
For questions, email Kathryn Grabowski at [email protected].
Keynote Speaker:
Dr. Grace L. Dillon is an academic and author. She is an Anishinaabe professor in the indigenous nations studies program, in the school of gender, race, and nations, at portland state university. Similar to the concept of Afrofuturism, dr. Dillon is best known for coining the term indigenous futurism, which is A movement consisting of art, literature, and other forms of media which express indigenous perspectives of the past, present, and future in the context of science fiction and related sub-genres. Dr. Dillon is the editor of walking the clouds: an anthology of indigenous science fiction, which is the first anthology of indigenous science fiction short stories, published by the University of Arizona press in 2012.
Panelists:
Selma Dabbagh is a British Palestinian writer of fiction. Born in Scotland, she has lived in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, France, Egypt and the West Bank. Her first novel, ‘Out of It,’ (Bloomsbury, 2011) set between London, Gaza and the Gulf was listed as a Guardian Book of the Year. She has also written radio plays ‘The Brick,’ for BBC Radio 4 (nominated for the Imison Award) and ‘Sleep It Off, Dr. Schott,’ for WDR in Germany and had short stories published by Granta, Telegram and International PEN as well as writing for film and stage. Her non-fiction has appeared in the Guardian, London Review of Books, GQ and other publications. She is the editor of ‘We Wrote In Symbols; Love and Lust by Arab Women Writers,’ (Saqi, 2021) and lives in London. Photo: Susannah Baker Smith
Bryce Detroit is the multidisciplinary Afrofuturist artist, music producer, performance-based storyteller, curator, activist, and pioneer of Entertainment Justice, demonstrating the power of music entertainment arts to preserve, produce, and promote new Diasporic African narratives, cultural literacies, visual representations, and neighborhood-based economies. Bryce Detroit is a 2020 Harvard University Council of the Arts award recipient, 2020 Transforming Power Fund awardee, 2019 New Museum Ideas Cities Fellow, 2018 Race Forward – Rinku Sen Innovation Awardee, as well as 2017 Knight Arts Challenge award winner. Bryce Detroit grows self-determined communities as a founding member of Oakland Avenue Artists Coalition, co-founder of Detroit Community Wealth Fund, consultant at Center for Community Based Enterprises (C2BE), board member for East Michigan Environmental Action Council (EMEAC), and founding member of art-activism collective Frontline Detroit
Lisa Jackson is a Toronto-based Anishinaabe filmmaker (Aamjiwnaang) whose documentary and fiction films and VR work have garnered two Canadian Screen Awards, been nominated for a Webby, broadcast widely, and screened at top festivals including Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW, Berlinale, and Hot Docs. Indictment: The Crimes of Shelly Chartier won best doc at imagineNATIVE and is one of CBC’s top watched docs. She recently launched Door Number 3 Productions currently in production on feature hybrid documentary Wilfred Buck. She was awarded the 2021 Documentary Organization of Canada’s Vanguard Award, is an ISO-MIT Fellow, has an MFA from York University, and is part of the NFB Indigenous Advisory as well as the Indigenous Screen Office’s Membership Circle. She’s an alumna of TIFF Talent and Writers Labs, as well as the CFC Directors Lab, and Playback Magazine named her one of Ten to Watch. See more at doornumber3.ca.
Moderator:
Ms. Hina Baloch serves as the Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion, Sustainability, Data Analytics and STEM Education Communications at General Motors. In her current position, Hina’s work has focused on policies within the company that advance diversity and environmentally positive programs and policies. Ms. Baloch played a crucial role in the development of the Smithsonian Science Education Center’s Zero Barriers in STEM Education project, cultivating STEM learning for students with disabilities, as well as with the International Society for Technology in Education’s hands-on project based AI learning guides. Ms. Baloch has previously worked in the bi-lateral Trade and Diplomacy field with a British Government Organization focusing on trade, education, and diplomatic ties between the UK and Central and South Asian countries. Baloch has also worked as a quantitative and qualitative researcher in the International Development field with Brookings Institute and Results for Development in Washington D.C. focusing on education, child protection and public health in the Middle East, African and Eastern European countries. In 2021, Ms. Baloch was named to PR Week’s Dashboard 25, as one of the most influential people in communications technology. She is a recipient of UNESCO’s International Development Fellowship (2014-2015) at University of Pennsylvania and Fulbright- Huber H. Humphrey Fellowship (2012-2013) at Penn-State University and has a specialization in statistical methods for psychometric testing from University of Cambridge. Ms. Baloch also served on the State of Michigan Governor’s STEM Advisory Board between 2017-2019 and serves on the advisory board of AI4All and Smithsonian Science Education Center National Advisory Board.
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