Panelists: Ted Alexandro, Dante Barry, Tamika D. Mallory and Michael Skolnik, Moderated by Patrick Waldo
Join us for a free discussion featuring leading civil rights activists and entertainers examining the Black Lives Matter movement and the state of race relations in America today.
BLACK LIVES MATTER 101:
Step one to any successful 12-step program is admitting you have a problem, so let’s start there. America has a race problem. The problem is America won’t admit it.
We followed the Trayvon Martin case. We saw the officers who killed Eric Garner and Mike Brown get off without a trial. We’ve heard the statistics that 2/3 of Americans in prison for drug offenses are people of color, yet reports indicate drug use is even across races. And still we hear from so many skeptics, “It’s not about race.”
Race has always been a hot-button issue, but it has reached a boiling point in recent months. “Black Lives Matter” has emerged as a battle cry of protesters fighting racial inequality in America. But what does Black Lives Matter really mean? Why do we say “Black Lives Matter” and not “All Lives Matter?” What good does shutting down the West Side Highway do? And what does this all have to do with my brunch!?
Against the backdrop of Smack Mellon Gallery’s RESPOND exhibition, an expert panel featuring some of today’s leading civil rights activists and entertainers will tackle these common questions and examine the state of race relations in America today. We’ll take a close look at the Black Lives Matter movement, its goals, its demands, its strengths and weaknesses, potential hurdles, as well as how it relates to the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.
Many of us took to the streets in January for Millions March NYC. Now what? Where do we go from here? What tangible steps can we take to end racial inequality in America? What roles can white allies play? And for those of us who want to help but are more reluctant to protest publicly, what can we do?
We have an amazing group ready to take on all this and more.
Panelists:
Ted Alexandro is a stand-up comedian who has appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Dr. Katz, and Entourage. He has had two half-hour Comedy Central Presents specials and has opened for Chuck Berry, Smokey Robinson, Louis C.K., Joan Rivers, and Dennis Miller. Alexandro is an outspoken “Black Lives Matter” advocate and regularly participates in marches, rallies, and demonstrations for the movement.
Nakisha M. Lewis is a philanthropic strategist and activist residing in Brooklyn, NY. She is a thought leader in the field of philanthropy and has worked extensively with individual donors and foundations to develop grantmaking strategies that address racial, gender and educational inequities. She is a longtime advocate for racial and gender equity who has spent more than a decade supporting youth and grassroots organizing across movements with a particular focus on women and girls of color and the LGBTQ community. She has worked on a range of justice issues and is currently an organizer with Black Lives Matter NYC. Nakisha serves on the board of directors of Resource Generation and New York Blacks in Philanthropy. She is published in several philanthropic and nonprofit journals including the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Dropout Nation and the National Caucus of Black State Legislators. She earned Bachelor of Arts degree from Drexel University and is a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.
Tamika D. Mallory is a nationally recognized leader, currently being heralded as a next-generation champion of the civil rights movement. A fiery and outspoken champion for social justice, Ms. Mallory has been called the “Sojourner Truth of Our Time” by JET magazine and publicly applauded as “a leader of tomorrow” by Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama, Valerie B. Jarrett. Ms. Mallory is the President of Mallory Consulting, a strategic planning and event management company in New York City, as well as the Director for Community Affairs at Radio 103.9, a Cumulus station. In 2014, Ms. Mallory was selected to serve on the transition committee of New York City Mayor-Elect Bill De Blasio and she served as co-chair of the citywide initiative, Gun Violence Awareness Month. She is featured regularly on CNN, TV One, MSNBC, News One and many other mediums as a leading voice on key social justice issues. She currently resides in New York City, the proud mother of 15-year-old son Tarique.
Angelo Pinto is leading the Correctional Associations Raise The Age Campaign which seeks to increase the age of criminal responsibility in New York State from 16-17 years of age to 18 years of age as well as to ensure that children are not housed in adult jails. Angelo worked with the Arthur Ashe institute for Urban Health designing health disparities based interventions for formerly incarcerated men in central Brooklyn. He served as a Legal Coordinator on Riker’s Island where he taught a legal research course to incarcerated adolescents and adults. Angelo also facilitated a leadership training program for youth confined at Riker’s as part of the Juvenile Justice Project’s work with system-involved youth. Angelo was born and raised in New York. He received a J.D. from the City University of New York Law School and a B.A. in Criminal Justice and Sociology from Clark Atlanta University.
Michael Skolnik is a 21st-century civil rights activist, writer, motivational speaker, social media strategist, and entrepreneur. He is currently serving as the Political Director of hip hop pioneer Russell Simmons’ GlobalGrind.com. Prior to his work with Simmons, Skolnik spent twelve years as a film director and producer.
Keisha Zollar is an actor, writer, comedienne, and adjunct professor at Sarah Lawrence College. She has been seen on “Orange Is The New Black,” “The Today Show,” College Humor, Comedy Central, MTV, UCBComedy, and numerous webseries. She can be seen performing around NYC at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and Peoples Improv Theater. She co-hosts “The Soul Glo Project,” a podcast celebrating comedy and inclusion. Zollar is in post production for her documentary project “An Uncomfortable Conversation About Race” and has recently directed her first interactive sketch called “Neggers.” She is proud of her latest series, “In Game,” a diverse webseries about LARPing (Nerd Stuff). Learn more at KeishaZollar.com.
Moderator:
Patrick Waldo is an artist and activist who has worked for The Charlie Rose Show and The Huffington Post. His year-and-a-half long public art project in which he subverted subway ads with the word “moustache” resulted in his well publicized arrest, a one-man comedy show, Moustache Man: Confessions of a Graffiti Artist, which he wrote and performed at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Chelsea, and a solo exhibition, Moustache Man, displayed at Krause Gallery in the Lower East Side. Waldo has been advocating for animal and human rights for almost 20 years, but after following the cases of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and Mike Brown, he has committed his time and energy to the Black Lives Matter movement.