Shay Stewart-Bouley SYSTEM
Authentic Dialogues: Talking about Racism and Moving to Action with Shay Stewart-Bouley will be presented at 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 21, at Denmark Arts Center. This presentation is free and open to all.
This is an interactive session designed to look critically at racism in our communities and our nation by examining the roots of white supremacy and how the past impacts our present. A key goal will be teaching, sharing, and learning practical tools for working in our own communities to combat racism and to start conversations on addressing racism and difference in predominantly white spaces. This session is a mixture of lecture and small-group work, which will allow participants to deepen their knowledge of racism, examine their own biases, and learn techniques for starting conversations on racism and how to be an effective ally.
Shay has been blogging since 2008 (frequently on matters of social justice and systemic racism) through her Black Girl In Maine website and, in 2011, she won a New England Press Association Award for her writing on race and diversity for the Portland Phoenix. Shay’s writing also has been featured in a variety of Maine and national publications as well as several anthologies. In November 2016, Shay gave a TEDx talk entitled “Inequity, Injustice… Infection.”
Stewart-Bouley moved to Maine from Chicago in 2002. She is a graduate of both DePaul University and Antioch University New England and is the executive director of Community Change Inc., a 49-year-old civil rights organization in Boston, Massachusetts, that has been educating and organizing for racial equality since 1968 with a specific focus on the white problem.
Stewart-Bouley says, “In 2003, I decided to test the waters of a childhood dream of writing and started producing pieces periodically for publications such as the Portland Press Herald and the Journal Tribune, later that year landing my own column in the Portland Phoenix, “Diverse-City,” which for over a decade I used to share insight and commentary monthly on a variety of diversity issues ranging from race to class, gender relations to sexual orientation, and workplace issues to lifestyle choices.”
The Denmark Arts Center is an award-winning 501(c)3 cultural organization founded in 1994 in the rural community of Denmark. Housed in the town’s historic 1883 Odd Fellows Hall, the DAC offers year-round events and workshops in contemporary dance, theater, music and visual art to community members young and old. DAC is at 50 West Main St., Denmark. For more information, visit denmarkarts.org.
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