ARRK April 2022 Discussion with Lisa Murphy and Robin Rank
Participants restricted to Kalamazoo College Faculty, Staff, Students, and Administration
A discussion of blackface, both K’s past and in the present-day in the form of digital blackface
4:10 p.m. on Tuesday, April 19th
ARRK Meeting Space (MS Teams)
Discussion Leaders: Lisa Murphy and Robin Rank
Lisa Murphy and Robin Rank will be leading the April ARRK discussion of blackface, both K’s past and in the present-day form of digital blackface. In preparation for the discussion, please consider viewing the College archive collection “Minstrel Shows, Vaudeville, and Other Blackface Performances” and read Dr. Lauren Michele Jackson’s essay for Teen Vogue, “We Need to Talk About Digital Blackface in Reaction GIFs” that popularized the usage of the term.
The AntiRacism Reading Knook (ARRK) is a collaboration between the K College library staff and our Inclusive Excellence (KCIE) leadership team. This initiative is NOT a book club, but seeks to facilitate campus-wide engagement with the books in the KCIE Reading for Change book collection. This collection was created to encourage learning about and facilitate greater access to antiracism information to all members of the campus community.
ARRK aims to:
- reduce barrier to entry into reading antiracism books,
- identify and highlight campus facilitators with experience teaching and/or disciplinary expertise who can provide context and guide discussions of specific texts,
- foster broader relationships among faculty and staff, and thus
- build greater capacity for an inclusive campus through sustained and focused engagement with shared texts.
- help catalyze members of the campus to engage in small group discussions of entire books in the collection (self-organized book clubs, if you will).
For further information on #ARRK see the KCIE AntiRacism Reading Knook page. To volunteer to lead one of these sessions complete the ARRK Discussion Leader application.