Connecticut Ethnic Studies Symposium
Friday April 5, 2024, 11:00am–6:00pm, Wilbur Cross North Reading Room
Keynote address by Antoinette Brim-Bell, Connecticut Poet Laureate, 11:30am
Register to attend the keynote. Lunch will be served.
Undergraduate students from across Connecticut will present their work at the 5th Annual Connecticut Ethnic Studies Symposium, on Friday, April 5th from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM. This in-person symposium is sponsored by the UConn Co-op Legacy Fellowship program and the UConn Humanities Institute.
The keynote speaker will be Antoinette Brim-Bell, the Connecticut State Poet Laureate. Brim-Bell was selected and her address is sponsored by the UConn Humanities Institute’s Undergraduate Advisory Council. The keynote address will take place at 11:30am, following lunch at 11:00am. Those wishing to attend the keynote must register.
This year’s symposium will mark the 50th anniversary of the 1974 sit-in at Wilbur Cross Library in which state police arrested 219 Black students who demanded the construction of an African American Cultural Center. These students’ radical protests for Black liberation created permanent, physical spaces for students of color to gather and inspired cross-racial solidarity. With a theme of “Archival Activism and Public Memory,” the symposium will educate the community about using archives to reconstruct the public memory and honor student leadership in social movements.
For more details, see the CT Ethnic Studies Symposium website.
A schedule of panels and speakers is available here.
Antoinette Brim-Bell, Connecticut’s 8th State Poet Laureate, is the author of three full-length poetry collections: These Women You Gave Me, Icarus in Love, and Psalm of the Sunflower. She is a Cave Canem Foundation Fellow and an alumna of Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA). Her poetry has appeared in various journals, magazines, textbooks, and anthologies. Additionally, Brim-Bell has published critical work, most notably, essays. A printmaker and collage artist, Brim-Bell exhibited both poetry and monoprints in Jazz: An exhibition of Poetry, Prints, and Photography at the Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery in New Haven, CT, and Sheroes, in partnership with the Alliance of Women Veterans at the Grove in New Haven, CT. She serves as Secretary of the Board of Directors of Indolent Arts Foundation based in New York City, is a past Board Member of OneWorld Progressive Institute, and a past President of the Board of Directors of the Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven, CT. Additionally, Brim-Bell hosted a series of Black History Month television programs for the OneWorld Progressive Institute. She is also a former guest host of Patrick Oliver’s Literary Nation Talk Radio (KABF 88.3, Little Rock), for which she interviewed a variety of entertainers, literary figures, political pundits, and community developers. A sought-after speaker, editor, educator, and consultant, Brim-Bell is a Professor of English at Capital Community College in Hartford, CT.
Access note
If you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact us at uchi@uconn.edu or by phone (860) 486-9057. We can request ASL interpretation, computer-assisted real time transcription, and other accommodations offered by the Center for Students with Disabilities.
