Radical Imagination: Afro-Futurism, Health Equity & Racial Justice

The Ubuntu Center

Join us as we celebrate one year and discuss Afro-futurism as a framework to advance health equity and racial justice.

Drexel University MacAlister Hall

Thank you for visiting The Ubuntu Center on Racism, Global Movements & Population Health Equity. Unfortunately, sales have ended for this event, but please follow us on Twitter (@TheUbuntuCenter) for updates and future events. 

You can also reach us by email at ubuntu@drexel.edu.

<h2>About the Event</h2><h3>Join the <a href="https://drexel.edu/dornsife/research/centers-programs-projects/ubuntu-center/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Ubuntu Center on Racism, Global Movements &amp; Population Health Equity</a> at the <a href="https://drexel.edu/dornsife/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University</a>  as we celebrate our one-year launch anniversary! To commemorate the occasion we will be in conversation with Karla Roberts, Jacobie Smith, and Li Sumpter PhD discussing Afrofuturism as a framework to advance health equity and racial justice.  We will also be joined by Philly-based percussionist and poet, <a href="https://karensmithdrums.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Karen Smith</a>, of Weez the Peeple and Sistahs Laying Down Hands with Love.</h3><h3>This is event is open to scholars, students, activists, organizers, community residents, our colleagues inside and outside of Drexel University and all committed to building the just and equitable world we all deserve.</h3><h3>Masks will be required to attend. Lunch will be provided. </h3><h2></h2><h2>About The Ubuntu Center</h2><h3>Born out of the Pain and Power of this moment, the Ubuntu Center is a new research center at the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health in Philadelphia, PA established to bring together a vibrant mix of activists, researchers, and community residents – especially those historically excluded within the Academy – whose range of perspectives, expertise, and experience will mobilize our strengths and capacities. Our aim in this regard is to provide the platform and organizational infrastructure to advance collective anti-racism scholarship, training, and action. We embrace a radical imagination and <strong><em>envision a just future free of systems of oppression, full of new possibilities through bold collective action, and an equitable world in which all individuals and communities are healthy and thriving.</em></strong></h3><h3>For more information, visit ubuntucenter.org or email us at ubuntu@drexel.edu.</h3><h3></h3><h2>About Our Speakers</h2><h3><strong>Moderator</strong>: Michael O&#x27;Bryan</h3><h3>Michael O’Bryan is a practitioner and researcher in the fields of community development, organizational culture, and human well-being. He is a Distinguished Resident Fellow at Drexel University’s Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation and most recently served as Director of Learning at The Village of Arts and Humanities. Michael is the founder of Humanature, a design strategy firm working with nonprofits, businesses, and government agencies to transform how they understand and support human development, interaction, and performance. Past and current clients include NeighborWorks America, The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, New Jersey Community Capital, Strada Education Network, The Opportunity Finance Network, and The United Negro College Fund. Mr. O’Bryan has spoken about his work at such venues as Cornell University&#x27;s Institute on Employment and Disability, SOCAP, and the Apollo Theater in New York. He is on faculty in Career Studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, a lecturer in city planning at the University of Pennsylvania’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design, and serves on the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Commission on the Arts and the boards of the Samuel S. Fels Fund and the Philadelphia Cultural Fund.</h3><h3></h3><h3><strong>Speaker: </strong>Jacobie Smith</h3><h3>Jacobie has always been an outspoken voice at Drexel within the Architecture &amp; Interiors disciplines in the Westphal College of Media Arts &amp; Design, and she is a force to be reckoned with concerning protecting Black people. After experiencing the regular frustrations of being the &quot;only&quot; Black woman in a class of so many, she started a club to increase awareness and create a safe space for Black Interior Design &amp; Architecture students to gather. The club was one of the first of its kind in the architecture department and inspired her colleagues&#x27; moves for increasing campus awareness around Black sociocultural issues. Her interests in Black futures continued to grow through her Masters studies at the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania by positioning Black activists as space makers and architects of the built environment. She is an architecture history &amp; theory doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania, an adjunct professor at Drexel University, and an activist around Black issues in society &amp; ecological changes impacting Black liberation.</h3><h3><strong>Speaker: </strong>Karla Roberts</h3><h3>Karla Roberts is a native Philadelphian born &amp; raised in the lower Germantown section of the city. Growing up she was curious &amp; always experimenting with the connecting threads of science, technology, spaces, and stories. Returning to university for an MS in Interior Architecture at Drexel University in 2018, she began to question the disconnections between the unique experiences of Blackness &amp; poverty in architecture. After the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery &amp; George Floyd, the tether between those disconnections began to crystallize and spatial identity emerged as a contributing factor to hopelessness. Bolstered by the environments of Star Trek, Star Wars, and Black Panther, she combined them with the imaginative stories of her youth and core family of resilient women. Thus, her thesis work was focused on building a future that re-connected the power, pain, and triumph of Blackness throughout the past, present &amp; future. This exploration led her to Afrofuturism and its guiding principles became a vehicle for imagining change. She now works for Determined By Design (The People&#x27;s Design Firm), where storytelling and Black &amp; Brown bodies are centered within interior environments. Karla serves as an adjunct at Drexel University leading a course on Afrofuturism and Place Identity and an instructor at Fleisher Art Memorial leading a course on Afrofuturism and Visual Culture. Karla is a procurement specialist, project designer, and design storyteller who is passionate about people and how our spaces and lived experiences shape our identities. </h3><h3><strong>Speaker:</strong> L﻿i Sumpter, PhD</h3><h3>Li Sumpter, Ph.D. is a multidisciplinary artist and independent scholar who applies strategies of worldbuilding and mythic design toward building better, more resilient communities of the future. Li’s creative research and collaborative design initiatives engage the art of survival and sustainability through diverse ecologies and immersive stories of change. Li is a cultural producer and eco-arts activist working through MythMedia Studios, the Escape Artist Initiative and various arts and community-based organizations in Philly and across the country. She holds an MA in Art and Humanities Education from NYU and a MA/Ph.D. in Mythological Studies and Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Li has been a visiting professor at Haverford College and Moore College of Art and Design and has taught special topics for youth and adult courses at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Barnes Foundation, and Fleisher Art Memorial. She has completed various Philly-based residences for arts and technology, arts and ecology and the literary arts and will begin her term as Afrofuturist-in-Residence with the Village of Arts and Humanities in the Fall of 2022. Li is a recipient of the 2018 Sundance Institute and Knight Alumni grant, a 3-time recipient of the Leeway Art and Change Grant, a 2020 recipient of the Leeway Transformation Award, a 2022 recipient of the Velocity Fund, and a 2022 Leeway Media Artist x Activist-in-Residence with the Theatre in the X. </h3>

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Radical Imagination: Afro-Futurism, Health Equity & Racial Justice

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