Next Up Join Us for a Civic Engagement Field Trip! to the SNCC & GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING DISCUSSION SERIES
April 26-27, 2024: Howard University (Washington, D.C.) Featuring SNCC veterans, Courtland Cox and Jennifer Lawson, & humanities scholars, Catherine Adams and Hasan Kwame Jeffries
The heart and purpose of PLTI Alexandria People’s Assembly is civic engagement. Did you know the orginal 20 week PLTI program is an iteration of the Freedom Schools, first developed by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the 1964 Freedom Summer in Mississippi?
The SNCC and Grassroots Organizing: Building a More Perfect Union discussion series focuses on SNCC’s grassroots community organizing and its relevance to ongoing efforts to build a more just, inclusive, and sustainable society. At its core, SNCC helped community members feel empowered to make choices and act on the issues that most impacted their lives and their communities.
FRIDAY APR 26th, 7:00 pm Black Power Roundtable Discussion (In Person or Livestream)
SATURDAY APR 27th 10:00 am Art & Culture Roundtable Discussion & Workshop
SATURDAY APR 27th 1:00 pm Black Power Learning Toolkit Workshop
The Alexandria People’s Assembly is looking for 20 people who live, work, or have family roots in Alexandria to meet us at this SNCC workshop event. All PLTI Alumni are encouraged to join us! Bring your high school students with you.
Come learn more about SNCC’s organizing work from SNCC veterans and humanities scholars and to explore connections to your life and community. The series is focused on six themes that are at the heart of SNCC’s history of grassroots organizing: the organizing tradition, voting rights, Black Power, women and gender, freedom teaching, and art and culture in movement building.
The Parent Leadership Training Institute of Alexandria is closing out the 2022-2023 PLTI Alexandria People's Assembly and Alumni Racial Justice Fellowship by hosting two community events to commemorate Juneteenth, Mental Health Awareness Month, and Black Mental Health Awareness Month.
We are proud to have the Horning Family Foundation and the American Psychiatric Association Foundation serve as our Presenting Sponsors, with PIES Fitness Yoga Studio, Lazera Ministries, Kweli.tv, the Alexandria African American Hall of Fame, and the Alexandria Film Festival serving as Community Partners.
Our premiere event is a film screening and panel discussion of Dr. Shawn Utsey's tremendous documentary Central Lunatic Asylum for the Colored Insane on Thursday June 22, 2023. This film shares the 153-year history of Central State Hospital (CSH), the first asylum for Black people in the United States. The reception begins at 6pm. The film will begin at 7pm. The panel will close out our evening.
Confirmed panelists include Dr. Utsey, film director, VCU professor, and president of the VA Chapter of The Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi), Dr. Olivia Garland, the first Black woman administrator at CSH, Ms. Gwen Cherry, granddaughter of William Benjamin Howell, a patient who died at CSH in the 1940s, and Dr. Joniesha Hickson, clinical psychologists, co-host of Zola Mondays with ABPsi, and founder of Dear Black Prophets. The panel will share a practical vision for what racial justice in mental health could look like through an optimal conceptual worldview, and discuss the ongoing efforts to establish structural racial justice in mental health.
The second event is our PLTI Alumni Racial Justice Fellowship Closing Symposium on Saturday June 17, 2023 at 10am. Our fellows will present their Racial Justice Fellowship Project outcomes, and share personal reflections on the impact that advocating for racial justice in Alexandria has had on the mental health of their family and community.
As is PLTI tradition, our simultaneous CLTI children's programming will explore themes of racial justice and mental health in developmentally appropriate ways.
Capacity is limited. Registration is required. Please register above.