The Ethnic Studies Educator's Academy
The ESEA brings together scholar-educators from colleges and Universities across Texas to connect, dialogue, and engage new pedagogies that strengthen Ethnic Studies curricula. During the three ESEA, we focused on intersectional narratives and place-based pedagogies that center the experiences and needs of Black, Indigenous, Chicanx, Latinx, Asian, working-class, and queer communities.
Imagining Next: Feminisms, Borders, Borderlands
Our invited and renowned guests (Angela Y. Davis, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, and Omi Jones) spent the evening sharing a conversation that inspired our audiences to imagine a just and wonderous future.
By exploring stories of spirituality, wellness, sustainability, the body, and hope, activists Angela Y. Davis, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, and Omi Jones considered how the community can mobilize change and share their energy with future generations.
The audience learned how art and activism have sustained Democratizing Racial Justice efforts to deconstruct borders and the possibilities of reimagining Borderlands. Guests focused on the urgency of sustaining this vital intellectual and daily work. Dialogue with the audience helped identify the current issues that confront the San Antonio community, the urgent political issues that our communities face, and the potential for a future that centers on justice and community.
sista docta / REBIRTH
Omi Osun Joni L. Jones first performed sista docta in 1993 as a commentary on her experiences as a young Black woman professor in Predominantly White Institutions. 30 years later, retired, and dancing into her Queer crone (elder lesbian) time, Omi returns to the stage for sista docta/REBIRTH - a spirited participatory performance and invitation for all to consider how we have the power to break free from systems designed to harm us, and re-imagine ourselves beyond the confines of institutions, social constructions, and limited imaginations.
“This work is an opportunity for me to investigate the complex feelings that come from academic retirement, and to step more fully into the wonder life holds outside of traditional structures,” said Omi Jones. “I am excited to see what the audience/witnesses and I can discover together!”
Spray the Word
Spray the Word was created as a community project for ages 14 & up to participate in a two-part workshop series focused on: Self-care, healthy solutions & organizing, creativity, and performance, all led by local art activists. The series was then a culmination for a 3rd day of live performances at the Buena Vista Theater within the University of Texas at San Antonio - Downtown campus.
Decolonizing Education: Building Antiracist Feminist Community Across Borders
The DRJ hosted a three-day workshop with collaborators of Syracuse University's Democratizing Knowledge Project: Developing Literacies, Building Communities, Seeding Change, and Feminist Freedom Warriors. The workshop was hosted April 3-6, 2023 with our co-facilitators Chandra T. Mohanty and Linda E. Carty. The workshop ended with a panel discussion with panelists Linda E. Carty, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Aida Hernandez-Castillo, K. Melchor Quick Hall, Imani Tafari-Ama, and Michelle Téllez.
Dr. Imani Tafari-Ama discusses the Decolonizing Education conference and the Caribbean Policy and Research Institute (CaPRI) March report where she discusses the convergence of the education system and transformational politics:
Workers on the Rise: The State of Labor in San Antonio
For decades, low pay and workplace abuse have persisted in San Antonio despite workers’ efforts to dignify their labor conditions and fight for their rights. The labor panel brought local workers and organizers to discuss how they have resisted these oppressive conditions and invited the San Antonio community and the public to learn how to become involved in the city’s labor movement.
Our speakers included Mario Compean, Araceli Herrera, Alejandra Lopez, Petra Mata, Teri Castillo, Richard Oppenheim, Fred R. Garza, and Rebecca Olivares Flores. The panel was moderated by DRJ Post-Doc Fellow Jose Villagrán.
Refusing to Forget
RTF was a community forum centered on state-sanctioned violence directed at ethnic Mexicans along the Texas border in the early 20th century and its modern-day legacies.
Between 1910 and 1920, Ethnic Mexicans living on the Texas-Mexico Border were targets of state-sanctioned violence. Although historians estimate that several thousand Mexican nationals and American citizens were killed, this period of violence has received little public attention.
Refusing to Forget, an award-winning educational non-profit hopes that in bringing public awareness to this often forgotten period, we can also raise the profile of a struggle for justice and Civil Rights that continues to influence social relationships today.
