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[Emeriti-faculty] [Fwd: Please Forward Re:Symposium This Saturday!!!!!!]
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Dear Faculty,
I am writing to ask that you please forward this email to your
department email list in order to inform student and faculty alike of a
great educational opportunity taking place this saturday. Thank you
very much for your help.
Sincerely,
Lauren Branche
EBL PR Chair

     On Saturday March 13, 2010, the Emerging Black Leaders will be putting
on the sixth annual Emerging Black Leaders Symposium. Your fellow peers
have been working around the clock to organize the panels for the
symposium. This year's topic, "Reshaping the Global Black
Consciousness: Who gets to tell the Story of the African Diaspora", is
sure to be an educational experience for all who attend.
With discussion panels composed of both scholars and students alike
panelist will offer their unique professional and personal perspectives
on the social and historical misconceptions of the global black
community.  This year's symposium will be like none other. Below is a
summary of the details and further information about EBL and attached
is the flyer.

Summary:
EMERGING BLACK LEADERS 6TH ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM
Reshaping Global Black Consciousness:
Who gets to tell the story of the African Diaspora
Keynote Address By:
Nikki Giovanni
Cabot Auditorium
Saturday, March 13th 2010
Registration Begins at 9:00am
*Admission Free: Suggested Donation $5
Panel 1: Social and
Historical Narratives: A Scholar's Perspective
Panel 2: My Journey
Through the African Diaspora
Dress: Business Casual
Contact: Emerging gmail com
Funding provided by The Omidyar Fund, Co-sponsored by The Africana
Center Campus Progress And Tisch Scholar's of Public Service and Active
Citizenship
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Further Description:

Redefining the Black Consciousness: Who Gets to Tell the Story of the
African Diaspora?
Who is telling your history?  Is your past being told by your people?

As the Emerging Black Leaders Organization at Tufts University, we work
to embody the four principles of service, leadership, education, and
the advancement of the African Diaspora that our organization was
founded on. We strive to raise the level of social consciousness and
responsibility in and beyond Tufts, while furthering the progression of
the Black Community.  We are more than students, --we are young
professionals working with community advocates, government officials,
academics, and prominent national leaders to create sustainable and
tangible change in our respective communities.

Each Spring, we host the Annual Emerging Black Leaders Symposium which
aims to examine the foundations of socioeconomic and racial disparities
that exist in the African-American community.  In previous years,
themes The Role of Black Women in Underrepresented Fields,
Self-Degradation within Black Society and the role of Spirituality.
Over the past five years we have explored issues facing
African-Americas; this year we hope to include a more global analysis,
expanding our lens to include more of the African Diaspora.

For the 2010 symposium, we have broadened our scope internationally to
more explicitly address the experiences of people of African Descent
living not only in the United States but abroad. The African Diaspora
is an integral aspect of what our organization stands for, and this
year we want to study the struggles, inspiring stories of leadership,
and share in the kinship that can be found among the greater Africana
community.  As our theme we have chosen, ?Reshaping the Black
Consciousness: Who Gets to Tell the Story of the African Diaspora?? It
will examine the historical inaccuracies of contemporary literature,
economics, politics, and media.   The power of storytelling and its
impact on a community must not be understated.  It relates to the
construction of truth, these narratives have the ability to create
perceptions that serve to uphold power structures and institutions.
How certain societies are portrayed dictate the perception of a
people?s past and set the tone for their future.  Historical and
literary analyses of global Black communities are often generalized and
fail to capture many of the lived realities and experiences.  What
types of misconceptions are still prominent today and how can these
inaccuracies can be corrected?    Domestically and internationally, the
power and advancement of Black people is tied to control of economic
and political structures as well as these narratives.  In the U.S.,
simple storytelling mechanisms, such as history classes with
Eurocentric curricula are ways that our voices are muted and our
stories left untold.  In Brazil, de facto discrimination takes place,
with the Afro-Brazilian community ensnared in a color based caste
system, marginalized by the lighter skinned majority.  The crises in
Haiti may be used as an example.  Popular networks, such as CNN,
consistently represent the poverty of Haiti, without providing the
socio-historical and economic context for that poverty.

Our Symposium and Keynote will aim to deliver a forum where we can
discuss the issues surrounding these social and historical narratives
of the African Diaspora.  Our panelists are scholars who are well
versed in issues affecting the African Diaspora and hope to elucidate
and discuss these misconceptions and their effect on black communities.
Whether it is through political analysts, historians, or creative poets
our story must be told accurately.






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