Update 5/1/2013: The Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research would like to extend a big THANK YOU to all who helped make “Get on the Bus” a success. Just under 150 people registered for the event, and Lexington Fair Housing Council, the lead sponsor and organizer of the event, turned away many more. Good news: we’re considering doing it again! Please click the link below to let us know of your interest.

I’m interested in future housing tours!

The above link will take you to a short survey designed for K-12 educators. If you are not an educator, please indicate your group or purpose for going on the tour in questions 3 and 5.

Update 4/21/2013: Check out VIDEO interviews with some of our ‘Get on the Bus: The Path Toward Equal Housing Opportunity’ tour guides: http://ow.ly/kgGT8

Get on The Bus with the ABI on April 23rd to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968, and to mark the official release of “Marking Louisville Home for Us All: A 20-Year Action Plan for Fair Housing.”

• 12:30-1:15: Registration and presentation of action plan
• 1:30: Buses depart
• 4:00: Buses return

Buses will depart from Kentucky Center for African American Heritage (1701 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd.) at 1:30 pm to take participants on a guided tour of neighborhoods that tell the story of Louisville’s segregated housing history and its present-day effects. Prior to departure, you’ll hear a presentation of that history and see the unveiling of the 20-year action plan for fair housing.

Register online at http://www.lexingtonfairhousing.com/. The event is FREE, but space is limited. For more information, contact Arthur Crosby at (859) 971-8067, toll-free at (866) 438-8617, or e-mail crosbylfhc@hotmail.com.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Kentucky Housing Corporation, the Louisville Metro Human Relations Commission, the Lexington Fair Housing Council, the Louisville Urban League, the NAACP, the Metropolitan Housing Coalition, the University of Louisville Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research, the Fair Housing Coalition, and the Department of Community Services and Revitalization.

Join and share the event on Facebook by clicking here.

Sunday, Sept. 30

9:15 am – 10:30 am

809 S. Fourth Street, Louisville, KY

Fifth Sunday Multigenerational Project: Explore and honor the extraordinary life of Anne Braden, a Louisville American civil rights leader. Adults and youth are invited to view the new film Anne Braden: Southern Patriot. Braden’s story exposes the dangers of racism and political repression while also celebrating the power of a woman’s life spent in commitment to social justice.

Following the film, join the Celebration of Life at 11:00 to learn about the work of the Anne Braden Institute, which continues her legacy. As part of the service, a hands-on activity for all ages will help facilitate the important work of the ABI.

Learn more about the event and First Unitarian Church in Louisville here.

• Take Back the Night is an annual event designed to bring together organizations, civic leaders, and individuals of Louisville and Jefferson County to protest violence against women and to promote awareness of the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, which perpetuate this specific type of violence. Take Back the Night is part of University of Louisville’s Week Without Violence, Sept. 18-26.

Ain’t I a Person? A documentary by Keith Kilty

Monday, September 24, 2012

5:00 pm

Chao Auditorium, University of Louisville Ekstrom Library

Click here to watch clips from the film.

International Day of Peace Symposium Keynote by Dr. Vincent Harding

“The Last Years of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Future of America”

Thursday, September 20

5:30 pm

University of Louisville Chao Auditorium

Registration Required

For more information about the full-day symposium and to register for this event, please visit:

http://louisville.edu/peace/news-and-events/news-and-events.html

Directed by Anne Lewis and Mimi Pickering, Appalshop Films

See the Louisville premiere:

Sunday, August 26, 2012 

3:00 pm

at The Kentucky Center for African American Heritage (1701 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd in Louisville)

The Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research is proud to co-sponsor the Louisville Premiere of Anne Braden: Southern Patriot. This film is a first-person documentary about the extraordinary life of Anne Braden, the American civil rights leader and Louisville native after whom our institute is named. When charged with sedition for attempting to desegregate a Louisville neighborhood in 1954, Braden used the attack to embrace a lifetime of racial justice organizing matched by few whites in American History.

“… a magnificent and faithful portrait of the Anne Braden I knew: courageous, militantly anti-racist, and radical to the core. Just as Anne Braden changed my life, this film will change yours.” — Robin D.G. Kelley, African American Studies scholar, author and professor, UCLA

“This film is a must-see.” –Tim Wise, author, White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son

WATCH THE TRAILER:

Anne Braden: Southern Patriot (1924-2006) — 3 minute sample from Anne Lewis on Vimeo.

The Louisville premiere is presented by The International Film Series at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage

Join the event on Facebook and invite your friends!

Download the event flier (8.5 x 11)

Download the event postcard (4 x 10, 2-sided)

Joint session of the Healing History Academy and the University of Louisville’s Saturday Academy

January 14, 2012, 12:45-2 pm

DuValle Education Center (3610 Bohne Avenue)

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the freedom rides with special guest John Walker-Murray State University student who represented the state of Kentucky on the 2011 Student Freedom Rides.

Martin Luther King Jr Day of Service

Title: MLK DAY of Service
Location: Bigelow Hall- Miller Technology Building
Start Time: 10:00 am
Date: January 16, 2012
End Time: 3:00pm

Are you up for the Challenge??

We invite you to participate in the 2011 Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Day of service!

Americans across the country will celebrate the national holiday honoring the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As they have since 1994, thousands of Americans will remember Dr.King by serving in their communities and making it “a day ON,” not “a day off”.

Volunteer as an individual, join the RSO competition, and/or donate to the Dare to Care food drive. A guest speaker, free food, and transportation to and from the service sites will be provided. Walk-ins may be accommodated depending on site availability.  You can register to volunteer online http://louisville.edu/leadership/service-opportunities/mlk-day.  If you’d like more information, please contact Toni Solis at 852.3436 or tjsoli01@louisville.edu or stop by the Cultural Center!

Metro Louisville Annual Race & Relations Conference

spons. by the Metro Louisville Human Relations Commission (MLHRC)

January 24, 2012

Muhammad Ali Center (144 North 6th St.)

Be sure to attend a special screening and panel discussion hosted by the Anne Braden Institute’s Healing History Academy on the 10^th anniversary of the release of the documentary, Living the Story:  The Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky set for 8:30-10AM.  To register, or for more information about the conference call MLHRC (502) 574-3631.

Blues for an Alabama Sky

A play by Pearl Cleage, directed by Nefertiti Burton

February 2, 2012,  8PM

Thrust Theater (2314 S. Floyd St)

This University of Louisville Department of Theatre Arts performance of Cleage’s poignant, Depression-era drama set in Harlem will be followed by a talkback and reception sponsored by the Anne Braden Institute.

Faculty Research Forum presents the 2010 recipients of the Anne Braden Institute Faculty Research Fund Awards

Feb 17, 2012 from 03:30 pm to 05:30 pm

Bingham Humanities, Room 300

The Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society Faculty Research Forum presents the 2010 recipients of the Anne Braden Institute Faculty Research Fund Awards:

Dr. Glenn Crothers (UofL Assoc. Professor of History, Co-Editor Ohio Valley History and Director of Research at The Filson Historical Society)

Dr. Crothers will discuss his project, “Samuel M. Janney and Benjamin Hallowell: Quakers Reformers of the 19th Century U.S. South.” His study examines, in part, how Janney and Hallowell pursued a social justice agenda while living in a slave society whose white members had little patience for Quaker efforts.

Dr. Jennie E. Burnet (UofL Asst. Professor of Anthropology)

Dr. Burnet will present, “Why did they NOT kill?  Rwandan Muslims and Resistance to Genocide.”  Her project shines the light on the unexamined area of the motivations of “rescuers” or “resisters” to communal violence.

Dr. Nicole E. Seymour (UofL Visiting Asst. Professor of English)

Dr. Seymour will provide an update on her project titled, “Down with People: Anti-Natalism as Queer Environmentalism?” Her research draws from environmental justice and queer studies to examine areas where environmental concerns overlap with the concerns of sexual minorities such as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals.

Faculty Research Forum is free and open to the public.  Refreshments Served!

Sixth Annual Thomas Merton Black History Month Lecture

Rosanne Haggerty

“Merton: Then and Now”

February 29th,- 2012  7 pm

Frazier Hall, Bellarmine University

One of eight children, Rosanne grew up in West Hartford, Connecticut. Service was modeled in her home from her earliest years; after church each week, Rosanne’s family served food at a single room occupancy (SRO) hotel across the street from the church. The residents of that hotel became friends of the family, attending holiday dinners and in other ways becoming a regular part of her life. Financial aid made it possible for Rosanne to attend Amherst, which she could not otherwise have afforded. At Amherst, she had a series of experiences that helped shape her future career path. Rosanne went into her senior year assuming that she’d attend law school after college. But while researching her senior thesis—on writer, social critic and Trappist monk Thomas Merton—Rosanne began to think about ways she might use her abilities to more directly effect social change. At the same time she met one of the leaders of Covenant House, a large, privately funded agency that provides shelter and service to homeless and runaway youth. Inspired by these experiences, Rosanne realized that her Amherst education carried with it a sense of responsibility, an obligation to apply what she had learned for the benefit of others. She decided that she could afford to take some risks with her first job after graduation, so she worked at Covenant House for a year. She spent the next seven years developing housing for the poor and homeless with Brooklyn Catholic Charities.

In 1991, Rosanne established Common Ground Community, a nonprofit organization that has become the preeminent supportive housing provider in the country and an innovative developer of strategic solutions for the problem of homelessness. The organization’s work is imitated throughout the United States and worldwide. Common Ground has transformed derelict buildings in Times Square and other neighborhoods into supportive housing residences, where formerly homeless tenants are helped to rebuild their lives with links to employment, healthcare and the support of a community. The organization’s view that homeless is solvable rests on a strategy of moving long-term homeless people from the streets and shelters directly into housing, and on preventing homelessness by assisting vulnerable people to secure stable housing at moments of crisis. In 2011, Rosanne established a new not for profit Community Solutions, to expand her work nationally. In 2001, Rosanne received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “genius award,” in recognition of her work.

In her presentation Rosanne will be reflecting on Merton’s writings on race in the context of homelessness in America.

Co-sponsored by:

The Office of Multicultural Affairs, Bellarmine University;

Catholic Charities of Louisville;

The Center for Interfaith Relations;

The Coalition for the Homeless;

Compassionate Louisville;

Family Scholar House;

Interfaith Paths to Peace;

Metropolitan Housing Coalition;

University of Louisville’s Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research

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Check out the events we hosted Fall 2011 below!

The Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research

and The Kentucky Labor Institute

Present:

Arts on the Line

A celebration of working people and the arts

Tuesday, September 20

4:00 panel discussion featuring scholars and labor leaders

Chao Auditorium, Ekstrom Library new wing

6:00 art opening and reception, with refreshments

Braden Institute, Ekstrom library 2^nd floor, Room 258

Tim Wise on Beyond Diversity: Challenging Racism in an Age of Backlash

TWO CENTURIES OF BLACK LOUISVILLE: A Photographic History

Mervin Aubespin–community activist, artist, and retired associate editor of The Courier-Journal

Ken Clay–entrepreneur, cultural event producer, and retired vice president of the Kentucky Center for the Arts

Dr. J. Blaine Hudson–community activist, author, and dean of the University of Louisville College of Arts and Sciences

A light lunch from Expressions of You will be available at 11:30 a.m.

Special Guests: Central High School Law & Government Magnet Students

After the program, the authors will sign books.

This event is free and open to all.

Lets Talk Lunch-Preview of the 2011 Anne Braden Memorial Lecture

University of Louisville Cultural Center

Wednesday, October 12

Noon-1PM

Join us for a free lunch (first come, first served!) and a discussion of the mass incarceration of people of color.  This discussion is a preview of the 2011 Anne Braden Memorial Lecture (November 10, 6PM) featuring Dr. Michelle Alexander.

Day of the Dead Exhibit

October 1-November 4, 2011

KY Museum of Art & Craft (715 West Main Street)

• Featuring altars for Anne Braden, Lilyalyce Akers, Woodford R. Porter, and David Hershberg.

The theme for Louisville’s Day of the Dead Celebration this year is “The Legacy of Community and UofL Leaders,” and it is organized by UofL’s Latin American/Latino Studies Program.  The exhibit culminates with a Day of the Dead Celebration Friday, November 4, 5-10PM at the museum. For hours, visit their website at http://www.kentuckyarts.org/

5th Annual Anne Braden Memorial Lecture featuring Dr. Michelle Alexander

November 10, 2011
Doors Open at 5:30 pm:  Speed Museum Auditorium (2035 South 3rd Street)

5th Annual Anne Braden Memorial Lecture:  The fifth annual Anne Braden Memorial Lecture features a presentation by Dr. Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Michelle Alexander is a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, and legal scholar who currently holds a joint appointment at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University. Prior to joining the Kirwan Institute, Professor Alexander was an Associate Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, where she directed the Civil Rights Clinics.

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Check out the events we hosted Spring of 2011 below!

Vinie Burrows in ‘Walk Together Children’

Date: March 30th, 2011
Location: Room 275, Louis D. Brandeis School of Law-University of Louisville
Time:4:30-6:30 PM

A classic in Black theatre, Walk Together Children chronicles the African-American experience through the poetry, prose, and songs of Black writers to tell the epic story of raw survival after the auction block and to present-day struggles and triumphs of Afro-descendant peoples in the United States. Dr. Burrows is an artist-activist whose concerns include peace, disarmament, racial discrimination, women’s issues, and economic/…social development.

Free & Open To The Public: Reception to Follow*
Co-spons. w/ generous support by A&S International, Diversity & Outreach Programs; Commonwealth Center for the Humanities & Society; African American Theatre Program; Women’s Center; Women’s and Gender Studies Dept.; Social Change Minor; Louis D. Brandeis School of Law
*Reception sponsored thanks to the Carl Braden Memorial Center INC

***NOTE ON PARKING FOR COMMUNITY FOLKS*** University parking will allow you to park in the ‘green’ lot off 3rd street across from the Reynolds Lofts. The alternative is in the pay parking garage at the Speed Museum.

International Women’s Day - A 100th Anniversary Celebration!

Date: March 8th, 2011
Location: University of Louisville Red Barn
Time: 7:00-9:00 PM

We’ll mark the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day with musical performances, performance art, readings and poetry.  Celebrate the things women around the world have accomplished over the last 100 years-examine the status of women now and look ahead to the future.  This event is FREE and open to the  public!  (FREE food will be served!)

Sponsored by the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research, PEACC, Student Chapter Women for Women, Dept. of Women’s and Gender Studies, and The Women’s Center

ABI’s spring past events…

Martin Luther King Jr Day of Service

Title: MLK DAY of Service
Location: Bigelow Hall- Miller Technology Building
Description: Start Time: 10:30 am
Date: January 17, 2011
End Time: 3:30pm

Are you up for the Challenge??

We invite you to participate in the 2011 Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Day of service!

Americans across the country will celebrate the national holiday honoring the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As they have since 1994, thousands of Americans will remember Dr.King by serving in their communities and making it “a day ON,” not “a day off”.

Volunteer as an individual, join the RSO competition, and/or donate to the Dare to Care food drive. A guest speaker, free food, and transportation to and from the service sites will be provided. Walk-ins may be accommodated depending on site availability. If you’d like more information, please contact Toni Solis at 852.3436 or tjsoli01@louisville.edu or stop by the Cultural Center!

The State of Reproductive Justice in Kentucky: A Community Conversation

Date: Tuesday, January 18th
Location:Louisville Free Public Library, Main Branch, Centenial room (basement)
Time: 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Description: Join the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research for a discussion on the current issues and challenges in the reproductive rights movement.

How might we organize and collaborate to meet these concerns in 2011?

The event will feature panelists from the Kentucky Health Justice Network, WENCH, and ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. After brief presentations, the panelists will open the floor to discussion.

Free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

Come enjoy music by Silo, the Clothesline Project, inspiring speakers, The Pinwheel Project, a Speak out, follow by a Rally and March!

Start Time: 5:30 PM
Date: 2010-10-28
End Time: 8:30pm

Honoring Our Past,Framing Kentucky’s Future

Location: Kentucky International Convention Center
Description: The Anne Braden Institute will provide a guided tour of Louisville’s civil right’s history as part of the conference activities. Register with the Kentucky Commission at http://kchr.ky.gov. to attend  workshops , plenary sessions and much more.
Website:https://sites.google.com/site/kchrconference

Event Dates: Oct 13 th – Oct 15th , 2010