When Pomp Meets

to Circumstance

It's cap and gown time, and even though my graduation was a big deal, my mother’s graduation from Fayetteville State Teachers College, 1955 was a landmark. As the first college graduate in our family, folks came from everywhere to see her walk across the stage, get that paper and hear that song.  Pomp & Circumstance Song by Sir Edward Elgar 

In some ways, the pomp of a college education may have fizzled. With rising tuition costs and no promise of a job in your field, getting a degree can be a crap shoot. Add to that the evolution of AI and there's a good chance your degree might be obsolete before the ink dries. 

Let's take a look at the circumstances that define the Class of 2024: global warming, a worldwide pandemic, virtual school, the global Black Lives Matter movement, mass shootings in schools and a domestic terrorist attack on the US Capitol. Not to mention, for eight years of their lives, the First Family was black (!!!), which impacts the way they see the world and racial dynamics. 

Young Millennials and GenZ experience life very differently than their boomer elders. For them, opinions become group thought in seconds. They can Tik Tok their way into a revolution, creating an ecosystem of public protest in the blink of an eye. Their causes are not centralized; they are worldwide, and their talking points transcend black and white. For them, the lines between race, ethnicity, class, economics, and political parties are blurred, leaving only right and wrong to consider. Just and unjust. Safe and unsafe. Is it fair? Are we all free?  

I kinda like that.

At the table, we leave the pomp behind and acknowledge our circumstances - the things that connect us. We hold a vision of a just and equitable society, and we hold each other accountable for what we want to see in the world. Straight. No chaser. No pomp. 

Join us on Tuesday, May 21st for Part 3 of our Race and Mental Health Series featuring VCU professor, Dr Shawn Utsey and his most recent documentary. Hear how teachers and students are working together to change the world. 

Coming together . . . for good!

Bringing Love to the Fight!

Danita

Education For Action

BOOK CIRCLE AND POTLUCK DINNER

(3rd Thursdays)

In-Person

Thursday, May 16th 

6:00 - 8:00 pm ET

Potluck Dinner & Conversation

The Education For Action Book Circle is reading a series of essays found in the Richmond Racial Equity Essays Project.

This month we are reading the second section of the Richmond Racial Equity Essays Anthology, pages 19-27, Building and Sustaining Affordable Housing. Click the Anthology link above to read this month's essay. Please take a look at the Discussion Guide as well. 

E-mail Cheryl Goode to receive the location and further instructions.

Best Wishes,

Cheryl Goode

EFA Book Circle Convener

3RD TUESDAY

DINNER & DISCUSSION

Part 3 in a series:

Race and Mental Health

~ featuring ~

Shawn Utsey, Ph.D.

Discussing his 2022 documentary:

The Central Lunatic Asylum for the Colored Insane

Tuesday, May 21ST

6:00 - 8:30 pm ET

Ginter Park Presbyterian Church

Fellowship Hall

3601 Seminary Avenue, Richmond, VA 23227

Dr. Shawn Utsey is a documentarian and psychology professor. He says Virginia’s Central State Hospital, which was the first psychiatric hospital for Black people in the United States, began with an emphasis on controlling newly-freed enslaved people. Dr. Utsey’s 2022 documentary, The Central Lunatic Asylum for the Colored Insane, is about what is now called Central State Hospital. It premiered at the 2022 Afrikana Film Festival.

You are invited to view the documentary in its entirety on your own prior to our 3rd Tuesday Gathering. Access it for free by clicking on the title of the film in the previous paragraph. During our time together in person, we will view a short clip or clips, but not the whole film.

In his presentation, Dr Utsey will discuss the historical link between mental health in African Americans and their continued criminalization as well as what needs to be done to change this paradigm.

This month our dinner will be catered (caterer to be determined). As always there will be a vegan option. Donations of $20 per person are appreciated to help cover costs. Bring a friend or two!

Everyone is welcome and no one will be turned away, so please come regardless of whether you can make a donation. We so appreciate your voice and spirit in the conversation!

***AND......Please bring your gently used books on CT-VA/CTTT related topics that you are ready to part with, as we prepare for our June 18th Summer Reading Book Sale FUND raiser and FRIEND raiser!

Look for an invitation to register for this event in your inbox soon.

Reading For Change

BOOK CIRCLE

(4th Thursday of the month)

 Hybrid



Thursday, May 23rd

6:30 - 8:00 pm ET

In Horse, Geraldine Brooks tells three stories, effectively, carefully, tenderly braiding all three into one compelling narrative. What’s more, two of three are true–and there’s as much sad truth as fiction in the third.

• The story of a bay thoroughbred named Lexington (real), his enslaved Black groom, Jarret (fictional), and a young horse painter, Thomas Scott (real), set in the turbulent South in the 1850s-1870s;
• Of Theo, a Nigerian-American art history grad student who finds a painting of a famous horse, and Jess, an Australian and a Smithsonian curator who lives for bones, both fictional characters, set in Washington DC in 2019; and
• Of Martha Jackson (real), an art gallery owner who becomes obsessed with a mysterious nineteenth-century painting of a horse, set in New York in 1954. (from a Susan Albert Review)

We look forward to seeing you and engaging in meaningful dialogue. The in-person potluck will be held at the home of one of our members. Please register to receive the location or link.

Doug Steele

RFC Book Circle Convener

MOVIE CIRCLE

(4th Thursday of the month)

 Zoom



Monday, May 27th

6:30 - 8:00 pm ET

Deeply moving and laugh-out-loud funny, Mission: JOY is a documentary with unprecedented access to the unlikely friendship of two international icons who transcend/transcended religion: His Holiness the Dalai Lama & Archbishop Desmond Tutu. In their final joint mission, these self-described mischievous brothers give a master class in how to create joy in a world that was never easy for them. They offer neuroscience-backed wisdom to help each of us live with more joy, despite circumstances.

Inspired by New York Times bestseller The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, the film showcases the exchange between these two Nobel Peace Prize winners that led to that book. Consisting largely of never before seen footage shot over 5 days at the Dalai Lama’s residence in Dharamsala, the film invites viewers to join these luminaries behind the scenes as they recount stories from their lives, each having lived through periods of incredible difficulty and strife.

With genuine affection, mutual respect and a healthy dose of teasing, these unlikely friends impart lessons gleaned from lived experience, ancient traditions, and the latest cutting-edge science regarding how to live with joy in the face of all of life’s challenges from the extraordinary to the mundane.

Watch the movie in the comfort of your home. Then gather with us for fellowship and conversation on Zoom on the 4th Monday of the month at 6:30 pm ET. You'll receive the Zoom info once you've registered.

Robin Allman

Alistar Harris

Movie Circle C0-Conveners

Virginia Museum of History and Culture

A BETTER LIFE FOR

THEIR CHILDREN

Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington are the founders of the Rosenwald school building program.

In 1912 the two men launched an ambitious program to partner with Black communities to build public schools for African American children. From 1912 to 1937, the program built 4,978 schools across 15 southern and border states.

This exhibit will showcase photos and artifacts and opens May 25, 2024 and runs to April 20, 2025. Contact Hayat if you are interested in going with a group to see this new exhibit.

Click here for more information.

BE THE CHANGE

There is much work to be done to create the Virginia we want to see.

So roll up your sleeves and let's get busy!