NATIONAL IMPACTS
From its inception, the ACSJL engaged national speakers, leaders, and organizers. We collaborated with departments on campus, Western Michigan University, and the broader community to host nationally known and influential writers, artists, and speakers. We also brought grassroots leaders from the frontlines of movements if we could. Ashley Yates, a young leader in the Ferguson uprising joined us for the 2014 With/Out - ¿Borders? Conference and Krystal Two Bulls, lead organizer of the Water Warriors in the NODAPL struggle in North Dakota, joined us for the 2016 With/Out - ¿Borders? Conference.
We also created programs for organizers to come to the ACSJL for longer stays to test out strategies with us, to provide workshops for our campus and community, to have writing retreats, and to rest and recharge if that was needed. During the first 10 years, we mentored and were mentored by 12 visiting fellows and at least 30 activists-in-residence, who spent from a few days to ten weeks on campus. Please see a partial list.
For example, two taught a course, one organized local cancer survivors, and Patrisse Khan-Cullors, founder of Black Lives Matter, wrote and mounted a play (See Arts and Justice page for more). Angela Davis, an ACSJL Global Advisory Board member, participated in numerous events. Many visitors engaged classes and all engaged faculty, staff, students, and community organizations and institutions.
In 2020, when we were all working remotely due to the COVID crisis, the ACSJL launched the Radical Futures Now podcast. It was the brainchild of ACSJL Center Manager Rhiki Swinton, involves all ACSJL staff, and is now a national phenomenon. Please listen to some of the interviews of national social justice leaders, featured below. Importantly, a 2015 Global Prize for Transformative Social Justice Leadership finalist, who lives in Uganda, is a producer of the podcast.
BANNER IMAGE: ARYA BADIYAN
Black Lives Matter Then and Now, fall 2019
Dr. Angela Davis, ACSJL Global Advisory Board Member, and Charlene Carruthers, leader of the Black Youth Project speak before a packed house on their writings, prison abolition, restorative justice and their fighting for Black Lives over time in the US.
Summit on Social Justice in the Academy, January 2013
When the ACSJL began, there were only a few places and people in the US doing this kind of work inside of the academy. ACSJL Academic Director and Executive Director convened a gathering of those doing this work in order to share challenges, successes, and best practices. The summit led to other connections and collaborations. In hopes of promoting our work, members of the summit traveled together to present at conferences and each other’s institutions. The photograph below is Dr. Lisa Brock, Academic Director of the ACSJL speaking in January 2017 at the Social Justice Institute at Case Western University.
“I first became involved with the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL) as an invited participant at the Summit on Social Justice in the Academy (January 17–19, 2013), organized by then ACSJIL Academic Director, Dr. Lisa Brock. The Summit consisted of directors, scholars, thought leaders and community activists. Dr. Brock tasked us with interrogating social justice in the academy to delineate its theoretical underpinnings as well as its tactical praxes.
This summit was extraordinarily generative. Thereafter, small groups (of various configurations) extended these public conversations about social justice in multiple forums, including at the Critical Ethnic Studies Conference (Chicago, September 2013), and the Educating for Struggle Intergenerational Think Tank (Case Western University, November 2013). These public dialogues extended our interrogation of social justice as a conceptual framework and a practical approach to addressing some of today's most pressing social dilemmas. This ‘mobile think tank,’ as envisioned by Dr. Brock, allowed us to challenge ourselves (and the institutions of which we are a part) to make space for public engagement to co-learn with us on the many urgent matters of social justice. In many ways, Dr. Brock visions as embodied by the Summit and these forums anticipated the issues that the larger public only recently is compelled to reckon with (e.g. economic inequalities, anti-Black violence, white supremacy, etc.) as a result of more than six months of consecutive protests largely organized Black Lives Matters-Movement for Black Lives (BLM/M4BL). The Arcus Center and Dr. Brock also anticipated the mad-dash responses in the aftermath of these protests by not only corporations but also universities and colleges across the nation as they sought to appear to be responsive to the demands for justice, equity and diversity initiatives (JEDI). Because the Arcus Center anticipated the need for and creatively sought out JEDI nearly a decade before, it is well placed in a position to take a leadership role on social justice and equity matters both in the Academia and the community at large. “
— H. L. T. Quan, Associate Professor, Justice and Social Inquiry School of Social Transformation, Arizona State University
“At Arcus, a generative, radical, getting to the roots kind of space, we commiserated, collaborated, historicized, theorized, dreamed up projects and visions of social justice inside and outside of the academy, and we laughed! Over our many years of partnership, I have experienced and witnessed what it means to breathe in the measure of commitment and to breathe out ways of sustaining ourselves and the work together."
— Rhonda Y. Williams, Professor and John L. Seigenthaler Chair in American History, Vanderbilt University; Founder and Inaugural Director, Social Justice Institute, Case Western Reserve University
Ana Castillo, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Anita Hill at the ACSJL
The ACSJL worked with numerous Western Michigan University (WMU) units to collaborate on the visits of nationally recognized leaders. They spoke at WMU and we hosted the dinner, tour, and reception. This is represented in the images below.
At every ACSJL convening, magical connections happened. These two photographs represent such magic that occurred at the 2014 With/Out - ¿Borders? Conference.
The plenary of emerging youth activists, Justice Rising.
From left to right are: Charlene Carruthers, founding leader of Black Youth Project 100 (Chicago/National), Phillip Agnew, founder of the Dream Defenders (Miami/National), Lulu Martinez, founder of the Immigration Youth Justice League (Chicago/National ), Jamira Burley, first executive director of the Philadelphia Youth Commission, Sean Estelle, Project Voted (San Diego), and two others.
A spontaneous gathering of powerful Black women, most of whom did not previously know each other.
From bottom left to right, around the table are: Dr. Rhonda Williams. Nikky Finney, winner of 2011 National Book Award for Poetry and ACSJL Global Advisory Board member, Dr. Linda Murray, MD, MPH, president emeritus of the American Public Health Association, and ACSJL Global Advisory Board member, the late Iris Parker, world renown South African based photographer, then President of Kalamazoo College, Dr. Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran, Sarah Bragg, K’16, Dr. Lisa Brock, ACSJL Academic Director, Dr. Angela Davis, ACSJL Global Advisory Board member, and Rian Brown, Kalamazoo College Student.
Davis-Putter Scholarship Fund student activists convened at the ACSJL, fall 2018
“The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College in Michigan served as a backdrop for our gathering. Dr. Lisa Brock, DPSF Trustee and Academic Director at the Arcus Center welcomed our grantees and provided opportunities for them to network with global land activists attending the With/Out Borders convening. Past DPSF grantee and trustee Matt Birkhold facilitated, offering a ‘movement lineage’ exercise, connecting grantees’ personal stories, movement history, and the history of Davis-Putter. DPSF Sponsor and Activist/Scholar Dr. Barbara Ransby, Professor of African American Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, and History at the University of Illinois at Chicago joined us by video to discuss her work and answer grantee questions about racial capitalism, prison abolition and this movement moment.”
— Carol Kraemer, Executive Director, Davis Putter Scholarship Fund
“The gathering provided an opportunity for connecting with people that can help with ideas/strategies for my activism. Expanding of network, understanding of DPSF legacy, specific ideas for activism and solidarity work."
“This convening came at a crucial time for me. I was beginning to feel defeated in my work. Speaking with other student organizers has been rejuvenating and has given me clear next steps in my campaigns.”
“Feeling connected to a community”
“We all felt loved, fed, and restored.
During the first few years of the ACSJL, we worked with numerous collaborators to bring Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist, who spoke on his book, Half the Sky; Van Jones, then known for his book, The Green Collar Economy; and Eve Ensler, playwright and author of TheVagina Monologues.
Nicholas Kristof,
April 2011
Van Jones,
November 2011
Eve Ensler,
May 2012
10th Anniversary Affrilachian Artist Project Debut
“The University of Kentucky's Africana Studies Program hosted the 1st Symposium on Affrilachia in Lexington, Kentucky. Also, thanks to the Kalamazoo College Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership for archiving the Affrilachian Artist Project in their Praxis Center.”
— Marie Cochran, founder and curator of the Affrilachian Artist Project
