This year, the MLK/Black History Month Planning Committee has worked hard to put together extensive programming beginning with GCC’s Annual Dr. MLK Breakfast Celebration in January followed by various other events throughout February. This year’s theme is “Celebrating Blackness”. Exciting and inspiring events and workshops have been planned and can fine relevant information below. We hope to see you some of these events!

2021 Black History Month flyer (pdf)

TUESDAY, JANUARY 26 • 3:00–4:00 PM
AAVE: A Conversation with Rylee Happy
Facilitated by David Crawford
https://zoom.us/my/gccmcec

FLEX and CPGU Offered

Description: Rylee Happy will provide insight into African American Vernacular English in a way that aims to debunk the stigma associated with Black people, which dates back to slavery. 

Biography: Rylee Happy is a freshman at the Glendale Community College, where she double majors in Biology and Psychology. Her interest in social justice reform, women's health, and celebrating Blackness began during her freshman year of high school, where she joined the Black Student Union. When she's not advocating for others' rights, Rylee enjoys cooking new foods and playing the guitar. 

THURSDAY, JANUARY 28 • 12:30–1:30 PM
Getting to Know Tarriona ‘Tank” Ball (Short Film Viewing and Discussion)
Facilitated by David Crawford
https://zoom.us/my/gccmcec

FLEX Offered

A Do-or-Die Artist, Celebrating Her Blackness: Tarriona ‘Tank’ Ball

While she still battles with the unspoken rules of being a ‘Big Girl,’ (and recoils at being in a separate category from regular ‘girls’) she feels the most beautiful when she is using her style to exaggerate and celebrate her black features.

Rollercoaster by Tank and the Bangas (from NPR Tiny Desk Concert)

(The Rollercoaster selections begins at 14:58 in the video) 
This band combines R&B with hip-hop's poetry and rollercoaster storytelling, with a flair and alchemy that could only come from New Orleans. At one moment fun-filled funk, the next laid-back jazz, rhythm-driven blues — and it all flows seamlessly. And it's fun to watch: There's a magic kinship between Tarriona "Tank" Ball and Anjelika "Jelly" Joseph as they share singing roles, like two best friends finishing one another's sentences.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 29 • 4:00–5:30 PM
Black History Month Spoken Word
Facilitated by Kristyl Smith, Psy.D (she/her)
https://zoom.us/my/gccmcec

FLEX Offered

Description: GCC is proud to host its first virtual Black History Month Spoken Word Event.  Poetry and literature have been a healing and empowering form of expression for African Americans throughout our journey in the United Stated. Many of the late legends of literature like Langston Hughes and Zora Neal Hurston began in college.  

GCC is proud to offer a virtual stage for our own future legends to share their gifts.  Join us and celebrate the Black Voices of Glendale Community College as they share poetry, prose, short essays and more lyrical oration. 

Biography: Dr. Kristyl JL Smith is an African American Woman from Los Angeles, California. She holds a Bachelor of Psychology and a Doctor of Organizational Psychology and Management and has been an Adjunct Psychology Professor at Glendale Community College since 2019. Dr. Smith has been involved in organizations like Black Student Union, Afrikan Student Union and Student African America Sisterhood from high school and into her undergraduate career.  As such, she fully understands the value of supporting these organizations as a faculty member and is honored to have the opportunity to serve students.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2 • 12:30–2:00 PM
The Cookout: Conversations with Students
Facilitated by David Crawford and Autumn Beckles
https://zoom.us/my/gccmcec

FLEX and CPGU Offered

Description: In this roundtable discussion, student panelists will share their insight and perspective on various aspects which celebrate Black culture, more specifically, the cookout. Cultural norms, meanings, and its significance will be discussed by GCC student panelists and Q+A will be opened up with the audience. Panel facilitators will draw connections between the norms and mores in a cookout and how that influences interaction, communication, and community building among the Black community and their allies. Attendees will walk away with a connection to each other and Black students. Through this event, we hope to strengthen the ties between Black students and the GCC community. 

This event is sponsored by Student Equity and Achievement

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4 • 12:30–2:00 PM
GCC's 2nd Annual Black Professional Panel
Facilitated by Val Dantzler
https://zoom.us/my/gccmcec

FLEX and CPGU Offered

Description: Learn first-hand from career professionals about their career journey, challenges along the way, and tips for your future success. A panel of Black/African-American alumni and professionals will share their experiences. Panelists will represent careers aligning with four of GCC’s Learning and Professional Pathways (LPP's)

PANELIST BIOGRAPHIES

Representing the People, Power, and Perspective Pathway

Name: Candisse Williamson

Education: Bachelors of Science in Business Administration, Concentration in Marketing from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Juris Doctor from Northwestern University School of Law

Occupational Title: General Counsel

Biography: Candisse (Collins) Williamson is currently General Counsel at Skybound Entertainment, a multiplatform entertainment company, home of franchises including The Walking Dead, Invincible, and Super Dinosaur. Previously, Candisse was VP, Business & Legal Affairs at The Madison Square Garden Company where she was the lead attorney for the Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes show and other live productions at Radio City Music Hall. Prior to joining MSG, Candisse was a corporate associate in the New York office of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and a corporate associate in the Atlanta and New York offices of King & Spalding LLP. Candisse received her JD from Northwestern University School of Law and her B.S in Business Administration, Marketing from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Candisse lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Kurt.

Representing the Science, Technology, Engineering,

and Mathematics (STEM) Pathway

Name: Sierra Williams

Education: B.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Southern California (USC); M.S. in Data Analytics, USC

Occupational Title: Management Consulting

Biography: Sierra received her bachelor and master degrees from the USC Viterbi Schools of Engineering. She currently works as a Consultant at Accenture where she utilizes data analysis and visualizations to to help drive business insights and positive behavior. She is also an advocate for first generation college students and helping minority student make it through STEM programs.

Representing the Business Entrepreneurship and Management Pathway

Name: Charles Harris

Education: University of Iron in Los Angeles, Certified in the following areas: Welding, Aerial lifts, Forklift and Heavy Machinery, Crane safety, Osha 30, and First Aid and CPR.

Occupational Title: Union Ironworker/ CEO of my own clothing brand: The Real Everyday People

Biography: I work in in the field of construction and also operate a working class clothing brand.

Representing the Health, Public Safety, and Wellness Pathway

Name: "DJ CAM"

Education: Bachelor's of Arts in Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara

Occupational Title: Law Enforcement

Biography: I grew up in a single parent household in the San Fernando Valley. I was on academic probation for not meeting the minimum academic standards at the Los Angeles Community Colleges network. Glendale Community College was my second chance to be the student I knew I was. I joined ASGCC, DJ’ed school activities and worked with transfer counselor Kevin Meza who guided me to UCSB where I majored in Sociology and met my beautiful wife.

This event is sponsored by the GCC Foundation

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10 • 12:30–1:45 PM
CODE SWITCHING:
Celebrating Blackness Through Awareness
with Chris Molina
https://zoom.us/my/gccmcec

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16 • 4:30 PM–6:00 PM
 Virtual Meet and Greet
Facilitated by Black Student Union
Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/96739260372

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22 • 1:00–2:30 PM
“Where Are All the Black People A Moderated Conversation w/ Ericka Hart”
Facilitated by Chaquitta Boyce

****EVENT POSTPONED***

Description: A conversation on the deeply human, nuanced facets of the macro    issues that black queer and trans people face, particularly as survivors of trauma, and the ways in which we can use our own personal narratives to identify, and then divest from systems and institutions that impact our ability (and means) to heal. 

Biography: Ericka Hart (pronouns: she/they) is a black queer femme activist, writer, highly acclaimed speaker and award-winning sexuality educator with a Master’s of Education in Human Sexuality from Widener University. Ericka’s work broke ground when she went topless showing her double mastectomy scars in public in 2016. Since then, she has been in demand at colleges and universities across the country, featured in countless digital and print publications including Buzzfeed, Washington Post, Allure, Huffington Post, BBC News, Cosmopolitan, LA Weekly, Vanity Fair, W Magazine, Glamour, Elle, Essence, Fader, Refinery 29, and is the face of three running PSAs on the television channel VICELAND. Ericka’s voice is rooted in leading edge thought around human sexual expression as inextricable to overall human health and its intersections with race, gender, chronic illness and disability. Both radical and relatable, she continues to push well beyond the threshold of sex positivity. Ericka is currently an adjunct faculty member at Columbia University’s School of Social Work and the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College, a bratty switchy Sagittarius service bottom and misses Whitney more than you.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23 • 3:00–4:00 PM
Sundown Towns: Confronting a Racially Exclusionary Culture of Glendale
Tara Peterson, CEO, YWCA Glendale and Todd Leonard, Senior Pastor, Glendale City Church
https://zoom.us/my/gccmcec

FLEX and CPGU Offered

Description: Tara Peterson will provide an overview of the history of Glendale’s sundown town history and will discuss the Coalition for An Anti-Racist Glendale’s successful efforts in working with the City of Glendale to acknowledge publicly its historical contribution to racism and current efforts towards creating an equitable and just Glendale. 

Biography: YWCA Glendale CEO Tara Peterson, is a recognized expert in the field of violence against women, is responsible for the executive and administrative leadership of the YWCA Glendale, which strives to eliminate racism and empower women.  She has played a pivotal role in revitalizing the agency’s 93-year legacy of supporting local women and girls by expanding programs and reach, igniting a change in the culture and conversation around gender and racial equity in Glendale and surrounding communities.  She also leads the Coalition for Anti-Racist Glendale, which helped draft the City of Glendale’s resolution apologizing for its racially exclusionary history as a “sundown town.” 

Description: Todd Leonard currently works as senior pastor at Glendale City Church in Glendale, California.  He is dedicated to building a radically-inclusive congregation devoted to community transformation in the city of Glendale.

Biography: Under Todd’s leadership, the congregation launched two nonprofits: Glendale Communitas Initiative, a poverty prevention and recovery organization that merged with Family Promise of the Verdugos in 2020; and Caesura Youth Orchestra, providing group instrumental education to low-income students in two Glendale Unified School District elementary schools.  Glendale City Church is at the forefront of pushing its affiliate Christian denomination towards LGBTQ inclusivity, and was one of the first congregations in Glendale to become open and affirming.  Todd is also proud to be part of the YWCA’s Coalition for an Anti-Racist Glendale.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25 • 12:30–2:00 PM
Celebration, Not Lamentation
Dr. Brad Elliot Stone
https://zoom.us/my/gccmcec

FLEX and CPGU Offered

Description: 2020 saw a focus on Black death and suffering following the death of George Floyd. The discussion of Black lives in America has always presented African American experience in a negative way, be it the lens of injustice or the lens of lack (access, wealth, rights, etc.). African American history, however, does not see it that way. When Black people talk about being Black, it is celebration, not lament, that is at the center. How do we remove the concept of “problem” from the Black experience? Black history month provides us with the means to ask that question, shifting us from lamenting blackness to Celebrating Blackness. 

Biography: Dr. Brad Elliot Stone is an effective and inspiring professor whose research in contemporary continental philosophy is internationally recognized. A 1998 Fulbright Scholar at the University of Salamanca, Spain, he seeks international educational opportunities in order to create new knowledge for the 21st Century globalized world. 

He earned his B.A. in Philosophy and Modern Language Studies at Georgetown College and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Memphis. His areas of expertise include 20th Century Continental Philosophy (Heidegger and Foucault), Contemporary Spanish Philosophy, and American Philosophy (Rorty and West). Dr. Stone also speaks five languages: English, Spanish, French, German and Chinese. He currently is Professor and Graduate Director of Philosophy for the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts at Loyola Marymount University.

This event is sponsored by Student Equity and Achievement