Panel Discussions
Join community leaders and SDP employees for thought provoking conversations on various topics relating to Black History. Panel conversations will be 60 minutes and pre-recorded and will become available to watch on the date listed:
What Black History Means to Me - February 19th
"Black History is a necessary struggle."
-- Shaquita Smith - Social Studies Curriculum Specialist: Panel Moderator
"Don't be scared to create your own lane."
--William Lawrence - Principal, John Marshall Elementary
"Black History wasn't in a classroom; it was in my friend's living room."
-- Nicholaus Bernardini - Teacher, Samuel Fels High School
The Black Superwoman Misnomer - February 22
"The Superwoman is a label we carry like a cape...It is ingrained in us to live up to it."
--Jinaki Bright, Read to Succeed Program Director.
"That Superhero label also dehumanizes Black Women."
--Shaquita Smith, Social Studies Curriculum Specialist
"The characteristics that define strength are perseverance, diligence...refusal to let fatigue get you down...A superpower doesn't get exhausted...It's okay to say, 'I need to heal.'"
-- Dr. Allener Baker-Rogers, Educator and Co-Author of They Carried Us
Why my Black is Beautiful - February 24
"Beauty is a light...an inner power, an inner spirit."
-- Art Hawyood
"Black beauty is power. Black beauty is strength. It's perseverance."
-- Marcus Harris-Chain
"What Tupac called the rose that grew from the concrete, I love that metaphor to speak to the beauty out of the wretchedness that was placed upon folks in society."
-- Ismael Jimenez
"Everybody has a purpose. That purpose is built in your beauty; it's built in your identity; it's built in your experiences."
-- Shaquita Smith