Full Year Calendar

Check out our One Book 2020-2021 printed calendar for Fall 2020 here.

Use these links to easily navigate through the calendar below:

September

October

November

December

January

February

March

April

Spring Quarter

A Celebration of Women Academics Doing Activist Work for and with Students Incarcerated

March 31 | 4:00-5:00 PM CST | Register here.

To celebrate Women's History Month, join Dr. Mary Pattillo, the Harold Washington Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of African American Studies, for a discussion of her experiences working with the Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP) as an activist scholar, and her experiences navigating research, activism, and service. Ph.D. candidatesCharlotte Rosen (History) and Sanjana Subramaniam (Mechanical Engineering) will also be sharing their experiences working with NPEP. This event is presented by Graduate Women Across Northwestern, Women in Science and Engineering Research, NPEP and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

Sponsored by: NPEP, Graduate Women Across Northwestern, Women in Science and Engineering Research, Office of Diversity and Inclusion

Community Art Exhibit

April 2 - 30 | Register here.

The Dittmar Community Art Exhibit focus will be on portraits of survival and self-care during the pandemic.

Prizes will issued based on social media responses and judge’s critiques. The exhibit is open to the NU and surrounding communities.

Sponsored by: Dittmar Memorial Gallery, Norris University Center

Circle Up: Building A Restorative Community (Part 1)

April 3 | 4:00-7:00 PM CST | Register here.

Part of One Book One Northwestern’s 2020-2021 exploration of Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. The MFA Directing Program in the Theater Department of SOC will host two Zoom Circles, which will bring together members of the Northwestern community with Youth and staff from Evanston’s James B. Moran Center for Youth Advocacy.

First, we will hold a community-building circle, offering an experiential foundation of restorative philosophy, guidelines, agreements, rituals and an introduction to the power and possibility of Circles. Although Story Circles are often used as a tool of devising theatrical performance, this will be an exploration of this essential social technology from a different direction."

Space is limited. Contact for more information: j-thebus@northwestern.edu. Register at the link above.

Sponsored by: MFA Directing Program, Department of Theater, School of Communications

A Conversation with Sister Helen Prejean on the Death Penalty

April 6 | 3:00-4:30 PM CST | Register here.

The Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP) is hosting a series of discussions on transforming criminal justice at both the state and national levels. Join us on April 6th when the topic is the death penalty and our featured guest will be Sister Helen Prejean, an internationally renowned advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.

Sponsored by: NPEP

Renaissance Forged at the Dittmar Gallery

April 7 - 30 | More info here.

Renaissance Forged points us to look toward a new world, birthed from the labor of collectivist and individual struggle. With these works, our community’s artists will remind us of the experience of forging that new world in the fire of communal pain and loss, but so too, in the passion of new community bonds and of the act of creation itself.

This exhibit is curated by Delia Cunningham and Jimin Kim.

Sponsored by: The Dittmar Gallery

Walking in Bryan Stevenson’s Footsteps

April 8 | 5:00 PM CST | Register here.

This lecture series highlights the work of innovative, fearless racial justice advocates across the country. The series' second event will honor Andrea Ritchie. Ms. Ritchie will give a talk about her work and will be in conversation Law Professor Sheila Bedi. There will be time for Q&A from the audience after the talk.
Andrea Ritchie is a Black lesbian immigrant whose writing, litigation, and advocacy has focused on policing of women and LGBT people of color for the past two decades. She is currently Researcher at the Interrupting Criminalization initiative she co-founded with Mariame Kaba, and works with groups across the country to reduce and eliminate the harms of policing and criminalization and increase community safety. Ritchie is author of Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color, and co-author of Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women and Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States.

Sheila A. Bedi is a clinical professor of law at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and director of the Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic, a law school clinic that provides students with the opportunities to work within social-justice movements on legal and policy strategies aimed at redressing over-policing and mass imprisonment.

Sponsored by: Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Northwestern Prison Education Program, the Children and Family Justice Center and the Community Justice & Civil Rights Clinic of the Bluhm Legal Clinic, and One Book One Northwestern

Circle Up: Building A Restorative Community (Part 2)

April 10 | 4:00-7:00 PM CST | Register here.

Please join us for Circle Up: Building A Restorative Community, part of One Book One Northwestern’s 2020-2021 exploration of Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. The MFA Directing Program in the Theater Department of SOC will host two Zoom Circles, which will bring together members of the Northwestern community with Youth and staff from Evanston’s James B. Moran Center for Youth Advocacy.

The second Circle will gather the same community a week later, and will be followed by a screening of the movie CIRCLES, as well as a conversation with Circle Leader Eric Butler, whose work is featured in the film. The circles will explore themes of community, racial (in)justice, and restorative practices raised by both Just Mercy and Circles.

Space is limited. Contact for more information: j-thebus@northwestern.edu. Register at the link above.

Sponsored by: MFA Directing Program, Department of Theater, School of Communications

Sustained Dialogue

Starting the week of April 12th | Times vary | Registration here.

SD is a dialogue to action program in which undergraduate and graduate students come together in student-led groups to talk about their experiences at Northwestern, specifically in terms of the identities they hold, with the goal of creating an action that makes Northwestern a more inclusive community. Groups meet weekly for 90 minutes throughout the entire quarter. This is great opportunity for students looking to explore different topics of oppression and how they play out at Northwestern. This year we will host groups focused on the exploration or race and racism incorporating dialogue on this year’s One Book One Northwestern text – Just Mercy.

Sponsored by: Social Justice Education

Life in the system: personal reflections on incarceration and re-entry

April 15 | 5:30-6:00 PM CST | Registration here.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear the first-hand stories of three individuals who anticipated spending the rest of their lives in prison. After the unexpected commutation of their sentences, they have navigated the challenges of re-entry and re-engaged with their community. By serving as ambassadors to the Illinois Prison Project, Willie Hobson, Michael Penny, and Renaldo Hudson have dedicated themselves to educating the public about the criminal justice system.

Sponsored by: Center for Health Equity Transformation and Health Disparities and Public Policy in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

The Exonerated

April 15 | 6:30 PM CST | RSVP and learn more here.

Please join Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law and School of Communication for a dramatic reading of The Exonerated, the award-winning play featuring the stories of six innocent people who were sentenced to death.

The performance will be followed by a talkback with the actors alongside Northwestern's Center on Wrongful Convictions (CWC) co-director

Laura Nirider and CWC death row exoneree Gary Gauger.

Featuring Northwestern alum and Hollywood actor Harry Lennix, fellow alum and Tony Award winner Katrina Lenk, and School of Communication Dean E. Patrick Johnson plus faculty, alumni, and student actors

Directed by Jordan Donica

This event marks the 10th anniversary of the abolition of the Illinois death penalty.

Sponsored by: School of Communications and Pritzker Center for Wrongful Convictions

JAR 2021: Organizing for Justice

April 16-18 | Registration here.

Social Justice Education is excited to partner with Midwest Academy for a special Organizing for Justice edition of the annual Justice & Allyship Retreat (JAR). This event is free to all Northwestern undergraduate and graduate students and includes Grubhub gift cards to cover all meals during scheduled sessions. Participants will also receive an organizing toolkit via USPS with supplies and activities for the weekend.

Strategy. Power. Justice.

Whether you’re a new organizer or looking to brush up and expand your skills, this training will give you a solid foundation in how to bring people together in campaigns that win. This interactive VIRTUAL training will provide participants with the concrete skills they need to

Build successful and strategic organizing campaigns

Infuse racial justice and root cause analysis into your strategy
Learn to be more effective in your outreach and recruitment.

Space is limited! Register here to reserve your place by March 12th and ensure you receive your organizing toolkit.

Sponsored by: Social Justice Education and Midwest Academy

Death Penalty in the US

April 20 | 3:00-4:30 PM CST | Register here

Join us for the next NPEP roundtable in our Transforming Criminal Justice series, a second event focused on the death penalty. We'll be joined by: Meredith M. Rountree, Senior Lecturer at Pritzker School of Law at Northwestern University, Rob Owen, Capital Defense Attorney, andRenaldo Hudson, Education Director for the Illinois Prison Project.

Sponsored by: Northwestern Prison Education Program

The Importance of Prison Education and the Northwestern Prison Education program NPEP

April 21 | 5:30-6:30 PM CST | Register here

Jennifer Lackey, the Director of the Northwestern Prison Education Program and the Wayne and Elizabeth Jones Professor of Philosophy and current One Book Faculty Chair will discuss the importance of prison education and the impact it has on the incarcerated students. This interactive event will allow participants the opportunity to discuss the issues Professor Lackey raises during her talk in smaller breakout rooms. Only registered guests will be able to participate

Sponsored by: One Book and the Northwestern Prison Education Program

**Author Tayari Jones, An American Marriage: A Love Story Torn Apart by Social Injustice**

May 11 | 5:30-6:30 PM CST | Register here

Over the course of her award-winning career, Tayari Jones’s novels and essays have explored the vagaries of birth and fate, the bitterness of injustice, and the persistent power of love. With her most recent novel, the instant New York Times bestseller An American Marriage, she “has emerged as one of the most important voices of her generation.” (Essence). Published in 2018, An American Marriage is an Oprah’s Book Club Selection and also appeared on Barack Obama’s summer reading list as well as his year-end roundup. The novel was awarded the Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly known as the Orange Prize), Aspen Words Prize and an NAACP Image Award. It has been published in two dozen countries. Jones, a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, has also been a recipient of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, United States Artist Fellowship, NEA Fellowship, and Radcliffe Institute Bunting Fellowship. Her third novel, Silver Sparrow, was added to the NEA Big Read Library of classics in 2016. Jones is a graduate of Spelman College, University of Iowa, and Arizona State University. She is an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University and the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Creative Writing at Emory University.

Sponsored by: Department of African American Studies and the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences

Women of Courage: Stories of Post-Incarceration Resilience

May 26 | 6:00-7:00 PM CST | Register here

Join us on May 26th at 6 PM CDT for “Women of Courage - Stories of Post-Incarceration Resilience”—a reading and live Zoom conversation with formerly incarcerated women building empowerment by sharing their writing. This event is organized Women Initiating New Directions (WIND), a non-profit whose mission is to inspire women in reentry to design a thriving life journey using new tools and strategies for success. Our partners for this special evening are women currently living at Grace House, a transition home in Chicago. Register through Eventbrite to receive an invitation link and hear these speakers share their stories and answer questions from the audience. We hope to see you there!

This event is co-sponsored with Northwestern University via the generous support of the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies, Hobart Women's Residential College, the Women's Center, the Center for Civic Engagement, and the College of Cultural and Community Studies.

Beyond Just Mercy

If you’ve read this year’s One Book One Northwestern selection, Just Mercy: A Story of Redemption, you’ve been introduced to powerful criticism of the American justice system, and the enduring power of two opposing forces: the cruelty of racism and the grace of compassion.Northwestern University Libraries has many resources that build on author Bryan Stevenson’s themes to explore the carceral system and its impact on the human lives made to endure it. Each of these resources —from books to documentaries to research guides —are available through your Libraries. We hope they inspire you to reflect, take action, and contribute to positive change that makes a more just and merciful world.

Visit the digital exhibit here.

Sponsored by: Northwestern University Libraries

Fall Quarter (2020)

Selected Timelines of the Criminal Legal System

Tuesday, September 1 | All Day | Timelines can be found here.

Based on the themes of this year’s One Book selection, Just Mercy, the One Book Student Team has created “Selected Timelines of the Criminal Legal System,” a set of timelines to educate the public on the following: Bryan Stevenson’s career and the creation of the Equal Justice Initiative, the disproportionate and unjust incarceration of Black women in the United States, and the activists and major movements that have surrounded prison reform and abolition in the United States. While not exhaustive, these timelines provide a preview into some of the themes explored in Just Mercy and call us to continue to educate ourselves and engage with this work.

Sponsored by: One Book One Northwestern

One Book One Northwestern, the podcast

The podcast can be found here.

Our podcast follows Wildcats having engrossing conversations, on campus and beyond, about this year’s One Book, Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. Look for quarterly podcasts from our student Creators/Hosts: Sophia Lo, Baylor Spears, and Camille Williams. Medill Professor Ava Thompson Greenwell is the editorial advisor for the podcast.

Sponsored by: One Book One Northwestern and Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications

CHETchat Spotlight Series featuring Dorian Ortega

Tuesday, September 15 | 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CST

Join the Center for Health Equity Transformation (CHET) for a dialogue with Dorian A. Ortega, LCPC on the impact systemic oppression has on the mental wellbeing of Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC). Dorian A. Ortega is a licensed clinical counselor and founder of FLY Radical Therapy, LLC. First Love Yourself (FLY) Radical therapy is a therapeutic approach inspired by liberation, feminist and multicultural psychology.

Sponsored by: Center for Health Equity Transformation (CHET)

Images in Equity, Justice, and Mercy: A Photo Contest

Wednesday, September 16 | Deadline: 6:00 PM CST

Enter here.

Connecting with the themes of this year’s One Book selection, Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, One Book One Northwestern is hosting the “Images in Equity, Justice, and Mercy” Photo Contest. Stevenson’s work asks us to explore: What does equity, justice, or mercy look like? What imagery do you connect to these words? Open only to Northwestern undergraduate students.

Sponsored by: One Book One Northwestern

Closing Youth Prisons: An Introduction to the Final 5 Campaign

Thursday, September 17 | 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM CST

Join The Final 5 Campaign to discuss the state of youth incarceration in Illinois and where we want to go to explore the state of youth incarceration and how we want to transform the juvenile justice system in Illinois! We will hear from restorative justice practitioners, programmers, and policymakers, including Felipe Franco – who helped implement the Closer to Home model in NYC – and speakers from Liberation Library, who do the radical work of providing books to young people in prison to encourage literacy, imagination, and self-determination. We will hear from those directly impacted by youth incarceration and share how our campaign aims to close all state-run youth prisons in Illinois.

Sponsored by: Bluhm Legal Clinic

Sustained Dialogue (SD)

Starting the Week of September 21 | Times Vary | Sign up here.

SD is a dialogue to action program in which undergraduate and graduate students come together in student-led groups to talk about their experiences at Northwestern, specifically in terms of the identities they hold, with the goal of creating an action that makes Northwestern a more inclusive community. Groups meet weekly for 90 minutes throughout the entire quarter. This is a great opportunity for students looking to explore different topics of oppression and how they play out at Northwestern. This year we will host groups focused on the exploration or race and racism incorporating dialogue on this year’s One Book One Northwestern text – Just Mercy.

Sponsored by: Social Justice Education

A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom

Thursday, September 24 | 7:00 PM CST | Register here.

Family Action Network(FAN) will host Brittany K. Barnett, Award-winning attorney and founder of the Buried Alive Project, Girls Embracing Mothers, XVI Capital Partners, and Milena Reign LLC. Keanne Bishop, Assistant Public Defender, Cook County Public Defender’s Office, and adjunct professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law will interview Bishop. Registration Required (Free event).

Sponsored by: Family Action Network (FAN)

“The Long Term” film screening with Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project panel discussion

Thursday, September 24 | 7:00 PM CST | Online (Register here.)

Co-presented by The Block Museum of Art with the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities. The panel includes Co-Directors of Arts and Exhibitions at P+NAP Sarah Ross and Damon Locks alongside legal scholar Eric Blackmon and members of the P+NAP teaching collective NU Professor Miriam Petty, Jill Petty, and Audrey Petty.

Sponsored by: Block Cinema

Stranger Than Fiction: This is America

September 25 - November 15 | Dittmar Gallery

Gallery visit sign in here.

Is the truth stranger than fiction? These emerging artists bring their perspectives of a contemporary America. According to Artist Henry Sandifer, truth happens at different points for all of us. It’s a significant moment in being able to speak truth to power. The images in his work juxtaposed on canvas, tell truths via parables, allegories, suppositions and facts that are stranger than fiction. Artist Nguyen Tran’s graphic designs tells stories about life he experiences around him and on social media. His relationship with America, presented in his work, takes different shapes, forms and images with vivid colors. His political and social illustrations offer another way for us to reflect, to see the strangeness and to agree and find beauty in the differences.

Sponsored by: Dittmar Gallery

Transforming Criminal Justice: In Illinois and Beyond

Tuesday, September 29 | 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM CST | Online

Registration required. Register here.

Long-Term Sentences: Please join our panelists, Jennifer Soble, Executive Director and Founder of the Illinois Prison Project, Jobi Cates, Executive Director and Founder of Restore Justice, and Marc Mauer, the former Executive Director of The Sentencing Project to discuss criminal sentencing policy and reform in Illinois and nationwide.

Sponsored By: Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP) and Alumnae Academic Enrichment Grant

Solidarity is a Process

Thursday, October 1 | 6:00 PM CST

A key theme in Just Mercy is empathy: an effort to see the world from another’s perspective, or the attempt to walk in another’s shoes. The aim of empathy is mutual understanding and fighting for justice together, and the acknowledgment that our own health and safety and freedom depends on the same things for others. This theme was an important topic of discussion this past summer, when Latinos and African Americans marched together, but also faced the histories and present realities that make their experiences different. This event will bring together leading scholars and journalists to focus on “solidarity” between African Americans and Latinos as a process, something we work toward instead of take for granted. Participants: Kelly Lytle Hernandez (UCLA), Destin Jenkins (University of Chicago), Josh Kun (USC), and Jennifer Medina (NY Times).

Co-sponsored by: PublicBooks, Department of African and African American Studies, Program in Latina and Latino Studies

America’s Prisons: Legal rights of the incarcerated

Monday, October 5 | 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM CST | Online

Registration required. Register here.

Deborah Golden, a prisoners’ rights lawyer, will talk about her work facing off against prisons and jails, including against the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Here is a story about one of her cases: https://nyti.ms/1D1rbRa. She will talk about her relationships with her clients, what sort of issues they face—both in the prisons and in the courts—and what you can do if you are troubled by the way this country treats people who are incarcerated. This event is hosted by Ben Gorvine, Southwest Area Faculty-in-Residence and Professor of Instruction in Psychology.

Sponsored by: Residential Services

Racial Disparity in Arrests Increases as Crime Rates Decline

Wednesday, October 7 | 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CST | Online

Registration required. Register here.

Between 1999 and 2015, while crime rates generally declined, racial disparity in arrests increased substantially. Sociology Professor Beth Redbird and co-author Kat Albrecht will give a talk on their research in racial disparities.

Sponsored by: Department of Sociology and Institute for Policy Research (IPR)

Transforming Criminal Justice: In Illinois and Beyond

Tuesday, October 13 | 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM CST | Online

Registration required.Register here.

Solitary Confinement: Please join our panelists, Maggie Filler, attorney with the MacArthur Justice Center in Chicago, Anthony Gay, former prisoner and solitary survivor, and Daniel M. Greenfield, Solitary Confinement Appellate Litigation Fellow for the MacArthur Justice Center to discuss solitary confinement litigation and reform efforts in Illinois and nationwide.

Sponsored by: NPEP and Alumnae Academic Enrichment Grant

CHETchat Spotlight Series featuring Mary Pattillo

Wednesday, October 14 | 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CST

Join us for a webinar with Mary Pattillo where she will discuss her current research on monetary sanctions in the criminal justice system. While much research focuses on mass incarceration and its negative impacts on individuals, families, communities, and society more broadly, millions more people are affected by the fines, fees, restitution, surcharges, interest, and other costs imposed on people who are convicted of crimes ranging from traffic violations to violent felonies. Pattillo and her research team conducted over 240 hours of courtroom ethnography and did 155 interviews with court actors and people paying their court debt in Illinois. In this talk, she will report on how monetary sanctions are (mis)aligned with various aims of justice, and how they impact those who are sentenced to pay them.

Sponsored by: CHETchat

Activism: The Time is Now

Wednesday, October 14 | 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM CST | Online

Registration required. Register here.

Systematic Racism is an enormous problem in our country. This discussion will be exploring the activist themes in Just Mercy and explore ways you can make a difference to make a change for the better. Panelists include: Rob Brown, Director of Social Justice Education, Northwestern University, Christopher Paul Harris, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of African American Studies, Northwestern University, Jeffrey Coleman, Associate Professor of Spanish, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, Marquette University, and Moderator: Melissa Foster, Senior Lecturer of Musical Theatre and South Area Faculty-in-Residence, Northwestern University To receive a Zoom invitation, please register (using your authenticated Northwestern email address) by 4:00 pm, Tuesday, October 13. We hope you can join us for this special event.

Hosted by the South Area and sponsored by Residential Services

Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II

Thursday, October 15 | 5:00 PM CDT | Online

Registration required. Register here.

Liza Mundy, an award-winning journalist and New York Times-best-selling author of four books including Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II, will be talking about how she discovered the story of some 10,000 women during the war working on different aspects of code breaking.

Published in 2017, Code Girls tells the story of more than 10,000 women who were recruited to break Axis codes, work that saved countless lives, shortened war—and pioneered the modern computer and cybersecurity industries.

Sponsored by: Department of Statistics, Department of Mathematics, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems, Edith Kreeger Wolf Fund for Distinguished Visitors, Science in Human Culture

**Teaching Just Mercy Through the Block’s Collection**

Friday, October 16 | Ongoing | View here.

The Block Museum kicks off its collaboration with One Book One Northwestern by highlighting a selection of artworks from the permanent collection that resonate with themes of the text, such as equity, justice, and mercy. View the works in the museum’s new collection database, learn more about their contexts, and download high-resolution images to support online teaching.

Sponsored by: Block Museum

On Forgiveness: Lisa Daniels in conversation with Alex Kotlowitz

Tuesday, October 20 | 7:00 PM CST | Online

Registration required.Register here.

Lisa Daniels lost her son, Darren Easterling, to gun violence in 2012, and in the end asked the judge to be lenient with the man who shot him. Lisa now sits on the Illinois Prisoner Review Board whose mission it is to grapple with the notion of mercy.

Sponsored by: Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications

Corporate Xenophobia: How our lack of empathy impact those most in need

Wednesday, October 21 | 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CST | Online

Registration required.Register here.

Kellogg Social Impact Adjunct Professor William W. Towns, PhD and private equity asset manager Alfred D. Sharp address minorities’ lack of access to key avenues of economic development, business growth, and wealth creation. Our speakers will discuss how the lack of access to capital, corporate boards, and the C-suite impact our minority, and subsequently, all communities.

Sponsored by: Kellogg School of Management

Writing in Prison

Thursday, October 22 | 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CST | Online

Registratrion required.Register here.

A collaboration between Northwestern University School of Professional Studies (SPS); One Book One Northwestern; and the Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP). Virtual lunchtime table talk on the importance of teaching writing to incarcerated individuals, featuring renowned writers and former faculty of the NPEP program, Rebecca Gilman and Alex Kotlowitz, who will touch on their experiences in the classroom.

Mercy in the Museum: Online Collection Tours

Friday, October 23 | 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM CST | RSVP here.

Join the Block Museum for a series of shared conversations about artworks from the collection that explore ideas of justice, race, and equity. These online, discussion-based lunchtime tours are led by Block staff and inspired by Just Mercy. This series is presented in conjunction with The Block’s 40th anniversary, a year-long celebration of the Museum’s collection as a tool to help us reflect upon, question, and reimagine the past.

Sponsored by: the Block Museum

Transforming Criminal Justice: In Illinois and Beyond

Tuesday, October 27 | 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM CST | Online

Registration required. Register here.

Juvenile Justice: Please join our panelists, Marshan Allen, Research and Policy Fellow, Fair and Just Prosecution, Shobha L. Mahadev, Clinical Associate Professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Julie L. Biehl, Clinical Professor of Law, Director of the Children and Family Justice Center, and Assistant Dean of the Bluhm Legal Clinic of Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, for a discussion about youth prison reform and the fight against extreme sentences for youth in Illinois and nationwide.

Sponsored by: NPEP and Alumnae Academic Enrichment Grant

Walking in Bryan Stevenson’s Footsteps: Innovative and Fearless Racial Justice Advocates You Should Know, An Honorary Lecture Series

Wednesday, October 28 | 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM CST

This lecture series highlights the work of innovative, fearless racial justice advocates across the country. The series' inaugural event will honor Xavier McElrath-Bey. Xavier is the Co-Executive Director of The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth (CFSY). Xavier was arrested for a gang-related murder when he was just 13 years old and served 13 years in prison. While in prison, he earned a college degree and has dedicated his life to working for change on behalf of the victim in his case. He is an experienced restorative justice practitioner and a co-founder of the Incarcerated Children's Advocacy Network (ICAN), which works to amplify the stories and voices of leaders who were incarcerated in their youth.

Sponsored by: Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Northwestern Prison Education Program, The Children and Family Justice Center and the Community Justice & Civil Rights Clinic of the Bluhm Legal Clinic

Stranger Than Fiction: This is America - Virtual Artist Talk

Wednesday, October 28 | 5:00 PM CST

Artists Henry Sandifer and Nguyen Tran will discuss their work and will share their political and social perspectives on our current American landscape.

Sponsored by: Dittmar Gallery

The Chicago 400 Alliance: Fighting conviction registries & housing banishment

Thursday, October 29 | 6:00 PM CST | Online

This event is free but participants must register. Register here.

Learn about the Chicago 400 Alliance and take immediate action to address the carceral crisis caused by public conviction registries and housing banishment laws, which force people—very disproportionately Black men—into homelessness and re-incarceration. Justice advocates will give an overview of how these discredited policies undermine community health by keeping thousands of people stuck in prison past their release date and trapped in an artificial housing crisis. Attendees will also hear from Northwestern undergraduates (interns through the Engage Chicago program) who contributed to this ongoing grassroots campaign over the past several months and learn of opportunities to get involved.

Sponsored by: Center for Civic Engagement

CHET Conversation: Older Adults and Social Isolation Panel Discussion

Monday, November 2 | 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CST

According to the CDC, older adults are at the highest risk of experiencing severe illness from COVID-19. Join Northwestern's Center for Health Equity Transformation (CHET) for a panel discussion with a group of experts on the unique impact that COVID-19 has on older adults, including social isolation. Panelists include Paula Basta, Director, Illinois Department on Aging, Diane Slezak, President and Chief Executive Officer, AgeOptions, and Louise Hawkley, PhD Senior Research Scientist, NORC at the University of Chicago.

Sponsored by: CHETchat

CHETchat Spotlight Series featuring Xavier McElrath-Bey

Thursday, November 5 | 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CST

Northwestern’s Center for Health Equity Transformation (CHET) and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences will host a discussion with the Co-Executive Director of the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, Xavier McElrath-Bey, MA on criminal justice reform.

Xavier McElrath-Bey is a champion for the rights of incarcerated children. As a Co-Executive Director at the Campaign for Fair Sentencing of Youth, Xavier fights to abolish "life without parole" for children in America. In recent years, he played a role in ending this practice in several states—including Nevada, Utah, Arkansas, South Dakota, and North Dakota. He is also a co-founder and proud member of the Incarcerated Children's Advocacy Network (ICAN), an initiative of CFSY, which seeks to amplify the stories and voices of leaders who were incarcerated as youth.

Sponsored by: CHETchat

Beyond Detention: Long-Term Outcomes of Youth in the Juvenile Justice System

Tuesday, November 10 | 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CST | Online

Registration required. Register here.

Linda Teplin, Owen L. Coon Professor and Vice Chair for Research in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, will discuss her landmark 20-year longitudinal study, the Northwestern Juvenile Project. She will present key findings from the project—on psychiatric disorders, death rates, and educational, social, and socioeconomic outcomes—which have guided criminal justice reform. Few studies have examined long-term outcomes of youth after they leave detention.

Sponsored by: Center for Health Equity Transformation and Health Disparities and Public Policy in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Transforming Criminal Justice: In Illinois and Beyond

Tuesday, November 10 | 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM CST | Online

Registration required. Register here.

False Confessions: Steven Drizin, William A. Trumball Clinical Professor of Law at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and Laura Nirider, Clinical Associate Professor of Law, the Co-Directors of the Center on Wrongful Convictions (CWC) at Northwestern will discuss their advocacy challenging false confessions. Drizin and Nirider represent Brendan Dassey, a central figure in Netflix’s smash docuseries Making a Murderer.

Sponsored by: NPEP

Chicago’s Police Violence Epidemic

Wednesday, November 18 | 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CST | Online

Registration required. Register here.

Andrew V. Papachristos, a Professor of Sociology and faculty Fellow at IPR, will discuss how we might leverage advances in network science to underhand how police violence and misconduct spreads among and between officers in the Chicago Police Department. Using thousands of publicly available data provided by The Invisible Institute, Papachristos’ research shows that patterns of police violence follow patterns similar to those of infectious disease—and understanding those patterns might allow cities to mitigate some of the harms associated with police misconduct as we, as a society, strive for mercy and justice.

Sponsored by: IPR, the Department of Sociology, Northwestern Neighborhood & Network Initiative (N3)

Annual Intergenerational Storytelling Event

Thursday, November 19 | 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM CST | Online

Registration required. Register here.

The shortest path between two people is a story. At this unique and fun event, you may simply be a listener, or you may offer a story of your own. This year’s stories are based on the themes of justice, mercy, fairness, and equity, all of which are covered in Bryan Stevenson’s inspiring memoir, Just Mercy. This special interactive engagement between senior adults and young adults will be fun, non-intimidating, and something you’ll be talking about for years to come. Come and share your story or listen to the stories of others. RSVP is required. Co-sponsored by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, The Northwestern Theatre Department, and Nine Lives, a storytelling podcast for the NU community.

Sponsored by: Osher Lifelong learners, The Theatre Department, and Nine Lives

Mercy in the Museum: Online Collection Tours

Friday, November 20 | 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM CST | RSVP here.

Sponsored by: the Block Museum

Mercy in the Museum: Online Collection Tours

Friday, December 11 | 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM CST | RSVP here.

Sponsored by: the Block Museum

Winter Quarter

One Book Keynote with Bryan Stevenson

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the One Book One Northwestern Keynote with Bryan Stevenson has been postponed to the 2021-2022 academic year. We look forward to engaging the Northwestern community with the themes of this work and are excited for Stevenson to join us when it is safe for him to do so.

**Teaching Just Mercy Through the Block's Collection**

Ongoing | View here.

In connection to One Book One Northwestern, The Block Museum highlights a selection of artworks from the permanent collection that resonate with themes of the text, such as equity, justice, and mercy. View the works in the museum’s new collection database, learn more about their contexts, and download high-resolution images to support online teaching.

Sponsored by: Block Museum

DREAM Week 2021 Key Note with Mariame Kaba

Wednesday, January 13 | 4:00 PM (CST) | Register here.

MLK keynote speaker honors the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., calling on his vision of racial and economic justice. The 2021 keynote speaker, Mariame Kaba, is an organizer, educator, curator, and prison industrial complex (PIC) abolitionist who is active in movements for racial, gender, and transformative justice. Kaba is the founder and director of Project NIA, a grassroots abolitionist organization with a vision to end youth incarceration. Tickets are available for the live Zoom webinar; the event will also be live-streamed on You Tube. A professional transcribed recording will be available shortly after the event and by January 18, 2021.

For additional information and live-streaming on YouTube, click here.

Sponsored by: Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, Office of the Provost, Office of the President, The Women’s Center, One Book One Northwestern, Office of Student Life, Office of Civic Engagement

Sustained Dialogue (SD)

Starting the week of January 18th (times vary) | Register here.

Sponsored by: Social Justice Education

Anti-Racism Seminar

Starting the week of January 18th (time tbd) | Register here.

This highly interactive and experiential virtual seminar is intentionally designed to bring students of diverse backgrounds together to talk about racism as a foundation for understanding additional systems and forms of oppression. Students will be encouraged to explore their own social identities, lived experiences, beliefs, and behaviors within a framework of systemic power, oppression, and privilege.

The seminar is open to all undergraduate students and will take place virtually over the course of 6 sessions in the winter quarter.

Visions and Voices, a Black Playwrights’ Reading Series

Starting Friday, January 22 (all dates below) | More information and tickets available here.

The Black Playwrights’ Reading Series presented by the Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts and features first year Master of Fine Arts directing students and undergraduate and graduate actors. The three plays were chosen by the directors in consultation with faculty and the center’s managing director from among hundreds and hundreds of scripts some which are familiar and others that deserve a wider audience and center around Racism in America, Police Brutality, Anti-Blackness, the Fight for Justice, and the Celebration of Black Lives. These directors are the first all-black cohort to join Northwestern University’s MFA Directing Program.

JAN 22-24: A Few Short Plays to Save The World and What You Did

FEB 5-7: Encore presentation of Wine in the Wilderness

FEB 12-14 The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World AKA the Negro Book of the Dead

All performances are available On Demand during their respective access periods.

Zoom Talk-In with Keith LaMar from death row

Tuesday, January 19 | 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM (CST) | Register here

Keith LaMar has been in solitary confinement in Ohio for the past 27 years. He is scheduled to be executed in November of 2023. Keith will join us to discuss his case, wrongful convictions, and the death penalty.

You will receive a Zoom link on the day of the event.

Sponsored by: Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP) and the Alumnae of Northwestern University

A Few Short Plays to Save The World and What You Did by Steve Harper, directed by Tor Campbell

January 22-24 | More information and tickets available here.

These two short plays tackle some of the thorniest and most urgent issues of equity facing our country today through the lens that we know best: the work of the theater artist. Wryly hilarious and startlingly direct, these contemporary pieces fling us into high stakes situations at full speed; alongside the puzzled characters, we are left to try to make sense of the blunt racial disparities we are complicit in. What is the responsibility of the artist in serving the greater good? Is it possible to make a real difference by making plays? Jovial aliens, fierce women, playwrights just trying to get heard: everyone’s jumping into the fray!

All performances are available On Demand during their respective access periods.

Sponsored by: Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts

IPR Colloquium: Building a More Open Justice System

Monday, February 1 | Register here.

Join Rachel Davis Mersey, Jesse H. Jones Centennial Professor and Associate Dean of Research, Moody College, University of Texas at Austin, and IPR Faculty Adjunct and Adam Pah, Clinical Assistant Professor of Management & Organizations; and Associate Director, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems, Kellogg for a conversation about building a more open justice system. This event is part of the Winter 2021 Fay Lomax Cook IPR Colloquium Series. IPR's Fay Lomax Cook Colloquium Series offers you a chance to hear directly from IPR/Northwestern faculty experts on some of their latest policy-relevant research.

Sponsored by: Institute for Policy Research

**Encore presentation of Wine in the Wilderness, by Alice Childress, directed by Jasmine B. Gunter**

February 5-7 | More information and tickets available here.

“For a time I thought I was about to move into another world, the so-called ‘integrated’ world … but that’s a lie.”

With race riots outside his apartment in 1964 Harlem, artist and sophisticate Bill Jameson paints his view of Black womanhood. While searching for his final model, a woman he describes as “as close to the bottom as you can get,” he thinks he has found a match in Tommy. But Tommy soon tests his toxic assumptions. Rarely staged since its debut in 1969, Alice Childress’ masterwork examines the intersection of race, gender and class in Civil-Rights-Era America.

All performances are available On Demand during their respective access periods.

Sponsored by: Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts

NPEP Prison Abolition Panel

Tuesday, February 9 | 3:00-4:30 PM CST | Register here.

Robert Saleem Holbrook joined the Abolitionist Law Center (ALC) in 2018 following his release from prison after 27 years of incarceration for an offense he was convicted of as a child. He now serves as ALC’s Executive Director.

Maya Schenwar is Editor-in-Chief of Truthout and co-author of Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms.

Sponsored by: Northwestern Prison Education Program

COVID in Prison and the Challenges of Hitting a Moving Target: Successes and Failures

Thursday, February 11 | 5:30-6:30 PM PST | Register here.

Alan Mills, Executive Director, Uptown People's Law Center (UPLC) has developed the largest docket in the state of Illinois of civil rights cases filed on behalf of Illinois prisoners. UPLC currently has seven pending class action cases protecting Illinois prisoners’ civil rights. Mr. Mills will be discussing Legal rights in prison during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This interactive event will allow participants the opportunity to discuss the issues Mr. Mills raises during his talk in smaller breakout rooms and enjoy a snack provided by the Dittmar Gallery. Only registered guests will be able to participate and receive a snack bag.

Co-sponsored by: the Dittmar Gallery and Northwestern Prison Education Program

The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World AKA the Negro Book of the Dead by Suzan Lori-Parks, directed by Manna-Symone Middlebrooks

February 12-14 | More information and tickets available here.

A woman tries to feed her husband a fried drumstick. Dragons roam a flat earth. The last Black man in the whole entire world dies again. And again. Careening through memory and language, Parks explores and explodes archetypes of Black America with piercing insight and raucous comedy. A riotous theatrical event, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World hums with the heartbeat of improvisational jazz.

All performances are available On Demand during their respective access periods.

Sponsored by: Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts

Transforming Criminal Justice: Queer Incarceration

Tuesday, March 2 | 6:00 PM CST | Register here.

Join us for the next NPEP roundtable in our Transforming Criminal Justice series. We'll be featuring the following panelist:

Evie Litwork is the the founder and executive director of Witness to Mass Incarceration, which places formerly incarcerated women and LGBTQ+ folks at the forefront of the movement to end mass incarceration.

Stephen Dillon is the author of Fugitive Life: The Queer Politics of the Prison State and is an associate professor of Critical Race and Queer Studies at Hampshire College.

Ilan Meyer is an American psychiatric epidemiologist, author, professor, and senior scholar for public policy and sexual orientation law at the Williams Institute of UCLA.

Voices Across Time: Sharing Women’s Experiences of Re-entry (Live Event)

Wednesday, March 3 | 6:00 PM CST | RSVP here.

“Voices Across Time'' features a live screening and conversation with members of Grace House and Beyondmedia Education with moderation by Professor Sally Nuamah from the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern.

Since its opening in 1994, the Grace House residential program has provided interim housing, emotional and spiritual support, and professional counseling to women who are exiting the Illinois prison system. Beyondmedia Education's mission is to collaborate with under-served and under-represented women, youth and communities to tell their stories, connect their stories to the world around us, and organize for social justice through the creation and distribution of media arts.

Sally A. Nuamah is an assistant professor of Urban Politics in Human Development, Social Policy and Political Science (by courtesy) at Northwestern University. Professor Nuamah’s research sits at the intersections of race, gender, education policy, and political behavior. In addition to her work as a scholar, Professor Nuamah works as a workshop mentor at the Grace House for incarcerated women and girls in the United States.

Sponsored by: The Block Museum

Voices Across Time: Sharing Women’s Experiences of Re-entry (Supplemental Films)

Wednesday, March 3 through Sunday, March 7 | ongoing | Register here.

“Voices Across Time'' features a live screening and conversation with members of Grace House and Beyondmedia Education with moderation by Professor Sally Nuamah from the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern. In addition to the live event, two supplemental films from the Beyondmedia collection will be available to watch on the Block's Vimeo from March 3 through March 7.

Co-sponsored by: the Block Museum

Women’s Center Live Streamed Interview with Chicago Community Bond Fund

Friday, March 12 | 4:00 PM CST | RSVP here.

Join us on March 12th as we speak with representatives of the Chicago Community Bond Fund about their support of criminalized families and their work to end the money bail system. This event is part of the Northwestern Women’s Center’s celebration of Women’s History Month, where they will approach the theme of Mutual Aid and Community Engagement through a series of live streamed interviews with some of Chicago’s most impactful teams and organizations.

Sponsored by: Northwestern Women’s Center, One Book One Northwestern