Community Conversations

Exploring Issues of Civic Responsibility

Community Conversations Facing History and Ourselves and The Allstate Foundation present a series of community-wide dialogues across the US. Prominent scholars, authors, filmmakers, and policy leaders will speak and participate in discussions about civic engagement, individual and collective responsibility and tolerance.

  

 

Isabel WilkersonThe Warmth of Other Suns: A Community Conversation with Author Isabel Wilkerson

March 1, 2012
Memphis, TN
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Join us for a Community Conversation featuring Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Suns. Wilkerson spent most of her career as a national correspondent and bureau chief at The New York Times, is the first black woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in the history of American journalism, and was the first black American to win for individual reporting.

In The Warmth of Other Suns, Wilkerson tells one of the greatest under-reported stories in American history about a time when some six million black Americans fled the American South for an uncertain existence in the urban North and West. Their leaving became known as the Great Migration. Inspired by her own parents’ migration, The Warmth of Other Suns is the story of three who made the journey, of the forces that compelled them to leave and of the many others—famous and not so famous—who went as far as they could to realize the American Dream.

Read Facing History's interview with Isabel Wilkerson

 

The Bully ProjectBully: A Film Screening and Conversation
Featuring Director Lee Hirsch 

March 7, 2012
Chicago, IL
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Join us for a preview screening and conversation featuring Bully, the first feature documentary film to explore “a year in the life” of bullying in the United States. From the first day of school through the last, the film intimately follows the lives of a few of the many courageous kids and families bullying affects each day. The film captures the distress of bullying victims, the frustration of their parents, and in some cases, the overwhelming grief when bullying ends a life. 

The event will include a panel conversation featuring Lee Hirsch, director of Bully and Emmy award-winning filmmaker. Facing History is an educational partner for the documentary and will publish a facilitator’s guide to accompany it. Bully premieres in theaters this spring.

 

 

The Bully ProjectBully: A Film Screening and Community Conversation  

March 8, 2012
San Francisco, CA
RSVP COMING SOON!  

Join us for a preview screening and conversation featuring Bully, the first feature documentary film to explore “a year in the life” of bullying in the United States. From the first day of school through the last, the film intimately follows the lives of a few of the many courageous kids and families bullying affects each day. The film captures the distress of bullying victims, the frustration of their parents, and in some cases, the overwhelming grief when bullying ends a life. 

Facing History is an educational partner for the documentary and will publish a facilitator’s guide to accompany it. Bully premieres in theaters this spring.

 

  

Highlights from Past Community Conversations

Sheryl WuDunn, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and co-author of Half the Sky

Daniel Goldhagen, author of Worse Than War
April 22, 2010

Judy Shepard, author, activist, and mother of Matthew Shepard
Denver, April 21, 2010
Los Angeles, May 17, 2010 

Nicholas Kristof, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and co-author of Half the Sky
Chicago, March 15, 2010

Artemis Joukowsky, producer of the documentary film
Journey to Freedom
Cleveland, February 17, 2010

Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health
Chicago, November 9, 2009

Lisa See, author of Shanghai Girls
Los Angeles, October 29, 2009

Authors Alex Kotlowitz and Sonia Nazario, in conversation about immigration
Chicago, March 25, 2009

Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund and author of The Sea Is So Wide and My Boat Is So Small
Cleveland, October 21, 2008

Marco Williams, director of the documentary film Banished
Chicago, October 21, 2008 

Mona Golabek, author of Children of Willesden Lane and concert pianist
Memphis, September 23, 2008

Film as a Catalyst for Social Change
Edward Zwick and Diane Weyermann discuss how filmmakers can make a difference
Los Angeles, June 6, 2008

Don Cheadle & John Prendergast
Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond
Spring, 2007

Azar Nafisi, of Reading "Lolita" in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

San Francisco, November 9, 2006

Taking an Active Role in African Affairs, with Romeo Dallaire
Memphis, September 14, 2007

Lessons of the Civil Rights Movement and Today, featuring Terrence Roberts, Judith Vecchione, & Sandra Robbie
Los Angeles, October 26, 2006

Marco Williams and Whitney Dow, documentary film directors of I Sit Where I Want: The Legacy of Brown v. Board of Education

Courage and Rescue During the Rwandan Genocide, featuring Paul Rusesabagina
September 19, 2005

Transformation in a Time of Democratic Fever, featuring Justice Albie Sachs and Vanessa 
Spring, 2006

James Fallows, national correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly
Chicago, April 4, 2006 

The Role of Media in a Democracy, featuring Jerry Mitchell
Memphis, May 3, 2006

Responsibility and Choice in our Global Community, featuring Carl Wilkens
Cleveland, May 5, 2006

Escape from Slavery, featuring Francis Bok
Los Angeles & San Francisco, May 2006

 

 

About The Allstate Foundation
Established in 1952, The Allstate Foundation is an independent, charitable organization made possible by subsidiaries of The Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL). Through partnerships with nonprofit organizations across the country, The Allstate Foundation brings the relationships, reputation and resources of Allstate to support innovative and lasting solutions that enhance people’s well-being and prosperity. With a focus on teen safe driving and building financial independence for domestic violence survivors, The Allstate Foundation also promotes safe and vital communities; tolerance, inclusion, and diversity; and economic empowerment. For more information, visit www.allstatefoundation.org.

 


For information about Community Conversations, email info@facing.org.