Dartmouth Events

Building Multiracial Democracy in the American West: Towards Democratic Futures

A civic dialogue series organized and moderated by Cori Tucker-Price (Dartmouth College) and Daniel Grant (Harvard University).

Wednesday, April 21, 2021
12:30pm – 2:00pm
Virtual Event
Intended Audience(s): Public
Categories: Lectures & Seminars

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Sponsored by the Rockefeller Ctr. and the Mahindra Humanities Ctr. at Harvard Univ.

This panel will address the challenges and opportunities of actualizing multiracial democracy in the present and future. Drawing from their own experiences building coalitions and affecting change at different scales of policy and governance, and without assuming that multiracial democracy is an intended outcome, panelists will discuss the future of community building across lines of racial difference. Panelists will address whether and how U.S. multiracial democracy can be compatible with Native sovereignty, what forms of recourse and reparations are needed to atone for past injustices in different communities, and what shared futures are possible and what historical differences must be respected among different groups.

Panelists: Rep. Charlene Fernandez, State Rep., Ariz. Legis.

Laura Martin, Exec. Dir., PLAN Action

Crystal Echo Hawk (Pawnee Nation of Okla.), Fdr. and Exec. Dir., IllumiNative

Corey Matthews, COO, Comm. Coalition of LA

Host/Moderator: Daniel Grant, Harvard Univ.

State Rep. Charlene Fernandez is the Dem. Caucus Leader of the Ariz. House of Reps. from the 4th Legis. Dist. serving on the Comm. on Appropriations. She was first elected to the state House in 2014 and represents Southwestern Ariz. Charlene also serves on the Ariz. Food and Ag. Policy Advisory Comm. advocating for food security.

Laura Martin has a background in organizing with an emphasis on social justice and anti-racism. Laura moved to Las Vegas in 2007 from Colo. Springs to organize with SEIU Local 1107. After working for Univ. of Nev. LV and Americans for Democratic Action, Laura joined PLAN as an organizer, then Comm. Dir., and now serves as the Assoc. Dir. She is a proud member of the Natl. Coalition of 100 Black Women Las Vegas chapter, board member of Nevada’s chapter of the Sierra Club and the Western States Ctr.

Crystal Echo Hawk (Pawnee) is the founder and Exec. Dir. of IllumiNative, the first and only national Native-led organization focused on changing the narrative about Native peoples on a mass scale. Crystal built IllumiNative to activate a cohesive set of strategies that illuminate the voices, stories, contributions and assets of contemporary Native peoples to disrupt the invisibility and toxic stereotypes Native peoples face.

Corey Matthews is a nonprofit exec. with more than a decade of experience designing, evaluating and leading community-based programs in a variety of social policy arenas. He serves as the COO of Community Coalition, where he participates in the exec. team to advance leadership through development practices, manage operations and support planning processes. Corey has facilitated initiatives to serve underrepresented communities and has worked in think tanks, local govt. and nonprofits committed to changing systems and reducing poverty. A native of South (Central) LA, Corey is committed to solving some of society’s most urgent issues.

Daniel Grant is an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoc. Fellow in Migration & the Humanities at the Mahindra Humanities Ctr. at Harvard Univ. He is an environmental historian who works on the racial politics of migration in the North Amer. West. His current book project tells a history of colonialism in the U.S.-Mex. borderlands by weaving together histories of Native and African Americans who resisted displacement at the hands of the U.S. & Mex. govts. by inhabiting & migrating within tracts of bottomlands along the Colo. River on both sides of the U.S.-Mex. border.

For more information, contact:
Joanne Blais

Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.