Presentations from the East Tennessee Community Encouraged
UPDATE from DEC 21, 2018) (KNOXVILLE, TN) Presenters are needed to participate in the 14th Annual Black Issues Conference on Saturday, February 2, 2019, from 10am-4pm at the Student Union on the campus of UT-Knoxville. The 2019 theme is “Illuminating Our Power, Unveiling Our Truth.”
The deadline has been extended to January 11, 2019, for community members and student leaders across East Tennessee to share in this experience by presenting a 50-minute presentation on a topic of your choice during the workshop sessions.
Some topics of interest include, but are not limited to: Social Media (Power of black twitter/ role in social media) · State of Black Men · Power of Black Female Leadership · What’s next for the Black Community? · Current Events · Melanin in the Media · LGBTQIAA · Civil Rights and Politics · Mental Health · Education & the Black Community · Violence in the Black Community · Free Speech · Double Consciousness · Unifying the Black Community · Intersectionality in the Black Community · Black Ownership · Colorism.
Participants are encouraged to integrate elements of the conference theme in their presentations. Please use the following link to electronically submit your proposal and an outline of your program to the Planning Committee by January 11, 2019.
The featured keynote speaker will be Andrew Gillum, Former Mayor of Tallahassee and Gubernatorial Nominee for the state of Florida. Under Gillum’s leadership, Tallahassee advanced workforce training, beat the gun lobby in court to protect common sense gun reform and lowered violent crime in the city by more than 10 percent through investments, community policing, reentry programs, and social service funding.
Gillum is a graduate of Florida A&M University, a historically black institution. He was the first in his family to graduate college and became the youngest person in history elected to the Tallahassee City Commission, before becoming Mayor. He and his wife Jai have three children.
The Black Issues Conference was instituted to unite students on campus with the black community on issues of mutual concern in partnership with the University of Tennessee Chapter of the NAACP, and the Office of Multicultural Student Life.