UIS Speakers Series examines "The New Black: Family, Faith, and the Fight for Equality"

The University of Illinois Springfield Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speakers Series explores how the African-American community is grappling with the gay rights issue in light of the recent gay marriage movement and fight for civil rights with a screening of the documentary film The New Black: Family, Faith, and the Fight for Equality. A discussion will follow by award-winning filmmaker Yoruba Richen. 

The film and discussion will take place Monday, October 6, 2014 at 6 p.m. in UIS Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library.

The New Black: Family, Faith, and the Fight for Equality documentary film takes viewers into the pews, onto the streets and seats them at the kitchen table as it charts the evolution of the divisive issue of marriage equality within the Black community leading up to the passage of Maryland’s historic marriage equality act in 2012. 

Richen has been awarded the Creative Promise Award at Tribeca All Access and has served as a Sundance producers’ fellow. She has directed and produced films in the U.S. and abroad. Her experience includes serving as an investigative producer for ABC News and Democracy Now. Richen teaches documentary film at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and is a Guggenheim Fellow. 

The film, discussion, and reception are sponsored by the UIS Diversity Center; UIS Brookens Library; and the UIS Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning and Allied (LGBTQA) Resource Office.

For a list of other upcoming ECCE Speakers Series events and more information, visit http://illinois.edu/goto/speakerseries. 

All events are free and open to the public.