Press release from Pisgah Legal Services:
WHAT: Pisgah Legal Services’ 10th Annual Justice ForumWHEN: Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020Advance Online Reception: 6:00 p.m.; Online Forum: 7:00 p.m.Tickets to the Pre-Event Virtual Reception are $25/person and will include a poetry reading by Clint Smith and a musical performance by local musician Kat Williams.
The Forum is free.
Advance registration is required.
Registration and ticket sales begin Monday, Aug. 10.Sponsorship opportunities are still available. Contact Ally Wilson: 828-210-3444.WHERE: For the first time, the event will be held online via Zoom. Details will be shared with registered guests closer to the event.
WHO: Clint Smith, Ph.D. is this year’s keynote speaker. Smith uses his experience as an award-winning poet and teacher to share personal stories of justice, community, and education. He illuminates how we can all find the courage to create change, overcome challenges, and unite ourselves through the power of the collective voice.
His two TED Talks, The Danger of Silence and How to Raise a Black Son in America, have been viewed more than seven million times. He was named to the 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 list as well as Ebony Magazine’s 2017 Power 100 list.Smith is a 2014 National Poetry Slam champion, an Individual World Poetry Slam Finalist, a Cave Canem Fellow, a Callaloo Fellow, and has served as a cultural ambassador for the U.S. Department of State.His first full-length collection of poetry, Counting Descent, won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. His other writing has been published in The New Yorker, The Guardian, Boston Review, American Poetry Review, Harvard Educational Review, and he has just joined The Atlantic as a staff writer.
Smith earned his Ph.D. in Education at Harvard University, a B.A. in English from Davidson College and is an alumnus of the New Orleans Public School System.
PLS Executive Director Jim Barrett remarked about the event, “Back in February, when we asked Clint Smith to be the keynote speaker for this, our 10th Annual Justice Forum, we did not foresee how our communities and world would be transformed.”
He continued, “We are pleased to bring Clint’s voice, knowledge and perspective to Asheville and Western North Carolina as we seek to better understand the historical, political and sociological factors that have brought us to this moment of change for our country and our mountain communities.”
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