(Ijeoma Oluo)
With film, dance and discussion, including talks from a 2SLGBTQIA+ icon and a New York Times bestselling author, Central Oregon Community College’s 18th annual Season for Nonviolence — held mid-January through early April — gets underway on January 20. Visit cocc.edu/snv to learn more and register for all free events.
The season kicks off with a keynote talk by 2SLGBTQIA+ activist Cleve Jones, cofounder of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, at 6:30pm on Tuesday, January 20, at the Tower Theatre. Jones will share his 50-year personal and political journey to becoming a hero for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, beginning with the electrifying atmosphere of 1970s San Francisco. He established the AIDS Memorial Quilt, one of the world’s largest community arts projects, and served as an adviser to the American Foundation for Equal Rights’ challenge to California’s Proposition 8 in the U.S. Supreme Court.
New York Times-bestselling author and activist Ijeoma Oluo will speak at COCC’s Bend campus at 6:30pm on Tuesday, February 24, focusing on the transformative power of everyday people working toward justice. In advance of her visit, six community book conversations are convening in January and February to discuss Oluo’s Be a Revolution: How Everyday People are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World.
On Tuesday, March 3, a dance recital collaboration between COCC and the Bend Contemporary Dance Company, titled Home, will take place in Wille Hall on the COCC Bend campus with performances at 3pm and 6pm The multimedia contemporary dance piece explores meanings of home and the evolution of those physical spaces and their greater impact on people.
On Thursday, April 9, at 6pm, the Season for Nonviolence will feature the We Are Home film festival at the Madras Performing Arts Center. The showcase of five short films, presented by Thrive Central Oregon, celebrates Native and Indigenous communities across the country. Now in its fourth year, the festival explores themes rooted in the values of home, belonging and community.
Commemorated across the globe, the Season for Nonviolence was founded in 1998 by Arun Gandhi, Mohandas Gandhi’s grandson, as a yearly celebration of the philosophies and lives of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., honoring their vision for an empowered, nonviolent world.
COCC’s Season for Nonviolence is presented by the office of equity and well-being and the Foundation’s Nancy R. Chandler Lecture Series. For more information, contact Christy Walker, dean of equity and well-being, at 541-383-7412 or cwalker2@cocc.edu, or Charlotte Gilbride, coordinator of the Nancy R. Chandler Lecture Series, at 541-383-7257 or cgilbride@cocc.edu.
In advance of college events, persons needing accommodation or transportation because of a physical or mobility disability should contact campus services at 541-383-7775. For accommodation because of other disability such as hearing impairment, contact student accessibility services at sas@cocc.edu or 541-383-7583.