David Treuer

Wednesday, May 31, 2023  |  1:30 - 2:45 PM

Author, professor, and essayist

Bestselling author David Treuer is an Ojibwe Indian from Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. He is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, two Minnesota Book Awards, and fellowships from the NEH, Bush Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. His book, "The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee" was a 2019 finalist for both the National Book Award and Carnegie Medal. He divides his time between his home on the Leech Lake Reservation and Los Angeles, where he is a Professor of English at USC.

The son of Robert Treuer, an Austrian Jew and Holocaust survivor and Margaret Seelye Treuer, a tribal court judge, David Treuer grew up on Leech Lake Reservation. After graduating from high school he attended Princeton University where he wrote two senior theses--one in anthropology and one in creative writing--and where he worked with Toni Morrison, Paul Muldoon, and Joanna Scott. Treuer graduated in 1992 and published his first novel, Little, in 1995. He received his PhD in anthropology and published his second novel, The Hiawatha, in 1999. His third novel The Translation of Dr Apelles and a book of criticism, Native American Fiction; A User's Manual appeared in 2006. The Translation of Dr Apelles was named a Best Book of the Year by the Washington Post, Time Out, and City Pages. He published his first major work of nonfiction, Rez Life, in 2012. His next novel, Prudence, was published by Riverhead Books in 2015. His essays and stories have appeared in Granta, Harper’s, Esquire, TriQuarterly, The Washington Post, Lucky Peach, The New York Times, The LA Times, Orion, and Slate.com. 

Michelle Alexander

Thursday, June 1, 2023  |  1:30 - 2:45 PM

Legal scholar, social justice advocate, professor, and columnist

Michelle Alexander brings audiences profoundly necessary and meaningful insights on the practice of mass incarceration that plagues the U.S. justice system, as well as eye-opening conversation on how we can end racial caste in America.

In her acclaimed best-seller, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle peels back the curtain on systemic racism in the American prison system, which the New York Review of Books described as “striking in the intelligence of her ideas, her powers of summary, and the force of her writing.” With equal force and candor on stage, she breaks the silence about racial injustice in the modern legal system to reveal how mass incarceration has come to replace segregation.

Michelle, a legal scholar, social justice advocate, columnist at The New York Times and visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary, explores the myths surrounding our criminal justice system from a racial and ethical standpoint, and offers solutions for combating this epidemic. Delivering an emphatic wake-up call from the “colorblind slumber” that our country has fallen under, she leaves audiences with a new perspective on the challenges facing the civil rights community and a rousing call-to-action for a multi-racial, multi-ethnic human rights movement for justice in America.

Linda Sarsour

Friday, June 2, 2023  |  1:30 - 2:45 PM

Author, racial justice and civil rights activist, and community organizer

Linda Sarsour is an author, award-winning racial justice and civil rights activist, seasoned community organizer and mother of three.  Ambitious, outspoken and independent, Linda shatters stereotypes of Muslim women while also treasuring her religious and ethnic heritage. She is a Palestinian Muslim American and a self-proclaimed “pure New Yorker, born and raised in Brooklyn!” She is the former Executive Director of the Arab American Association of New York and co-founder of the first Muslim online organizing platform, MPOWER Change. Linda has been at the forefront of major civil rights campaigns including calling for an end to unwarranted surveillance of New York’s Muslim communities and ending police policies like stop and frisk. In wake of the police murder of Mike Brown, she co-founded Muslims for Ferguson to build solidarity amongst American Muslim communities and encourage work against police brutality. She is a member of the Justice League NYC, a leading NYC force of activists, formerly incarcerated individuals, and artists working to reform the New York Police Department and the criminal justice system. Linda was the National Co-Chair of the 2017 Women’s March on Washington, dubbed the largest single day protest in US history. She served on the executive board of Women’s March, Inc. where she focused on fundraising and direct action planning. 

Paola Ramos

Saturday, June 3, 2023  |  1:30 - 2:45 PM

A Conversation with Paola Ramos: Finding Latinx
Followed by a book signing for Finding Latinx: In Search of the Voices Redefining Latino Identity

Author, Emmy award-winning journalist and Latinx advocate

Paola Ramos is a host for VICE and VICE News, as well as a contributor for MSNBC and Telemundo News. Ramos uses these multi-media platforms --in both English and Spanish--to uplift the voices of marginalized communities, break down stereotypes and mobilize people towards civic engagement. Ramos was the former Deputy Director of Hispanic Media for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Presidential Campaign, a political appointee during the Obama Administration and also served in President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.

She is the author of Finding Latin-X: In Search of the Voices redefining Latino Identity, published by Penguin Random House. Ramos received her B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University and her MPP from Harvard University’s Kennedy School.

Pictured at top of page: Photo of wrought and cast iron outside building by Jeff Anding courtesy of New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau.