OSI-Baltimore Launches Yearlong Series of Events on Race in America

What

1. A screening of the HBO documentary The Black List: Volume Two, featuring a Q&A afterward with the filmmakers:  photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and award-winning journalist Elvis Mitchell
2. First in a series, "Talking About Race," with journalist Gwen Ifill of Washington Week and The NewsHour; and civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn A. Ifill 

When

1. 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 28
2. 7 p.m. Thursday, June 4

Where

1. Brown Center at MICA
   1301 Mount Royal Ave., Baltimore
2. Enoch Pratt Free Library
   Wheeler Auditorium
   400 Cathedral St., Baltimore

BALTIMORE—Since the historic election of the nation's first African-American president, individuals, groups and even officials at the highest levels are engaging the subject of race more often than ever before. But in Baltimore, race is rarely easily discussed.

This spring, the Open Society Institute–Baltimore is beginning that bold conversation, adding "race" to its agenda of important topics to tackle by sponsoring a yearlong series of events to talk about race.

"In light of President Obama's election, now is the perfect time to begin a too-often ignored discussion about race," said Diana Morris, director of OSI-Baltimore. "Especially in a city with a majority African-American population, how we talk about race - or why we don't talk about it - is as important and relevant as any other social issue with which we wrestle. Many of the areas of reform on which we focus have been shaped by race and discrimination.  The more we all become skilled and comfortable talking about race, the better able we will be to address the practices and policies that perpetuate inequity and undercut the region's prosperity."

OSI-Baltimore will kickoff the race discussion on April 28 with an evening screening of The Black List: Volume Two, a provocative HBO documentary film profiling an eclectic group of prominent and influential African Americans. Last year's The Black List: Volume One, conceptualized and produced by renowned portrait photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and award-winning journalist Elvis Mitchell, was highly celebrated, and the second installment has already garnered great praise.

The film, which aired on HBO, presents more dramatic portraits of some of today's most fascinating African Americans, who share their stories and insights into the struggles, triumphs and joys of black life in the United States. Mitchell, a former New York Times film critic, interviews such notables as filmmaker Tyler Perry; actor Laurence Fishburne; Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick; pastor T.D. Jakes; singer Charley Pride; fashion designer Patrick Robinson; actress Maya Rudolph; musician RZA; activist and artist Majora Carter; activist and academic Angela Davis; producer Suzanne de Passe; Anglican Bishop Barbara Harris; physician and academic Valerie Montgomery-Rice, M.D.; filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles; and artist Kara Walker. 

The screening, at the Brown Center of the Maryland Institute College of Art, will feature appearances by both Mitchell and Greenfield-Sanders, who will participate in a question-and-answer session at the end of the film. OSI-Baltimore is cosponsoring the event with Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), the Maryland Film Festival, and the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

The screening is the first event in OSI-Baltimore's year-long series, "Talking About Race," addressing how we talk (or do not talk) about race from different perspectives, and why it is important to discuss the topic openly and intelligently.

The second event, in June, is a frank and engaging discussion with journalist Gwen Ifill of Washington Week and The NewsHour, as well as noted civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn A. Ifill, who is an OSI board member. The evening discussion, "Talking About Race Now: How to Build Success Without Forgetting the Struggle," will be held at the central branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, the cosponsor of the occasional series of conversations.

The conversation is especially timely because Gwen Ifill recently released the book The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, with analysis The Washington Post called both "unargumentative" and "refreshingly skeptical."

"We're pleased and excited to have such exceptional leaders and artists come to Baltimore to help us kick off our discussions about race," Morris said. "Their perspectives are sure to spark a necessary dialogue and inform future conversations in our year-long series."

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 Founded by philanthropist George Soros, OSI-Baltimore is a private operating foundation that supports a grantmaking, educational and capacity-building program to expand justice and opportunity for Baltimore residents. With support from a range of investors, its current work focuses on helping Baltimore's youth succeed, reducing the social and economic costs of incarceration, tackling drug addiction, and building a corps of Community Fellows to bring innovative ideas to Baltimore's underserved communities.