Discussion of Racial Equity, 50 Years After MLK's Poor People's Campaign, April 16
April 2, 2018
Contact: Office of Government and Public Affairs
Phone: 410.837.5739
The University of Baltimore's semester-long conversation about the history and impact of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign will continue on Monday, April 16, with A. Adar Ayira, a member of the senior leadership team at Associated Black Charities. The presentation, interview, and audience Q&A will be facilitated by Marc Steiner. The session will take place beginning at 5:30 p.m. in UB's Town Hall, located in the H. Mebane Turner Learning Commons, 1415 Maryland Ave. This event, as are all events in UB's semester-long examination of King's legacy and its impact on social justice today, is free and open to the public.
For more than 20 years, Ayira has been a facilitator and trainer on racial equity and has provided presentations, facilitations, and trainings for nonprofit organizations, community groups, and individuals in the region. A founding member and founding Advisory Board Member of Baltimore Racial Justice Action, an organization with a 15-year history of working to transform systems to achieve racial equity, Adar continues her work in co-training BRJA trainers/facilitators. A sociologist and student of history, Adar also analyzes trends and manifestations of racism and intersectionalities, and their impacts on society.
The 2011 recipient of the YWCA Baltimore's Racial Justice Award, Adar is a popular racial equity speaker, presenter, frequent radio guest, panel moderator, and facilitator/trainer in nonprofit, business, community, and other forums. A poet and spoken word artist in the Baltimore-Washington area, she has been a featured performer at Center Stage, the Spotlight Theatre, the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Meyers Maritime Museum, and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, among other venues. Adar has also created and guided programming using poetry as a healing and empowerment tool for Catherine's Hearth and for women residing at Jessup Correctional Institution.
At Associated Black Charities—a public foundation with a long and distinguished record of service working to end race-based barriers that impede economic opportunity and access for African Americans—Ayira's portfolio includes education and advocacy in policy and institutional realms regarding the manifestations and impacts of race-based barriers in the workforce, specifically, and in greater society, in general.
Moderating the conversation is Marc Steiner, a fixture in Baltimore media and public affairs for 25 years, beginning with his radio show on WJHU, which continued on WYPR and WEAA. He is one of the most recognized voices in Maryland and has gained national acclaim for his insightful style of interviewing. As president of the Center for Emerging Media, he won a Peabody Award, the most distinguished award in broadcast media, for the series "Just Words." Steiner participated in the Poor People's Campaign, spending five weeks during 1968 in "Resurrection City" on the National Mall.
A special thank-you from the University of Baltimore and its students to the Randolph B. Rosencrantz Memorial Fund and Maryland Humanities for their generous, continued, and future support and for helping to bring the Poor People's Campaign course at the University of Baltimore to fruition.
Learn more about these organizations.
Learn more about Steiner's involvement in the Poor People's Campaign in The Baltimore Sun.
Read about UB's semester-long examination of the Poor People's Campaign.