Friday, October 12, 2007

7pm @ Cambridge Marriott

Cocktails, Dinner, Silent Auction,

Entertainment, Dancing

Dress: Creative Black Tie

Thank you to everyone who supported this event

See photos from the event

Barbara Smith is an author, activist, and independent scholar who has played a groundbreaking role in opening up a national cultural and political dialogue about the intersections of race, class, sexuality, and gender.  She was among the first to define an African American women’s literary tradition and to build Black women’s studies and Black feminism in the United States.  She has been politically active in many movements for social justice since the 1960s.

She has edited three major collections about Black women: Conditions: Five, The Black Women’s Issue (with Lorraine Bethel, 1979); All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women’s Studies (with Gloria T. Hull and Patricia Bell Scott, 1982); and Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, 1983.  She is also the co-author with Elly Bulkin and Minnie Bruce Pratt of Yours in Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism, 1984.  She is the general editor of The Reader’s Companion to U. S. Women’s History with Wilma Mankiller, Gwendolyn Mink, Marysa Navarro, and Gloria Steinem, 1998.  A collection of her essays, The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender, and Freedom was published by Rutgers University Press in 1998. 

She was cofounder and publisher until 1995 of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U. S. publisher for women of color.  She resides in Albany, New York and in November, 2005 was elected to the Common Council.

She has received numerous awards and honors. In 2005 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, in 2000 she received the Church Women United Human Rights Award, in 2000 she was profiled in Essence Magazine in an article honoring Black women leaders for the special thirtieth anniversary issue, in 1999 she received the Albany Chapter National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Arts Award, in 1998 she received the The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender, and Freedom, Honorable Mention, Gustavus Myers Human Rights Book Award. She was also a Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, Fellow in 1996-1997 and was a Scholar-in-Residence at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in 1995-1996.

He is a nationally recognized educator and community organizer on LGBT health issues, LGBT partner abuse, and addressing access issues for the transgender community. He has provided trainings for the last eight years to wide variety of community organizations, colleges/high schools, criminal justice, health, and social service professionals.

He is on the National Board of Advisors for the National Center for Transgender Equality and a Commissioner on the Massachusetts Commission for GLBT Youth. He is currently attending Goddard College.

Your sponsorship of this event will help enable us to underwrite the cost of the event, allowing all ticket sales and donations to be directed towards our fundraising goal of $40,000.

2007 Sponsors