BACKGROUND:
In honor of Black History Month, Ivy Tech Community College’s Fort Wayne Campus is hosting two college and community events next month.
DETAILS:
African American Read-In
12:30 to 2 p.m. Feb. 14 in the Student Life Center commons on North Campus, 3701 Dean Drive in Fort Wayne
Ivy Tech employees and students will honor famous African American authors and playwrights by reading their works. Food will be available.
“Show Me Democracy” screening and discussion
Noon to 2 p.m. Feb. 21 in the Coliseum Campus auditorium, 3800 N. Anthony Blvd. in Fort Wayne
“Show Me Democracy” is a film that documents the Scholarship Foundation’s Education Policy Internship Program, which empowers students to research education policy issues that affect them and their peers and coordinate efforts to influence public policy around increasing post-secondary educational access for low-income students. The documentary follows the interns’ initial frustrations with police brutality and failing school systems; their first meetings as a team; one student’s experience of being tear-gassed on the streets of Ferguson; and the group’s visits with Missouri representatives. At the state Capitol, they advocate for educational reforms that would improve educational access for students of color, those with limited financial resources, and immigrant students in Missouri. The film examines the students’ personal lives and diverse backgrounds, follows them as they cope with the events in Ferguson, and will ultimately reveal whether a group of committed young people can make a difference in complex and imperfect systems.
After the viewing, one of the activists from the film will lead a discussion
Inside Ivy Tech 