[act-ma] (Thurs.) 3/19 PEN New England Gives Howard Zinn Award to Ferguson Bloggers at Cambridge Forum

[director at cambridgeforum.org]

Cambridge Forum
3 Church Street ● Cambridge, MA 02138
617-495-2727
email: director at cambridgeforum.org
www.cambridgeforum.org

RELEASE                 MARCH 3, 2015

PEN NEW ENGLAND and  CAMBRIDGE FORUM Present

WITNESSING: A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF FERGUSON

On THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015 AT 6:30 P.M, join PEN NEW ENGLAND and CAMBRIDGE
FORUM to honor JOHNETTA ELZIE and DERAY MCKESSON, activists and citizen
journalists, with PEN NEW ENGLAND’s 2015 Howard Zinn Freedom to Write
Award.  As organizers and bloggers in the Ferguson protest movement, their
reporting and “This Is the Movement” newsletter engaged and unified
disparate voices in the wake of the August 9, 2014, shooting death of
Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri.

Their newsletter, “This Is The Movement,” reported on local and
national calls to action, relevant news and information, and narrated the
real, “on the ground” story of the protest. Their activism focused an
enraged community and helped transform a cycle of tragedies into a
movement, working to make sure the world does not forget the names Eric
Garner, John Crawford III, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and countless others.
JABARI ASIM, editor-in-chief of The Crisis, leads this discussion of the
role of citizen journalism and activism. What role did Elzie and McKesson
expect to play in Ferguson? How did their expectations change as their
actual role evolved? How does citizen journalism give voice to the
unheard, and take control of one’s own narrative? What are the lessons
for other citizens and activists?

JOHNETTA ELZIE grew up in St. Louis, Missouri.  She says she did not know
she was an activist until somebody told her she was.  Galvanized by the
shooting death of Mike Brown in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Elzie
turned to her social media accounts to show the world exactly what was
happening. She quickly emerged as one of the leaders and she eventually
became a curator on the #Ferguson protester newsletter, created by DeRay
McKesson. She currently works for Amnesty International.

DERAY MCKESSON was at home in Minneapolis, watching TV coverage of the
protests in Ferguson, Mo., when he decided he needed to be there. McKesson
rented a car the next morning and made the nine-hour trip to Ferguson. He
planned on protesting for two days, but ended up staying for nine. McKesson
began to document the protests via Twitter in order to report on events
that were happening, as they were happening.  A graduate of Bowdoin
College, he works for the Minneapolis School system.

JABARI ASIM describes himself as an “author, teacher, occasional
thinker.” An associate professor of writing, literature and publishing at
Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2007 he was named
Editor-in-Chief of The Crisis magazine, a journal of politics, ideas and
culture published by the NAACP and founded by historian and social activist
W. E. B. Du Bois in 1910.

PEN NEW ENGLAND is a chapter of PEN America Center and part of
International PEN, the world’s oldest literary and human rights
organization. PEN’s mission is to promote literacy and a culture of
literature, and to defend free expression everywhere.  For more
information, visit www.pen-ne.org.

CAMBRIDGE FORUM is recorded and edited for public radio broadcast. Edited
CDs are available to the public by contacting 617-495-2727. Select forums
can be viewed in their entirety on theYouTube channel hosted by the WGBH
Forum Network.  For more information visit our website at
www.cambridgeforum.org.

#####
-- 
Cambridge Forum
3 Church Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-495-2727
www.cambridgeforum.org