When: Saturday, April 13, 2019

Where: Brown Faculty Club

Time: 10:30am – 2:15pm

Join the U-FLi Center and the CareerLAB for this year’s U-FLiCON Remix!

For this special rendition of the CON, we’ve invited Paul Tran `14 to facilitate a workshop for student participants and provide a keynote address.

Additionally, alumni from a variety of industries will join us for a closing dessert reception and will be eager to share their experiences about how they navigated early careers as FLi graduates.

Come ready to listen, engage, and connect!

About the Workshop:
Participants in this generative writing workshop will read “Autobiography of Eve” by the poet Ansel Elkins. “I did not fall from grace,” Eve says. “I charged towards freedom.” We’ll write and share our own “Autobiography of…” poems, and in doing so, we’ll talk about the myths constructed about us and how, from the classroom to the workplace, we reinforce or subvert these myths.

About Paul Tran:
Paul Tran is the recipient of the Ruth Lily & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from Poetry Magazine and the Discovery/Boston Review Poetry Prize. Their work appears in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, and Netflix movie Love Beats Rhymes, alongside Azealia Banks, Common, and Jill Scott. Paul is the first Asian American since 1993 to win the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam, placing Top 10 at the Individual World Poetry Slam and Top 2 at the National Poetry Slam. They are Poetry Editor of The Offing Magazine and Chancellor’s Graduate Fellow in The Writing Program at Washington University in St. Louis.

When: Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Where: U-FLi Center Room 520

Time: 5:30pm-7pm

For the last event of the year, we are inviting organizers from the Detention Watch Network, a national organization founded in 1997 to combat the explosive growth of the U.S. immigrant detention system. Today, the DWN is a large national network bringing together diverse constituencies in collective effort to advocate, educate, and organize around migrant humans and the policing they face today.

Read more about DWN’s campaign #CommunitiesNotCages by following this link: https://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/take-action/communitiesnotcages

When: Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Where: 85 Waterman St. Room 130

Time: 5:30pm

Through his research, Anthony Jack examines how class and culture shape how undergraduates navigate college by exploring the “experiential core of college life”. Here, he sheds new light on how inequality is reproduced by contrasting the experiences of the Privileged Poor and the Doubly Disadvantaged. The U-FLi Center is excited to invite Sociologist and Assistant Professor of Education at Harvard, Anthony Jack.

Read his amazing New York Times opinion piece: What the Privileged Poor Can Teach Us https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/opinion/sunday/what-the-privileged-poor-can-teach-us.html?ref=opinion

When: Thursday, March 21, 2019

Where: 75 Waterman, Petteruti Lounge

Time: 5:30-7pm

The U-FLi Center is excited to invite Prentis Hemphill, a healer, movement facilitator and Somatics practicioner, and Erica Woodland (Class of ’02), a healing practitioner, movement leader and Founding Director of the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network (NQTTCN) for our first spring-time event: Blooming Beyond Survival: Healing Justice in our Working Class communities.

Blooming Beyond Survival will provide space to meditate on the framework of healing justice as a necessary component of our liberation movements, and to understand and cultivate healing from class-based trauma, particularly as working class people. This event will include a discussion between Prentis and Erica, who have worked together closely for many years, as well as guided practice to provide us with tools with which to feel groundedness and connection to ourselves and to each other.

Blooming Beyond Survival will take place on Thursday, March 21st from 5:30-7:00 pm in Petteruti Lounge at Faunce House, 75 Waterman Street

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Prentis Hemphill:

“Prentis Hemphill is a genderqueer and Texan born healer, movement facilitator, Somatics teacher, and writer living and working at the convergence of healing, individual and collective transformation, and political organizing. Prentis spent many years developing, learning and contributing to powerful organizations such as generationFIVE, Communities United Against Violence (CUAV), The Relational Center, Dignity and Power Now, Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity (BOLD) and as the former Healing Justice Director at Black Lives Matter Global Network – grappling with questions of how we value and transform ourselves and our intimate relationships, all while transforming conditions and institutions around us.”

Erica Woodland:

“Erica Woodland is a black queer/genderqueer facilitator, consultant and healing practitioner born and raised in Baltimore, MD. He is also a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 15 years experience working at the intersections of movements for racial, gender, economic, trans and queer justice and liberation. Erica is the Founding Director of the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network, a healing justice organization committed to transforming mental health for queer and trans people of color. From 2012 to 2016, he served as the Field Building Director for the Brown Boi Project, a national gender justice organization working to change the way communities of color understand and experience gender. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Brown University in Human Biology and Psychology in 2002.”
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Thank you to our co-sponsors, CAPS, Health Services and B-Well for helping to make this event possible.

When: Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Where: U-FLi Center Room 520

Time: 5:30pm – 7pm

For our kick-off event this semester, the U-FLi Center invites Jonathan Jayes-Green and Ronnie James from UndocuBlack Network (UBN), a multigenerational Network of Black undocumented immigrants organizing their own communities and building power.

Blackifying Migration: Transforming Realities and Healing Communities aims to “Blackify” our understanding of the undocumented population by highlighting the history, advocacy, resistance, and joy of Black undocumented immigrants. We hope that by amplifying the voices and work at the intersection of the immigrant rights and racial justice movements, we create future possibilities for organizing and solidarity on Brown’s campus and beyond.

Blackifying Migration will take place on Tuesday, February 26th from 5:30-7:00 pm at U-FLi Center, room 520 (Sciences Library, 201 Thayer street, Providence).

All are welcomed!

Jonathan Jayes-Green
“Jonathan Jayes-Green is one of the co-funders and the Director of the UndocuBlack Network. He believes freedom and liberation is possible by organizing and centering the voices and leadership of those directly impacted. Jonathan is a queer undocumented Afro-Panamanian DACA recipient who loves salsa, merengue and heartfelt hugs.”

Ronnie James
“Originally from the Helen of the West, Gregory “Ronnie” James immigrated to the United States to reunite with his mother in late 2006. He is one of UndocuBlack Network’s Regional Leaders, charged with co-directing the networks New York City Chapter operations as well as the current National Policy Fellow. Ronnie is a current DACA recipient and Dream.us scholar enrolled in the Colin Powell School of Civic and Global Leadership at CUNY City College.”

Thank you to our Co-sponsors:
Brown Center for Students of Color (BCSC), Black Heritage Series, Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

When: Thursday, January 24, 2019

Where: Sayles Hall

Time: 5:30 – 7pm

Join the U-FLi Center staff for our Spring Welcome Back Reception!

Professors of Comparative American Studies from Oberlin College, Gina Perez and Shelley Lee, will provide a keynote address on the history of immigrants rights activism and the continued need for intersectional, solidarity work across various social movements.

Anne Marie Ponte, coordinator for co-curricular initiative at the BCSC, will share a reflection on Maryori Conde `18 MAT `19.

Food will be provided!

When: Thursday, December 6, 2018

Where: U-FLi Center

Time: 8 – 9:30pm

Stop by to detox and de-stress from finals at the FLi Center on Thursday, December 6th!
We will have FREE pizza, a therapy dog, board games, card games, puzzles, nail painting, movies, coloring books, and affirmations. The first 15 people to check in will also receive a free FLi Scholar T-Shirt.

When: Sunday, November 11, 2018

Where: U-FLi Center

Time: 8:30 – 10pm

What do you like to jam out to when you study? Add your favorite study music to the collective Spotify playlist, then come in to the UFLi Space on Sunday, November 11th from 8:30pm to 10:00pm for some relaxing coffee, tea, and snacks as we grind through midterm season!

[BEN AND JERRY’S ICE CREAM CAKE for those who come through and add to the playlist]

Add your songs here: https://open.spotify.com/user/215vybje53avowdejcf37quti/playlist/2dZgizesFMFtDshzpOpU33

When: Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Where: Martinos Auditorium, Granoff Center

Time: 5:15 – 7pm

*Open to the public*

Undocu-Friendship invites undocumented artist-activists who are building community and supporting each other’s work while navigating the current political climate. This event will highlight how each of them is working to reclaim the undocumented narrative by using a creative lens to build undocumented love, joy and resistance across various cultural communities.

We have the pleasure of welcoming Yosimar Reyes, DJ Sizzle Fantastic, and Julio Salgado to Brown University on Tuesday, November 6th.

Yosimar Reyes
“Yosimar Reyes is a nationally acclaimed poet, educator, performance artist and public speaker. Born in Guerreo, Mexico and raised in Eastside San Jose, Reyes explores the themes of migration and sexuality in his work. His first collection of poetry, ‘For Colored Boys Who Speak Softly…’ was self published after a collaboration with the legendary Carlos Santana. He was featured in the documentary, ‘2nd Verse: The Rebirth of Poetry.’”

Dj Sizzle Fantastic
“Dj Sizzle Fantastic is a migrant Chingona desde la Costa de Guerrero and raised in the streets of Boyle Heights, Califas. She is the resident Dj at Chingona Fire, one of the largest Latina open mics in the country and the curator of #Cumbiatón (Boyle Heights/Los Angeles), an emerging Cumbia and Afro-Latinx party.”

Julio Salgado
“Julio Salgado is the co-founder of DreamersAdrift.com and the project manager for CultureStrike. His status as an undocumented, queer artivist has fueled the contents of his visual art, which depict key individuals and moments of the DREAM Act and migrant rights movement. Undocumented students and allies across the country have used Salgado’s artwork to call attention to the youth-led movement.”

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Undocu-Series Mission Statement

The Undocu-Series of the FLi Center aims to cultivate spaces for critical engagement that affirms the lived experiences of undocumented communities and disrupts the constant erasure of their humanity. The series, therefore, acknowledges the existence of multiple undocumented narratives by amplifying the voices and work of those who are often further marginalized within their own communities and excluded from the dominant discourse surrounding (im)migration. Through public lectures, performances, and workshops, the series provides opportunities for participants to reimagine dignity, joy, and liberation across various social movements.

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Event Co-Sponsors: Division of Campus Life, Department of American Studies, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Hispanic Studies, BWell Health Promotion

When: Sunday, October 28, 2018

Where: U-FLi Center

Time: 7:30 – 9pm

Come through to the U-FLi Center from 7:30-9:00pm for a Halloween-themed study break. Decorate cookies and relax while watching a Halloween movie classic: Frankenweenie/Goosebumps/Nightmare Before Christmas (you choose!). We will also have hot chocolate and coffee so stop on by and scare away all the stress from midterms at this detox event!