New date to be announced on the programs page.

This inaugural program presents Orlando Lara of Sin Huellas Artist Collective; Theo Henderson—unhoused advocate; and UCLA Gender Studies professor Juliann Anesi in conversation about the art of organizing around issues of social justice. The panel discussion will take place in the exhibition ‘How Do You See This World?’: The Art of Almighty God, a retrospective of Ghanaian painter Kwame Akoto (b. 1950), whose works incite the human spirit and call for collective well-being. 

Juliann Anesi conducts research on Indigeneity and ableism, disability activism, inclusive educational policies and pedagogies, and decolonial feminisms. As a community educator and activist, she has worked with non-profit organizations and schools in American Sāmoa, California, Hawai ́i, New York, andSāmoa. Her book manuscript Tautua: Women’s Disability Activism in Sāmoa is currently under review.

Orlando Lara is a legal and political anthropologist, critical race and ethnic studies scholar, cultural organizer, and writer. A doctoral candidate in anthropology with an emphasis in race and justice at UC Irvine, he is working on an ethnography of citizenship review and invalidation in the U.S. borderlands. He is a member of the Sin Huellas Artist Collective, which produced “Detention Nation,” a collaborative, multi-media installation about immigrant detention and resistance. He is also a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop. A co-founder of the Ethnic Studies Network of Texas, Lara works with educators, organizers, and community leaders to grow ethnic studies in Texas at all grade levels. Previously, he served as associate director of comparative race and ethnic studies at TCU and as Mexican American studies faculty member at Lee College. He holds an M.F.A. in fiction from Cornell, a Certificate in culture and media from NYU, and a B.A. in Chicana/o studies from Stanford. Website: https://www.orlandolara.com/

Theo Henderson is the creator of the popular podcast We The Unhoused, which focuses on lifting the voices of unhoused people and tackles such issues as police brutality, harassment, public policy, and the survival challenges of people living outside. Henderson’s live coverage of sweeps, town halls, mutual aid events, community actions, and more can be found on Instagram, as well as on his visual podcast on YouTube. Recently, Henderson was named the 2022 UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality & Democracy’s Activist in Residence; this program aims to help sustain the activists, artists, and public intellectuals involved in social justice work. People can support Henderson’s ongoing work via the We The Unhoused Patreon. 

UCLA|LA Conversations
Launching this quarter is UCLA|LA Conversations, a series designed by the Fowler Student Council to facilitate dialogues that bring to the fore current projects devoted to critical issues. The goal of this initiative is to animate the museum’s galleries with groundbreaking work that connects the campus to the city of Los Angeles.

Parking available in UCLA Lot 4, 198 Westwood Plaza, directly off Sunset Blvd; $3/hr or max $14/day. Rideshare drop-off at 305 Royce Dr.

Images courtesy of participants.