Panel Discussion: Racial Justice in Education

Creating a Racially Just Community
A Panel Conversation Series

In June 2020, Portsmouth’s City Council passed a Resolution declaring Portsmouth a Racial Justice Municipality. What does that mean to you?

Join the Portsmouth Public Library a year on, for a three-week online conversation series on racial justice in our community and beyond. This series is co-hosted with Black Heritage Trail New Hampshire and sponsored in part by Kennebunk Savings, with additional support from Piscataqua Savings Bank.

We will offer three panel conversations on racial justice featuring Seacoast leaders, educators, business owners and activists. Panels will be moderated by library staff, with time for Q&A so members of our community can chime in.

Panel Discussion: Racial Justice in Education
Wednesday June 9 | 7 - 8 PM

Our panel conversations will begin with a discussion of racial justice and education, focusing on all ages. Panels will be moderated by library staff. There will be time at each event for Q&A so members of our community can chime in.

More about our panelists:

Moderator Courtney Marshall is a scholar of African-American literature and Black feminism.  She currently teaches English at Phillips Exeter Academy where she also serves as Associate Dean of Advising.

Andres Mejia is a black, latinx, bisexual, cisman who has been living in the Seacoast area for the past eleven years, and comes from a family of seven siblings, a Dominican father and powerful Puerto Rican mother out of Boston, MA. Andres is a Program Manager for NH Listens, Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire – hosting equity workshops and facilitating courageous and difficult conversations across the state of New Hampshire between community members, police, politicians, farmers, students, teachers, and many other constituents. Andres has spent the past ten years working at the University of New Hampshire implementing race, equity and diversity initiatives and spearheading underrepresented students support and helping leaders across campus—from student organizers to faculty and administrators—to become more culturally competent of folks marginalized within people of color and LGBTQAI+ communities and folks of various other marginalized groups. 
Royaline Edwards dedicated herself to the nurturing of young minds for 34 years as an elementary teacher in Kittery and Portsmouth. Retiring in 1999, she continued her presence in education as an Artist in Residence in various schools on the New Hampshire Seacoast, working with teachers and students in the presentation of an original play, “Listen to the Drums—A Tribute to Harriet Tubman.” Royaline’s love for teaching and writing, were the catalyst in her writing and publishing two books—A Ribbon for Sammi” in 2009, a children’s book, and Kandi, in 2019—a fictional story, based on true incidents, that reveals the impact on a young, Black girl, when her family moved from the segregated south to a large industrial city in the north.

Harini Subramanian (We Speak) is currently a junior at Portsmouth High School and has been a member of We Speak since the fall of 2019. We Speak is a student group at Portsmouth High School that is dedicated to creating a more equitable environment for students to learn and grow comfortably.

Kimberly McGlinchey (We Speak) is a current doctoral candidate in Leadership and Policy in Education at the University of New Hampshire, Kimberly is focused on understanding the systemic policies within public education which lead to exclusion of different cultures and backgrounds; creating an asset vs deficit belief system; and generating an ethos of critical inquiry into our current belief systems. In addition, her interests lie in the intersections of social and eco-justice, sustainability, and youth empowerment. She serves as the teacher school board representative for the Association of Portsmouth Teachers, teaches ecology, physical science, and "Grow it Green" at PHS, and is the advisor for two student-led organizations: We Speak and the Environmental Change Organization (ECO).

Anne Romney is a Portsmouth resident and an educator/group facilitator who is committed to anti-racism education. She is a co-facilitator of the program White People Challenging Racism, offers a workshop on the book, Waking Up White, is a member of the Seacoast NAACP and volunteers with the Black Heritage Trail of NH. In September 2019, Anne helped organize a New England regional symposium on anti-racism organizing and, in the fall of 2019/winter 2020, was on the Portsmouth Listens Equity and Inclusion steering committee. Anne has been leading the Standing Up to Racism course at Portsmouth Public Library since June 2019.

Don't miss the other events in the series! Free and open to all. Register for one or all, and join the discussion.

Registration required – sign up for each event to receive a Zoom link.

Questions? Write to us at libraryevents@cityofportsmouth.com.