Moraga is one of the most influential Chicano/a writers in the U.S. today. Among other notable works, she is the playwright of Heroes and Saints and the editor for the collection This Bridge Called My Back.
He joined the faculty of the English department at UNC where he instructed and inspired undergraduate and graduate students for 43 years.
Resisting Brown examines how African American community members in Prince Edward County, Virginia, responded to the county’s decision to close all public schools from 1959 to 1964 rather than desegregate as demanded by Brown v. Board of Education.
The two-part event will begin with a panel discussion led by four veterans discussing the ways in which American popular culture has impacted the divide between the military and civilians.
Skin is a short film that follows a young boy who has an innocent encounter with a black man at a supermarket. His white supremacist parents react to the exchange with racial violence, and the two families “find themselves in a clash with shocking consequences.”
Incorporating the spirit of Southern rock and roll into the event, Nashville musician Kevin Gordon will also perform and participate in the conversation.
Professor Gabrielle Calvocoressi, the department diversity liaison, says of Cobb, “in everything he does, James works to not only increase diversity on the campus, but to deepen the notion of what diversity and inclusion means in the classroom and in the world.”
His forthcoming book, Charm Offensive, was selected as a co-winner of the Sexton Poetry Prize for the best unpublished poetry collection by an American poet.
