Ella Baker Days have been popping up all over the country as a way to honor and celebrate Ms. Baker’s lifetime of community organizing and civil rights activism on behalf of communities, and especially women, of color. We are excited to bring Ella Baker Day to Loyola and are hoping that this becomes an annual event held each April. This first Ella Baker Day will feature a social justice-themed art contest from local middle and high school aged youth, with two categories for submission (one written, which would include poetry, essays, short stories, etc., and one visual/performance, which would include any type of visual or performance art).
We will invite finalists to come read/present/perform during our Ella Baker Day event on Thursday, April 6. Then, we will have a keynote speaker (Dr. Rev. Heber Brown III), and then announce the four contest winners at the end of the night. We will provide all finalists with a certificate of accomplishment from Loyola, and will provide the winners with an additional monetary award. We are excited to celebrate your creativity! Thank you for giving us the chance to learn from your experiences and to better understand and connect with our own neighbors, all in the spirit of Ms. Baker’s legacy.
More information here: http://www.loyola.edu/department/ciue/events/ella-baker-day