Community Conversations about Race: A moderated panel discussion

Date: Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Location: Performance Theater, Birthplace of Country Music Museum

Tickets: Free, but must reserve a seat

RESERVE SEATS

Join us on Tuesday, December 4, at 6:30pm for a panel discussion exploring race reconciliation and how to engage in difficult conversations about race in your community, the importance of representing African American experiences, and the power of media imagery on perceptions of race issues. After the panel discussion, there will be time for audience questions. The panel will be moderated by Alana Simmons, Project Coordinator in the Division of Student Life, Student Success & Inclusion at Emory & Henry College, and panelists will include Dan Gray (Be the Bridge Bristol), Tina McDaniel (YWCA of Northeast TN and Southwest VA), Sam Page (Applied Theater student, Emory & Henry College), and Danianese Woods (Mass Communications, Emory & Henry College).

This program is free and open to the public; it is offered in conjunction with the special exhibit For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights.

This exhibition has been made possible through NEH on the Road, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It has been adapted and is being toured by Mid-America Arts Alliance. For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights was organized by The Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in partnership with the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution.

About the Panelists

Dr. Alana Simmons serves as Project Coordinator for the E&H CARES program, which is Emory & Henry College’s gender-based violence prevention program. Her work, which focuses heavily on consent education and bystander training, encourages the campus community to take responsibility, be courageous, and to promote a culture of respect. Additionally, Dr. Simmons is an adjunct faculty member in the School of Business, Economics, & Technology at King University.

Rev. Dan Gray co-founded local group Be The Bridge Bristol with Tina McDaniel. This group seeks to bridge the racial divide, especially in the church and society; it is organized on the principles of Be The Bridge, an international Christian nonprofit that works for racial reconciliation, which was started by Latasha Morrison. Dan is pursuing doctoral studies in racial reconciliation. He has pastored churches in the Bristol area and currently serves Chilhowie and Seven Mile Ford United Methodist Churches. He is married to Samantha Gray, and they have three wonderful children.

Tina McDaniel has spent the majority of her career working in the field of human resources and is now semi-retired. She currently serves as Individual Giving Campaign Coordinator for the YWCA of Northeast TN and Southwest VA. Tina is married to William “Billy” McDaniel, and they have one son, Tyson. Tina received her undergraduate degree from Virginia Intermont College and graduate degree from Regent University. In her role at the YWCA, she helped organize, along with community leaders, the first annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in Bristol. Since leaving her corporate role, Tina has spent the last few years pursuing her passion for race reconciliation and justice.

Sam Page is a senior Applied Theatre student at Emory & Henry College. They are originally from Richmond, Virginia, and are interested in how music speaks to the sorted history of the South. They hope to touch on the intersection of POC narratives and Appalachian folk arts.

Danianese Woods is an assistant professor of mass communication at Emory & Henry College. She teaches mass media, diversity in the media, social media, and audio and video production courses. Her scholarly interests include researching the impact of media on the perception of race, crime, politics and celebrities in American society and sexism in the newsroom. Other interests include feminism, critical race theories, postmodernism, reality TV, and social media.