 Good evening, everyone, from a beautiful fall day on the Carnegie Mellon campus. I'm delighted to welcome you to tonight's event, heading to the point, The Power of Representation. I'm Keith Webster, Helen and Henry Posner, Junior Dean of University Libraries, and it's my great pleasure to be part of what is going to be a remarkable event. Here at the University Libraries, we are committed to recognising the importance of representation and diversity. We have a number of initiatives centred around recognising and growing diversity throughout the campus community, several of which you'll hear learn more about tonight. Many thanks to my colleagues who have been working hard to prioritise this important work. Tonight, I'm particularly grateful to Sonya Wellington, our Events Manager, who looked after all of the logistics for this event, as well as our entire External Relations team, and the team at the Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. It's my great pleasure to introduce you to this evening's host, Dr Wanda, heading ground. Wanda is Carnegie Mellon's inaugural Vice Provost for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer. She also holds a faculty appointment as a distinguished service professor in the Hines College of Information Systems and Public Policy. Throughout Wanda's 30-year career in higher education, she has established programmes, policies and practices fundamental to the advancement of inclusive excellence and DEI. Her wealth of professional experience and volunteer involvement on the boards of non-profit organisations and civil rights committees have earned her a reputation as a cultural architect able to build and sustain real and lasting change. Joining Wanda this evening in conversation is award-winning novelist, college professor and CMU alumna, Dr Joel Parker Rhodes. Joel has a rather special story about Hunt Library where I'm sitting just now. I hope she'll share this story with us at this event, but let me just say that an instance of encountering representation in the Hunt Library stacks kick-started Joel's literary passion. Since that moment, she has had an incredibly successful and impactful career. In 2021, she was awarded an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters by CMU, joining her CMU bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees, and so I describe her as a four-time CMU alum. She's the author of seven books for children, including the New York Times bestseller's Black Brother, Black Brother and Ghost Boys, which has won over 30 honours and awards. She has also written adult novels and memoirs and writing guides. And for those of you on campus, we have a small display of Joel's work in honour of this evening's event on the first floor of Hunt Library. Joel has won the American Book Award, the Black Caucus of the American Library Association Award for Literary Excellence, at Coretta's King, Scott King Honor Award, and the Jane Addams Peace Association Book Award. Joel is currently the founding artistic director of the Virginia G Piper Center for Creative Writing, Narrative Studies Professor and Virginia G Piper Endowed Chair at Arizona State University. I'm also delighted that Joel is a member of the Carnegie Mellon University Libraries Dean's Advocacy Council, and she is an increasingly important ambassador and advocate for our work. Towards the end of this event, you will also have a chance to hear from my colleague, Crystal Johnson, the community collections archivist in the libraries. Crystal's primary role is to increase representation in the university archives, both by making collections featuring underrepresented groups available to students and researchers, but also by building connections across campus with student groups and organisations so that we can accurately record their history. Crystal will share some highlights of her work with us and how it enriches our community's understanding of Carnegie Mellon's diverse history. Thank you again for joining us this evening, and without further ado, I'll turn things over to Wanda and to Joel. Thank you both. Thank you, Keith. Wow. I don't know how I'm going to show up with this wonderful woman that I keep calling a queen. And I love when she smiles because it is absolutely the truth. Hello, Joel. Hello, Wanda. How are you today? I'm doing well. And I was just so warned by Dean Webster's earlier comments because I just think it's such a wonderful thing that we're at this time of our culture where we're finally super committed to DEI and we're all pooling in the same wonderful direction. That's right. That's right. Well, you know, I'm not sure who's all out there, but I welcome you. Okay, I'm in my office. I'm sure Joel's in her home in her office and maybe, but we're welcoming you to our living room right now, you know, our family room. And let me tell you, I was excited about the opportunity to have a conversation with Joel, but I did not know how she was going to just knock my socks off when I first had a conversation with her. It was supposed to be 30 minutes. I think it was maybe an hour 15 minutes later that we got off the phone and we laughed at my jaws hurt and, and I was like I can't wait for this. So, I'm inviting everyone into our space today to hear part of the conversation here, here, here are our conversation. One of the things I wanted to say about what really just sort of stood out to me and and we got to this. The title around representation is because so much of what I understood and knew about this author that's sitting across from me really just resonated with me. For those of you who don't know I'm just going to share a few little tidbits here about myself. I went to a predominantly white institution. I went to that institution site unseen. I arrived here, not knowing exactly what I was going to get into. I am a first generation college student. I chose the school that I chose because I didn't have any role models or anyone to tell me anything different or to look for certain things. I also was not able to go and visit the school I didn't even know anything about the, you know, how do you say admitted student visit days or those kinds of things I went when we could afford to go which was when schools started. There were times when I learned for seeing someone and being with people that looked like me that somewhat sounded like me something and it didn't always exist. But here's the other great part is the part that's great though, that I was welcomed, and I was embraced. And there were things that I knew that I did not have and to my total preparation for being where I was at. And, and folks helped me to not just survive but to also thrive. And then the third thing that happened. One, made a place that I, maybe not the only one but it felt like that to not quite sure how to navigate being in college but I found my way and I thought there were people and three, it was the beginning of more of a formal journey for me around justice and and equity and inclusivity and understanding it I always did the work, given who I am but it really became more formal. So, when I think about that. And I think about what I was initially told about Joel, I was like, we got to talk. And then we did. And boy, I was like, I'm going to say a few things in the beginning. But I want people to hear all about your story CMU. If they're not I know they are though, very proud of having you as one of its alumni and alumni and I am so glad that we're having this conversation so with that in mind. What I really want to do is really invite you to tell me about and tell all of us about somewhat about your upbringing your background how did you end up at CMU. And, and, you know, maybe at some point we're going to get to when you show up with your I'm like, I can't wait to hear that again. So, so in that regard. So, you know, I invite you just to share with us a little bit about how you got to see him you. I'm happy to do that. Without a doubt Carnegie Mellon transformed my life, transform my children's lives and my grandchild's life. And for that, I'm going to always always be grateful. I had two most lucky things in my life, my grandmother, who when I was a little girl she would say jewel child in the world than you, you're no better than anybody else. We're all a mixed blood stew. And that idea of mixed blood stew of how you know, we're part of the same genetic gene pool still informs my work today. Literally skin tone is but another superficial difference, and that we want to break down the barriers to keep us from seeing one another and communicating with one another. Now, when I was a little girl though I was pretty lonely, I was pretty shy, pretty sad, because my mother had left the family when I was eight months old. My sister and I were raised with my cousins by my grandmother and aunt and father and uncle in this big extended house on the north side of Pittsburgh. And even then I was a reader teachers librarian started giving me books, and I'd read and read and read and most of those stories are about what not most of those stories all those stories about white kids right and they all seem to live on a farm. And so I did. And also about dogs identified greatly with the dogs that were hurt unfairly, and then of course, were transformed with human kindness, you know, so basically be trying to give myself what I needed, but I wrote stories, all the time. My first story was in the third grade it was called the last screen at Homewood Elementary School, and my teacher let me walk last screen last green so you know how it ended Wanda. And I illustrated it to, and actually I still have that book, but I remember that connection when I was telling my story, and students were like, Oh, yeah. Afterwards, shortly after that my mother who I hadn't seen in eight years decided to come back and raise the family, and she took us all to California. And that was just heartbreaking for me. And there I really found the power of the arts that that was the way in which I could express myself. Also, since I didn't see myself in books, I could see black people doing sports, I could see black people entertaining, you know, on TV, so it's sort of like, Oh, I can do that. Yes, very much wanted to be out of where I was. I wanted to be in a far, far happier place. And actually, my mother when I was 15 years old, she decided to divorce my father, and ended up kicking me out of the house. And I remember saving money and being at the Ontario airport, getting in one of those little prop planes, La x, and my father was standing on the on the tarmac because you could do that then. And they were playing is it mama's and Papa's I forget the song. On a jet plane. Don't know. And I went back home to Pittsburgh and grandma, and I had the knowledge. My drama teacher in California said, Oh, you should go to Carnegie Mellon. I think it's in Chicago. Oh, no, it's here. I was 15 years old. I was young. I was really young. And grandma put me in Allegheny Community College because she was worried that I would become, you know, someone who didn't go to college, you know, which as first generation, many of my family didn't. And I was also afraid that I would end up in jail as many folks in my family, unfortunately did, or else that I would be a team mother, as many folks in my family, including my mother were. She sent me off to community college while I waited for my addition for drama school at Carnegie Mellon. Now to be clear, my educational background was very poor of the discrepancy between what children of color are taught in public schools. Because, you know, kids who are white, say more affluent suburbia is just horrific, and it's still going on today. When I applied to college, every single college turned me down, which is already because now, you know, I'm Dr. Rhodes. The school that accepted me was Carnegie Mellon, because I could sing, dance and act, and they were starting an inaugural theater dance program. You know what, there were about seven of us, seven of us, and four of us were people of color. One was Asian, and when I thought back on those days, you know, we had a black writer in residence, we had a black director in residence, I got to do a main state show that was about anti apartheid that there were ways in which the arts and Carnegie Mellon drama did give me representation, and they filled me up and make me feel as though I was growing into a person. I want it more. I want it more. You were finding yourself. Yes, exactly. And so theater was like, oh, you know, you know, we support or as you said at Vermont, that sense of inclusivity and being held close to, you know, the art of, you know, your fellow students and your fellow professor. And one day, and I don't know why I was going to the library because sorry, Dean Webster, we didn't go into the library a lot. That's his drama. Yes, but I but I went into the library, and on the news fiction shelf. I Gail Jones called Carigador, and I read that book and it was about the slave trade. And that was the first time that I had ever ever seen myself in a ball. I was 19 years old. And the next day, I was switching my major to English. And I ran a Dean stay on standard because I was poor I had no money we could talk about that later. But I was worried I couldn't afford to go to school longer than four years. I was barely making it, you know, through my junior year. And I remember Dean Steinberg saying, Oh, I've got the degree for you. He opened up, you know, his file folder, and he pulled out this degree in drama criticism. He says nobody's ever taken it before because you have to do three years in theater, be accepted there and then two years in English. But if you do this, you'll graduate. In English, though, where I was the only person of color, and it was different because when I started writing, I wanted to write about what I knew how I had grown up, you know, things that were true to my community and show the humanity of that. And I remember my classmates saying, How come you didn't tell me your characters were black. And I'd go, Well, how come you don't tell me your characters are white. And I learned the real tragedy go on. I had learned to read white, that I have been, you know, a culturated, waiting for someone to say, Hey, it's, you know, a person of color. And the tragedy is that through all of my English courses, you know, many, many years, I never once read anyone who was a person of color. It was a problem, I think, for the time. But in terms of the professors, in terms of loving and supporting me, I couldn't have asked for anything more. And in fact, if my writing teacher David Walton it said, you know, you know, sorry, you can't write these stories or you can't do this. I would have tucked tail, and I would have run because I was so insecure in my own agency, my own voice. And with time, Carnegie Mellon gave me the educational background and I remember running to the library Dean Webster running to the library. What people were talking about, before I could figure out what my homework was, is making up and having you know teachers help me with my writing, not just English teachers, but philosophy teachers. And one thing that I had, that I would always say to myself, even though I was ill prepared for college, was I still smart, you know, could I learn it. And that sense of yes, I could have been echoed in theater, have been echoed in English. And so I did work and in fact I got graduated with 4.0 as an undergraduate and graduated with distinguished letters for my doctoral degree. And that's when my eyes went so bad I had to start wearing glasses. You say something very interesting, because you know that all of us don't get that in terms of being told that we're smart or the sense of that we can do it. So I mean, I remember being struck by that when we were talking before and, and sometimes that is missing so much that that played a significant part in you really being able to move forward. Absolutely. And to have someone to see, to recognize my, my talent, and particularly in a time and I hope it's a lot less now. I also remember when I did my GREs that some people said, Oh, they weren't very good. Oh, you can't go to graduate school, but I remember twice that scores from SAT and GRE sort of stopped, would have stopped things for me. You know, who knows just just just because I could sing and dance. I was able to break through. And one story I shared with you is that I remember in California being in the fifth grade with a student in Hispanic girl, and we were the two smartest girls in the class. What smartest kids ever. And we got, you know, great scores on our fireman's test. So we were being invited to the fireman's picnic. And actually it was interesting because later, a black teacher came to me and said, you know, you got the highest score. I actually didn't care because I was going with a friend I was wasn't going to be alone. But I can see how in terms of representation that she thought it was important for me to know, and maybe for her to know that I had done really, really well. And literally years later, I'm becoming an associate professor. I've been, you know, invited to campus at Cal State Northridge. I'm getting my badge and you know my ID card, and the person taking the picture was in fact my fifth grade who had not gone to college, who had not moved beyond environments for whatever reason. And yet I knew, you know, she's gifted. There are millions, millions, exactly who are gifted and might need support and love. And yet if the world doesn't have representation. If you don't see if you don't know that these other avenues exists and I had learned that also through just imagination fiction, and then through my wonderful teachers, then you can just, you know, not even take that risk to say, you know, I'd be interested in trying this, but there is no reason that at that point we should have had such a gap, equity and achievement. If you were saying based upon on talent. I know I had more, perhaps who knows who knows the stories, but I had, I know I had more opportunity. And the other thing. Oh, and I love Carnegie. The other thing is that they never ever wanted anything than excellence. Always. And so standards were never changed. It was like, okay, you have to meet them. And I remember the first time in graduate school I had to analyze a poem for the class. And he said it was an Edward Arlington poem, and and he said, No, that's not it. And then very politely and kindly, you know, went back to the whole program and explained all the things that I should have been like explaining or include. I managed to say that no you're wrong, but to teach me with such a loving embrace that I kept working and kept working. And three years later I wrote a paper 26 paper page paper on Dylan Thomas is a refusal to mourn 13 lines of a poem. And she wrote at the bottom of my paper. Yes. I have every single paper every single comment from every single person at Carnegie Mellon, and I setting the bar high which is another thing it helps with representation, because you do feel and I don't know if you felt this wound up. You do feel that sense of that that you're fake, or you're not authentic. What's the. The imposter you're talking with imposter syndrome. And that haunted me for years. And in particular, it haunted me because, you know, there wasn't much attention given to African American literature. I now recognize that I was part of the generation by the time I graduated. They were saying, can you teach African American literature, can you teach women studies that I was part of the people who became that way that got into the Academy women studies, that, you know, we were, we were in fact, the vanguard, and how we've made a difference, you know, that way, which I think that sense of agency and belief in your voice, I still got from Carnegie Mellon, very often still my family or my community was sort of like, I became much more like a stranger in a strange land that it was like, you know, I remember my father even saying, I don't, I don't understand. I don't, I don't get why you like the things that you do. And now we have much more of a sense that rather than liking things that society lets you see or have access to that for everyone regardless of color regardless of gender regardless of gender, religion, you know, ethnic background, et cetera, should have access to everything, everything. Yes, there, we didn't know or this is the great violinist, and we didn't know. So we just need to keep pushing. Well, you make, there's a few things that have come to mind. The first thing I sort of want to say is that, you know, to who much is given much is expected and required, and I think as educators and, and, and those of us who are very specifically in certain kinds of professions that we cannot afford to be leaving millions of talent on the table. And part of us that happening has a lot to do with not nurturing and fostering and caring and the kindness that we should be providing to all children to all people. And I think that there's an aspect in here that I hear from you but I know for myself, if not being provided that level of access and opportunity, along with my own talent and ability that I could have been somewhere and my talent on the table, and we would not be having this conversation. And so one, I call to to the attention of folks who are K through 12 and post secondary to really, you know, I plot the work that they do and also the understanding of how the important role that they play. The second thing for me even as you talked about the imposter syndrome or just be bringing it up. I also put out there with some of the scholars are talking about in terms of, you know, some of that. I hear that folks believe they have it, but I also have started to lean myself towards it, you know, we have to question some of the inequities and biases that are in the system. That really is more of the problem rather than me feeling like an imposter or that I don't have it. It is what's happening there. But then the third thing I want to say that brings me to where I want to go is, you write to a specific audience in terms of around really thinking about our young people, eighth graders and middle schoolers and the topics that you're writing about. Oh my God, around privilege and race and justice and actually your books are saying so much and leading. You said something to me that stood out, which was the first and the first conversation in some ways. And I absolutely agree after finished reading ghost boys is how your books were way ahead of where we were at as a society and thinking about some of the stuff that we think about. So I'm even like even before ghost boys but just even thinking about that piece. Can you share a little bit I love the word you said you know, giving black black and brown children and others the agency and the work that you've been doing around social justice and equity. I mean, it's, it's fascinating. And thank you. You know, I do think that I went through that period when I was younger that I needed my, I needed Carnegie in the environment to sort of set me on my two feet and give me the resources to assert myself. And I want to say to the K through 12 and college students all the enrichment programs that you do, they matter, you know, don't judge children by their, their, their numbers but just to see beyond. So, you have to keep doing that. I also want to add in that my biggest problem was money. And I don't know whether Carnegie Mellon has this but I remember times not having enough enough to eat and crying, and my grandmother having dressed to dress up and bring me cans of food, because even though I got financial aid and I can tell you a wonderful story about that. But the, my parents kept claiming me as an independent claiming me on their tax returns but they didn't give me any money. So I even went to work at Carnegie Mellon working in Scebo and I wasn't supposed to, as a dramatic program is all day long. So I think there are also ways in which that it really also was poverty that would have pushed me out that I needed just a little bit more help. I was getting but there's that is. But then I think once I found out that black people wrote books. I immediately started with voodoo dreams. My grandmother I believe was a hoodoo woman she taught me about spirituality and science and holistic healing. And I remember sitting in a history of science class at Carnegie and the professor saying that the only people that had done anything worth knowing about or caring about in science was the Western community. And I knew that couldn't be true but I didn't have the substance to back it up. So I went into the search of, you know, other stories and went in search of, why does voodoo have a stereotypical response in America, and what is the true African diaspora spiritual tradition, and writing that book, it grew me up because actually you can actually look at the Daily Pick a Union and find a newspaper with a newspaper says it's true. Maria vote walked on water. And by the time I finished that book. I went from being Joel Parker drew well to Joe Parker, you know, I am. I am. I was able to grow myself up that why couldn't a black woman have power. Why couldn't a black woman walk on water. Why couldn't a woman, you know, make this kind of information. And then from that I got interested from a parade magazine article in the Tulsa race massacre. So I'm the first person to write a fictional account about the Tulsa race massacre in 1998. And the book was planned would send me hate mail, and I'd see them in Oklahoma. I'd get a great review for the Tulsa world in Oklahoma, but the book editor would tell me at a conference. Oh no we can't publish that. I believe me it's not personal, and that literally the book disappeared because people want to believe that massacre didn't happen. And now the book has been reissued because 100 years later, you know the narrative is much more clear. People are now beginning to accept that it happened. So I think I was trying to gather a cultural framework for me to live in. And then after that I went to Douglas and his Jewish wife, Jewish mistress is black white, so on and so forth, you know, so anything having to do with women and people of a different ethnic group. You know, I love people. But now I think I'm in my writing for you. I always knew that I wanted to write for you. But I didn't think I was good enough. And I thought kids deserve my very best. I put all those adult novels practice and trying to get ready. And I'm so glad I did because I take prejudice, privilege, bias, racism, I take real world problems. I take 911. I take colorism, and I find a way to tell it in a story that I can relate and begin to discuss that I'm not trying to patronize them. And this week I, they're well they're making a film of ghost boys, they're making a film of black brother black brother, Sesame Street, Apple TV. This is a series called Ghost Rider, and they're new season out. And the last two episodes are based on my book by you magic, and it shows this beautiful black African mermaid. Wow. And someone said I think this is the first time I've ever seen you know, an African mermaid, you know, in Hollywood, but the tail was that you know African mermaids, followed the ships of the enslaved, and wherever slaves went they remained in the water. Hey, your community is still here. So I think now, I'm not, yes, I'm not an imposter, though, I can tell you just last week, somebody thought I was a service girl, and little kids ask me all the time, Joe, do you do you have racism every darn week. And I've discovered that I can be dressed in several thousand dollars worth of clothes which I used to do when I was younger you know Joe Parker Rosie. Oh yeah. Can a white person would turn to me and say can you get us some more hot water for our tea, or I could be with a date at the Princeton club staying at the Princeton club, and we're getting off the elevator going to our room, and a white couple might say, say to me well can you clean my room Missing the social cues are being at the Arizona built more with my family, my son and my daughter, and having you know, a white couple passed me by, and the gentleman wanting to know when I was going to sing, which actually I don't know what I'm saying. But, but those things still present my day, though, is that they can still hurt. They can still make me cry. But that's why in terms of external appearance. I don't put much talk in that, because there's a phrase that no matter where you go, you still be black. I must tell you, no matter where I go. There's still some people who see my skin color, and just put me in a category, like one gentleman down in North Carolina who offered me $5 to have sexual relations with them behind the back of the store, and it goes on and I'm jumping out of my scandal. I mean, it's not that I don't know these things but you know, I told you and I told people who are here how I felt about how I see you. And just, and, and it does sort of hurt to to know that that you've had that experience and even the last one. You know, I have this phrase that a colleague here says, you know, going to hoodie up and I'm like, I'm ready to hoodie up for you. It's like people stop and we got a lot of work to do. One of the things I want to turn to because is that we're having a conversation and I'm watching some questions come in. And I want to begin to invite other folks to ask some questions because some of the things that you've said. If you have people it looks like they're they're saying, tell us more about being, you know, growing up in Pittsburgh someone is asking about wanting to hear a little bit more about your upbringing here and what it made me think about you had told a story about even just your familiarity and not familiarity thinking about even, you know, August Wilson and whatever's coming to mind for you. A little bit more about that about in terms of your experience. I think I was meant to be a playwright. And if I was back in school now I'd probably study screenwriting, because dialogue is my thing. And then hadn't quite made his, his move, and I wasn't aware of it, although I wasn't Pittsburgh downtown at hotel at a writer's conference, and I was sitting with August Wilson, john Edgar Weidman, his cousin. Oh, I'm blanking out on his name but his cousin wrote a very well received first novel. And there's actually a photograph of his cousin who was a photographer for the Pittsburgh post gazette that they took of me. When I was in my bare lady all dressed up and I've got that picture. Oh, you have to show it to me. These, I will. I'll three three artistic gentlemen from Pittsburgh, from the Hill District, from Homewood, and feeling as though I had died and gone, gone to heaven. I don't know that they existed my folks for steel mill folks you know, and my grandmother, you know was the caretaker of all the children in her household. And when I left my grandmother, you know, my grandmother of course was devastated as was I, but my dashiki story was when I came back from California. I was a black power afro child, and I had an afro that was bigger than Angela Davis's had my dashiki. I had my sore. So think of the black panther Wakanda. That's what I look like. I had my love beads. It told me it's cold in Pittsburgh came back it was January. So I brought a sweater and grandma took me down to Mellon Bank right in central downtown, and she was dressed up like she was going to church she had and she had her and my grandma was also a part time Reverend. Okay, Reverend. And in those days the black men did the most risk life taking jobs you know really dangerous jobs in the steel mill, and they drove me to the bank and there was this middle age white man, who my grandmother saying she wanted to borrow $500 so she could buy me some winter clothes, and you have me go to Allegheny Community College while we were waiting to see if I got it to see a new sky kept looking at her and looking at me and looking at her. And he kept saying what's your collateral, what's your collateral. Well grandma didn't have any collateral. And my grandmother pointed to me, and she said, she's my collateral. And this white man middle age white man went, and I think the president can help me find him one day, said a smart girl. That's very good collateral. And I swore I jumped up and down and I thought to myself, this white man reads books, both teach empathy, and he said yes to us and we went right next door to learners and got me my winter coat and some pants and all that kind of stuff. And reading literature that in that sense of empathy became part of my life, but not only from what my grandmother told me, but from a demonstrable affection and support that Carnegie Mellon gave me, and I went through my trials trying to give her permission to speak my voice, trying to say, how come I don't know this history about black people. How come I wasn't in not just black people native people, Hispanic people. So now I write stories that include a multi ethnic community, Hispanic kids, Vietnamese kids, you know, other Chinese kids black kids white kids. So now I write stories where the affirmation is the allyship of all these groups of people coming together, like the people came together for Martin Luther King's marches that that is how we change the world. Gosh. There's there's two questions that's coming on one. There is a question. I think you sort of went there but there is a little bit I think those on want to hear a little bit more about. Maybe if you could talk about in terms of CMU. How familiar you were with CMU and did you feel in terms of when you came and you got here and you went to CMU. What did you know about CMU. Nothing, absolutely nothing. When the north side and some black communities are like this a lot of communities in LA or like this you know, Chicago or like this, that a child of color can live their entire life and never see a white person. I did not know that white people existed until I was five years old, and grandma took me on the trolley downtown. You know, Carnegie Mellon, that was like it could have been the moon, but because I had teachers in school would say, Oh, Joe should do this, Joe should do that. They hooked me up with the University of Pittsburgh. I do not remember Carnegie Mellon program at the time, but I went to the University of Pittsburgh for summer, and that was the first time that I was in among school elementary where we were all, you know, of different ethnicities, you know, and that it was like a completely new world and I met these kids who belong to different class groups. And then I knew that there were other children who knew other things who did other things than I did. So I would also argue, you know that, you know, Carnegie Mellon probably has a problem now, but coming to the campus it was so beautiful. It was so glorious. I was lucky that I had some black classmates and at least drama, but I do remember feeling very, very, very lonely. And one of the things that can also have happened is, you should not. There's also interracial prejudice, as well as intraracial prejudice. That's sometimes we don't give enough attention to intraracial prejudice, you know, and the combination of how they can echo off one another. And for some reasons, I was at times ostracized by some of the student student body, and some of that did have to do with the color of my skin, that I was a little bit too light to maybe be authentically black. And when I wrote you do dreams and went to another university, there was this one student who wanted to hit me with a baseball bat, because as a light woman there was no way that I could have written such a black text. And I think there were not an homogenous group. That's right. In which racism has taught the people who are oppressed. And I wrote about this in Season Moon Hurricane, that there actually is a vampire myth and African tradition that a lot of Africa was colonized by the British, the Dutch, the Portuguese. And so there were African vampire myths where the vampires were actually bureaucrats just as dressed as bureaucrats, and a lot of times look like firemen and had buckets of blood. So the vampires suck on your wrist and meant to symbolize that there is a culture that is trying to steal your culture, and your love of community, and they're sucking your blood. So my series, The Moon Hurricane, particularly moon, is about how racism to is a vampire of sorts that tries to suck one's self love from one's community. Racism does harm to the person experiencing it. That's right. To the person, you know, who, who is racist. And so that sense of in Black Brother, Black Brother, I write about all heritage is lit. And that actually came from personal experience. I'll share this. I married a white man at a time when it was just now legal in Maryland for there to be an interracial marriage. And my son Brad is six four Norwegian descent long blonde hair and now because he's old he looks like Gandalf. And he, he, he I married him because he was a literature major and a computer science major. And we bonded over stories, and he was my true love he was my tea cake. If any of you know that reference to Zora Neil Hurston, but when we married I cried, I would not let there be a celebration we went to the courthouse, because I was scared to death with the world was going to do to us as an interracial couple. And I had agreed to marry him but not have any kids. And he convinced me that I shouldn't patronize my kids. Okay, I won't patronize our kids. Well sure enough, we had a daughter who looks like her dad, white appearing, a son who looks like me, Brown appearing, and their life is totally different. And one of the things that Evan has experienced, including, you know, assaults by police would never in a day hurt her Kelly, and sometimes to I wonder and all of you can think about this, had I been a boy. Had I been very dark, would CMU and other places that I've been, would they have been as gracious to me then. Being a girl, and at that being a somewhat light skinned girl, and I always think I'm darker than I am. And I always think I'm taller than I am. When I saw pictures, I'm such a shrimp. You know, wow, wow. So, so now you've just opened the door for, for us to do this again, open the door for us to get to know each other. I even more I know you're going to be visiting here. We have about just about 90 seconds before I'm supposed to turn it over. I do, but I do. I do like for your last words like just given what you just ended with, you know, there's one, there's a question here and I think it's important to end with, you know, how do we tell healing stories about the kindness of people that helped with overcoming and justices without negating the real effects of consensus built prejudices. So basically, I know it's a big question, but in a short period of time, could you just sort of leave us with any thoughts or ideas that you might have about, you know, the, the, the, the, the power of storytelling and how it helps to heal. The storytelling is wonderful. I have always wanted to affirm that, you know, all people are connected by their, by their common humanity. And I'll give you a concrete example. I wrote ghost boys and it nearly killed me and I do urge all of you to read ghost boys. Very often, a black person will be murdered. Emmett Till will be murdered. And the rest of the stories about society getting itself right. Yeah, and one of the things that I didn't want to do was to revictimize Emmett Till, revictimize, you know, black boys that have been murdered through time. I found a way to give them agency that all spirits are alive. Yes, spirits, all of our spirits are too great not to continue to have a lasting impact. For me, the dead are elders, spiritual resources, and to feel that there is agency in telling stories about how the past can inform the present or a person to make them better. And then that way we see that all of life is as interconnectedness from before now and moving into the future. And those are the kinds of stories that I tell to heal. Thank you so much, Joel Parker Rhodes. You got to you have my bedroom ready because I'm coming to live with you for a few days. I'm coming to live with you but you're welcome to come and see me. Well, this is I'm so appreciative of your honesty, your candor, being very vulnerable, spending some time with me as an inaugural vice provost here at right. I'm loving my time here I'm loving the people here. And I'm so grateful to have met you and I can't wait to get to know you even more and CMU is definitely blessed that you have made this time your time in your life. That's, you know, been a part of your journey here so thank you again. And I just like to again thank everyone who made this possible and at this particular time, I am going to turn this over to Crystal Johnson Community Collection Processing Archivist who will close us out and share more about the library's work uplifting historically marginalized stories and voices who have shaped CMU. Thank you. Welcome, Crystal. Thanks, Wanda. As Keith mentioned in his opening statement. In the community collections processing archivist my primary role is to increase representation in the university archives. In 2020 the university libraries curated a virtual exhibit titled what we don't have confronting the absence of diversity and the university archives. And this exhibit my fellow archivist explored the gaps in our archive, and acknowledged that our collections are not a true reflection of CMU diverse community. The past year, the university archives has been building a framework towards a better archive. The conversation we heard tonight and Jules story of finding a sense of belonging by visiting the library illustrates why it's so important in life in like potentially life changing. It can be for students to be able to see themselves reflected on campus. We want any student to be able to walk into our reading room and be able to find themselves in the university's history. Roar, which stands for repairing our archival record is a community archives initiative dedicated to preserving the history of under engaged and underrepresented communities at CMU. It includes the voices of alumni students student organizations current and former staff faculty as well as programs and committees which have served these communities. This initiative is heavily influenced by community archives movement, which emphasizes a participatory community based approach that retains and amplifies the community's voice. We want to fill in the gaps in our collections, but we need to do so in a responsible way. We don't want anyone to feel as if their community history is being tokenized or viewed as a collectible. We're focusing first on having conversations and building relationships both on and off campus. We want you to know that we exist. We value your story and that your community's history is integral. It's an integral part of telling CMU's history. I'd also like to mention a few of our current and upcoming projects. First, we're working to make collections from our backlog, ready for public use to collections which will be made accessible in the upcoming year are the papers of Dr. Gloria Hill and alumni Sanford Freeman. Edmund was a writer who graduated from the College of Fine Arts in 1949. He's best known for his 1965 coming of age novel totem pole totem pole is believed to have the first representation of a gay Jewish protagonist and American fiction. The late Dr. Gloria Hill was a beloved figure on campus. He was the former director of the Carnegie Carnegie Mellon action project also known as CMAP, as well as the assistant dean of Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Secondly, we are also embarking on a few community based projects, one of which will include Dr. Hill and CMAP's legacy and build on the CMAP collection that we're home to. For those of you who are unfamiliar was founded in 1968 with the aim to increase the recruitment and retention of African American students at CMU. In 2006 it was renamed Carnegie Mellon Advising Resource Center or CMARC. The program expanded to serve Hispanic, Latinx and Native American students. These programs help students of color find community at CMU and provided resources that helped them succeed in their academic pursuits. I've been talking with former CMARC staff members about how we can build a fuller history of these programs which has left such a lasting impact on so many. We're in the very early stages, and we'll have more details in the new year about how you can get involved in future projects. We're also collaborating with our friends at the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion on a project related to the history of LGBTQ plus life at CMU. For decades, members of the LGBTQ AI plus student organizations have been collecting and storing what are now historic materials in the cabinets of their community space SOHO. We had a pop up event in October to celebrate both LGBTQ plus history month and announce this important collection. We hope that this will be the first of many opportunities for community members and current students to engage with these materials and participate in community archiving workshops. In addition to all of those, we've increased our outreach. We were present during orientation, student activities fair, Scotty Saturday, and hosted an archives open house during Tartan Community Day. And we will continue doing more outreach in the next semester, so look for us around campus. If you'd like to learn more, discuss your community's history or get involved, please send me an email or visit our initiative website. The link will be posted in the chat. You can also drop in during our open hours on Thursdays between 10am and 4pm. Thank you. As Jules Professor said, yes. It's been a wonderful evening. Thank you Wanda and Jules for entertaining us, for educating us, for challenging us. This is an event that will stay with all of us for a long time and we're truly grateful for your observations and for sharing your deeply personal experiences. I'm grateful also to Crystal for sharing with us your important work in the University Archives. If anyone would like to learn more about Crystal's work, I think we've dropped links in the chat. But she also is available on Thursdays between 10am and 4pm if you'd like to drop into the University Archives in Hunt Library. At the University Libraries, we value innovation, accessibility, collaboration and service, and we strongly believe that diversity, equity and inclusion enhance these values. If you'd like to support our work, I encourage you to consider giving to our friends of the library fund. Your support strengthens our vital role as a convener of interdisciplinary activities and is a central, neutral, safe gathering place for the CMU community to have campus-wide discussions, such as the one we've had this evening. There are, of course, other ways to stay engaged with this important topic at the libraries. There are frequent book displays that explore various topics around diversity and inclusion. Our current display featuring some of Jule's work has been curated by Wanda's office, focusing on the power of representation. And if you can't make it into Hunt Library, our exhibitions are also made available on our website. We're also launching a book club kit that will be available from the Hunt Library circulation desk. You and your group of friends or colleagues can borrow those kits, which include multiple copies of a book and some discussion questions to help you dig a little deeper. One of our first kits features Jule's novel Ghost Boys, which was an instant bestseller and won more than 30 awards. So thank you for attending this evening. I'm so pleased you could join us. I hope that you will come to our future events. And the next one that we will be hosting is Fine and Rear Part 2, during which Curator of Special Collections, Dr. Sam Lemley, will share more about the library's plans to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's first folio in 2023. Without spoiling Sam's presentation too much, I'd like to ensure that you're all aware that we will be partnering with the Frick Museum in Pittsburgh to have two exhibitions, one here in Hunt Library, but a very special one at the Frick Museum running between April and October next year. Because we are holders of one of only 230 surviving copies of the first folio. And it's a tremendous opportunity for us to celebrate such a landmark work. And for us all to learn more about its history. So with that, again, thank you for being with us this evening. Thanks again to our speakers, and have a great evening.