Symposium will highlight grassroots community building

Grand Valley's second Civil Discourse Symposium will celebrate grassroots community building with panelists from Detroit and Grand Rapids.

"East and West Together: Intersections of Re-Imagining the Future of Michigan" is set for Thursday, November 19, at 5 p.m. in the Eberhard Center on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus. The event is free and open to the public, a light dinner will be provided. RSVP online by clicking here.

Lisa Perhamus, the current Padnos/Sarosik endowed professor of civil discourse, said the discussion will highlight how commitments to civil discourse can strengthen communities. Perhamus has taken her civil discourse classes to Detroit to visit revitalized neighborhoods and learn from Detroiters like symposium panelists Tawana “Honeycomb” Petty, social justice community organizer and poet; and Marisol Teachworth, co-founder and programming director of the James and Grace Lee Boggs School.

Petty and Teachworth will be joined by panelists from Grand Rapids: Briana Ureña-Ravelo, co-founder of the Grand Rapids chapter of Black Lives Matter and community engagement specialist for the Rapidian; and the Rev. Doug Van Doren, of Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ. 

Participants at the symposium will be led through roundtable discussions about re-imagining the future of Michigan.

Also at the symposium, the next Padnos/Sarosik endowed professor of civil discourse will be introduced. The endowed professorship is housed in the Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies and was a gift to Grand Valley from longtime supporters Shelley Padnos and Carol Sarosik. 

For more information about the symposium, visit www.gvsu.edu/civildiscourse.