Dr. Amanda Kemp Comes to BHFH March 24 through 26 For A Racial Justice Residency
Supported by the Legacy Fund of the New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, Friends Meeting at Cambridge, and Wellesley Friends Meeting, Beacon Hill Friends House will welcome Dr. Amanda Kemp, the author of Say the Wrong Thing: Stories and Strategies for Racial Justice and Authentic Community to the Boston area for three public events on this weekend (March 24-26.) Come for one, two, or all three. Free and Open to the Public. Here are the details:
1) Friday Night, March 24, 7:30 to 9 pm at Beacon Hill Friends House
(8 Chestnut Street, Boston, MA 02108)
“Taking Risks for Racial Justice: An Evening of Spoken Word and a Book Reading”
In this provocative presentation, Dr. Kemp will perform her signature spoken word pieces “Say Her Name” and “Ferguson Diaries” and read from her new book on the value of having difficult conversations about race and racial justice. She will also be joined by her husband Michael Jamanis who will offer some relevant violin pieces. This event is also the kick off of Beacon Hill’s Spring Series on “Working for Racial Justice Now.” To register ahead of time, go to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/
2) Saturday Afternoon Workshop, March 25, 1 pm to 5 pm at Wellesley Friends Meeting
(26 Benvenue St, Wellesley, MA 02482) Directions
“Say the Wrong Thing: Strategies for Building Multi-Racial Alliances and Community”
This afternoon workshop introduces participants to the 5 Strategies of the H.E.A.R.T. explored in Dr. Kemp’s new book to help people to find and hold their ground for racial justice in the midst of the Trump Agenda. Deep dialog, interactive exercises, and storytelling will allow us to reflect on and practices these five strategies for moving toward racial justice in our lives and organizations. To register, go to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/
3) Sunday Weed Lecture, March 26, 1pm to 2:30 pm at Beacon Hill Friends House
(8 Chestnut Street, Boston, MA 02108)
“Drop the Masters Tools: Hold Space for Transformation”
For BHFH’s annual lecture in 2017, Dr. Kemp reflects on how holding space for transformation can change our individual relationships across race lines and allow us to be the ones we have been waiting for. Come hear from this Quaker poet, performer, teacher, and social justice advocate talk about her ministry promoting racial justice within the Religious Society of Friends and the wider world. To register in advance, go to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/
For information on any of these free, public events, please contact Steve Chase, Interim Director of Beacon Hill Friends House at interim@bhfh.org. or 617-227-9118. For directions to Beacon Hill Friends House, see https://bhfh.org/directions/.
More About Amanda Kemp
Dr. Amanda Kemp blends activism and spirituality, theater arts and history. A survivor of the New York City foster care system, Dr. Kemp has been a lifelong poet-performer and advocate of racial justice and equality since her first anti-apartheid march in 1983. She earned her B.A. from Stanford University where she helped to lead the Stanford out of South Africa divestment movement and the successful struggle to revamp the University’s Eurocentric humanities requirement. Awarded Stanford’s prestigious Gardner Fellowship for Public Service, Dr. Kemp apprenticed with the Honorable Maxine Waters and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. For her work in organizing statewide student movements, including a 10,000 strong March on Sacramento, CA for educational rights, Rainbow/PUSH awarded Kemp their 1989 Citizenship Award.
A poet and playwright as well, Kemp went on to pursue a doctoral degree in Performance Studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. After two years of doctoral work, Dr. Kemp traveled to South Africa to work with the Ford Foundation where she consulted and co-authored on a report on the complex and dynamic women’s movements during the transition to democracy. While in South Africa Dr. Kemp also consulted with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights South African Elections project which hosted U.S. elections observers. Coordinating assignments and real time report-in’s, Dr. Kemp also experienced Nelson Mandela’s joyful victory dance when the ANC swept the national elections. While there, Kemp also debuted her play “Sister Outsider” in the Johannesburg Arts Festival and formed “Intimate Dread,” a trio of women performance poets.
Enriched by her South Africa experiences, Dr. Kemp completed her dissertation on African American and South African ties in the 1920s and 1930s. She has since published articles about South African politics as performance and performed a one-woman show on being Black but not African in South Africa.A master teacher, Dr. Kemp has taught at Cornell University, Dickinson College, Millersville University, and Franklin & Marshall College where she served as the chair of Africana Studies. She has keynoted Martin Luther King programs at colleges, high schools, and in elementary school settings. Kemp is currently a Visiting Scholar in Africana Studies at Franklin & Marshall College and continues to publish on race, performance and freedom.
In 2007 Dr. Kemp founded Theatre for Transformation, a performance method and theatre company whose mission is to create a world of forgiveness, abundance, and peace. Dr. Kemp has earned awards from the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. She has authored several plays including “Emancipation Sweet,” “Hoodwinked,” “Show Me the Franklins! Remembering the Ancestors, Slavery and Benjamin Franklin” and “Sister Friend: Phillis Wheatley and Obour Tanner on Love, Freedom and the Divine.”Dr. Kemp is now touring Inspira: The Power of the Spiritual. In addition to creating dynamic interactive performances about the legacy of slavery, Dr. Kemp leads workshops and makes keynote presentations that blend, poetry, song, and stories from her life to inspire others to connect with their ancestors, forgive and create new possibilities. She has presented at faith conferences, women’s gatherings, and schools for ages 6 and up.
Not your typical diversity trainer, Kemp starts with the assumption that we all have personal power and responsibility, regardless of our access to institutional power.
