YVC’s 2020-2021 Diversity Series Kicks Off with a Conversation on History

Yakima, WA — YVC’s 2020-2021 Diversity Series kicks off with a virtual conversation with award-winning writer, educator and poet Dr. Clint Smith. The free event, titled “History Reimagined,” will be held on Monday, October 5, 2020 from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. PST. Register for the event online.

The United States is a country of great opportunity, but we must wrestle with how certain opportunities are contingent on different facets of one’s identity. The United States has provided economic mobility for millions of people, but we must wrestle with the history of violence and exploitation that helped to generate its economic foundation. The United States has freed millions around the world from despots and genocide, and we must wrestle with this same country’s pervasive history of barbarous imperialism. These are all parts of what make this country what it is. In this talk, combining poetry and history, Smith will push the audience to wrestle with the complicated truths about the country we live in and help crystallize how this history has shaped the contemporary social, political and cultural landscape of our world today.

Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic and author of the poetry collection, Counting Descent, which won the award for best poetry collection from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. He is also the author of the forthcoming nonfiction book How the Word Is Passed (Little, Brown, 2021). His writing has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review and elsewhere. Smith received his B.A. in English from Davidson College and a Ph.D. in Education from Harvard University.

Since 2005 Yakima Valley College has partnered with several local area organizations to host events and lectures through the annual Diversity Series. The events provide YVC the opportunity to bring diverse perspectives to everyday topics and push the boundaries of the term beyond race, gender, social class and sexuality.

For more information contact Counselor Vicente Lopez at vlopez@yvcc.edu.

Press Release Contacts:

Dustin Wunderlich / 509.574.6870 / dwunderlich@yvcc.edu

Stefanie Menard / 509.574.4646 / smenard@yvcc.edu