{"id":244,"date":"2019-02-05T13:47:58","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T21:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/?p=999937694"},"modified":"2019-02-05T13:47:58","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T21:47:58","slug":"long-beach-opera-will-tackle-race-equity-and-justice-during-a-series-of-community-talks-starting-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/art\/long-beach-opera-will-tackle-race-equity-and-justice-during-a-series-of-community-talks-starting-saturday","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach Opera will tackle race, equity and justice during a series of community talks starting Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Long Beach Opera is complementing its 40th anniversary season centered on justice with a series of community conversations focusing on race, equity and justice beginning this Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The five-event series is scheduled to take place over the next five months and will feature multiple organizations, artists and community leaders.<\/p>\n<p>The opera company says it believes that discussions inspired by art should extend beyond a theater lobby.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy gathering together artists, thinkers and community leaders, we are hoping that the public can walk away from these Community Conversations with new ideas and a deeper understanding of our world, and at the same time be able to have a better appreciation of the operas themselves,\u201d said the opera company\u2019s Executive Director Jennifer Rivera.<\/p>\n<p>The Community Conversations, which is funded by a Knight Foundation grant, is meant to align with the opera\u2019s 2019 season theme of justice and its programming, which includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.longbeachopera.org\/the-season\/penal-colony\"><i>In the Penal Colony <\/i><\/a>(April 25-May 5) based on the Kafka short story of an uncivilized world order and the dawn of a humane justice system.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.longbeachopera.org\/the-season\/central-park-five\"><i>The Central Park Five<\/i> <\/a>(June 15, 22, 23) based on the true story of five black and Latino teens unjustly convicted of a crime in 1989 only to be exonerated 13 years later through DNA evidence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Community Conversations Initiative will also include three youth programs but those will not be open to the public.<\/p>\n<p>The first public event, titled \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eventbrite.com\/e\/community-conversations-1-dismantling-racism-as-a-community-registration-54015643243?aff=efbeventtix&amp;fbclid=IwAR0r_JRz98j_Zt5y9gwSq_40S-G0p9QE8PaKXv3AfJcqXg9qXCA89OykCbw\">Dismantling Racism as a Community<\/a>,\u201d will be led by Long Beach Opera\u2019s manager of education and engagement and self-proclaimed Blacktivist Derrell Acon who is also the project director of the Community Conversations Initiative.<\/p>\n<p>He will be joined by Sabrina Sanders, director of student affairs projects and initiatives at Cal State University Office of the Chancellor, who will serve as moderator and panelists Senay Kenfe, a local activist, community organizer Audrena Redmond, nonprofit leader Paula Wood and Katie Balderas of the city\u2019s Office of Equity.<\/p>\n<p>The event will take place at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 9, at the Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library, 5870 Atlantic Ave.<\/p>\n<p>The next Community Conversations are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cEquity and Diversity in the Arts\u201d at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 10, at the Museum of Latin American Art, 628 Alamitos Ave.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cLife Beyond Prison\u201d at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30, at the CSULB Studio Theater, corner of 7th Street and East Campus Drive.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cGuilty Until Proven Innocent\u201d at 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 25, at Long Beach City College, Dyer Hall, 4901 E. Carson St.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cBlack Lives, the Arts, and Mattering\u201d at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 6, at Council Chambers, 333 W. Ocean Blvd.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All conversations are free and will be live-streamed on Facebook. To RSVP and read more about conversation participants <a href=\"https:\/\/www.longbeachopera.org\/the-season\/2019-2\/community-conversations-2019\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The five-event series is scheduled to take place over the next five months and will feature multiple organizations, artists and community leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":65772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","pmpro_default_level":0,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","footnotes":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[15],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=244"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-live.lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}