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RACE exhibit manager to host community talks

March 12, 2010

KALAMAZOO--The national manager of an acclaimed exhibit on race that will travel to Kalamazoo this fall will be in town Monday and Tuesday, March 15-16, to spark a community dialogue on race and highlight some of the events leading up to this fall's exhibit opening.

Monday, March 15, 6 p.m.
"The National Dialogue on RACE"

The exhibit "RACE: Are We So Different?" is set to run Oct. 2 through Jan. 2 at Kalamazoo Valley Museum. Joseph Jones, the manager of the American Anthropological Association's RACE project that created the nationally acclaimed exhibit, will be at Western Michigan University Monday, March 15, to meet with the community and offer a presentation on "The National Dialogue on RACE" and outline how the community can benefit. The free public event is set for 6 p.m. in Room 1028 of Brown Hall.

Tuesday, March 16, 3:30 p.m.
"African Burial Ground in New York City"

The following day, at 3:30 p.m. in Welborn Hall, Jones will speak about New York City's famed African Burial Ground, a 6.6-acre plot first unearthed in 1991 and the burial site of some 400 free and enslaved Africans. His Tuesday presentation is sponsored by the Department of Anthropology and is also open to the public.

Jones manages the AAA project funded by the Ford and National Science foundations to develop and produce a traveling museum exhibit, Web site and other educational materials that explore the origins and manifestations of race and racism in everyday life in America. The exhibit includes interactive components, historical artifacts, iconic objects, photographs, multimedia presentations and graphic displays to look at the biological, cultural and historical views on race.

Since 2007, the RACE exhibit has toured major American cities and museums. The exhibit is set for showing at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in 2011 and then will continue to tour nationally through 2014. Among 2010 stops for the exhibit, besides Kalamazoo, are the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, Calif.

The Kalamazoo stop on the tour was announced in 2007, and since that time, the community has been working to build campus and communitywide involvement in planning programming to precede, coincide with and last beyond the exhibit's visit to Kalamazoo. Major sponsors of the

RACE Exhibit Initiative of Southwest Michigan and the events surrounding it are the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and WMU.

More than 50 area organizations have come together to mount more than 40 events now under way, and people from across the state and surrounding states are expected to travel to Kalamazoo to take part in the activities and visit the RACE exhibit this fall.

Wide-ranging programming on the campuses, at the museum and in the community will include speakers, panel discussions, performances and art exhibits that will attract a diverse public. The mix of events and materials being developed include educational materials, workshops and special "dialogues on race," and workshops for teachers, upper-elementary through secondary students and other groups attending the exhibit.

To learn more about the RACE exhibit and area events related to it, visit raceexhibit.org. For additional details on Jones' appearance, contact WMU's Zarinah El-Amin Naeem, RACE exhibit coordinator in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at (269) 387-6324.

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Media contact: Cheryl Roland, (269) 387-8400, cheryl.roland@wmich.edu

WMU News
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Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5433 USA
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