Amit Taneja, director of the Days-Massolo Center, facilitated a conversation on inclusion at Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica on Oct. 4. Taneja was invited by MVCC leaders to help create a dialogue on inclusive practices and strategies, and the presentation was also live-streamed to the MVCC Rome campus.

On Sept. 27, members of the Hamilton community gathered in the Events Barn to listen as Kiese Laymon read his essay, “How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: A Remembrance,” an intimate and personal account of Laymon’s teenage years growing up in Jackson, Mississippi. The silence was palpable as the audience listened to the tale of Laymon’s traumatic past and inspiring message.

Author and Vassar College professor  Kiese Laymon will give a reading and discussion about the lived experience of racism in America on Thursday, Sept. 27, at 7:30 p.m., in the Fillius Events Barn. The talk “How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: A Remembrance,” is free and open to the public.

Suzanne Goldberg, professor of law at Columbia University, will discuss Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, & Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) Refugees and U.S. immigration policies and practices in a lecture on Monday, Sept. 24, at 4 p.m., in the Red Pit, KJ.  The discussion will pertain to those seeking asylum from persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Dietra Harvey grew up in a household where critical citizenship and voting were basic tenets of family life. Today, in the same way she was brought into the voting booth as a young girl by her parents, Harvey carries on the tradition by bringing her own children to the polls every November.

Amit Taneja, director of the Days-Massolo Center, was one of four national experts invited to review the LGBT Services Office at Wellesley College.

“My name is Helen Sperling. I am a Jew. I am a survivor.” With these simple words, Helen Sperling began to recount her experience of the Holocaust before a crowd of Hamilton students and community members packed into the Chapel. During the course of the two-hour-long lecture, which was sponsored by the Days-Massolo Center and Hillel, Sperling recounted the darkest moments of her life with a vigor and compassion that belied her 92 years. Throughout her time in Polish ghettos and prison camps, Sperling’s indomitable spirit sustained her in the face of incredible hardship and heart-wrenching sorrow.

Dorothy Roberts, Kirkland & Ellis Professor at Northwestern University School of Law, will present a lecture on Wednesday, April 18, at 7:30 p.m., in the Chapel. The lecture, “Fatal Invention: Re-creating Race in the 21st Century,” is based on her 2011 book of the same name and is free and open to the public.