Organized by the Ashland University College of Arts & Sciences, the biennial Symposium Against Indifference continues its 2017-2018 theme of “Building Bridges Through Dialogue” with presentations by Dr. Susan Glisson and Charles Tucker, the partners and co-founders of Sustainable Equity LLC.
Glisson and Tucker were originally scheduled to present their programs in September, but had to reschedule due to difficulties in travel from the South during the hurricanes. The duo will now share their stories of uniting communities and bringing people of different backgrounds together during a public lecture titled "No More Enemies" on Tuesday, Jan. 30, at 7:30 p.m. and an interactive "Welcome Table" workshop on Wednesday, Jan. 31, at 7:30 p.m. Both events will be held in the Trustees Room of the Myers Convocation Center.
With co-sponsorship by the Department of Religion, these programs are free and open to the public.
"We've been conditioned to listen in order to counter someone’s statement instead of listening to understand.That’s not helpful," Glisson says.
The Tuesday evening lecture will use Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s quote, “My enemy is someone whose story I haven’t heard” as a touchstone. From a historic conviction in a cold civil rights case, passage and implementation of a statewide law requiring civil rights and human rights history curriculum in all Mississippi schools, to work with the City of New Orleans on Confederate monuments, police departments and public institutions, Glisson and Tucker have a diverse and substantial list of success stories of leading individuals to examine their own attitudes and biases combined with the building of trust and respectful relationships.
At the workshop on Wednesday evening, participants will discover the Welcome Table process developed by Glisson. This interactive workshop will introduce the tools and techniques used by the city of New Orleans and the state of South Carolina (among others) to help communities with deep racial and historical divisions. Learn more about this method of intentional dialogue that can be used in community building and in daily lives.
In addition to these two major presentations, the Ashland Center for Nonviolence will also present Glisson and Tucker in "A Conversation about Historical Context in Confederate Monuments," which will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 30, at 2:30 p.m. in the Eagles’ Landing in the Hawkins-Conard Student Center.
In 2016, Glisson and Tucker co-founded Sustainable Equity to work with communities, public institutions and businesses to foster effective historical dialogue in order to build trusting and respectful relationships. Bud Ferillo from the University of South Carolina's South Carolina Collaborative on Race and Reconciliation recognizes their work saying, “Susan Glisson and Charles Tucker are raising small armies across the country to unite communities and guide the hard but needed conversations about racial reconciliation.”
Additionally, Mayor Landrieu for the City of New Orleans, praises their Welcome Table process, which “brings people of different ethnicities and backgrounds together to build relationships, tackle the issue of race and work together on projects that will make our city better and stronger.”
Glisson is deeply committed and experienced in the work of transformation, truth-telling and community trust-building toward which she worked for more than 20 years.
Offering years of practice-based evidence in community building, advocacy and public policy, Glisson works with organizations seeking to make the greatest collective impact in creating inclusive and humane work and social environments and to develop the capacity to form sustainable community trust. This work includes workshops, retreats, research as a basis for building networks and communities of practice to increase individual learning and collective action.
She is a native of Evans, Ga., earned bachelor’s degrees in religion and in history from Mercer University, a master’s degree in Southern Studies from the University of Mississippi, and a Ph.D. in American Studies from the College of William and Mary.
Tucker works to build unity and consensus in communities, nonprofit and corporate entities. He uses his skills and experience as a facilitator and program designer. He has extensive experience in meeting facilitation, consensus building, community planning and needs analysis, social systems analysis, and creative writing to liberate community stories and gifts, bridge divisions and build community. He also offers experience in media management such as news reporting, feature and advertising copy writing, including sports reporting and writing, technical and creative writing.
He is a native of Cary, Miss., earned his Bachelor of Science in Mass Communications with a focus in Print Journalism from Jackson State University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Pine Manor College.
