NEPM presents: "The Cost of Inheritance" screening & discussion
Rescheduled! Now Thursday, Feb. 15, 5:30 - 8 p.m.
Springfield College
Appleton Auditorium at Fuller Arts Center
243 Hickory St., Springfield, Massachusetts
Parking available in Lot 4, adjacent to Fuller Arts Center on Wilbraham Avenue.
Join us for a night of impactful storytelling and dialogue on historical and social justice, and learn more about the reparative justice work happening in western Massachusetts.
NEPM invites you to a screening of “The Cost of Inheritance,” a film by Yoruba Richen about the U.S. reparations debate. Following the screening, engage in a panel discussion with two of the film’s subjects, Briayna Cuffie and Lotte Lieb Dula; and local experts Dr. Jallicia Jolly and Dr. Stefan M. Bradley, Black studies professors at Amherst College; and Michele Miller, chair of Amherst’s African Heritage Reparation Assembly. The panel will be moderated by Yemisi Oloruntola-Coates, chief inclusion and equity officer at GBH Boston.
Arrive at 5:30 p.m. for a reception with light refreshments before the screening and discussion at 6 p.m.
Cosponsored by Springfield College, the Western Massachusetts Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, and the Greater Springfield (MA) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated.
ABOUT THE FILM
"The Cost of Inheritance," by acclaimed director Yoruba Richen, is an hour-long documentary that explores the complex issue of reparations in the United States using a thoughtful approach to history, historical injustices, systemic inequities, and the critical dialogue on racial conciliation. Through personal narratives, community inquiries, and scholarly insights, it aims to inspire understanding of the scope and rationale of the reparations debate.
MEET THE PANELISTS
Briayna Cuffie is a strategist, advocate, and future author based in Annapolis, Maryland. She leverages her political expertise, teachings from her elders, and history to help others understand the complexity of Blackness in the United States. Cuffie is the racial equity advisor for Reparations4Slavery.
Lotte Lieb Dula is a retired financial strategist who, after discovering that she was a descendant of slaveholders, co-founded Reparations4Slavery, a portal for white families walking the path of racial healing through engaging in direct repair. Dula is a founding donor of Reparations Circle Denver.
Dr. Jallicia Jolly is a writer, poet, and organizer who is an assistant professor in American studies and Black studies at Amherst College. She merges community-based research on Black women's health, grassroots activism, and political leadership with reproductive justice organizing and practice in the United States and the Caribbean. Jolly is the founder and director of the BREHA Collective, a new interdisciplinary, medical humanities lab that bridges research, advocacy, student collaborations, and high-impact learning experiences on the health and movement-building of Afro-diasporic girls, women, and gender diverse people. A 2022-2023 Ford postdoctoral fellow, Jolly’s first book manuscript, “Ill Erotics: Black Caribbean Women and Self-Making in the Time of HIV/AIDS,” is an ethnography of the reproductive justice organizing of young Black Jamaican women living with HIV that chronicles their everyday confrontations with illness, reproductive violence, and inequality in neocolonial Jamaica. A public scholar invested in research-informed political action, she connects her research to tailored community interventions that advance equity, systemic change, and community building. Jolly leads with justice and joy as her core intention while centering new legacies of equity and holistic wellness beyond inequality and violence.
Dr. Stefan M. Bradley is the Charles Hamilton Houston 1915 professor of Black studies and history at Amherst College. Previously, he was the inaugural associate dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts and professor of African American studies at Loyola Marymount University. Bradley received his Ph.D. in 20th century U.S. history with an emphasis on the Black experience from the University of Missouri. An educator at heart, Bradley’s life ambition is to personally teach, mentor and inspire the young people who change the world for the better.
Some of Bradley’s publications include his newest book, “Upending the Ivory Tower: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Ivy League,” which won the History of Education Society Outstanding Book Award as well as the Anna Julia Cooper & CLR James Book Award from the National Council of Black Studies; “Harlem vs. Columbia University: Black Student Power in the Late 1960s,” which won the Phillis Wheatley Book Prize; and, “Alpha Phi Alpha: A Legacy of Greatness, the Demands of Transcendence.” He has appeared on C-Span BookTV, NPR, PRI, as well as in documentaries on the Oprah Winfrey Network and the History Channel.
He has received numerous honors and awards including the Don Brennan Humanitarian Award; the Better Family Life Excellence in Educational Leadership Award; the SLU Faculty Excellence Award; the Ernest A. Calloway, Jr. Teaching Excellence Award; and, the St. Louis American’s Salute to Excellence Young Leaders Award. He was selected as one of Delux Magazine’s Power 100.
Generous with his time, Bradley frequently volunteers on and off campus. In the wake of the tragic events in Ferguson and St. Louis, he engaged in discussions with representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Commission, and Department of Education. As a voice from the community, Bradley has appeared on BET, MSNBC, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and in The New York Times.
Michele Miller is a former Amherst, Massachusetts, town councilor and chair of the African Heritage Reparation Assembly (AHRA). In August 2020 she co-founded Reparations For Amherst, a grassroots organization focused on reparations for slavery and post-slavery anti-Black racism in Amherst. Michele’s grassroots activism led to the creation of a dedicated municipal reparations fund and a municipal committee, the AHRA, for which she was the chair. In 2022, the AHRA garnered support from the Amherst Town Council for a $2 million commitment to the fund and AHRA published its final report. Most recently, Michele was honored by the National African American Reparations Commission and First Repair for her role in advancing reparations for African Americans. In addition to her social justice work, Michele is a mindfulness educator and researcher and has published various works, including a co-authored paper published in Frontiers in Psychology.