Please join us on Tuesday, November 7th, 6:30pm, WVC Ballroom B for We Shall Rise: Lessons on the Power of Unity in these times. Helen Zia, an activist, author and the daughter of Chinese immigrants, will share her experiences from decades of fighting for justice and against racism, sexism, homophobia and other oppression to show how we can and must bend the arc of history.
Helen Zia is an award-winning author, journalist, Fulbright Scholar, and former Executive Editor of Ms. Magazine. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, she has been outspoken on issues ranging from civil rights and peace to women’s rights and countering hate violence and homophobia. Helen is the author of Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People, which President Bill Clinton quoted from twice in the Rose Garden.
Her award-winning investigation of date rape at the University of Michigan led to campus demonstrations and a change of policy 30 years ago, while her reporting on women in neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups made the links between race, gender, and sexual orientation in hate crimes.
Helen’s leadership on the Asian American landmark civil rights case of anti-Asian hate violence is documented in the Oscar-nominated film, “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” In 1997, she coauthored a complaint to the Commission on Civil Rights against Congress and the news media for discrimination against Asian Americans; in 2010 she testified as a witness in the marriage equality case decided by the US Supreme Court.
Helen attended Princeton University on a full scholarship and graduated in its first class of women. She received an honorary Doctor of Laws from the City University of New York Law School. She quit medical school after completing two years, then worked as a construction laborer, an autoworker, and a community organizer, after which she discovered her life’s work as a writer.
This program is co-sponsored by the Center for Student Diversity and the Electronic Media and Film Department. For questions, email diversityworks@towson.edu.
