Orlando, FL – Valencia College’s Peace and Justice Initiative launches its annual weeklong Conversation on Justice on Monday, Jan. 30 and will hold 91 workshops, films and debates about many of today’s hot-button issues, including race, immigration, transgender rights.
Sam Obeid will be the featured speaker at the 2017 Conversation on Justice.
Valencia’s guest speaker for the week will be Sam Obeid, a queer activist and a spoken word poet. Born and raised in India, Obeid moved to the United States in 2007, where she earned two master’s degrees. She now works for Community Tampa Bay. She will be speaking at the Osceola and Lake Nona campuses on Jan. 30, at East and Winter Park campuses on Jan. 31, and on West Campus on Feb. 1. (See schedule below for times.)
On Tuesday, Jan. 31, Valencia’s West Campus will host a community conversation titled “Race Matters,” facilitated by Valencia College professors Rachel Allen and Rudy Darden. The event will take place in the Health Sciences Building, room 105, on West Campus from 6 to 9 p.m.
Also on Tuesday, Winter Park Campus will host a viewing of the documentary, “Leftovers,” one man’s discovery and examination of senior hunger in the richest nation on the planet. The film, which will be shown in Rooms 225-226, will be shown from 6 to 9 p.m. and facilitated by the organization Seniors First.
On Wed., Feb. 1, the college will show “The Mask You Live In,” a documentary that follows boys and young men as they struggle to stay true to themselves while negotiating a maze of identity issues that they must navigate to become “real” men. The film, which has been shown at film festivals around the world, was written, directed and produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsome, who also created the 2011 award-winning documentary “Miss Representation.” 
The documentary will be shown on East Campus, Bldg. 8, room 101, from 6 to 9 p.m. It’s free and open to the community. (The film will also be shown on Feb. 1 at 3 p.m. at the Osceola Campus auditorium and at 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the Lake Nona Campus, room 148.)
On Thursday, Feb. 2, West Campus will host a screening and discussion of the movie “Bent,” a film adaptation of Martin Sherman’s award-winning play about a gay man who is arrested by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp. The film will be shown in Building 3, room 111, from 2:30 to 3:45 p.m.
For the full schedule of events, please visit: https://valenciacollege.edu/PJI/programs/conversation-on-justice.cfm