Overview
How can we face our present, if we don’t know our past? At a time when senior citizens, especially those in communities of color, are particularly vulnerable, we need their wisdom more than ever. Join us for a series of conversations with the elders in our community, as they share the insight they’ve accrued over their lifetimes, and offer guidance to us all as we navigate a uniquely treacherous time.
Every month, Pearls of Wisdom online gatherings will feature members of NJPAC’s’ Council of Elders in conversation with educator and current president of the Newark Branch of the NAACP, Deborah Smith-Gregory, and Susan Pope, an Ed.D. candidate at Columbia University and the founder of I Dance Because…., a nonprofit organization that offers social and emotional education to at-risk youth through dance.
Our Pearls of Wisdom conversation on August 18 will focus on the importance of voting, with two veteran historians and activists:
- Junius Williams, today the official historian of the city of Newark, who has worked as a lawyer, an activist, a musician, as the director of Community Development and the Model Cities Program for the City of Newark.
- Wilbur McNeil, the President of the Weequahic Park Association, who has worked tirelessly to protect the city’s historic “reservation,” the second-largest park in Essex County.
Learn the history of Newark’s community, and find strength for the struggle ahead, in these in-depth conversations with leaders who have decades of experiences to share.
