Join us for an evening with the 2021 – 2022 Inspiring Health Justice Residents!  The event will showcase the work of the four Inspiring Health Justice Dillard University students-in-residence – Karen Grant-Anderson (Music), Zaria Ivory (Music), William Shelton (English), and Nailah Starks (English). The students and scholar in-residence Dr. Kristi Anderson will also discuss their collaboration during the year. Friday, April 22 at 5:30 p.m.in the Dillard University Student Union Ballroom (2nd floor) – the Dillard Student Union is building #25 on this map.

This year’s residency collaboration is titled DESPAIR-ity: The Call of History to Pull Us Forward, and focuses on inequities in both our past and our present, and the responsibility we all have going forward to work towards awareness, education, and transformation. Starting in the fall 2021 semester and for the entire Spring 2022 semester, Dr. Kristi Anderson has been working with four Dillard student artists-in-residence: Karen Grant-Anderson (Music), Zaria Ivory (Music), William Shelton (English), and Nailah Starks (English). The students are also being mentored by Dillard faculty members Dr. Nancy Dixon (Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of English), and Dr. Wen Zhang (Associate Professor of Voice, Coordinator of Music Program. In April 2022, the students will present their own poetry and prose and perform song and dance – inspired by their discussions this past year with Dr. Anderson about historic race, social, and health inequities. The aim of Inspiring Health Justice is to bring the arts and public health together to address our region’s long-standing health disparities through creative, cross-disciplinary mentorship to focus the energy and passion of Dillard Humanities students towards fostering health equity.

Dillard University Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center – The mission of the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center (MHHDRC) is to take a comprehensive approach to advancing research across disciplinary areas, to enhance and promote coordination and collaboration throughout the scientific community, and to improve the overall quality of health for racial and ethnic minorities. https://www.dillard.edu/mhhdrc/

A Studio in the Woods, a program of Tulane University’s ByWater Institute, is one of the leading artistic and academic residency programs in the Gulf South region. The Studio fosters creative responses to the challenges of our time by providing retreat to artists, scholars, and the public in our protected forest on the Mississippi River. www.astudiointhewoods.org.