Hurricane Katrina was not only a devastating natural disaster — but a moment that magnified the weaknesses in every community’s social fabric related to social justice and equity, broken connections, and the need for community healing.
Through advanced technology, this free three-day summit will unite the collective experience and expertise of artists, writers, community members, technologists, scientists, humanists, teachers, healthcare professionals, and social entrepreneurs — in a virtual community gathering that connects Urbana-Champaign with various sites across the country — in order to inspire innovative approaches and solutions to the critical social issues brought into focus by this devastating natural disaster.
The summit is part of the University's yearlong Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science Advanced Collabratory) Year of InFormation, a year of programming to promote the human and humane dimensions of technology. The theme for September 2006 is InCommon.
The Katrina Summit — together, facing every community’s storm.
Event Locations
Douglass Branch Library
504 E. Grove St., Champaign
Independent Media Center
202 South Broadway
Urbana, Illinois 61801
Krannert Art Museum
500 E. Peabody Dr., Champaign
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
500 South Goodwin Avenue
Urbana, Illinois 61801
National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
1205 West Clark Street
Urbana, Illinois 61801
Viriginia Theatre
203 West Park Street
Champaign, Illinois 61820
General Information:
All events are free and open to the public
Teachers may earn CPDUs and CEUs
Free parking available September 28-30 at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications in Lot B-22, located on the corner of Goodwin and University
Free parking available on Thursday evening for the Krannert Gumbo Ya-Ya in the underground garages (Lot D-4) of Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, except for designated 24 hour reserved spacesAbbreviations:
UIUC = University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
NCSA = National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Krannert Art Museum
This collaboration between the University of Illinois' Canvas (Collaborative Advanced Navigation Visual Arts Studio) and Duke University will enable children to interact virtually while learning history and advanced technology.
Wednesday, September 27th
Virginia Theatre in Downtown Champaign
6p to 9:30p
Literally translated from Louisiana Cajun, fais do-do means “go to sleep my little friend.” A fais do-do is a southern Louisiana community event where people gather to play cards, gamble, socialize and eat, while mothers lullaby their babies to sleep before the late night dances begin. We’ve created the first Champaign-Urbana-style Fais Do-Do at the historic Virginia Theatre. Excerpts from the documentary film, “Perseverance,” and panel discussion will be surrounded by music, spoken word and an opportunity to record your personal story.
About the Film (7p showing)
Perseverance: Putting It Back Together One Day At A Time
When you meet Mr. Gettridge there is one word that immediately comes
to mind — Perseverance. Relentlessly, despite lack of government support, his age, his income, nor racial and economic injustice — despite it all — this 83 year old man has been working since last October to rebuild his home in the Lower Ninth neighborhood of New Orleans, where over 14,000 residents once lived. Through a methodology she calls Video Action Research, Maria Lovett shares highlights from her documentary ethnography project to represent the repercussions of Hurricane Katrina through the daily experiences and perspectives of one man — Herbert Gettridge. It is a story of frustration, fear, anger, hope and endurance.
Panel Discussion Immediately Following
Moderator:
Jack Brighton, Assistant Director of Broadcasting for Internet Development, WILL AM-FM-TV, UIUC
Panelists:
Maria Lovett, Educational Policy Studies, UIUC
Robert Ward, Educational Policy Studies, Post-Katrina Public Education Research Project, UIUC
John Jennings, Assistant Professor, Graphic Design, UIUC
Vernessa Gipson, Director, Center for Education, Youth Development and Family Support
Urban League of Champaign County
Artists
Primeridian, socially conscious hip-hop
Deborah Collage Grison, poet, Professor English, FDU
Tyehimba Jess, poet and Assistant Professor, English, UIUC
University of Illinois’ Roadside Conversations Airstream
A 28’ Airstream travel trailer, designed by a team from the College of Fine and Applied Arts and outfitted with a recording studio and an array of flat-panel screens, will be available to individuals who want to record their personal Katrina story.
Thursday, September 28
NCSA
Lobby and Atrium
8a to 9a
Welcome
Allison Clark, General Chairwoman, The Katrina Summit
Michael Ross, Director of Krannert Center for the Performing Arts and the Seedbed Initiative for Transdomain Creativity
NCSA Auditorium
9a to 9:30a
A Mobile Hospital: What Every Community Should Consider for Disaster Preparedness
NCSA Auditorium
9:30a to 11a
Experts who were called upon from Illinois to move a mobile “surge” hospital and oversee the care in Baton Rouge talk about their experiences, including what they learned in the midst of the disaster and what all community leaders should know about being truly prepared. Emergency responders accustomed to working through tornadoes also discuss how they used technology on a specially equipped ambulance to lead the National Guard through flood waters and how technology, resources and training shape disaster response today.
Dr. Allison L. Jones, Carle Clinic Association
Dr. Neil Winston, Commission to End Health Care Disparities
Panelists:
Sharon Dotson, Carle Foundation Hospital
Anne Fox, Central Illinois Chapter of the American Red Cross
Dr. James Gregory, Carle Clinic Association and Carle Foundation Hospital
Dr. Bernard Heilicser, Ingalls Hospital and South Cook County EMS
No Ark: Spoken Word and Graphics
NCSA Auditorium
11:15a to 11:45a
Deborah Collage Grison, MFA, Spoken Word
John Jennings, Graphics
NCSA Lobby and Atrium
11:45a to 1p
Box lunches available for $3
Inside the Digital Storm:
Using Computers to Understand and Predict Dangerous Weather
1p to 2p
NCSA Auditorium
Accurately predicting the weather is one of the most challenging problems facing scientists around the world. Understanding weather requires understanding complex systems made up of a multitude of factors. To tackle this challenge, scientists are using the most powerful supercomputers in the world, including those at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications here in Urbana-Champaign. Using these computers, the scientists simulate digital storms, analyzing how they form and where and when they will strike.
Moderator: Ed Kieser, WILL Chief Meteorologist
Panelists:
Dan Reed, Director of the Renaissance Computing Institute, Chancellor's Eminent Professor and Vice-Chancellor for Information Technology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Ed Seidel, Director of the Center for Computation & Technology, Louisiana State University
Bob Wilhelmson, Chief Science Officer, National Center for Supercomputing Applications and Professor, Atmospheric Sciences Department, UIUC
Planning the Rebuilding of New Orleans
NCSA Auditorium
2:15p to 3:45p
This session will discuss the challenges of devising a planning process for rebuilding an entire American city as quickly as possible while simultaneously following solid principles of good planning — in an environment that is highly charged and political.
Moderator:
Dianne Harris, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Architecture, UIUC
Panelists:
Robert Olshansky, Associate Department Head and Associate Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Noshir Contractor, Professor, Speech Communications, Psychology, and Coordinated Science Lab; Research Affiliate, Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The World is Our Classroom: Using Technology to Build Global Understanding
NCSA Auditorium
4p to 5p
Through technology we are able to break down the walls of the traditional classroom to build a global community facilitating cultural understanding and overcoming differences of language, custom and religion. The Virtual Classroom session will feature teachers from the Illinois International High School Program who use technology to build a global community among their students.
Moderator:
Dr. Chip Bruce, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, UIUC
Panelists:
Ken Mularski, Walter Payton College Prep, Chicago
Yoshie Naya, sub-Executive Director, Japan Education and Research Network
Representatives of Chicago's Paseo Boricua community, which has
developed a Katrina curriculum unit, emphasizing integrated learning
about sociopolitical, economic, scientific and technical factors in
the disaster.
Krannert’s Gumbo Ya-Ya with the New Orleans Jazz Machine
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts Lobby
5p to 7p
Participants come together to “gumbo ya-ya” or “talk at all at once” while enjoying the swingin’ bluesy style of music that has become synonymous with New Orleans.
Free snacks, cash bar
Friday, September 29
Continental Breakfast and Registration
NCSA Lobby and Atrium
8:30a to 9:30a
The Role of Social Entrepreneurship in the Rebuilding of a Community After a Natural Disaster
NCSA Auditorium
9:30a to 11a
Entrepreneurs are often thought of as profit-driven risk takers with only one thing in mind – making money. This panel discussion will dispel many of the myths associated with entrepreneurs and will highlight the importance of entrepreneurship in rebuilding communities after natural disasters. The four panel members will discuss the economic and social value created by entrepreneurs in community rebuilding efforts. Examples of the risks and rewards of establishing an entrepreneurial community will be offered.
Moderator:
Anthony Mendes, Executive Director, Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership
Panelists
Daryl Williams, Director, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
Ann Bishop, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Science
Ross Musselman, CUWiN Foundation
Eric Bussell, owner/operator Cold Stone Creamery, Champaign
Kalamu ya Salaam: Postcards from the Eye of the Storm
NCSA Auditorium
11:15a to noon
This renowned New Orleans area poet, activist and scholar expresses his feelings about the storm that uprooted his community and changed so many lives.
Lunch
NCSA Lobby and Atrium
noon to 1p
Box lunches available for $3
2006 U I Walk Toward Wellness--Building Communities through Walking & Wellness
Noon
U of I Quad
Brought to you by the Culture of Wellness Committee
Race and Class in the 'new' New Orleans Schools
NCSA Auditorium
1p to 2:30p
This interdisciplinary education panel will engage issues of Charter Schools, community, and social networks as they impact on re-imagining education in New Orleans. It bridges meaning between poor African American experiences in New Orleans and marginal populations in Champaign-Urbana community. The presentation will hopefully demonstrate the power of information technologies and systems theory to elucidate the goals and desires of individuals and community groups, all of whom may wish to participate in the democratic processes of rebuilding New Orleans, its system of public schools, institutions of higher education and other sectors such as public housing developments.
Moderator:
Luis Miron, Professor, Educational Policy Studies, UIUC
Panelists:
Dianne Dade-Everett, Jackson State University
Ingbert Floyd, Research Assistant, Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences, UIUC
Robert Anthony Ward, Graduate Student, Educational Policy Studies, UIUC
Taking Action through Volunteerism
NCSA Atrium
2:30p to 3:15p
University of Illinois students who participated in volunteer work in
Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina struck will discuss
the work that they did and moderate small group discussion on
volunteerism.
Moderator:
Teri McCarthey, Director, Greater Community AIDS Project
Presenters:
David Hoffer, Hurricane Katrina Relief Team
Eamon J. Kelly, University of Illinois law student, Student Hurricane
Relief Network
Sydney Seguino, University of Illinois undergraduate student, Volunteer
Illini Project
A lively spirited conversation among local artists, developers, educators political and community workers about how social justice issues revealed in the aftermath of the Katrina Storm can inform, enlighten and energize efforts to weave a single thread of justice in the local community context.
Moderator:
Lisa Dixon, Associate Professor, Department of Theatre, UIUC
Panelists:
Jon D. “Cody” Sokolski, CEO, One Main Development; Artist, Arts Lover
Patricia Avery, Executive Director, Champaign Urbana Area Project and Champaign County Board Member
Giraldo Rosales, Champagin City Council Member, Assistant Dean of Students/UIUC, Congero
Debbie Reese (Nambé Pueblo), Assistant Professor, Native American Studies/UIUC Danielle Chynoweth, Urbana City Council Member
Dinner Break
5p to 7p
Independent Media Center
9p to 11p
Performances will include comedy from Summit MC Erica Watson, poetry from Mike LaDue, Amira Davis, New Orleans poet Kalamu ya Salaam, and live music by The Pain Killers.
CU at Congo Square: Reflections for Our Children
Douglass Community Center
10a to 11:30a
New Orleans Rising: A Town Hall Meeting
NCSA Auditorium
2p to 3:30p
Participants from all sites will come together for a final town hall meeting to identify the key societal challenges and opportunities facing our country today, with a clear vision of helping to create strong communities that can effectively manage future disasters.
