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Co-presented by Museum of the African DiasporaThe Black Panther Party’s history is well documented as a movement for the social, political, economic and spiritual upliftment of Black and indigenous people of color. But to this day, few know the story of the backbone of the Party: the women. It’s estimated that six out of ten Panther Party members were female. While these remarkable women were regularly making headlines agitating, protesting, and organizing, offstage these same women were building communities and enacting social justice. Celebrate the publication of Comrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party, with this conversation between author Ericka Huggins, photographer Stephen Shames, and contributors Cheryl Dawson and Gayle Asali Dickson, moderated by Professor Leigh Raiford. Doors open at 6pm for book sales, program at 6:30 pm. FREE
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As an activist, former political prisoner and leader in the Black Panther Party, Ericka Huggins has devoted her life to the equitable treatment of all human beings, beyond the boundaries of race, age, culture, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability and status associated with citizenship. For the past 40 years she has lectured across the country and internationally. She spent 14 years in the Black Panther Party, and eight years as Director of the renowned Oakland Community School (1973-1981).
Stephen Shames uses photography to raise awareness of social issues, with a particular focus on child poverty and race. He has authored 15 monographs, and his images are in the permanent collections of 40 museums and foundations. His previous monographs include Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers by Stephen Shames and Bobby Seale (Abrams, 2016), and The Black Panthers (Aperture, 2006).
Leigh Raiford (she/they) is Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley, where she teaches, researches, curates and writes about race, gender, justice and visuality. She is author of many books including Imprisoned in a Luminous Glare: Photography and the African American Freedom Struggle; and co-editor with Renee Romano of The Civil Rights Movement in American Memory. She is series co-editor of Vision and Justice, a new imprint of Aperture Books.
Rev. Cheryl Dawson, M.A., M.Div. currently works to help women in their quest to move past the present, while having hope for their future. She began work in the Black Panther Party in 1970, and insists that the work she began in the Party remains in her heart, and it manifests in the work she has brought to the women she serves. Her service to lift, rescue, and inspire incarcerated women has been recognized internationally throughout the African diaspora.
Gayle Asali Dickson is an ordained minister and served as Pastor of the South Berkeley Congregational Church (SBCC), United Church of Christ from 1998-2006. She formerly was a graphic artist for the Black Panther Party (BPP) Newspaper, and drew for its back pages under the name Asali. In 2000, she founded the Art Ambassadors nonprofit, and in 2016, was on the Host Committee for the 50th Anniversary of the Black Panther Party held at the Oakland Museum of California.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), 685 Mission St, San Francisco, United States
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