ILA has partnered with Heinemann Publishing to broadcast its first-ever social justice panel, “Disrupting a Destructive Cycle: How Literacy Drives Social Change,” through Facebook Live on Saturday, July 15 from 2:00–4:00 PM ET. The panel will be moderated by Nikole Hannah-Jones, an investigative reporter covering racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine.

Cornelius Minor, lead staff developer at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, will open the event, which is inspired by an on-the-fly discussion he led at the ILA 2016 Conference & Exhibits. ILA 2016 took place just days after the Alton Sterling shooting in Baton Rouge, LA, and the Dallas, TX, murder of several police officers gunned down in a seemingly retaliatory effort. Minor engaged attendees in an impromptu conversation to demonstrate how teachers should talk about emotionally charged and controversial topics.

Hannah-Jones will deliver a short keynote before diving into the discussion.

Panelists include Minor; Monita K. Bell, senior editor of Teaching Tolerance; Deborah S. Delisle, executive director and CEO of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development; Zareen Jaffery, executive editor of Salaam Reads; Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, assistant professor in the Literacy, Culture, and International Education Division at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education; and Gene Luen Yang, (U.S.) National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.

The conversation will explore how educators can confront complex social issues such as racially motivated violence and cultural intolerance in the classroom, in addition to looking at the role of literacy as a key agent of civic engagement and social change. Hannah-Jones says she hopes that educators who attend will leave with a set of tools they can use to facilitate constructive conversations and empower their students to promote social justice.

Those interested in participating can visit the event page to learn more and to RSVP. To tune in, visit our Facebook page at the time of the event. Interested, but have conflicting plans? The full recording will be archived on our Facebook page.

Alina O’Donnell is the editor of Literacy Daily.