The Future of Reproductive Justice
Event Recording
Watch this dynamic intergenerational conversation with renowned author, educator and 2022 MacArthur Fellow, Loretta Ross and Park Cannon, one of two openly queer lawmakers in the Georgia General Assembly and its youngest. Against the backdrop of the 2022 mid-term elections, they discuss the tenets of reproductive justice, what’s at stake, and what people who care about racial justice, human rights and democracy can do to show up.
Instructor(s)
Instructor Loretta Ross
Loretta J. Ross is an activist, public intellectual, scholar, the 2022 recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” award and an Associate Professor at Smith College. She started her career in activism and social change in the 1970s. Her work emphasizes the intersectionality of social justice issues and how intersectionality can fuel transformation.
Throughout her 50-year career, she has worked with the National Organization for Women (NOW), the National Black Women’s Health Project, the Center for Democratic Renewal (National Anti-Klan Network), the National Center for Human Rights Education, and was a co-founder and the National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. Loretta has co-written three books on reproductive justice and her current book, Calling In the Calling Out Culture, is forthcoming in 2024. In 2012, Loretta retired as an organizer to teach and follow her passion to educate. In her work Calling In the Calling Out Culture, she transforms how people can overcome political differences to use empathy and respect to guide difficult conversations. In 2023, Loretta was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
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Speaker Park Cannon
Rep. Park Cannon is a Georgia State Representative, one of two openly queer lawmakers in the Georgia General Assembly and its youngest. She represents House District 58 which encompasses a diverse cross-section of Atlanta. The Democratic lawmaker made national headlines when she was unlawfully arrested and removed from the Georgia Capitol after she knocked on the door to the Republican governor’s office during his signing of SB 202, a restrictive law that limits voting rights in the state. Republicans rushed the bill through both chambers of the legislature a few hours before he signed it into law. It has been harshly criticized nationwide for disenfranchising Black voters, is being challenged in court and is being dubbed Jim Crow 2.0. Rep. Cannon champions a range of social justice causes and her legislative efforts focus on education, jobs, and health care. To learn more about Park Cannon or to bring her to speak, visit: https://www.speakoutnow.org/speakers/park-cannon