Starting Friday, Nov. 15 and continuing through Saturday, Nov. 16, Case Western Reserve University’s Social Justice Institute is sponsoring an intergenerational think tank in the Thwing Center called “Educating for Struggle: In the Academy, Schools, Prisons and Streets.” The purpose of the think tank is to educate students and encourage them to think about social justice on all levels.The experience will focus on fostering dialogue between the generations in order to find possible solutions to current social justice issues.

The opening keynote speech on Friday night will be given by Sonia Sanchez and Maytha Alhassen-Sawaha. Sanchez, who has many years of experience as a poet and author, is typically associated with the black arts movement, an artistic branch of the black power movement. Sawaha is currently a graduate student, though she is also a published author. In their talk, the two women will explain how to learn from past social injustices and the approaches that were taken to fix them, take a look at current issues and attempt to find a way to solve these issues in the future. The session will then be opened up to the audience for questions.

Plenary sessions on the second day will delve more deeply into the subject. They focus on social injustice in the academies, schools, prisons and on the streets. Speakers on these issues will come from all backgrounds and generations, continuing with the intergenerational theme.

The closing session features hip-hop artist Jasiri X, who uses his songs and social media to teach people about current social injustices. His talk will be integrated within a performance.

Students are asked to register online.