Spring 2012 Symposium

Angela Y. Davis

2012 Robert D. and Leslie-Kay Raven Lecturer on Access to Justice

Addressing Gendered Violence against
African American Girls and Young Women: 
What is the Role for the
Anti-Prison Movement?

March 8, 2012
6:00 p.m.
Booth Auditorium, UC Berkeley School of Law

Angela Y. Davis is a public intellectual, UC Santa Cruz Professor Emerita, and longtime anti-prison activist.

This symposium continues the work that we began in March 2011, at the Henderson Center’s first gathering devoted to African American girls and young women.  Our 2011 symposium was intended to celebrate African American girls and young women and bring awareness to the conditions that were enabling their over-incarceration.

A constant theme in our discussion was the silence about gendered violence experienced by African American girls and young women.

On March 8 and 9, 2012, we will turn our attention to gendered violence against African American girls and young women. Our goal is to open a space and offer a framework for breaking the silence about gendered violence against African American girls and young women, including interpersonal, institutional and cultural violence.

We hope to draw on the collective strength, knowledge, expertise, experience and wisdom of those who attend the symposium to question and break that silence and begin to speak with an empowered, collective voice.

Everyone is welcome to attend including students, academics, organizers, advocates, service providers, those working in the criminal legal system, and those with no formal affiliations.

We define gendered violence as physical, emotional and/or sexual attacks against a person based on the person’s gender or gender identity by individuals, the legal system, and the culture, itself. It is also the use of sexual actions to inflict harm.