A group of black female students will host the inaugural BRAVE Summit, which seeks to uplift black women in the community through panels and breakout sessions April 23.
According to the event’s website, the BRAVE Summit – which stands for black, resilient, artistic, vigilant, enough – aims to bring forward the uniqueness, individuality and greatness of black women and to strengthen the leadership skills of its attendants. The summit will also serve to foster student driven discourse to advance the conversation on equality of race and gender at Georgetown.
“BRAVE was pioneered by several Black women of Georgetown University for the purpose of combating the pervasive, negative media coverage and replacing it with the truth, our truth,” the Facebook page read.
The summit is cosponsored by Georgetown University Women of Color, the Georgetown Scholarship Program, the Justice and Peace program, Georgetown University Women in Leadership, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other campus organizations.
The summit will focus on four main themes: the arts, public service, social justice and the founding of various institutions. The event is being held in an effort to redefine the conversation in light of the recent media portrayals of police brutality and various acts of racism.
The event was inspired by the book “All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men: But Some of Us are Brave” by Gloria Hull, Patricia Bell-Scott and Barbara Smith.
According to the event’s website, GUWOC hopes the summit will eventually inspire a nationwide equivalent in the future.
The day long event will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m, beginning with a panel titled “My Blackness, and Yours Too,” followed by another titled “Black Women in Executive Positions.”
These two panels will be followed by a breakout session in which participants will discuss religion in communities of color.
A second breakout session will discuss generational feminism, women in the media and Georgetown women in administration and health disparities. A third panel will discuss the role of black women in public policy and service.
Collen Tlamsa (NHS ’18) said she would like to attend the summit and supported more events of this type in the future.
“I definitely would be willing to attend it,” Tlamsa said. “I think it is really great to have those types of events on campus.”
Grace Alburger (COL ’18) said she liked how the event seeks to create an environment that will open up a dialogue on race issues.
“I think it definitely help creates an open forum. I definitely am in support of more open conversation about the topics and empowering,” Alburger said.
