Exhibitions
Date
February 18, 2025
Time
5:00–6:30 pm
Location
TBD
ABOUT THE EVENT
Join distinguished author and cultural organizer Eve L. Ewing for a reading of her latest book Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism.
Original Sins traces the history of the American education system, revealing how it was never neutral but deliberately designed to sustain racial inequality and hierarchies. Ewing interrogates the historical foundations of this system from the Founding Fathers’ vision of America and demonstrates how education was used as a tool to enforce white intellectual superiority, “civilize” Native students, and prepare Black students for menial labor. Moving beyond history, she illustrates how these inequities persist today through mechanisms like standardized testing, academic tracking, disciplinary policies, and the uneven distribution of resources across schools. Original Sins calls for a radical reevaluation of what schools are meant to be—and for whom. Free copies will be distributed to attendees.
ABOUT
Dr. Eve L. Ewing is a writer, scholar, and cultural organizer from Chicago. She is the award-winning author of four books: the poetry collections Electric Arches and 1919, the nonfiction work Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side, and a novel for young readers, Maya and the Robot. She is the co-author (with Nate Marshall) of the play No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. She has written several projects for Marvel Comics, most notably the Ironheart series and Black Panther, and is currently writing Exceptional X-Men. Ewing is an associate professor in the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other venues.
In partnership with the UIC Black Studies Department and the Women’s Leadership Resource Center.
ACCESS INFORMATION: This program is free and CART captioning will be available. For questions and access accommodations, email gallery400engagement@gmail.com.