Panelist Zoom: https://alliancempts-onmicrosoft.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMkfuyrrzMsHdVyb1KEtPrF4yt-U-aP_Uc2
Event Overview
Screening
- Location: Eventive
- Date: December 27, 2021
- Start Time: 6:00pm
- Screening Link: https://watch.eventive.org/onthesegrounds/play/61b79da95c1be500552c2ad2
Panel
- Location: Zoom
- Date: December 27, 2021
- Start Time: Join at 7:30pm ET for a tech check; the panel begins at 7:45pm ET.
- End Time: 8:45pm ET
- Panel Structure & Speakers: A Q&A with Vivian Anderson and Niya Kenny moderated by Maryland Congress of Parents and Teachers president, Dr. Tonja Carrera.
- Panel Audience: Maryland Congress of Parents and Teachers members
- Zoom Link: https://alliancempts-onmicrosoft.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMkfuyrrzMsHdVyb1KEtPrF4yt-U-aP_Uc2
Event Contacts
- Dr. Tonja Carrera, Maryland Congress of Parents and Teachers, president@mdpta.org, 443-848-3134
- Vivian Anderson, EveryBlackGirl, Inc., everyblackgirl1@gmail.com
- Niya Kenny, niyakenny@gmail.com
About the Hosting Organization:
Maryland Congress of Parents and Teachers mission is to provide all children with the advocacy needed for their all around well-being and academic success. While focusing on various issues that combat families, teachers, students, and the community such as mental health awareness, social awareness, diversity and inclusion, physical fitness awareness, bullying, special education needs, autism awareness, traumatic brain injury, intellectual disabilities, the LGBTQ+ youth community, assisting undocuemented immigrants, helping to combat food insecurity as well as providing necessary training and educational needs for all.
Calls-to-Action for On These Grounds Audience Members
- Attend and host your own screenings of On These Grounds at https://www.representjustice.org/campaigns/on-these-grounds/.
- Support Vivian’s work by donating to EveryBlackGirl, Inc. Donations can be made at https://www.representjustice.org/support-everyblackgirl-inc/.
- Visit the film’s take-action page for resources to learn more about what’s happening in your school district and to contact your representatives in support of the Counseling Not Criminalization in Schools Act: https://www.representjustice.org/take-action-otg/.
Discussion Questions
Speaker Bios
Niya Kenny
Niya Kenny was a student at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, SC when she witnessed and filmed the “Assault at Spring Valley,” during which she was arrested on disturbing school charges and taken to a detention center. Niya withdrew from Spring Valley High School and opted instead to finish a GED. Niya joined other South Carolina students in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the state’s laws against disturbing schools, which are overly broad and applied disproportionately to Black students. Previously, Niya has interned at the non profit African American Policy Forum, working alongside Kimberlé Crenshaw. Together, they worked to raise awareness about how the school-to-prison-pipeline impacts all students, but especially black girls. Niya recently moved to Atlanta, GA.
Vivian Anderson
Founder & Executive Director, EveryBlackGirl, Inc.
Vivian’s work is rooted in promoting the health and wellbeing of youth, families, and communities of color. She is the founder and executive director of EveryBlackGirl, Inc., a national campaign and program that centers and supports Black girls. Vivian has long been an activist and healer, working as the director of Youth Programming at the Harlem YMCA and executive director of Momentum Teens. In 2015, Vivian moved to South Carolina to create an organization to fight state-sponsored violence against young Black women. Since then, Vivian and EveryBlackGirl, Inc. has grown into an organization advancing radical sy