Community Members Discuss Race and Diversity in mid-Missouri

Who: This event is sponsored by KBIA and The Reynolds Journalism Institute

What: A special live taping of Intersection - an opportunity to discuss race and diversity in mid-MIssouri.  Join the audience to share your stories related to race and diversity, to share your concerns, and to ask a group of informed panelists the questions you wish you could.  Let's move the conversation about race and diversity out into the community, live on air.  Get your voice heard!

Where: The Reynolds Journalism Institute, MU Campus

When: Monday, May 10th from 6:00-8pm

Note: This event is free and open to the public.  Light refreshments and conversation following.  Parking is available in Hitt Street Garage on the east side of the Reynolds Journalism Institute.

Start talking!

Let's get the conversation started.  Send us your comments or questions and we'll share them during the live taping.  If you wish to remain anonymous, we will NOT attach your name to your submission.

Panelist Ibtisam Barakat, an international author based in Columbia, wrote a poem especially for the Intersection panel discussion. She read the poem at the close of the event Monday evening. Here is the text of the poem. We plan to post audio of Ibtisam reading the poem within the next day or two.

Diversity Poem
By Ibtisam Barakat

Once upon a diversion
The word diversity
Was diver-city !

But the c got arrested . .

And now the city does not see
Some of  its people . .

An S has replaced the c –
STOP!
Racial profiling!

Why do they call it pro-filing
And your file is against you!

Some day the ray shall
Light up the shade for
All to notice:

We too are filled with magic,
Daily mornings, and mystery
That sometimes, ourselves,
We do not comprehend. .

We too are filled with home
And culture. .

Diver into other cultures
Is what you must become
To love this world. .

Diver city is our home ;
And we are the divers.

Hold your breath – longer!

Hold your tongue –  
Until your heart has spoken!

And lower the volume
Of the stereo-type system
For it greatly disturbs
The neighbors . .

I want the c back!
Maybe you can help me..
We could scoop its waters
And all of its drifts
With our hands, if we must. .

A new language
With a big C,
Big eyes seeing all,
In the middle of the word
Diversity. .