Radical Love Conference

Radical Love Conference 2024

February 14 - February 17, 2024

Wednesday, February 14

Cheyenne M. Davis Talk & Lunch
12-1:30 pm | LU Art Galleries
Join journalist, digital content creator, podcaster, photographer, and aspiring screenwriter Cheyenne M. Davis as they talk about what it means to create screenplays and digital content that are inclusive and highlight fat, BIPOC characters and perspectives. Davis' main goal is to use their creative works as the vehicle to drive the conversation in unpacking toxicity and lack of diversity and inclusivity in media.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – Register here

Reception at LUAG
5-6:30 pm | LU Art Galleries
Welcome Cheyenne M. Davis, writer, storyteller, adjunct professor, and content creator at this reception honoring their work to amplify voices for social justice. Share a story with one of the most compelling writers of our time. Enjoy refreshments and join award-winning student leader, artist, and future education policymaker Afiwa Afandalo and Artists for Change who will lead us in a hands-on workshop.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – Register here

Reel to Real Talk: HER Screening & Discussion
7:00 pm | ArtsQuest at Steelstacks
What’s more romantic than AI? Join us for a Valentine’s Day screening of HER followed by a post-movie chat with Dr. Rita Jones.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – Register here

Thursday, February 15

Therapy Dog Cafe
3-4 pm | STEPS Concourse
Do you love dogs but hate dogmas? Take a break from studying or work with LU Therapy Dogs. Come congratulate Scout on receiving her Therapy Dog Certification in the STEPS Concourse. Bizzle Bites will be there for those who want to buy her a treat. You can also show your support for Grace, Scout, and the LU Therapy Dog program here.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – Register here

Burst of Light Celestial Meditation
3:30-4:30 pm | Black Box Theatre, Zoellner Arts Center
Marcon Mountain Hawk Amber Brose created and implemented the first-ever racial healing workshop series on Lehigh’s campus. The Burst of Light meditation is inspired by the works of bell hooks and Audre Lorde. In 1988, Audre Lorde won the Before Columbus Foundation National Book Award for her collection of essays, “A Burst of Light.” Lorde applies the cosmic to the body politic in her essays, making the personal political and the political personal and nourishing the spirit with every word. Dr. Gloria Jean Watkins (aka bell hooks) wrote extensively on love, hope, and justice. She reminds us that “there is light in the darkness, you just have to find it.”
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – Register here

Premiere of Breaking Hate Documentary
4-6 pm | STEPS 101
Join Marcon Fellows Hajer Sabil, JJ Swenson, and Nahjiah Miller as well as Lehigh Ombuds and Professor of Biological Sciences Dr. Jennifer Swann as they premiere their restorative justice documentary, “Breaking Hate.” Then join Marcon Fellow Nahjiah Miller as she premieres her documentary on self-love entitled “Tell Me It’s Going to Be Okay.” Hear the voices of Lehigh students and faculty explain what self-love means to them. Stay for the Q&A with the producers and learn more about the Marcon Institute’s Restorative Justice Lab.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – Register here

Cena Bilingüe Comunitaria: Bilingual Community Dinner
6-7:30 pm | Hispanic Center of the Lehigh Valley
En palabras de nuestro invitado de honor, Guillermo Lopez, “Esta cena es otra oportunidad para cultivar espacios de pertenencia.” Guillermo encarna los ideales del amor en acción, así que únete a nosotros para celebrar al ganador del Premio Boriken de la Agenda Nacional Puertorriqueña, Guillermo López. Los invitados especiales incluyen a Marcon Mountain Hawk William Rivera Nieves, quien ofrecerá una lección musical sobre los desafíos a la supremacía blanca encarnados en el hip hop.
To quote our honored guest, Guillermo Lopez, “This dinner is another opportunity to cultivate spaces of belonging.” Guillermo embodies the ideals of love in action, so join us in celebrating the National Puerto Rican Agenda’s Boriken Award winner, Guillermo Lopez. Special guests include Marcon Mountain Hawk William Rivera Nieves who will be offering a musical lesson in the challenges to white supremacy embodied in hip hop.
Register here

Friday, February 16

Yoga for Every BODY
10-11 am | LU Art Galleries
Discover the perfect blend of tranquility and artistry as we come together to embrace wellness, mindfulness, and the connection between body and nature. Whether you're a seasoned yogi or completely new to the practice, "Yoga for Every Body" is designed to create a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere where everyone can find their own path to balance and serenity. Bring your yoga mat and get restored with the Lehigh University Art Galleries.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – Register here

Lunch w/Marcon Fellows, BSU & OMA
12-1:30 pm | M-Room & Annex, Christmas Saucon
Ms. Samaria Rice is the honored guest for the 2024 Radical Love Conference because she embodies radical love. Leading with radical love is something that Ms. Rice embodies as a mother, advocate, and CEO of the Tamir Rice Foundation. Her fierce leadership, courage, and wisdom reach across lines that we believe divide us to unite us in the struggle for freedom. None of us are free until all of us are free. Stop by the M-Room and meet a true American hero, a woman who fights to stop the cultural “death hustle” and insists on the dignity of everyone.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – Register here

Student-led Tour of the Bodies of Knowledge Exhibition
3-4 pm | Dubois Gallery, Maginnes Hall
“Bodies of Knowledge” is a multi-site art exhibition that explores the many roles that the human body takes in shaping and creating knowledge. Join student educators Cassidy Rubio, Y Lam, and Charlie Paynter for a guided tour that offers insights and connections to the conference themes. How do we take care of our bodies, and how do our bodies take care of us?
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – REGISTRATION REQUIRED - Register here

Public Talk with Samaria Rice
4-5:30 pm | HST Community Room
Ms. Samaria Rice is a dedicated mother, advocate, leader, community builder, public speaker, and CEO of the Tamir Rice Foundation. The Tamir Rice Safety Handbook, the Cleveland Oversight Board, and many, many more critical transformations to public safety policies and practices have been achieved through the tireless efforts of Ms. Rice. Come and listen to a leader who embodies radical love and learn how to stop the “hustling of Black death” and create safer communities through love as an organizing principle.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – Register here

Marcon Fellow Dinner
6-8 pm | HST Community Room
This dinner honoring the 2023 Marcon Mountain Hawks is an opportunity to celebrate the fellows, discuss the projects and progress of the Marcon Institute, and welcome our honored guests.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – REGISTRATION REQUIRED* - Register here
*Priority seating will be reserved for the fellows, Marcons, and honored guests.

Saturday, February 17

POSTPONED - Art in My Heart: Artist’s Workshop
Join artist and LUAG student educator Y Lam, and Award-winning student leader, artist, and future education policymaker Afiwa Afandalo in an art workshop inspired by their art and designed to render Black women and girls visible with fully embodied love. Their work teaches us to illuminate Black joy through representations of Black girls and Black women in love, being loved, and living life in spite of oppression and injustice. You do not have to be an artist to have art in your heart.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – Register here

POSTPONED - Cat Cafe
May 3, 2024 | 3-5 pm | STEPS 102
Love cats?! So do we. Foxy’s Cradle is a nonprofit kitten nursery providing care and adoptions for kittens without homes. Grab a coffee, see if any cats like you enough to give you any attention, and stay for an informative talk by Dr. Kelly Wright, experimental sociolinguist, Lexicographer, and scholar-activist researching disabling institutionalized linguistic oppression to enhance equity and inclusion across diverse contexts.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – Register here

Dr. Kelly Wright
2-3:30 pm | VIRTUAL ONLY - Zoom
Dr. Kelly Wright is a sociolinguist, Lexicographer, and scholar-activist at Virginia Polytechnic University. Dr. Wright’s public-facing and peer-reviewed scholarship utilizes co-created and equity-grounded approaches to understanding the role of linguistic expressions that shape our identities, evolve ideologies, and offer opportunities for justice. Learn how perception flows through the body and how this essential embodiment creates variation in linguistic systems. Most individuals command a linguistic style that deviates from the Standard, and many individuals are aware that this deviation is typically perceived as inferiority. Dr. Wright will use this space to encourage radical love of one's own language and to encounter free speech from an embodied perspective.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – Register here

Dr. Sami Schalk
4-5:30 pm | VIRTUAL ONLY - Zoom
Dr. Sami Schalk, author of “Black Disability Politics” and “Bodyminds Reimagined,” Associate Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and pleasure activist, is the foremost researcher on disability, race, and gender in contemporary American literature and culture. Learn about love and struggle with Dr. Sami Schalk in this conversation moderated by Marcon Mountain Hawks Charlie Paynter and Aisha Touré.
*This talk will be interpreted in American Sign Language (ASL).
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – Register here

CANCELED - Where We Stand Closing Ceremony
5:30-6 pm | HST 3rd Floor
Stick around for a few minutes after Dr. Schalk's talk to connect with the community and take stock of the love embodied in the 2024 Radical Love Conference. Adam Ercolani, Dept of Theatre and Campus Engagement Manager at Zoellner Arts Center will lead the “Where We Stand” ritual, an experiential exercise designed to facilitate understanding and a sense of belonging.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – Register here

Radical Love Conference 2023

March 4 - March 8, 2023

The Marcon Institute is founded on love as envisioned by bell hooks. This March 4-8th, we are proud to be hosting our inaugural Radical Love Conference, modeled on hooks’ understanding of the transformative power of love. Each day will have a specific theme with corresponding conversations and events. These conversations are opportunities to act with love and build a community in which we all feel we belong, wherein our contributions and differences are valued. We hope everyone will leave with a stronger belief in love and a credible commitment to antiracist actions based on care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect, and trust. More details including registration links can be found below.