The Atlantic to Convene Day of Conversation with “Race + Justice” Summit, September 15 in Downtown Los Angeles
Featuring director Ezra Edelman, HBO Films president Len Amato; California state assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez ; event to premiere VR film about effect of mass incarceration on families
Washington, D.C. (August 24, 2016)—The Atlantic will be in Los Angeles to explore the changing narrative of race and identity in America: gathering civic leaders, activists, artists, policy-makers, and storytellers with an audience of 300 for a day of candid conversation. “Race + Justice: An Atlantic Summit” will take place on September 15 from 10am-5pm at Hudson Loft in downtown L.A. The inaugural “Race + Justice” summit was held last fall in Washington, D.C.
“Race + Justice: An Atlantic Summit” is open to press. Please be in touch with The Atlantic’s Sydney Simon (ssimon@theatlantic.com) to request credentials, arrange interviews, or to explore broadcast opportunities.
The event will unfold in multiple chapters across the day, as The Atlantic’s journalists, speakers, and the audience tackle pressing issues, and unearth how perceptions of race are produced and play out in Los Angeles. Conversations will cover California’s proposals for undocumented immigrants; racial disparities in political engagement; housing, homelessness, development and displacement; the impacts of Proposition 47, two years later; and the role that Hollywood plays in shaping the story of race in America. The program will open with an interview with Ezra Edelman, director of O.J.: Made in America.
“We will grapple with some really serious and complicated issues,” says Margaret Low, president of AtlanticLIVE. “Given everything that is unfolding across this country, this is the right moment to convene a rich and unflinching day of conversation about race. And Los Angeles is the perfect place to have that conversation."
Audiences will also don virtual reality headsets to screen the premiere of “Left Behind,” a short film that explores the effects of mass incarceration on families, particularly when mothers are jailed. The film’s director Wendy Calhoun will be on hand to discuss the project.
The event builds upon The Atlantic’s nearly 160 year history of tone-setting coverage and commentary on race, justice, and American society. Recent examples include the multimedia special report “The Age of Mass Incarceration,” “The Case for Reparations,” which sparked a national dialogue on the moral case for reparations; and “Race and the American Idea: 155 Years of Writing from The Atlantic,” a 500 page ebook compiling some of the magazine’s most iconic writings on race and society of the past century and a half.
Further details on the program agenda, topics, and speakers will be shared in the coming weeks.
Open Society Foundations are a Founding Level Underwriter of “Race and Justice: An Atlantic Summit.” The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a Contributing Level Underwriter. Support is provided by Safety+Justice Challenge, supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.