Come together to view Rodney McMillian’s timely exhibition Against a Civic Death, then take part in a conversation about art, politics, and race.
You need not be an expert; just come curious to learn from each other and share your own perspective. Arrive at 6:30P and check out the art on your own (Rodney McMillian’s 18-minute-long work of video art, Untitled (neighbors), begins at approximately 6:40P) and then gather with the group for the informal discussion at 7P.
June’s discussion will be led by Chris Tomlinson, journalist, filmmaker, and author of Tomlinson Hill: The Remarkable Story of Two Families Who Share the Tomlinson Name—One White, One Black.
About Chris Tomlinson
Chris Tomlinson is a New York Times bestselling-author, filmmaker, and journalist living in Austin, Texas. He writes a column for the Houston Chronicle and previously was the supervisory correspondent for The Associated Press in Austin, responsible for political and state government reporting from 2011-2014.
Tomlinson is the author of Tomlinson Hill: The Remarkable Story of Two Families Who Share the Tomlinson Name—One White, One Black, which chronicles the history of two Tomlinson families, one black and one white, who trace their history to a Central Texas slave plantation, as well as the producer of Tomlinson Hill: Are We Equal Yet, an award-winning documentary film that examines how race still shapes this community. Tomlinson is a Fellow in Journalism at the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law and has lectured at the LBJ School for Public Affairs and the University of Texas at Austin Department of Journalism. Tomlinson was a Correspondent-at-Large for The Associated Press conducting special investigations from 2007-2009. He was the East Africa bureau chief from 2004-2007 and started with the AP in 1995 as the Central Africa correspondent based in Kigali, Rwanda, where he covered the aftermath of the 1994 genocide, the civil war in Burundi, and a rebellion in Congo.
Drawing on his experience as a U.S. soldier, the AP assigned Tomlinson to cover the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, where he reported from Tora Bora. He covered the military build-up in the Persian Gulf and was chosen as the AP’s lead embedded reporter for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Tomlinson has also covered stories as diverse as an Ebola outbreak, the tsunami, civil war in Somalia and scuba diving.
The New York Association of Black Journalists gave Tomlinson its top award for international reporting in 2008 for a series called “Rethinking Africa.” Tomlinson received awards from the Military Reporter’s and Editor’s Association and the Associated Press Managing Editors for his reporting from Iraq. Tomlinson graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1992 with Special Honors in Humanities. He served in the U.S. Army from 1983-90 as a military intelligence analyst.