MARRA B. GAD
Tuesday, January 24 | 6:30pm
Oakwood Secondary Campus Community Room
January 4, 2023
Voices Envisioned in 2022-2023
Tuesday, January 24 | 6:30pm
As Oakwood strives toward the value of belonging, we grapple with what that means for all students and families with various intersecting identities. Too many examples of antisemitism, anti-black racism, xenophobia, sexism, and other oppression continue to plague our society while we attempt to make our community safe, inclusive, and equitable for all. Through her beautifully complex experiences as a transracially adopted, Black and Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jewish woman, Marra B. Gad joins us to share her truth and stories. We hope to gain insight into the challenges and opportunities of holding multiple identities in diverse communities. During this event, Oakwood students will offer thought-provoking questions on bias, joy, oppression, healing, intersectionality, and justice to explore how Gad arrives at love.
Marra B. Gad is an award-winning author, speaker and independent writer/producer. As president of Egad! Productions, she oversees the development and production of scripted television series and films. A grateful child of adoption, Marra speaks internationally about her own transracial adoption in 1970, and her experiences being Black and Ashkenazi Jewish through the lens of her debut memoir, THE COLOR OF LOVE: A Story of a Mixed-Race Jewish Girl, winner of the 2020 Midwest Book Award for Autobiography/Memoir.
PREVIOUS VOICES ENVISIONED
November 7, 2022—Oakwood welcomed the Tripp Allen Family and Tayshu Bommelyn for a screening and discussion of Long Line of Ladies, a documentary about their daughter’s Ihuk (flower dance) ceremony. This coming-of-age film was featured at the Sundance Film Festival and showcases the beauty and significance of traditions and transitions in the native Karuk tribe. The ideas they introduce invite us into relationship with our external community and each other within our community
Long Line of Ladies is directed by Rayka Zehtabchi and Shaandiin Tome, and made in association with The Pad Project.