Young Nerds of Color
Panel Discussion with the Producers and Cast Members
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9
4:30PM - 6:00PM
Hybrid Event
In-Person: McCarthy Center Forum
Virtual: Zoom; Register
The Christa McAuliffe Center and Framingham State University’s Arts & Ideas would like to invite you to a panel discussion with producers and cast members of Young Nerds of Color. This play is based on interviews with scientists from diverse backgrounds: people of color, women, ethnic minorities, and people from low-income families. The panel discussion is a hybrid event.
Panelists:
Melinda Lopez (Playwright)
Debra Wise (Producer)
Des Bennett (Dramaturg)
Kortney Lopez (Actor)
Ebony Hearn (Executive Director, Office of Engineering Outreach Programs at MIT)
Having already seen the play is not necessary to enjoy the panel discussion. However, you don't want to miss the chance to watch this moving and impressive play, Young Nerds of Color, and experience its powerful message. The Christa McAuliffe Center will screen the play in the FSU Planetarium (back of O’Connor Hall).
Screenings of the Play in the FSU Planetarium:
Thursday, November 3, at 2:30 PM
Monday, November 7, at 10:30 AM
Walk-ins are welcome! Professors can also contact Dr. Irene Porro, iporro@framingham.edu, to get a link to the video to show in their classrooms.
Panel Discussion
Young Nerds of Color is a play based on interviews with scientists from diverse backgrounds: people of color, women, ethnic minorities, and people from low income families.
This panel will raise important questions at the intersection of science and social value with which we are all asked to engage: What challenges should science tackle now, and how? Why is diversity in professional science important? Who are the people who open doors or get in the way when we try to diversify science?
For more information, please contact: Dr. Irene Porro at iporro@framingham.edu.
About Young Nerds of Color
Young Nerds of Color premiered last spring at Central Square Theater in Cambridge, MA. The play is an interdisciplinary project, based on interviews with scientists and students of science who come from backgrounds underrepresented in professional science: people of color, women, ethnic minorities, and people from low income families. The play provides a case study in how interviews can be used to bridge the humanities and science. The goal of this project is to provide audiences with a new approach to address issues of systemic racism, especially in fields like the sciences and theater, where dominant groups have historically codified who can practice the discipline and how.
The play brings to the stage deeply-felt stories of people passionate about science for whom the journey has been complex. It explores themes such as loneliness, code switching, the lie of science objectivity, challenges to feeling authentic, pressure to represent, and imposter syndrome. Through these stories, reasons emerge for why diversity is needed to shape the future of scientific innovation: to encourage a ‘diversity mindset’ and a broad definition of diversity; to show commonalities, to disrupt dominant narratives, and to demonstrate the need to be messy, inquisitive, and fearless.
Watch a brief preview of the play below, or by clicking here.