Events begin with an 11 a.m. presentation on “Black Louisville Since 1980: How Crises Become Conditions” by Blaine Hudson, dean of UofL’s College of Arts and Sciences and the Saturday Academy director. Hudson headed a team of UofL researchers who analyzed the conditions for a Louisville Urban League report in 2002 and subsequent action plan in 2003.
The report, “The State of African American Youth in Metropolitan Louisville,” concluded that poverty, racial isolation, poor education, racial identity confusion, class divisions and violence had become problems and would increase if no corrective actions were taken, Hudson said.
The Saturday Academy will review and update that report in addition to offering the forum on short-term effects of and long-term solutions to violence and poverty, Hudson said. The program will be in the DuValle Education Center Cafeteria, 3610 Bohne Ave.
The hourlong open forum, moderated by Pan-African studies professor Ricky Jones, will begin at noon.
The Saturday Academy offers free weekly programs on black history, issues and culture. Those sessions for adults and high school students will resume in October and run weekly during the school year at DuValle Education Center in the Park DuValle community, north of Algonquin Parkway at 35th Street. Parking is in the lot behind the center, and guests should enter through the center’s back middle door.
The College of Arts and Sciences sponsors the Saturday Academy in collaboration with UofL’s Signature Partnership Initiative, Jefferson County Public Schools, Louisville Urban League, Kentucky Center for African American Heritage and Metro Councilwoman Cheri Bryant Hamilton.