Center for Health Equity hosting informative session about two historical Black women

Center+for+Health+Equity+hosting+informative+session+about+two+historical+Black+women

Laurel Swanz, Staff Reporter

UK’s Center for Health Equity Transformation will host “Elevating the Stories of Black Women: Dr. Virginia Alexander and Shirley Chisholm” in the Farish Theater of the Lexington Central Library on Monday, March 27, from 5-6:30 p.m.

This event is “a conversation with Dr. Vanessa Northington Gamble and Dr. Anastasia Curwood about the importance of telling Black women’s stories,” according to Marc Whitt, director of media and strategic relations at UK’s Office of Public Relations and Strategic Communications.

Gamble is a professor of medical humanities at George Washington University and historian according to George Washington University’s website. Curwod is a history professor and director of the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies at UK, according to her personal website

Both women have published multiple biographical works. 

Together, they will discuss the lives of two trailblazers, Virginia Alexander and Shirley Chisholm. 

Gamble is writing a biography about Alexander, a pioneering Black doctor. Curwood wrote “Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics” about Chisholm, who was the first Black woman in Congress and the first woman and Black major-party presidential candidate.

The event is co-sponsored by Anthem BlueCross and BlueShield Medicaid, the Gaines Center for the Humanities and the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies.

It is the next installment of the Center for Health Equity Transformation’s Elevating Equity Speaker Series.

Refreshments will begin at 5 p.m. and discussion will begin at 5:30 p.m. 

The discussion will be live-streamed via Zoom. Those who wish to attend via Zoom are required to register here. Registration is requested but not required for in-person attendees as well.