- Courage Museum

Event Details

Please join Futures Without Violence for the second Storyteller Summit, presented by the Courage Museum, in collaboration with Actual Films. The program will feature a series of participatory discussions with two inspiring survivor/activists, Taylor Dumpson and Vilma Kari, both of whom have chosen to share their experiences with gender and race-based discrimination and violence, for the inaugural Empathy Mirror installation at the upcoming Courage Museum in San Francisco. Throughout the summit, we will take participants behind the scenes as storytellers engage in intimate discussions with two of the installation’s award-winning documentary filmmakers, Yoruba Richen and Bing Liu, facilitated by journalist Sasha Khokha. Audience engagement and networking opportunities will be embedded throughout the program to allow for deeper engagement with other attendees, as well as the storytellers and directors. Space is very limited. Please be sure to RSVP as soon as possible.

Location:

The Open Square at Futures Without Violence 100 Montgomery Street, The Presidio San Francisco, CA 94129

Dates:

Thursday, May 30, 2024

Storyteller Summit Schedule

10:00AM - Optional Tour of the design plans for the Courage Museum

10:30AM - Welcome/Introductions

11:00AM - Storyteller Discussion #1: Vilma and Elizabeth Kari, Director, Bing Liu in conversation with Sasha Khokha

12:00PM - Storyteller Discussion #2: Taylor Dumpson with Director, Yoruba Richen in conversation with Sasha Khokha

12:45PM - Remarks by Senator Scott Wiener

1:00PM - Lunch & Networking

1:30PM - Reflections & Call to Action

Special Thanks to:
Deborah Santana as our Presenting Sponsor, for making this day a reality, and for her lead investment in the Courage Museum.
Patricia Lee Hoffmann, for her long-standing support of FUTURES and the development of the Courage Museum.

To inquire about event sponsorship opportunities, please contact Mindy Iwanaka at miwanaka@futureswithoutviolence.org.

EMPATHY MIRROR INSTALLATION OVERVIEW

The Empathy Mirrors installation is the emotional pinnacle of the visitor journey in the Courage Museum. Within this gallery, visitors will engage with a range of storytellers as they share their experiences of witnessing or surviving hate, discrimination and/or violence, and the courage they each demonstrated in the face of adversity. Through empathetic listening and developmentally appropriate, reflective Q & A interactions between storytellers and participants, visitors will be prompted to consider their own capacity for moral courage and action.

Featured Empathy Mirror Directors

Bing Liu

Bing is a China-born, Midwest-raised filmmaker best known for directing MINDING THE GAP, which was nominated for Best Feature Documentary at the 91st Academy Awards and won a Peabody. He was also a segment director on AMERICA TO ME, which premiered on Starz and was hailed as one of the best TV shows of the year. He co-directed ALL THESE SONS with Josh Altman, which won Best Cinematography at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival and the Maysles Award at the Denver International Film Festival.

Yoruba Richen

Yoruba Richen is a Peabody-award winning documentary filmmaker whose film, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks won a Gracie Award and was honored by the Television Academy. Her most recent film, The Cost of Inheritance, about the quest for reparations in the U.S premiered on PBS in January. Other recent work include the Emmy nominated films, American Reckoning, How It Feels to Be Free, The Sit In: Harry Belafonte Hosts the Tonight Show and Green Book Guide to Freedom. Yoruba’s film, The Killing of Breonna Taylor won an NAACP Image Award. Yoruba was a Guggenheim and Fulbright fellow and she won the Creative Promise Award at Tribeca All Access. She is a featured TED Speaker and was a Sundance Producer’s Fellow. Yoruba was recently awarded the Trailblazer award by Black Public Media and is the founding director of the Documentary Program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

Featured Empathy Mirror Storytellers

Taylor Dumpson

Taylor Dumpson became the first Black woman to serve as president of the Student Government at American University. In the wake of her ground-breaking election, she was the target of a racially-motivated hate crime, followed by cyber-harassment by members of white supremacist groups. Taylor fought back and won a landmark settlement against the Neo-Nazis who cyber-harassed her. She is currently a Special Assistant Attorney General in the Family/District Court Unit Rhode Island’s Attorney General Office.

Vilma and Elizabeth Kari

Vilma Kari is a 65-year-old Filipino immigrant who settled in the suburbs of Chicago and raised her daughter Elizabeth there. After Elizabeth graduated from college, Vilma moved to New York City to be closer to her. In March 2020, toward the beginning of the pandemic, Vilma was walking near Times Square when a man physically attacked her and shouted racist slurs as she fell to the ground trying to protect herself. Vilma remembers her perpetrator yelling, “You don't belong here, you Asian." Vilma’s story made national headlines, thrusting her into a spotlight that she did not want to be in, but her daughter encouraged her to share her story so that others could learn from it. Since the attack, Vilma and her daughter Elizabeth founded AAP(I Belong), a safe place to share stories and experiences with Asian hate while building community.

MODERATOR

Sasha Khokha

Host, The California Report Magazine

Sasha Khokha is the host of The California Report's weekly magazine program, which takes listeners on sound-rich excursions to meet the people that make the Golden State unique -- through audio documentaries and long-form stories. As The California Report's Central Valley Bureau Chief based in Fresno for nearly a dozen years, Sasha brought the lives and concerns of rural Californians to listeners around the state. Her reporting helped expose the hidden price immigrant women janitors and farmworkers may pay to keep their jobs: sexual assault at work. It inspired two new California laws to protect them from sexual harassment. She was a key member of the reporting team for the Frontline film Rape on the Night Shift, which was nominated for two national Emmys. Sasha has also won a national Edward R. Murrow and a national PRNDI award for investigative reporting, as well as multiple prizes from the Society for Professional Journalists. Sasha is a proud alum of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and Brown University and a member of the South Asian Journalists Association.

SPECIAL GUEST

Senator Scott Wiener

Senator Scott Wiener represents San Francisco and northern San Mateo County in the California State Senate. Elected in 2016, Senator Wiener focuses extensively on housing, transportation, civil rights, criminal justice reform, clean energy, and alleviating poverty. He chairs the Senate Budget Committee and is Co-Chair of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus. He is a past Chair of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus and the Senate Housing Committee. Before his election to the Senate, Senator Wiener served as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, representing the district previously represented by Harvey Milk. He also chaired the San Francisco County Transportation Authority. Before taking public office, Senator Wiener practiced law for fifteen years, including nearly a decade as a Deputy City Attorney in the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office. He also served in a number of community leadership roles, including co-chair of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center and on the national Board of Directors of the Human Rights Campaign. Senator Wiener has lived in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood since 1997. He received degrees from Duke University and Harvard Law School and was a Fulbright Scholar in Santiago, Chile.