In Real Time - Community Circle: Where do we go from here? Why education matters.

In these charged and divisive times, many of us desire a sense of unity but are uncertain about the path forward.  How do we as a nation and in Northwest Arkansas achieve that? Where do we go from here?

We invite you to join our community circle (via Zoom) to hear from local leaders reflecting on this question “Where do we go from here?” after the recent Capitol Hill insurrection led by hate groups. The group discusses how they’ve seen our region impacted and why education matters in informing and empowering people while also preventing dangerous ideologies in Northwest Arkansas.   How can art in the community play a role in education and truth telling? How can access to education lead to dismantling racism, white supremacy, and power inequities locally and at the state level?

In this community circle, you’ll hear from local leaders: artist and educator Zora J Murff, Northwest Arkansas NAACP President/Archer Learning Center principal Dr. Coby Davis, and Diana Dominguez, Community Liaison for the Fayetteville Public Library, and facilitator Anthony DiNicola, Inclusion Liaison, University of Arkansas’s Chancellor Office on Diversity and Inclusion matters.

At the beginning of the program, participants will be asked to follow shared agreements to create an inclusive, safe and brave space. The program will have an interactive element with facilitators guiding an opening and closing exercise, and there will also be an opportunity to send questions through the chat feature.

Dr. Coby Davis serves as the President of the Northwest Arkansas NAACP chapter.  He has spent eight years in the Springdale School District, including three as a math teacher at Sonora Middle School before becoming an instructional facilitator for a year, then assistant principal and now principal at the Archer Learning Center. Davis is a graduate of Freed-Hardeman University. He earned his master’s degree from Tennessee State and his doctorate from Trevecca Nazarene. He taught for five years in the Williamson County (Tennessee) school system before teaching for nine years in the education department at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Diana Dominguez (She/Her/Ella) is the Multicultural Community Liaison under the department of Community Engagement at the Fayetteville Public Library. Outside of the library, her community involvement extends to immigrant advocacy and workers’ rights. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Secondary English Education at Missouri State University.

Zora J Murff is an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Arkansas. He received his MFA from the University of Nebraska—Lincoln and holds a BS in Psychology from Iowa State University. Merging his educational experiences, Murff uses his practice to highlight intersections between various social systems and art. He has published books with Aint-Bad Editions (PULLED FROM PUBLISHER) and Kris Graves Projects. His most recent monograph, At No Point In Between (Dais Books), was selected as the winner of the Independently Published category of the Lucie Foundation Photo Book Awards. Murff is also a Co-Curator of Strange Fire Collective, a group of interdisciplinary artists, writers, and curators working to construct and promote an archive of artwork created by diverse makers.

Anthony DiNicola is an experienced diversity and inclusion educator who currently serves at the University of Arkansas inclusion liaison for the Chancellor’s Office on matters of diversity and inclusion. DiNicola has served as the senior educator and marketing coordinator at Catharsis Productions since 2012, where he led comprehensive trainings in corporate, military and university settings, including trainings on protected class bias, cultivating inclusive workplaces and other diversity and inclusion topics. Additionally, he delivered sexual assault prevention programming to students at universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Texas A&M and Tulane University. DiNicola earned a bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College in Maine.