WHAT:
Holding the Moment: A New Speakers Series
Featuring:
- Luther Adams – Free Man of Color presenting, “A Space for Black History”
WHERE:
Rainier Arts Center
3515 South Alaska St
Seattle, WA 98118
WHEN:
Saturday, July 12, 2025
at 7:30pm
TICKETS:
In-Person
FREE ($15 suggested donation)
Limited Seats—RSVP in advance to guarantee seat
On-Site Box Office: Opens one hour before curtain
Live-Streaming
FREE ($15 suggested donation)
Info & Tickets: mirrorstage.org/events/holding-the-moment-Jul-12-2025
ABOUT LUTHER ADAMS – FREE MAN OF COLOR
Luther Adams – Free Man of Color (he/him) is an associate professor of ethnic, gender, and labor studies at the University of Washington, Tacoma. As a student and teacher of Black history and culture, his work brings together the interdisciplinary study of urban, southern, labor, and religious history to understand Black culture and life. He is following up his first book, Way Up North in Louisville: African American Migration in the Urban South, 1930-1970, with a history of African Americans’ long struggle with and against police brutality. Adams lives in Tacoma.
Across the country, efforts to suppress Black history in libraries and classrooms have taken root. Anger against “critical race theory” and “wokeness” has led to new laws prohibiting what can and cannot be taught to students of all ages, and what books can remain in libraries. Why are there efforts to limit this knowledge? Are some ideas just too dangerous? If so, how do we decide what those are as a society? Shouldn’t we have the freedom to think, to know, to aspire?
To counter some of these efforts, professor Luther Adams – Free Man of Color, uses Black thought, images, and poetry, as well as local history, to create an open space to ask questions about Black history and why it matters to all of us.
ABOUT HOLDING THE MOMENT
Holding the Moment is a new speakers series featuring artists, educators, journalists, and activists from Humanities Washington’s Speakers Bureau whose interactive presentations explore identity, memory, politics, and art—connecting personal truth to collective liberation. From confronting anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric to exposing cultural appropriation and reclaiming erased histories, each presentation invites us to resist oppression and build belonging. Free and open to all ages, each 90-minute event includes time for Q&A.
About Humanities Washington
Humanities Washington is a nonprofit organization dedicated to opening minds and bridging divides by creating spaces to explore different perspectives. For more about Humanities Washington, visit www.humanities.org.
About the Speakers Bureau Program
In communities throughout Washington State, Speakers Bureau presenters give free public presentations on history, politics, music, philosophy, spiritual traditions, and everything in between.
Their roster of over 30 Speakers Bureau presenters is made up of professors, artists, activists, historians, performers, journalists, and others—all chosen not only for their expertise, but also for their ability to inspire discussion with people of all ages and backgrounds. Hundreds of Speakers Bureau events take place each year. Find a Speakers Bureau event near you.
To reach as many Washingtonians as possible, Humanities Washington partners with a wide range of organizations, including libraries, schools, museums, historical societies, community centers, and civic organizations. Qualifying nonprofit organizations are encouraged to host a speaker.
The Speakers Bureau program is made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the State of Washington via the Office of the Secretary of State, the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service at Washington State University, and generous contributions from other businesses, foundations, and individuals.
About Mirror Stage
Originally founded in 1991, Mirror Stage is a nonprofit multidisciplinary arts company that believes the power of story and art holds the key to bringing people together in imagining and embodying a better future. We challenge assumptions, bias and prejudice, increasing equity and inclusion while encouraging more thoughtful reflection on today’s issues. Mirror Stage nurtures unique artistic voices, centering those who have been most oppressed by society’s inequitable systems and structures. Mirror Stage gets people talking, as well as thinking. Learn more about the history of Mirror Stage.
Mirror Stage gratefully acknowledges the support of 4Culture, ArtsWA, the City of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, the EPS Fund, Humanities Washington, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Paul G. Allen Foundation, and the Posner-Wallace Foundation.
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