Events

Join us to explore how storytelling and mechanics in games can foster cultural empathy and learning. Experience Never Alone and Venba while uncovering their lessons on tradition and identity.

Location: Lifelong Learning Center Room 220 (GRID LAB)

You can preview it here: https://f.io/qpKbnun7

Join us for a film screening of 'Milk (2008)' following the life of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in the United States. The movie follows Milk's life from his 40th birthday to his assassination in 1978. It shows how he left New York and moved to San Francisco's Castro District with his lover, Scott Smith. There, he opened a camera shop that became a gathering place for the local gay community. Milk ran for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors three times before winning in 1977. On the board, he met Dan White, who came to resent Milk after he opposed White's projects. In 1978, White shot and killed Milk and Mayor George Moscone.

Content Rating: Motion Picture Rating (MPA) Rated R for language, some sexual content and brief violence. For detailed trigger warnings please visit: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1013753/parentalguide/ 

All films will be held at the LLC Cinema followed by a short discussion with snacks.

To Register: Click on the button below to login into docshr.rutgers.edu, under session details click the 'enroll' button. 

Join us for the Language Matters workshop! With applications for adult learners in mind, this workshop deconstructs the ideas and impact that negatively charged words used in society and how their uses create a damaging environment for all of society. The presentation uses audience dialogue as well as video examples to demonstrate how microaggressions hinder our ability to have a diverse and inclusive society/community. Participation in this session counts toward DoCS digital badges in DEIA and Adult & Continuing Education.

• Instructor: Darnell Thompson, Assistant Director of Education at the Center for Social Justice Education & LGBT Communities (SJE).
• Location: LLC Room 150 (Hybrid). This session will be in a hybrid format, the zoom link will be sent to event participants. 
• Schedule: Lunch (pizza) will be served at 12:00 PM (noon), and the workshop will begin at 12:30 PM. 

To Register: Click on the button below to login into docshr.rutgers.edu, under session details click the 'enroll' button

We invite you to a Cultural and Awareness Tour scheduled for Thursday, May 15 at  3:45 PM at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Temple
112 N Main Street, Robbinsville, NJ 08561.  Guests are welcome to attend. If you plan to bring a guest, please email deia@docs.rutgers.edu with their name.

Join us for an experience of beauty, peace, and discovery at BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham—a stunning landmark of Hindu art, architecture, and culture. Marvel at the intricate marble carvings, take part in Hindu rituals, and explore the world’s oldest living faith—Hinduism. To help plan your visit, check out usa.akshardham.org/explore for more details.

The BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham, the largest Hindu temple in the U.S., was built between 2011 and 2023 with the dedication of 12,500 volunteers contributing millions of hours. Spanning 183 acres and measuring 255 ft × 345 ft × 191 ft, the temple was designed according to ancient Hindu scriptures and features 10,000 statues, intricate carvings of Indian musical instruments, and traditional dance forms. Its architecture includes one main shrine, 12 sub-shrines, nine shikhars (spires), nine pyramidal shikhars, and the largest elliptical stone dome ever constructed. Nearly 2 million cubic feet of stone was sourced worldwide, including limestone from Bulgaria and Turkey, marble from Greece, Turkey, and Italy, and granite from India and China. The Brahma Kund, a traditional stepwell, contains water from over 300 bodies worldwide, including India’s holy rivers and all 50 U.S. states. Emphasizing sustainability, BAPS incorporated a solar panel farm fly ash concrete mix and has planted over 2 million trees worldwide in recent decades.

We look forward to an enriching experience together!

Join us for a film screening of 'Rocketman (2019)' an epic musical fantasy about the incredible human story of Elton John's breakthrough years. The film follows the fantastical journey of transformation from shy piano prodigy Reginald Dwight into international superstar Elton John.

Content Rating: Motion Picture Rating (MPA) Rated R for language throughout, some drug use and sexual content. For detailed trigger warnings please visit: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2066051/parentalguide/ 

Join us for an exciting all-day tour in Philadelphia, PA, where we'll take two (two-hour) guided tours to explore the city's rich history and culture.

Our day begins with the Badass Women's Tour (https://www.beyondthebelltours.com/tours/badass-womens-history-tour) a fascinating 2-hour experience highlighting the extraordinary women who shaped Philadelphia's history. The tour covers: Hannah Callowhill Penn, our forgotten founder, Ona Judge and her daring escape from George Washington, Barbara Gittings, lesbian pioneer Women in Medicine, Women in Art: The Red Rose Girls, LGBTQ leaders in the Gayborhood

After the tour, we'll head to Reading Terminal Market (https://readingterminalmarket.org/) for lunch (on your own). One of America's largest and oldest public markets, it has been housed in a National Historic Landmark building since 1893 and offers an incredible variety of locally grown produce, meats, poultry, seafood, cheeses, baked goods, and confections.

In the afternoon, we'll embark on The Black Journey Tour (https://www.blackjourneyphiladelphia.com/), a fact-filled 2-hour adventure - The 7th Ward Black History Tour.  Discover the pivotal role of Black Americans in the nation's founding and learn about the key monuments and sights that highlight Philadelphia's Black history.

The bus will depart from the Lifelong Learning Center SHARPLY at 8:30 AM and return around 5:00 PM. Don't miss this opportunity to explore Philadelphia through two unique, history-rich tours!

join us for a film screening of '12 Years a Slave (2013)' a film based on the true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man from New York who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the pre-Civil War South, where he endures brutal treatment under various slave owners while desperately trying to maintain his identity and fight for his freedom, ultimately finding a glimmer of hope through a chance encounter with a Canadian abolitionist.

Content Rating: Motion Picture Rating (MPA) Rated R for violence/cruelty, some nudity and brief sexuality. For detailed trigger warnings please visit: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2024544/parentalguide/ 

All films will be held at the LLC Cinema followed by a short discussion with snacks.

To Register: Click on the button below to login into docshr.rutgers.edu, under session details click the 'enroll' button

Join us for a film screening of 'Moana 2 (2024)' the an animated Disney musical film about Moana's journey to find the lost island of Motufetu and break its curse.
Moana receives a call from her ancestors to journey to the far seas of Oceania to break a curse and reconnect the people of Oceania. She reunites with Maui and recruits a crew of unlikely seafarers to help her on her quest.

Families welcome.

Content Rating: Motion Picture Rating (MPA) Rated PG for action/peril. For detailed trigger warnings please visit: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13622970/parentalguide/ 

All films will be held at the LLC Cinema followed by a short discussion with snacks.

To Register: Click on the button below to login into docshr.rutgers.edu, under session details click the 'enroll' button. 

Join us for a film screening of 'Hidden Figures (2016)' a biographical drama based on a book by Margot Lee Shetterly. Set in the 1950s and 1960s, it follows the true story of three African-American women who worked for NASA as 'human computers' at the Langley Research Center.

Content Rating: Motion Picture Rating (MPA) Rated PG for thematic elements and some language. For detailed trigger warnings please visit: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4846340/parentalguide/

All films will be held at the LLC Cinema followed by a short discussion with snacks.

To Register: Click on the button below to login into docshr.rutgers.edu, under session details click the 'enroll' button. 

Join us for the Building Inclusive Communities: Advocacy In Action workshop! In this session participants will explore social identities while examining how power and values impact professional spaces. We will then consider how critical leadership within professional spaces needs to a focus within our DEI initiatives and goals.

• Instructor: Darnell Thompson, Assistant Director of Education at the Center for Social Justice Education & LGBT Communities (SJE).
• Location: LLC Room 150 (Hybrid). This session will be in a hybrid format, the zoom link will be sent to event participants.
• Schedule: Lunch (pizza) will be served at 12:00 PM (noon), and the workshop will begin at 12:30 PM.

To Register: Click on the button below to login into docshr.rutgers.edu, under session details click the 'enroll' button. 

Join us for a film screening of 'Origin (2023)' a biographical drama film about Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) as she writes her book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Wilkerson travels the world to research caste systems in Germany, India, and the United States, while also experiencing personal loss. The film explores themes of racism, and links between slavery in America, the Holocaust, the Nazis, and India's caste system.

Content Rating: Motion Picture Rating (MPA) Rated PG-13 for thematic material involving racism, violence, some disturbing images, language and smoking. For detailed trigger warnings please visit: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13321244/parentalguide/

All films will be held at the LLC Cinema followed by a short discussion with snacks.

To Register: Click on the button below to login into docshr.rutgers.edu, under session details click the 'enroll' button. 

Join us for a film screening of 'The Meaning of the Seed (2020)' a documentary film that focuses on the cultural significance of seeds within the Native American community, particularly the Ramapough Lenape tribe in New Jersey, highlighting their efforts to restore their traditional farming practices and achieve food sovereignty through seed preservation, while also addressing issues of environmental justice and resilience against historical injustices faced by indigenous populations; the film is often centered around the Munsee Three Sisters Medicinal Farm where these practices are actively being implemented.

Join us for a film screening of '13th Documentary (2016)' a film that explores the prison system in the United States and how it's connected to the country's history of racial inequality. The film examines the intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States. It argues that the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in 1865, has been used to continue involuntary servitude in the form of penal labor.