How do we disempower HIV/AIDS? This lecture attempts to displace the negative stereotypes and mindsets attached to HIV/AIDS, and replace them with positive archetypes and empowered mindfulness. The main aim is to educate the spirit, to burst through the statistical ritual, and learn, at the most basic level, what HIV/AIDS means and how it lacks any real power to destroy love and happiness. The disempowerment of HIV/AIDS is most important for youth, who are developing (almost daily!) ways to look at themselves and the world. This lecture blends facts, figures, narratives, poetry, and hip-hop story-telling.

Do you prefer pink or blue, car or bike-- black man or white woman? When choosing A over B- how do preconceived socio-cultural notions affect our daily choices and what role does prejudice play in our preferences? Preference & Prejudice is a fun, insightful examination of preference and its role in the ways we move toward and away from one another. Using his own personal narrative, Mohammed Bilal blends scholarship, rap and spoken word into a playful exploration of preference and desire, elucidating everyday methods for open interactions.

This presentation starts with a viewing of Toward Excellence, a short film that explores diversity and equity at American independent schools. It looks closely at the problematic 80’s, when many private schools intentionally/experimentally increased admittance of African-American students to meet self-imposed quotas. Through interviews with some of today’s top administrators—Al Adams (Lick-Wilmerding High School), Lucinda Lee Katz (Marin Country Day School) and others—the film offers valuable insights for building vibrant and inclusive school communities. Director Mohammed Bilal, who attended, taught and lead independent schools, facilitates the interactive Q & A, vicariously using the film and personal narratives as tools to unravel power and privilege, race, gender and space.