The Color of Care Screening & Panel Discussion

The Color of Care
Documentary Screening with Panel Discussion: Disrupting Racial Health Disparities Through Medicine and the Arts

The Office of the Dean and the Tisch Initiative for Creative Research at NYU/Tisch are delighted to host the screening of an important film and panel discussion on health disparities and the role of healthcare workers and artists in disrupting health inequities during NYU Tisch Week of Community 2022. The panel will precede a screening of The Color of Care, a documentary that highlights US COVID health disparities in minoritized communities. This program is co-sponsored by the COVID-19 Impact Project and ITP/NYU.

The Color of Care chronicles how people of color suffer from systemically substandard healthcare. COVID-19 exposed what they have long understood and lived: they do not receive the same level of care. Produced by Ms. Winfrey’s Harpo Productions and directed by Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning director Yance Ford, the film traces the origins of racial health disparities to practices that began during slavery and continue today. Using moving personal testimony, expert interviews, and disturbing data the film reveals the impact of racism on health, serving as an urgent warning of what must be done to save lives.

The COVID-19 Impact Project is a social resilience project that examines the effects of the pandemic on black and brown communities through the lens of grief, mourning and memorialization coupled with data storytelling.  The Project was created by Interactive Communications Program (ITP)  faculty John Henry Thompson and Shindy Johnson to pair technology and the arts in creative ways to attend to the unresolved and unmitigated traumas of the pandemic in communities of color. Starting at the local level, the Project will advocate for effective, enduring institutions to repair the breach exposed by COVID-19.
 

Program: Documentary Screening with Reception, Panel Discussion and Audience Engagement

Date: Friday, October 21, 2022
Location: NYU Brooklyn Campus, 370 Jay Street (capacity 190)
Time: Reception: 5:30 - 6:00 PM; Panel Discussion: 6:00 - 7:00 PM; Film Screening: 7:00 - 8:20 PM

Note: Registration and proof of full COVID vaccination status are required to gain entry to the event. External guests will receive an email with instructions on how to submit proof of vaccination. For more information on NYU's policy on University-sponsored events & gatherings, visit their website here.

PANEL

Focus of the Panel

The discussion will bring themes that arise in the Color of Care documentary home to our NYC audience.  Dr. Cunningham and Dr. Carillo, will address changes that can be made NOW to close the racial equity gap in healthcare. Fazil Khan is steeped in NYC COVID Data and stories. Fazil and Lori Novak will amplify their research into the geographical impact of COVID-19 in NYC.  Fazil will speak on the importance of data storytelling, as well as share his research on the hidden travesty of COVID Orphanhood.  Cusi and Lori will discuss how art and artists can elevate social justice issues and activate the public.

Moderator

Deborah Willis (Ph.D)
University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Dr. Willis is also the director of NYU’s Center for Black Visual Culture. Dr. Willis’ research examines photography’s multifaceted histories, visual culture, contemporary women photographers and beauty.  She is the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Speakers

Hetty Cunningham (MD)
Director of Equity and Justice in Curricular Affairs, Co-Director of the Anti-Racism Coalition, Director of the Narrative Medicine Portfolio curriculum at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Cunningham is Associate Professor and Vice Chair for Education and the Learning Environment in Pediatrics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Dr. Cunningham partners with faculty, staff, and students across the learning spectrum to promote equity, justice, and anti-racism.

J. Emilio Carrillo (MD, MPH)
Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Cornell University. He graduated from Columbia College, received his M.D. and M.P.H. from Harvard, and served for ten years in the faculties of Harvard Medical and Public Health schools. Dr Carrillo trained in Internal Medicine at the Cambridge and Massachusetts General Hospitals and continues to practice and teach Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Cusi Cram
Playwright, screenwriter, director, and performer. Cusi Cram’s plays have been produced by LAByrinth Theater Company, Primary Stages, The Denver Center, Williamstown, The Atlantic Theater Company, Cornerstone, New Georges, and on stages all over the country. She’s written on numerous television programs for both kids and adults and has been nominated for three Emmy Awards for her work on the animated program, Arthur. Cusi is the Associate Chair of the Dramatic Writing program at Tisch

Lorie Novak
Artist and Professor of Photography and Imaging at Tisch. Her photo-based works, installations, and web projects use various technologies of representation to explore issues of memory and transmission, identity and loss, presence and absence, shifting cultural meanings of photographs, and the relationship between the intimate and the public.

Fazil Khan
A New York-based data journalist, Fazil was a 2021 reporting fellow at the Columbia Journalism Investigations’ Global Migration Project where he collaborated with THE CITY's Missing Them initiative to report on communities most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. He is a 2021 graduate of the M.S. Data Journalism program at Columbia Journalism School and currently covers education for The Hechinger Report.

COVID-19 IMPACT PROJECT TEAM

Co-Creators

John Henry Thompson
John Henry Thompson studied art at the New York Student Art League and the Boston Museum School and earned a degree in Computer Science and Visual Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. John Henry was the principal engineer for Adobe/Macromedia Director software, the inventor and developer of Lingo and XObjects.

John Henry Thompson is a full time faculty in New York University’s -Tisch-ITP program and co-creator of the COVID-19 Impact Project.

Shindy Johnson
Shindy Johnson is an educator and new media technology enthusiast who earned a degree in Chemistry and Physics at the University of Guyana, South America. Shindy earned a masters degree in Science Education at New York University Steinhardt School of Education. Her interest in emerging digital technologies led to her completing another masters degree in professional studies at New York University-Tisch-ITP program.

Shindy is currently an Adjunct Professor and Postdoctoral Fellow at ITP, and co-creator of the COVID-19 Impact Project.

Senior Advisor

Tyler Peppel
Tyler Peppel is an entrepreneur, angel investor, and start-up advisor. He is currently the CEO and founder of Tickr, Inc. Before that, he worked as a consultant developing digital data strategies for Goldman Sachs, Pfizer, Cisco, and others. Before that he was founder and CEO of MightyMail, a rich email services platform that was acquired by NBC. He worked at Apple for 5 years in new product development and has authored multiple software patents on topics like collectible software and the use of natural language processing to enhance written communication. He has a bachelor's degree from Ohio University and a Masters of Science in Visual Studies from the Media Lab at MIT.