From Chicago Wilderness:

Trees play a valuable role in creating safer, healthier, and more equitable communities. This forum will explore how to form effective partnerships between communities of color and tree planting organizations to help improve tree canopy in the places that need it most. Panelists will share the benefits that trees provide; discuss how to form transformational partnerships that empower community members in decisions, planting, and care; and share examples of successful collaborations with community tree planting efforts. The conversation will cover questions such as:

• How do we translate research on the benefits of trees into effective action?

• What are the barriers to improving the urban canopy in the communities that would most benefit from tree planting?

• How do we build effective partnerships between tree-planting/environmental organizations and communities of color?

• What are best practices for community investment in tree-planting efforts?

Following the panel, join the conversation! Participate in a small-group break-out room and discuss real-world strategies for increasing equity and tree cover through successful community partnerships.

Register: https://www.mortonarb.org/courses/growing-equity-through-planting-trees-online

FREE VIRTUAL SCREENING + DISCUSSION
Judith Helfand/2018/75 min

Presented by GreenTown in partnership with One Earth Film Festival.

FILM DESCRIPTION: Chicago suffered the worst heat disaster in U.S history 25 years ago in 1995, when 739 residents mostly—elderly and black—died over the course of one week. As “Cooked” links the heat wave’s devastation back to the underlying manmade disaster of structural racism, it delves deeply into one of our nation’s biggest growth industries: Disaster Preparedness. Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand uses her signature serious-yet-quirky-style as interlocutor and narrator to forge inextricable connections between the cataclysmic natural disasters we’re willing to see and prepare for, and the slow-motion disasters we’re not.

On this 25th anniversary of the 1995 Chicago heat wave, join GreenTown and One Earth for this screening of "Cooked," which chronicles that deadly event and the socio-economic forces that made it so much more severe in certain areas of the city. We'll also have a discussion with the film's director, Judith Helfand, as well as local advocate Orrin Williams of University of Illinois at Chicago and the Center for Urban Transformation (who appears in the film). Also learn about concrete action opportunities related to the film's topics. Facilitator: Delmar Gillus, Jr., Chief Operating Officer of Elevate Energy, and Greentown Leadership Team.

From Kartemquin Films and “Cooked: Survival By Zip Code:”

Q: What do Chicago’s 1995 heat wave and the COVID-19 pandemic have in common?

A: The heat wave-death map and the COVID-19-death map are ALMOST IDENTICAL.

It takes extreme crises to push us to confront the systemic roots of racism. No doubt, journalists are on the front lines, translating data and drama into compelling reporting.

In 1995, Chicago was hit by one of the deadliest heat waves in U.S. history, disproportionately killing 739 poor and elderly, mostly people of color. Now history repeats itself. The coronavirus pandemic is exposing the same deadly inequities.

Marking the 25th anniversary of the devastating heat wave, summer 2020 is predicted to be one of the hottest on record—and against the additional public health crisis of police brutality—one of the most revolutionary.

How will journalists reframe and report on this collision of crises?

SCHEDULE

Your registration is good for one, two or all of the three days.

If you have any questions you know you'd like panelists to address, email the organizers at info.summerofextremes@gmail.com.

DAY 3 - THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2020, 7-8:30 PM CST

"The Now And The Future: Reimagining Health Equity & Heat Emergency Planning"

As heat and COVID-19 collide this summer with the public health crisis of police brutality — physical distancing still encouraged — how does the city plan to keep people safe? With issues of environment, public space and equity of infrastructure involved, we look at the role of anchor community groups in South Side and West Side neighborhoods as first-responders on health equity and human heat emergency plans.

Panelists: Eric Klinenberg, Author, "Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago" Ayesha Jaco, Executive Director, West Side United; Dennis Deer, Cook County Commissioner 2nd District, Laura Rodriguez-Presa, Reporter, Chicago Tribune; Morgan Elise Johnson, Co-Founder/Creative Director, The Triibe; Esther Yoon-Ji Kang, Reporter, WBEZ-Radio. Moderator: Maudlyne Ihejirika, Columnist, Chicago Sun-Times.

From Kartemquin Films and “Cooked: Survival By Zip Code:”

Q: What do Chicago’s 1995 heat wave and the COVID-19 pandemic have in common?

A: The heat wave-death map and the COVID-19-death map are ALMOST IDENTICAL.

It takes extreme crises to push us to confront the systemic roots of racism. No doubt, journalists are on the front lines, translating data and drama into compelling reporting.

In 1995, Chicago was hit by one of the deadliest heat waves in U.S. history, disproportionately killing 739 poor and elderly, mostly people of color. Now history repeats itself. The coronavirus pandemic is exposing the same deadly inequities.

Marking the 25th anniversary of the devastating heat wave, summer 2020 is predicted to be one of the hottest on record—and against the additional public health crisis of police brutality—one of the most revolutionary.

How will journalists reframe and report on this collision of crises?

SCHEDULE

Your registration is good for one, two or all of the three days.

If you have any questions you know you'd like panelists to address, email the organizers at info.summerofextremes@gmail.com.

DAY 2 - WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2020, 7-8:30 PM, CST

"Mental Health & Reporting on Trauma"

Journalists, and journalists of color, in particular, can struggle to articulate their own trauma experienced while covering crises. Bodies piling up during the heat wave 25 years ago was such a story. Bodies piling up from COVID-19 in the U.S. since January has been such a story. Covering the killing of George Floyd, the subsequent protests and fallout, is also such a story. Let's talk about it, and the impact.

Panelists: Dr. Obari Cartman, Clinical Psychologist/Immediate Past President, Chicago Association of Black Psychologists; Patrice Peck, Founder/Publisher, “Coronavirus News for Black Folks;" Jeanne Sparrow, Host, V103-Radio; Will Jones, Reporter, ABC7-TV. Moderator: Maudlyne Ihejirika, Columnist, Chicago Sun-Times.

From Kartemquin Films and “Cooked: Survival By Zip Code:”

Q: What do Chicago’s 1995 heat wave and the COVID-19 pandemic have in common?

A: The heat wave-death map and the COVID-19-death map are ALMOST IDENTICAL.

It takes extreme crises to push us to confront the systemic roots of racism. No doubt, journalists are on the front lines, translating data and drama into compelling reporting.

In 1995, Chicago was hit by one of the deadliest heat waves in U.S. history, disproportionately killing 739 poor and elderly, mostly people of color. Now history repeats itself. The coronavirus pandemic is exposing the same deadly inequities.

Marking the 25th anniversary of the devastating heat wave, summer 2020 is predicted to be one of the hottest on record—and against the additional public health crisis of police brutality—one of the most revolutionary.

How will journalists reframe and report on this collision of crises?

SCHEDULE

Your registration is good for one, two or all of the three days.

If you have any questions you know you'd like panelists to address, email the organizers at info.summerofextremes@gmail.com.

DAY 1 - TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 2020 7-8:30 PM, CST

"It's All The Same Map"

Chicago’s heat-death map from 1995 is almost identical to Chicago's COVID-19-death map — both rooted in the economics and health inequities plaguing Chicago’s communities of color. Such structural inequities are also at the root of police brutality, as seen recently in the killing of George Floyd. What is the role of the journalist in the deeper storytelling behind these crises?

Panelists: Dr. Linda Murray, Governing Council Speaker, American Public Health Association; Judith Helfand, Director/Producer, "COOKED: Survival By Zip Code;” Anton Seals, Lead Steward, Grow Greater Englewood; Cheryl Corley, Correspondent, National Desk, NPR; Andy Nebel, Founder, The Andy Nebel Co./ Former Reporter, ABC7 Chicago; Josh McGhee, Reporter, The Chicago Reporter. Moderator: Maudlyne Ihejirika, Columnist, Chicago Sun-Times.