Teach For America welcomes Brittany Packnett Cunningham, national social justice leader, for “Co-creating a More Just Minnesota” evening

Teach For America Twin Cities is once again bringing a nationally known speaker to Minneapolis for its 2024 Teach for America DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) keynote.

Renowned leader and organizer Brittany Packnett Cunningham will take the stage at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis at 7 pm on the evening of April 25th, headlining an event entitled Co-creating a More Just Minnesota.

Teach for America recruits and trains a national corps of educators who teach for two years in underserved, low-income schools. Since arriving in Minnesota 15 years ago, Teach for America Twin Cities has built a network of 1000 alumni; the majority still work in education as teachers, school staff, administrators and policy-makers.

In Minnesota TFA corps members commit to working to close Minnesota’s achievement gap among students of color. Cunningham was executive director of Teach for America in St. Louis in 2014 when Michael Brown, a Black man, was killed by a white police officer  in Ferguson, Mo. She was instrumental in leading protests and coordinating social justice groups in the community.

“Brittany has been on the front lines of activism and direct service. She is able to share lessons she’s learned that we can apply in Minnesota to make progress with our racial equity gaps,” said Charlie Braman, managing director, Teach For America Twin Cities.

Cunningham has been an educator, author, award-winning podcaster, network news analyst and leader for social change, from public education to criminal justice. She was a member of President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

“She has the practical, lived experience, the anecdotes and the data to analyze the how we got to where we are in Minnesota,” Braman said. “She can identify best practices that we can leverage to locally to work to close those gaps.”

Prior to Cunningham’s talk, the audience at the Guthrie will watch a film commissioned by Teach For America Twin Cities. Local filmmaker Benji Perez Gonzalez created a documentary that asked local leaders to reflect on and reveal the stubborn racial divide in Minnesota across sectors, in housing, health, and wealth as well as in educational outcomes.

“Minnesota, we’re not the best. We have the lowest high school graduation rates for kids of color in the nation. Our literacy rates are abysmal. Only about 50% are reading at grade level,” Josh Crosson, executive director of Ed Allies, told the filmmaker. “We need that mind shift that we can do a lot better as a state, in fact most states are doing better than we are, and then we need to create solutions from that mindset.”

“We’re a healthy state. We own our own homes, we have a strong education system, we have opportunities for people to advance socio-economically. But there’s an important caveat. None of that is true if you’re Black,” added Markus Flynn, executive director of Black Men Teach. “There’s a silver lining though. We know the answer. We know that education is the quality of life indicator that has the most residual benefit that can lift up the other areas.”

Tickets for “Co-creating a More Just Minnesota” are $5, a price intentionally chosen to make the event accessible to all members of the community, Braman said.

VIP Tickets are available at a higher price ($25 and $50) for a post-lecture catered reception with Cunningham.

“Our VIP meet-and-greets always bring together leaders of Twin Cities groups with an equity focus. Great collaborations and coalitions have sprung from this in the past, when teams from these community-based organizations have a chance connect and network,” Braman said.

Teach for America Twin Cities
2024 DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) keynote
“Co-creating a More Just Minnesota” with Brittany Packnett Cunningham
Live at the Guthrie Theater
818 S. 2nd St, Minneapolis
7 pm — April 25, 2024
For tickets: https://www.guthrietheater.org/shows-and-tickets/specialevents/teach-for-america/