Department ofAfrican American Studies

Sociocultural Literacist Jeanine Staples begins with a somber and surprising assertion. It is that sometime today, maybe tomorrow, and definitely by next week, you are going to die, and it will probably be violent. She admits that she will die too. Yet, she asserts that her death will be peaceful. In her fascinating talk, Dr. Staples explains how we die all day long throughout our lives, why those deaths are so often violent, and how we can instead facilitate peaceful deaths, thereby living peacefully: with courage, unconditional love and authority from the inside out.

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