Today’s Communiqué – 4.15.21

PRESS RELEASE
April 13, 2021
Contact: L. Lamor Williams, APR | 501 371 4421 | [email protected]

Mayor Frank Scott, Jr. Announces Hiring of Chief Equity Officer Jackson to Oversee Development of Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Little Rock – On Tuesday, April 13, Mayor Frank Scott, Jr. announced Dionne Jackson, Ed.D., as chief equity officer (CEqO). Jackson began Monday and will focus on ensuring adequate access to opportunities and necessary support structures both within City government and across Little Rock. She will also establish the City’s first Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
The creation of a chief equity officer was first proposed by Mayor Scott’s transition board in the citizen-led roadmap for governance, the Scott Script. Subsequently, in his 2021 State of the City address, Mayor Scott further expressed his commitment to increasing Little Rock’s growth and progress with equity as the central theme in future planning.

In her first posthumous work, the revered poet, Ntozake Shange, crafts a personal history of Black dance and captures the careers of legendary dancers along with her own rhythmic beginnings.

Many learned of Ntozake Shange’s ability to blend movement with words when her acclaimed choreopoem for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf made its way to Broadway in 1976, eventually winning an Obie Award the following year. But before she found fame as a writer, poet, performer, dancer, and storyteller, she was an untrained student who found her footing in others’ classrooms. Dance We Do is a tribute to those who taught her and her passion for rhythm, movement, and dance.

$19.95 (HC)

Publisher: Beacon Press | Release: October 13, 2020