Courtney E. Martin is an author, organizer and entrepreneur known for provocative writing and for helping found important content-based organizations that help tell the story of America's diverse future. She is the co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network and FRESH Speakers Bureau, and often works with organizations—TED, the Aspen Institute, The Obama Foundation, and The Sundance Institute—on how to make impactful, story-rich social change.

Her newest book, Learning in Public: Lessons for a Racially Divided America from My Daughter's School, explores her own story about finding the right school for her daughter in Oakland. While many of the white families in her gentrifying neighborhood largely avoided the majority-Black, poorly-rated school near her home, she chose differently. Moving beyond hashtags and yard signs as a way to make a difference, Courtney discovered that her local public school, the foundation of our fragile democracy, was a powerful place to dig deeper to change the country, herself and her family.

Martin examines her own fears, assumptions and conversations with other parents as they navigate choosing what school is right for their child. The book provides a vivid portrait of integration’s virtues and complexities, and yes, the palpable joy of trying to live differently in a country re-making itself around racial issues.

Please join us for an important conversation on education, integration and how the schools we choose for our kids can shape the world we live in and the world we want.

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Photo by Ryan Lash.