As part of our larger commitment to education, we honor the legacy of the iconic civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the larger heritage of Black History Month through free events for the LCC and broader community.
This year, we are thrilled to host acclaimed singer-songwriter Lizz Wright, who will perform for free at the end of January 2026 in our own Ragozzino Theatre. Check back soon to reserve your seat!
Lizz Wright Biography
Through an inimitable voice that The New York Times touts as, “a smooth, dark alto possessed of qualities you might associate with barrel-aged bourbon or butter-soft leather,” acclaimed vocalist and songwriter Lizz Wright sings with a soaring reflection of the cultural fabric of America. Wright is one of the great modern American singers with an illustrious 20-year career transcending social divides with her offer of love and deep sense of humanity.
Wright culls inspiration from her Southern upbringing in Georgia where she was the musical director of a small church of which her father was the pastor. The call and response singing with the church congregation was her first brush with music. Soon she would traverse the Great American Songbook on her path to becoming a beloved international treasure.
At the age of 22, Wright first made a name for herself nationally as a vocalist with a touring concert tribute to Billie Holiday. At 23, she signed with Verve Records for the 2003 release of her debut album, Salt, which topped Billboard’s contemporary jazz charts. She went on to record for Universal Music Group and released the albums Dreaming Wide Awake (2005), The Orchard (2008), and Fellowship (2010). On Concord, Wright released Freedom & Surrender (2016) – featuring the single “Lean In,” which landed on President Obama’s Summer 2016 playlist – and Grace (2017).
In 2020, Lizz Wright took her culinary skills as a graduate of Dr. Annemarie Colbin’s Natural Gourmet Institute of New York to Carver 47 Food & Wellness Market (C47) on the South Side of Chicago. She summons her Southern upbringing in Georgia and 20 years of European touring to inform the nutrient-forward menu at the beloved Chicago café and market. Housed inside the distinguished Little Black Pearl Art & Design Academy (North Kenwood, Chicago) founded by innovative Chicago business leader and designer Monica Haslip, Carver 47 operates in homage to the market’s fundamental dignitary, the legendary Dr. George Washington Carver.
Wright launched her own independent record company, Blues & Greens Records, with the June 2022 release of Holding Space, a brilliant live album (produced by Christian Ulbrich) capturing a Berlin, Germany concert in 2018; as well as a companion short film, Holding Space, produced by Monica Haslip and Lynne Earls. Her innovative label venture is designed with a business model where artists are positioned to build wholesome careers. After 20 years of major label contracts, Wright now owns her master recordings for the first time in her career. Blues & Greens Records creates a healthy ecosystem for Wright with sustainable and sound business practices at the forefront.
In 2024, Wright will release her studio debut album, Shadow, produced by Chris Bruce and executive produced by Lizz Wright on Blues & Greens Records (with licensing/distribution through Lightyear Entertainment/Virgin Music). Wright pens five originals as she celebrates the intimacy of romantic love, loss, community, and healing.
On Shadow, Wright works with renowned engineer Ryan Freeland who recorded Grace and has also worked with music legend Bonnie Raitt. Shadow features acclaimed artists Angelique Kidjo and Meshell Ndegeocello. Anchored by acoustic guitars and layered with string quartets, harp, Carnatic Indian classical strings, gospel vocals, and bare emotion, Shadow presents Lizz in a gentle and triumphant light.
Past Speakers
This year, we were thrilled to host Trymaine Gaither, Special Assistant to the Provost for Inclusive Excellence and faculty member at Washington State University. His talks included:
- “Mind Force: Community Engaged Mindfulness” - Student Talk & Free Lunch (for LCC students only) - January 29, 2025
- “Mindfulness and Psychological Safety” - Community Talk (Free and Open to All) - January 29, 2025
About Trymaine Gaither
Trymaine Gaither is the Special Assistant to the Provost for Inclusive Excellence at Washington State University and the founder of Heart Centered Consulting. He specializes in training leaders and organizations in mindfulness-based strategies to enhance psychological safety, emotional intelligence, and belonging. With a focus on cultivating inclusive environments, Trymaine integrates mindfulness practices and self-compassionate leadership into his work.He is also a faculty affiliate at the Center for Mindfulness at Brown University.
He has facilitated mindfulness retreats and leadership trainings both nationally and internationally, helping individuals and teams develop resilience and create supportive, psychologically safe spaces. Trymaine holds a professional certification from the International Mindfulness Teachers Association and has completed extensive training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindful Self-Compassion at the Center for Mindfulness at Brown University and the University of California San Diego.
In his current role as an elected City Council Member on the Pullman City Council, he integrates mindfulness and community development principles into policy-making and community engagement efforts, aiming to create a more compassionate and psychologically safe community for all.
This year, we were thrilled to host renowned painter and filmmaker, who gave a free talk to the community on:
- “Making Space for Diversity - An Artist's Perspective" - January 11, 2024
About Titus Kapahar
Urgent and timely, Titus Kaphar’s artworks capture the spirit of social justice and change in America today (exemplified in his TIME cover portrait of the Ferguson protests). He was named a MacArthur “Genius” for “highlighting the lack of representation of people of color in the canon of Western art with works that deconstruct the literal and visual structure of the artwork.” His vital and moving talks expose the racism and inequality we take for granted, and reveal what we need to do to move forward.
Art has the power to reframe our history. When you dislodge history from its status as the “past,” you unearth its contemporary relevance, says award-winning artist Titus Kaphar. Titus works with history—history writ large, as well as his own story, familial and personal—to offer a stirring portrait of the here and now. His body of work is broad, in both form and substance, speaking to the most vital discussions happening around race, inclusion, and reconciliation in the United States.
Titus’s debut feature film, Exhibiting Forgiveness, follows a Black artist on the path to success who receives an unexpected visit from his estranged father. It delves into trauma, resilience, and the power of art, and premiered at Sundance alongside works by titans like Steven Soderbergh. Exhibiting Forgiveness is “strikingly flawless” (RogerEbert.com) and “visually stunning” (Deadline). Variety calls it “a feel-the-reality movie, a drama willing to scald. That’s its quiet power.”
Titus collaborated with poet Reginald Dwayne Betts on The Redaction at MoMA PS1 (now a book of the same name). They unite their mediums to reveal the ways the legal system exploits and erases the poor and incarcerated from public consciousness, drawing inspiration from lawsuits filed by the Civil Rights Corps (CRC) on behalf of people incarcerated because of an inability to pay court fines and fees. Together, the voices of poet and artist blend with those of the plaintiffs and prosecutors, reclaiming these lost narratives.
As an engrossing keynote speaker, Titus exposes how all depictions, no matter how personal or grandiose, are always imperfect and capable of being remade. In recognition of his powerful vision, TIME magazine commissioned an artwork for their cover in response to the protests in Ferguson, Missouri—freezing in time an unforgettable moment of potential, protest, and civil rights upheaval. Titus explores the overwhelming volume of men trapped in our criminal justice system bearing his own father’s name in The Jerome Project. The mug shots of these “Jeromes,” all Black, are re-imagined as gilded, devotional subjects submerged in tar—signaling how much time they’ve lost in prison as well as a historical form of torture. Titus re-mixes the work of Classical and Renaissance painters in Drawing the Blinds, interrogating the history of aesthetics while revealing marginalized, forgotten figures.
Titus’s arts incubator, NXTHVN, is a $12 million nonprofit center and fellowship program that nurtures rising talents. Titus also collaborated with For Freedoms’ 50 State Initiative, a cross-country art project promoting passion and participation in the democratic process. He also completed a sculptural commission for Princeton University Art Museum (to coincide with the opening of the Princeton and Slavery project). The sculpture has been strategically erected on the lawn of the MacLean House, where former university presidents lived and owned slaves.
Titus’s previous exhibitions include Unseen: Our Past in a New Light, Classical Disruption, Shifting Skies, 99 Jeromes, Beyond a Veil of Beauty, Reconstruction, and History in the Making, and more. He is the distinguished recipient of the Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Fellowship, as well as the Creative Capital Award and Rauschenberg Artist as Activist Fellowship. His work has been included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, and the Brooklyn Museum, as well as in the Studio Museum in Harlem (where he was Artist in Residence), the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and the Seattle Art Museum. He received an MFA from the Yale School of Art and a BFA from San Jose State University.