In the second year of the Equity in Action Visiting Scholars program, the Office of Social Equity & Community will host Kemba Smith Pradia, a criminal justice advocate, and artist Makoto Fujimura and lawyer Haejin Fujimura for the 2024-25 academic year. Smith Pradia and the Fujimuras will each host four events, engaging the Penn community through Q&A sessions, panel discussions, art exhibitions, film screenings, and more. These events aim to foster dialogue, inspire creativity, and build meaningful connections between Penn and the larger Philadelphia community, says Tia Gaines, associate director.
“My vision for this program was to offer an opportunity for local artists and activists to merge beauty and justice,” Gaines says. “There are many ways to be an activist. Sometimes it’s with a paintbrush or clay, sometimes it’s with a microphone, sometimes it’s with movement.”
Mako and Haejin Fujimura will speak at the Arthur Ross Gallery on Oct. 21 at 6 p.m. The Fujimuras will present a short documentary film, “New Creation,” which presents the work of Embers International, a global NGO founded by the couple that protects, restores, and empowers people caught in the intergenerational trauma and abuse of human trafficking. After the film, Haejin Fujimura will speak about restorative justice and its parallels to kintsugi, the art of repairing broken pottery by mending lacquer mixed with precious metals.
The couple will speak at the Penn Museum Rainey Auditorium on Nov. 18 at 6 p.m. on creating beauty out of spaces of destruction and in the spring semester on Feb. 11 and April 7. Makoto Fujimura will also present his fine art in an exhibition at the Arthur Ross Gallery and the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, March 14 through April 13.
Smith Pradia’s first event is on Oct. 24 at 6 p.m. in the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center. Smith Pradia will screen “Kemba,” a film based on her life story. After the film, Smith Pradia will lead a discussion on prison reform and the role of media as an influence on public perception and policy change.
On Nov. 20, Smith Pradia will give a talk on “Women, Mass Incarceration, and Reentry: Voices of the Forgotten” at 6 p.m. in the School of Nursing’s Fagin Auditorium. In the spring semester, she will host a youth leadership summit for high school and college students on Feb. 20 and a panel discussion on April 2.
Haejin Fujimura, a lawyer, co-founded Embers International and Mako Fujimura, an artist, serves as Embers’ Artist Advocate. Makoto Fujimura’s work has been featured in galleries and museums around the world, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, Huntington Library in California, Tikotin Museum in Israel, Belvedere Museum in Vienna, C3M North Bund Art Museum in Shanghai, and Pola Museum in Japan. He is also the author of several books, including “Art+Faith: A Theology of Making.”
Kemba Smith Pradia is an advocate for criminal justice reform. She is the author of “Poster Child: The Kemba Smith Story,” a memoir. As an advocate, Smith Pradia has worked with members of Congress and led training for federal and state probation organizations across the country. As a consultant, Smith Pradia was part of an NAACP delegation that traveled to Switzerland to give testimony before the United Nations Human Rights Council, where her participation highlighted the implications of mass incarceration and the protection of human and voting rights for formerly incarcerated people. Smith Pradia also started the Kemba Smith Foundation, with a mission is to raise awareness on important social issues facing youth and women, including domestic violence, law enforcement and policing in black communities, voter empowerment, drug policy, sentencing, reentry, mass incarceration, and its impact on families.
The Fujimuras’ events are held in collaboration with the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, the Arthur Ross Gallery.
Smith Pradia’s events are co-sponsored by the School of Nursing and held in partnership with Beyond Arrest Rethinking Systemic Oppression), a student organization.
