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By Itzy Canales for UCSB Multicultural Center | November 7, 2018 | 2:33 p.m.

The UCSB Multicultural Center (MCC) will present Black Lives Matter co-founder and activist Patrisse Cullors in a keynote lecture for the Engaging Communities in Resilient Love Series, 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15, at Corwin Pavilion. The event is free to attend.

If #BlackLivesMatter means anything, its in large part due to the empathy and action in times of injustice demonstrated by Cullors and co-founders Alicia Garza, who presented for the MCC in 2017, and Opal Tometi who continues her work for social justice both off and online.

Backed by massive social media and activist support in the wake of George Zimmermons acquittal after he murdered Trayvon Martin, the three women inspired an international organization for activists seeking a society in which the lives of Black Folk are not treated any less than another.

There are plenty who disagree, however, accusing Cullors, Garza, Tometi and the collective community inspired by their work of being unpatriotic, exclusionary, hateful, dangerous, racist and even terrorists.

Cullors, a self-proclaimed artist, organizer, and freedom fighter is not new to the discriminatory violence in which much of #BlackLivesMatter works to combat.

Her New York Times Bestseller book, When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir, not only addresses the brutality men in her family have experienced firsthand and how that has influenced her passion, but acts as a deconstruction of the societal expectations that told her how she should experience womanhood, sexuality, spirituality, and herself.

In her talk at UCSB, Cullors will look back on the history Black Lives Matter has made, on her shared experiences with those who have faced hatred with resilient love, and what she owes to her past in the making of her present and future.

This lecture is part of the Living Lives of Resilient Love in a Time of Hate Series, started by Margaret Klawunn, vice chancellor of Student Affairs, in fall 2016 to ask how people might respond ethically and honorably to hate and violence.

The series features visiting artists and academies to promote conversations and creative work that forge a love-driven response to hate, hurt and fear.

In the past, the series has hosted Alicia Garza, Tricia Rose, Favianna Rodriguez, David Kim and Sunni Patterson.

Itzy Canales for UCSB Multicultural Center.

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