Works In Progress
When times are challenging, how can the arts help us find our way forward? Works In Progress is a podcast from the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, a forward-looking interdisciplinary center for creativity and scholarship. The show's host, Sean Arenas, looks at current topics and trends through the lens of art, architecture and design, and explores the ideas and practices of UCLA’s faculty, staff, students, and alumni. Learn more at https://podcast.arts.ucla.edu.
Works In Progress
D’Artagnan Scorza: Education as a tool for justice and empowerment
In July of 2020, soon after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police along with the murder of many other Black men and women, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors established an anti-racist County policy agenda. They also created an executive director of racial equity position for Los Angeles County with a charge of creating a strategic plan to eliminate structural racism and bias in the county, and appointed D’Artagnan Scorza to fill that role.
Scorza is a long-time justice activist who views education as a tool for civic and social empowerment. After getting a bachelor’s degree in the study of religion at UCLA, he joined the Navy and served in Iraq, then returned to UCLA to get a PhD in education, while launching a nonprofit called the Social Justice Learning Institute. He served the Inglewood Unified School District as president of the Board of Education, and is the current president of the UCLA Alumni Association. He also created the Urban Scholars program to train students to be social justice youth leaders.
On Monday, November 8th, he’ll join the UCLA Arts public discussion series “10 Questions,” responding to the question “How do we change?”
In this episode of "Works In Progress," Scorza talks about his journey of growing up in Inglewood, studying at UCLA, serving in Iraq, creating educational opportunities for underserved students, and promoting anti-racist policies at the county level.