praise it by hillary clinton for the insights, knowledge in, and wit, heumann served in bill clinton's administration shaping disability policy in the department of education and was appointed by barack obama as the special adviser on disability rights for the state department. she is also a former senior fellow at the ford foundation and advisor to world bank. she joins us tonight to discuss her life, work, and new book, being human, an unprepen tent enemy interior of a disability rights activist. she will in conversation with tam la edwards. the science yours. >> thank you very much. >> that's wonderful. andy, in the news age of social distancinged a great to see we can get it done and judy it was an honor truly to read your book, running theme in the book how often people tell you, people who should know, say i had no idea and i'm hopeful that people reading your book and joining in on the conversation tonight will be brought up to speed on what your fight has been about and all the changes you have made, and in fact that's where i wanted to start to give people a little bit of pers

what is checking out for judith heumann?>> i try to spend more time with my husband.like to go to movie theaters, because i'm not good at just being idle or still when i'm here. go to theater, ballet, whatever. then you are there so you have to focus on it. >> let's see, more questions, i found it very interesting that the black panthers helped you out during the crucial sit in coming to the relationship indoor afterward? it depends, in the organizing of the 504 demonstration was a member of the black panthers and his assistant also then brad lomax unfortunately passed away. but the relationship continued i would say they were supportive of the work that was going on within the disability unit community and that was really important. that's one thing in the bay area san francisco bay area that the center for independent living, which started in the early 70s, very much worked with all types of organizations addressing issues of discrimination and we got support from different groups when we needed them and they would come to us and we would take with them on different

heumann. that's wonderful. our next speaker, holds a phd, is most recently published book, honeypot, black southern women who love women. professor. >> is great to be here this evening and i also want to extend my thanks to the lenders and mr. greenberg and all the people who made tonight possible. in my research on oral histories among black lgbtq southerners, i am invested in attending to storytelling as a co-performative event. in other words, an event that involves the storyteller and the one who bears witness to the story. oral history in conjunction with performance is not only a recollection of historical events and facts in relation to the self, but also the interplay between the teller and the listener. i'm also interested in the value of what the oral history performance does for the storyteller. this is not to say that i'm not interested in the actual historical contents of what the narrator shares, nonetheless i am not invested in an uncontested truth. so much as i'm invested in the validation of th

what did you think it was about judith heumann that made you the person who was at the forefront of some of these fights? >> you know, i'm really thankful to my parents. because in their own way, the big advocacy was come they learned about it. my mother with the support of my father would step-by-step try to address what was happening. other friends of mine we redo the experience and can't camp talk about it. but something was in the and always, i was born in philadelphia but i grew up in brooklyn and i do actually always talk about if i wasn't born in brooklyn i probably wouldn't be the person i am today. i really do believe you can make it in new york, you can make it anywhere. at a think i learned really early on that i had to say something. there was things going on but i felt was wrong, i had to say something. i had to try to do something. i've never been a person to want to do things by myself. i've always wanted to work with other people here and so for me with each play a different role. i think i'm a reasonably good strategist and a reasonably decent mouth to speak, then i have

she joins us tonight to discuss her life, work, and new book, being heumann, an unrepentant memoir of activist.