The 2024 JEDI Fair
The fourth annual Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Fair took place outdoors in late October at the entrance to the East Wing of Green Library, the precise location that Cecil H. Green himself described as the common crossroads of the campus at the building’s dedication in 1980. Staff who organized and participated in the fair highlighted important social justice archives and the research tools with which to study them at Stanford University Libraries.
The JEDI Fair’s motto was “Come expecting to leave empowered!” Exhibitors at thirty tables represented schools, centers, clubs, and other organizations at Stanford with ongoing DEI initiatives. These groups advocate at the university and beyond for medical access, prison education and decarceration, cultural continuity, environmental and racial justice, assistive technology, election participation, career opportunity, and other social issues. Many have volunteer or employment positions for students.
On the day before the fair, Alma Parada, head of the Branner Earth Sciences Library, moderated a webinar, Justice & Equity in Food & Agriculture. Karli A. Moore, PhD Candidate in Environment and Resources and a Knight-Hennessy Scholar at Stanford, spoke first about the need for economic development and healthy, thriving food systems in the context of her life on a family farm and as a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. Defining Indigenous food sovereignty as “our land, our people, our culture, our food,” Moore showed how some of the Lumbee Tribe overcame structural, economic, and societal barriers by raising buffalo and farming traditional crops such as sorghum, acorns, and maize.
Jocelyn Breeland, AB ‘81, chief communications and marketing officer for Residential & Dining Enterprise (R&DE), presented her work on the Black Farmers Initiative at the webinar. R&DE and its affiliated Stanford Food Institute expect to serve 8 million meals to 14,000 students at Stanford this year. A portion of the 11.4 million pounds of food purchased by R&DE is supplied by local Black farmers. Breeland stated that there were more than a million Black farmers in the United States in 1920, while today there are only about 45,000. The Black Farmers Initiative aims to eliminate the discrimination that Black farmers still face today through public education, policy changes, and exposing Black farms to larger buyers.
Attendees at the JEDI Fair were invited inside Green Library to examine treasured volumes from Special Collections relevant to the age-old struggle for diversity, equity and inclusion. The selections by Rare Books Curator Benjamin Albritton ranged from medieval religious manuscripts to modern classics by Phillis Wheatley, Ntozake Shange, Frederick Douglass, and Yone Noguchi. Photographs from the Wylie Wong Collection and Zamorano imprints once owned by General Vallejo were also on hand.
The 2024 JEDI Fair introduced many new acquaintances and alliances with the common purpose of a just and equitable university, community, and world. The planning committee included Astrid Usong, Kelly Fields, Alma Parada, Sonia Lee, and Felicia A. Smith, the inaugural Racial Justice and Social Equity Librarian at Stanford University Libraries. “The committee was dedicated to aligning the event,” said Smith, “with the focus on ‘promoting a stronger culture of inquiry and curiosity and constructive dialogue at the University across a whole range of issues’ announced at the beginning of this academic year by Stanford’s new President Jonathan Levin and Provost Jenny Martinez.”