What is the Folding Chair Session?
The goal of the Folding Chair is to celebrate new equity advocates, to add to the discussion of equity advocacy, and to serve as an invitation to those of you who might be interested in the Lenoir-Rhyne Equity & Diversity Institute.
Each session is approximately 2 hours, and in the past they have been hosted both in-person and virtually. The Folding Chair’s audience is usually a mix of LREDI trained equity advocates and general community members who are interested in discussing equity, diversity, and inclusion.
What is LREDI?
The Lenoir-Rhyne Equity and Diversity Institute (LREDI) supports, inspires, and equips executives, non-profit leaders, educators, students, social activists and other community members who intend to spark change and cultivate better communities through their professional careers.
LREDI is designed to train equity advocates in the interest of building communities that are educated, challenged, and motivated to non-violently disrupt systems that create and support complicated complex social issues.
The curriculum focuses on equitable strategies and practices that can be applied to the professional fields of business, education, and technology, as well as to general community advocacy.
What Happens at the Folding Chair?
The sessions are usually hosted by Doriyan Johnson, and each session includes hearing testimonials from recent program participants, an interactive networking activity and an interview to extend the equity advocacy conversation.
In September, we invited Rhyan Hill to our folding chair session to discuss age diversity.
Age diversity regards the ability to accept all different ages within a business environment. Rhyan discussed the entertainment industry.
Who is Rhyan Hill?
You can find Rhyan in the highly anticipated HBO series Lovecraft Country from creator Jordan Peele and executive producer J.J. Abrams. He is one of the featured “school kid” dancers in the award winning Childish Gambino music video “This Is America”, which has garnered nearly 700 million views as of 2020. He was a contestant and part of the Big Battle Dance Crew on Nickelodeon’s Lip Sync Battle Shorties, and more recently as a Hype Squad Dancer on Disney’s Fam Jam. He has also been a part of several dance concept videos, including the viral “US” video that got the attention of Jordan Peele.
Catch Rhyan’s session of The Folding Chair!
Folding Chair Session Interview: https://youtu.be/wDyBQdS6DXQ
Check out Rhyan’s interview with Aisha Adams on her personal blog.