University of Orange

Harvest Festival & Solidarity Potluck
2024-10-24 14:30 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | The HUUB, inc, 35 Cleveland Street, City of Orange, NJ, 07050, United States
Join our partners at the HUUB for their 3rd annual Harvest Festival! The Harvest Festival will run from 2:30-5pm, followed by the monthly Solidarity Potluck from 6-8pm. Bring a dish, bring a friend!
35 Cleveland Street, Orange, NJ 07050

Dharma Yoga Level 1
2024-10-26 09:00 - 10:30 | 35 Cleveland St, 35 Cleveland Street, City of Orange, NJ, 07050, United States
Dharma Yoga is a modern interpretation of classical Eight-limbed or Hatha-Raja Yoga, deeply rooted in ethical precepts that includes elements of flowing Vinyasa, inversions and held poses that will help you to discover concentration, meditation, abiding contentedness and deep healing relaxation. Breathing exercises (pranayama) and meditative techniques regulate the heartbeat, de-stress the nervous system and calm the mind. Guided deep healing relaxation or Yoga Nidra relieves stress, slows down the thoughts, calms the mind and recharges one’s physical body. A complete practice that will lead to radiant health, a peaceful life and, eventually self-realization. Dharma Yoga is traditional, yet contemporary — perfect for the fast-paced world of today.
About the practice:
Dharma I – A strong practice with basic yoga concepts, postures, introduction to pranayama (breathwork), and potent meditation techniques.
Participants can join any and all of the fall classes:
Saturday, October 12th, 9am – 10:15am
Saturday, October 19th, 9am – 10:15am
Saturday, October 26th, 9am – 10:15am
About the teacher:
Aditi is a urban researcher, based in New York. Aditi grew up practicing yoga in her community center in Mumbai, India. In 2020, as the pandemic entered our lives, Aditi turned to yoga, to center healing and growth. Since then she has been practicing ashtanga yoga and reaping the benefits of this deeply meditative practice. To share this experience with everyone, Aditi has been teacher training at the Dharma Yoga Center in New York, learning under Shri Dharma Mitra.
As part of her teacher training, Aditi is offering free yoga classes. Participants will be asked to fill out an evaluation form post-practice. This course will be an overview of the practice and we will offer a longer series in the fall.

The Path Reading Group
2024-10-28 18:00 - 19:00, 2024-11-04 18:00 - 19:00, 2024-11-11 18:00 - 19:00 | Hale House, 47 Cleveland Street, Orange, NJ, 07050, United States
Join us for a fall reading group of The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life.
This reading group will be led by social psychiatrist Dr. Mindy Fullilove.
Mindy says: This class will do a “slow read” of The Path, a wonderful book by Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh. The book has the subtitle “What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life.” As a psychiatrist, I am drawn to this book because it offers us such interesting and unexpected advice for seeing our own situation through an ancient lens. Our slow read will allow us to consider the philosophy as well as the life perspectives offered by this lovely book.
Reading is awesome but optional!
This reading group will meet weekly for 6 weeks on Mondays from October 7th through November 11th. The meetings will be hybrid: in person at Hale House (47 Cleveland Street, Orange NJ) and on Zoom.

Register here for the reading group.

Beginner Sewing Class
2024-11-11 18:00 - 21:00, 2024-11-13 18:00 - 21:00 | 35 Cleveland St, 35 Cleveland Street, City of Orange, NJ, 07050, United States
Zaki Michael is offering a Beginner Sewing Class for UofO Fall Term. In this class you’ll discover the art of sewing and create your own custom projects. You will learn essential sewing machine functions and terminology, and gain hands-on experience.
This class will meet twice:
Monday, November 11, 6-9pm
Wednesday, November 13, 6-9pm
Register for Beginner Sewing here.
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Zaki Michael grew up in Orange, New Jersey, and his brand is currently based in Newark, NJ. He is the creative director and designer for Blk Icon, a streetwear brand. Zaki has worked in the Newark public school system for five years and currently works at The HUUB, a community center in Orange, NJ, as a community and program organizer. His love for style and fashion has always been a part of him, but his passion for design began during his time as a wardrobe stylist and consultant. “I wanted to teach myself how to make some of the unique pieces my clients wanted rather than just find them,” he says. In 2020, Zaki launched Blk Icon as a self-taught designer with a vision to create a ready-to-wear streetwear line that utilizes authentic African fabrics and eco-friendly upcycled materials to create custom one-of-a-kind statement pieces. He is current working on his third collection series, entitled “Urban Renewal,” which uses upcycled denim and African mud cloth to create captivating men’s and women’s statement pieces. You can follow him on Instagram at @Zakbstylin_ and @Blk_Icons.

November Solidarity Potluck
2024-11-20 18:00 - 20:00 | The HUUB, inc, 35 Cleveland Street, City of Orange, NJ, 07050, United States
Join us on November 20th at 6pm for our monthly solidarity potluck and Friendsgiving. The potluck starts at 6pm. Bring a dish, bring a friend!
35 Cleveland Street, Orange NJ 07050

December Solidarity Potluck
2024-12-16 18:00 - 20:00 | The HUUB, inc, 35 Cleveland Street, City of Orange, NJ, 07050, United States
Join us at the HUUB for our monthly solidarity potluck from 6pm-8pm on Monday, December 16th. Bring a dish, bring a friend!

35 Cleveland Street, Orange NJ 07050

New Year Solidarity Potluck
2025-01-13 18:00 - 20:00 | 33 Cleveland Street, Orange, NJ 07050, 33 Cleveland Street, Orange, NJ, 07050, United States
Join us for the first potluck of 2025! Bring a dish, bring a friend!
Monday, January 13th, 6pm-8pm
35 Cleveland Street, Orange, NJ 07050

Listening with the Prophetic Ear
2025-01-20 11:30 - 14:00 | 35 Cleveland St, 35 Cleveland Street, City of Orange, NJ, 07050, United States
The HUUB Community Campus will hold a special event on January 20th, Martin Luther King Day.
Bishop William Barber, leader of Repairers of the Breach and the Poor People’s Campaign, has called us to a special task on January 20th: listening to the new President’s Inaugural Address with the “prophetic ear.” Bishop Barber proposes that we need to pay careful attention as all the promises of the campaign season are left behind and the new administration begins to take steps. By our careful attention, we can discern which of the myriad things the President-elect has said he would are now actually on the agenda.
We will convene at The HUUB at 11:30am for an opening session, “Clearing Our Listening.” We will talk about what it means to listen with the “prophetic ear.” We will listen to some opening words from Faith+Works UU Congregation minister Rev Dr Edgar Rivera Colon.
At noon, we will turn our attention to lunch and the inauguration. We will listen to the President’s remarks with care and concern. Following his remarks, we will debrief.
We will reconvene at 7pm to hear Bishop Barber and colleagues share with us what they heard and what they see as next steps. Dinner will be served.
Please RSVP to info@universityoforange.org for one or both of these events. That way, we can be sure to put your name in the pot. If you would like to join virtually, please register for the Zoom link here.

Life Tapestries - Weaving Workshops
2025-02-08 13:00 - 15:00, 2025-02-15 13:00 - 15:00, 2025-02-22 13:00 - 15:00 | 35 Cleveland St, 35 Cleveland Street, City of Orange, NJ, 07050, United States
Life Tapestries is an interactive workshop series that combines personal storytelling and hands-on crafting. Participants will explore their familial ties to New Jersey through two intertwined mediums; quilting and weaving. This three-part workshop is for artists of all ages interested in drawing connections between cartography, creative writing, and fiber arts. Students will create a personal cartographic map of key moments, relationships, and places. Then, translating that map into a woven tapestry, participants will reflect on the paths they’ve traveled and the connections they’ve formed along the way. This unique process invites self-reflection and community building while teaching basic weaving principles and techniques.

This class will meet on three consecutive Saturdays: February 1, 8, and 15 from 1pm-3:30pm. Taught by fiber artist Donelle Wedderburn. These workshops will be held at 35 Cleveland Street, Orange, NJ. Please register for this class here.

February Solidarity Potluck
2025-02-10 18:00 - 20:00 | 35 Cleveland St, 35 Cleveland Street, City of Orange, NJ, 07050, United States
Join us for this month’s Solidarity Potluck! Bring a dish, bring a friend! More details coming soon.
Monday, February 10th, 6pm-8pm
35 Cleveland Street, Orange, NJ 07050

COUSINS Art Show Opening
2025-02-15 15:00 - 17:00 | Hale House, 47 Cleveland Street, Orange, NJ, 07050, United States
Join us on Saturday, February 15th from 3pm-5pm for the opening of the COUSINS art show!
COUSINS an art show and contest on the theme of universal interconnectivity and its implications. There will be works from 21 artists.
Light refreshments will be provided.
47 Cleveland Street, Orange, NJ
Featured artists:
Margaux Simmons
Mindy Fullilove
Eunju Hwang
Kathy Kremins
Ernest Lindsay
Sarah B Howe
Bryelle Rudd
Khailah Beasley
Richard Nasch
Sahnyjah Powell
Karen Marlowe
Frank Barszcz
Marisela B Gomez
Douglas Farrand
Holly Barszcz
Darcy Hall
Bethany Shenise
Jamy Lasell
Priscilla Perez
Dominic Moulden

Managing Shock and Awe: Lessons from Root Shock and Collective Recovery
2025-03-05 18:00 - 19:00, 2025-03-12 18:00 - 19:00, 2025-03-19 18:00 - 19:00, 2025-03-26 18:00 - 19:00
Wednesdays, March 5, 12, 19 and 26
6pm-7pm ET via Zoom
The attacks of the Trump administration have upended the world and this kind of upheaval causes “root shock.” Root shock is the traumatic stress reaction to the loss of some or all of our emotional ecosystem. This four-session course will answer the question: How do we manage root shock and move forward with a collective vision? Drawing on 25 years of work on Collective Recovery, we will look at specific tasks, including staying centered, gathering with others to name the moment, finding what we’re FOR, and building coalitions for the work ahead. The course will include presentations, readings, daily journaling, and interactive activities.
Register for the course here.
Course Director:
Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD, DLFAPA, Hon AIA, is a social psychiatrist, a native of Orange, NJ, and a co-founder of the University of Orange. Since 1986, she has conducted research on AIDS and other epidemics of poor communities, with a special interest in the relationship between the collapse of communities and decline in health. She has published over 100 scientific papers and eight books. Among her books are the highly-regarded Urban Restoration Trilogy, Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America and What We Can Do About It, Urban Alchemy: Restoring Joy in America’s Sorted-Out Cities, and Main Street: How a City’s Heart Connects Us All. She holds two honorary doctorates and is a distinguished life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and honorary member of the American Institute of Architects. In the Fall of 2023 she delivered the Mary Flexner Lectures at Bryn Mawr College based on her new research and forthcoming book on the “Tao of K-drama.”

March Iftar Solidarity Potluck
2025-03-17 18:00 - 20:00 | 35 Cleveland St, 35 Cleveland Street, City of Orange, NJ, 07050, United States
Join us for this month’s Solidarity Potluck! Bring a dish, bring a friend! More details coming soon.
Monday, March 17th, 6pm-8pm
35 Cleveland Street, Orange, NJ 07050

Helen and Robert E. Fullilove Chair of Community Health Inauguration
2025-03-29 14:00 - 16:00 | The HUUB, inc, 35 Cleveland Street, City of Orange, NJ, 07050, United States
Saturday, March 29th, 2pm-4pm
The HUUB, 35 Cleveland Street
Orange, NJ 07050

The University of Orange is honored to welcome Dr. Mindy Fullilove in her new role as the Helen and Robert Fullilove Professor of Community Health, named in honor of two exemplary Essex County leaders whose lives demonstrated a commitment to education, health and society. We will be celebrating the inauguration on Saturday, March 29th from 2-4pm at the HUUB. The event will feature live music, speakers, including NJ Senator Britnee Timberlake, and a reception to follow.

Please join us! Register online here.

This is our first named chair at the University of Orange, a people’s free university in Orange, NJ, Mindy’s hometown. UofO is grounded in Dr. Fullilove’s four decades of work identifying the root causes of our social disconnection and creating the tools we need to reweave our fractured country. For sixteen years, UofOrange has been developing and practicing the skills essential for civic connection and collaboration to address the challenges we face together. We believe these are the skills and practices we need in this moment of American metacrisis.
To sustain and grow this work, we are launching a campaign to support The Helen and Robert Fullilove Chair in Community Public Health at the University of Orange. We invite anyone who has been influenced and shaped by Mindy’s research and teaching to consider making a donation in support of this milestone. Your investment will support both the Chair and the University of Orange, ensuring that Dr. Mindy Fullilove’s decades of research and practice continue to shape the future. It will fund:

A permanent home at the people’s free school for Dr. Fullilove’s research, writings and teachings.
Facts people need and media they can use: free public workshops, reading groups toolkits and other resources to support communities with tools for healing.
The longevity and health of our community campus at the HUUB, a space for collective learning, organizing, and civic engagement.
UofO’s ability to convene partners across the country, sharing knowledge and strategies for rebuilding communities.

If you have any questions you can get in touch by emailing mollyrose@universityoforange.org to discuss how to mobilize your network or institutional affiliation.
About Helen and Robert E. Fullilove:
Dr. Robert Fullilove was among the first African American physicians to become a Diplomate of the American Board of Urology in 1948 and at the time of his death, was the first African American President of the Essex County Medical Society. Helen Fullilove was the first African American woman to serve as the president of the Newark, NJ Board of Education and served as a member of the New Jersey School Boards Association. The Helen and Robert Fullilove Chair in Community Health will serve as an ongoing commitment to that work and will serve as UofO’s enduring promise to achieve the goals and objectives in health and education that the lives of the Fulliloves so powerfully inspired.

Please join us! Register online here.

Community Seder Solidarity Potluck
2025-04-14 18:00 - 20:00 | 35 Cleveland St, 35 Cleveland Street, City of Orange, NJ, 07050, United States
Join us on Monday, April 14th for our annual Community Seder Potluck. We will celebrate Passover, springtime and liberation.
We will read from our Haggadah, sing together, and eat traditional Passover foods. Sign up here if you’d like to bring a dish or an item for the Seder plate!
Monday, April 14th, 6pm-8pm
35 Cleveland Street, Orange, NJ 07050

A Conversation with Raúl Zibechi & George Ygarza Quispe on Place-based Knowledge production and Autonomous Learning Spaces
2025-04-20 15:00 - 17:00 | The HUUB, inc, 35 Cleveland Street, City of Orange, NJ, 07050, United States
Join us for a discussion about place-based knowledge and autonomous movements in Latin America. We will hear from Raul Zibechi, author of Constructing Worlds Otherwise, and George Ygarza Quispe, translator of the English edition of the book.
More details coming soon!
Register for the class here.
Raúl Zibechi is a Uruguayan writer, popular educator, and journalist. He writes for La Jornada, Desinformémonos, and NACLA Report on the Americas, among other outlets. Zibechi has published numerous books, including Dispersing Power, Territories in Resistance, and The New Brazil.
George Ygarza Quispe is a popular educator, translator, and organic researcher born in Paterson who has worked in Peru and across North America, thinking through undercurrents of resistance as well as analyzing structures of power.

COUSINS Closing Party + Garden State Art Weekend
2025-04-26 15:00 - 18:00 | Hale House, 47 Cleveland Street, Orange, NJ, 07050, United States
The COUSINS art show is coming to a close! Join us for the closing party on Saturday, April 26th from 3pm-6pm. The show is featured in the Garden State Art Weekend’s annual celebration of visual arts across NJ.
“Thinking of all things, people and places in our world as cousins allows us to treat them as relatives. We may not always agree, or even like all of our cousins, but we know that we are related. With many of them, we feel a sense of community and comfort when we are with them.” – Dr. Margaux Simmons
The COUSINS art show focuses on the theme of universal interconnectivity and its implications. This multimedia show features photography, collage, audio recordings, paintings, videos, and more from 22 artists. Many of the artists are from the Essex County area, others are from New York, Baltimore, D.C., Vermont, and South Korea.
The art show is at Hale House: 47 Cleveland Street, Orange, NJ.
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Garden State Art Weekend is a four-day celebration of NJ’s dynamic art scene. The annual event celebrates visual arts across the state. Its mission is to foster community engagement, support local artists and arts organizations, and raise the profile of New Jersey as a center for contemporary art.
Find out more about GSAW and other venues participating here.

May Solidarity Potluck
2025-05-12 18:00 - 20:00 | 35 Cleveland St, 35 Cleveland Street, City of Orange, NJ, 07050, United States
Join us for this month’s Solidarity Potluck! Bring a dish, bring a friend! More details coming soon.
Monday, May 12th, 6pm-8pm
35 Cleveland Street, Orange, NJ 07050

UofO Graduation + June Solidarity Potluck
2025-06-16 18:00 - 20:00 | 35 Cleveland St, 35 Cleveland Street, City of Orange, NJ, 07050, United States
Join us UofO Graduation and June solidarity potluck at the HUUB on Monday, June 16th. We will celebrate our accomplishments and what we have learned this year. We’ll also make a sign for the Ben Jones Community Garden.
Bring a dish, bring a friend, and bring a hat!
Monday, June 16th, 6pm-8pm
35 Cleveland Street, Orange, NJ 07050

Holding the Center at the Confluence of Crises
2025-07-28 18:00 - 19:00, 2025-08-04 18:00 - 19:00 | Online
Holding the Center at the Confluence of Crises: Understanding and Deploying a “Root Shock”-Informed Approach
Course Dates
Monday, July 28, August 4, 11 and 18
6pm-7pm via zoom
Optional in-person “sorted-out city” walking tour of Orange, NJ
Saturday, August 9th at 10am
Course Description
We are in a confluence of crises: rapid shifts of climate, attacks on our democracy, and disregard for the sacredness of all life. At the University of Orange, a 17-year old people’s free school based in Orange NJ, we have learned that “holding the center” requires three things: understanding how we got to this point; deploying strategies that support community recovery; and re-building political power rooted in place. This course will explore these three tasks through the lens of the work of the Cities Research Group (CRG), led by Drs Bob and Mindy Fullilove.
For four decades CRG has conducted groundbreaking research on the forces that caused catastrophic community upheaval, leading to multiple health epidemics and destroying economic, social, political and cultural capital. To describe the vast extent of the harm, Dr. Mindy Fullilove proposed the term “root shock,” a phrase gardeners use to describe what happens to a plant whose roots have been torn in the process of the transplantation. She defined it as “the traumatic stress reaction to the loss of all or part of one’s emotional ecosystem.” We believe we are all experiencing some form of root shock right now. With this understanding of root shock, CRG also identified and practiced collective strategies for community recovery which rebuilds the connective tissue necessary for democracy and people’s power.
Participants will engage with useful resources and tools that they can immediately incorporate into navigating the current crises with their own networks and communities. We will host an optional “sorted out city” walking tour in Orange, NJ on Saturday, August 9 at 10am and share a walking guide so participants can DIY in their own place.
CRG is now housed at the University of Orange under the direction of Dr. Mindy Fullilove, who holds the Helen & Robert E. Fullilove Chair of Community Health at UofO.
Register HERE for “Holding the Center at the Confluence of Crises”

Our Instructors
Dr. Robert E. Fullilove, III, is a professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. He got his start in community organizing in 1964, working with the SNCC “Freedom Summer” project. Since 2010, he has been teaching public health courses in six New York State prisons that are part of the Bard College Prison Initiative (BPI) and serves as the Senior Advisor to BPI’s public health program.
Dr. Mindy Fullilove is the Helen and Robert Fullilove Professor of Community Health at the University of Orange and Professor Emeritus at the New School University. She is a social psychiatrist who studies urban problems and their solutions.
Molly Rose Kaufman is a co-founder and director of the University of Orange. She is a graduate of the Columbia University School of Journalism, with training in urbanism from the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris, France. She uses her grounding in urbanism to develop free education for democracy.

Testimonials for our previous course, “Managing Shock and Awe”
I deeply appreciate the work Dr. Fullilove and the University of Orange team did in designing the sessions and curating the content because, as with all their work, the experience was phenomenal (both live and recorded). Through each weekly session I was grounded in examples, quotes, anecdotes, and stories connected to that week’s theme, which I was able to tie back to my own work and personal life. I have found myself re-listening to the sessions, coming back to the readings, and reflecting on the activities long after the course ended. I will consider this course as a resource especially now, when building belonging and coalitions is critical for the work ahead.
-Katherine Wright, The Rippel Foundation
I thought this course was very grounding and nice for the current political climate that is really overwhelming. It was nice to know that this was happening every week.
-Priscilla P, class participant
This was extremely accessible. I learned a lot and I really enjoyed the blend of New Jersey people’s history and the provided frameworks, ways of thinking for how we can move forward in this moment, and many more moments to come. Thank you so much. I feel more activated than I did before.
-Natalie T, class participant

About the Fullilove Chair of Community Health
The University of Orange established the Helen and Robert Fullilove Chair of Community Health in 2025. Dr. Mindy Fullilove is the holder of the chair. She will lead community courses, as well relevant research in root shock. She introduced the concept of root shock in 2001, and her book, Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America and What To Do About It, was published in 2004. UofO led an observance of the 20th anniversary of the book’s publication, which included editing a special issue of the journal, Built Environment, holding a symposium, and preparing an exhibit on root shock for the Orange Public Library.
Register HERE for “Holding the Center at the Confluence of Crises”

Course Fees
All are welcome to take our course for free! All contributions support the ongoing work of our people’s free university. If you are able, we ask you to please consider registering at a paid level.
$300 (full cost of class per person)
$150 (supporter rate)
$75 (solidarity rate)
OTHER amount (donation of any amount appreciated)
FREE (no one turned away for lack of funds NOTAFLOF)

Can your institution sponsor your team to come? Talk to us about team rates (info@universityoforange.org)

Illustration by Ayako Maruyama

What's the Story? Memoir Class Reading
2025-08-06 17:00 - 19:30 | Online
The University of Orange’s What’s the Story? Memoir Class warmly invites you to a public reading of our latest work, written in response to the prompt “Where am I?”
Join us on Wednesday, August 6th at 5:00 PM ET on Zoom for an early evening of personal storytelling, reflection, and connection. The event will run approximately 75 minutes.
All are welcome – we hope to see you there!
Register here.
