University of Orange

UofO Jan Term: Tiny Town
2022-03-16 12:00 - 13:00, 2022-03-23 12:00 - 13:00, 2022-03-30 12:00 - 13:00, 2022-04-06 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York)
Join UofO’s urbanists in residence, Kay Liang and Maria Gerdyman, for a free 10-week course: “Tiny Town”

Wednesdays, January 26th – April 6th, 2022 (except March 9th)
12PM-1PM EST on Zoom
Open to all ages.
Join UofO’s urbanists in residence, Kay Liang and Maria Gerdyman, for a free 10-week course: “Tiny Town”
Tiny Town is an interactive storytelling universe for adventurers of all ages. Participants interact with and contribute to a digital world by embodying their own avatars and submitting drawings, sounds, and found objects.
This course will take place in the malleable world of Tiny Town, where participants can playtest their wildest dreams for the city of Orange. Participants will be invited to heal their inner child and creative anxiety through playful drawing, storytelling and role-playing prompts. By illustrating our difficult experiences as characters and immersive neighborhoods, we can collectively build a city that is centered around love.
Grace Lee Boggs said, “It’s up to us to reimagine the alternatives and not just protest against them and expect them to do better.” What will emerge from a digital fantasyland where not even material reality, let alone slow-moving bureaucracy holds us back?
The invitation is that all participants will commit to make every effort to attend all classes. An additional smaller group co-creation session will be scheduled during the course. The last week will include a finale celebration, date to be decided.
Kay Liang is a ladybug lover and aspiring storyteller who is passionate about building worlds that can honor our full selves and collective imaginations.
Maria Gerdyman is a garbage enthusiast and amateur masseuse who cares about making everybody feel heard, non-humans included.

Root Shock Reading Group
2023-01-16 18:30 - 19:30 | Online
UofOrange is hosting this 4 week free online reading group of Mindy Fullilove’s “Root Shock”. Join us each week on Mondays from January 16th to February 6th at 6:30PM EST.
Register online HERE
Root Shock examines 3 different U.S. cities to unmask the crippling results of decades-old disinvestment in communities of color and the urban renewal practices that ultimately destroyed these neighborhoods for the advantage of developers and the elite.
Like a sequel to the prescient warnings of urbanist Jane Jacobs, Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove reveals the disturbing effects of decades of insensitive urban renewal projects on communities of color. For those whose homes and neighborhoods were bulldozed, the urban modernization projects that swept America starting in 1949 were nothing short of an assault. Vibrant city blocks – places rich in culture – were torn apart by freeways and other invasive development, devastating the lives of poor residents.
Fullilove passionately describes the profound traumatic stress- the “root shock”that results when a neighborhood is demolished. She estimates that federal and state urban renewal programs, spearheaded by business and real estate interests, destroyed 1,600 African American districts in cities across the United States. But urban renewal didn’t just disrupt black communities: it ruined their economic health and social cohesion, stripping displaced residents of their sense of place as well. It also left big gashes in the centers of cities that are only now slowly being repaired.
Focusing on the Hill District of Pittsburgh, the Central Ward in Newark, and the small Virginia city of Roanoke, Dr. Fullilove argues powerfully against policies of displacement. Understanding the damage caused by root shock is crucial to coping with its human toll and helping cities become whole.
Buy a copy here: https://nyupress.org/9781613320198/root-shock/

Whats the Story? Winter 2023 Memoir Writing Class
2023-01-20 11:00 - 12:00
10-week virtual memoir class offered by UofO, taught by developmental editor Susan Hasho

What’s the Story? A Memoir writing class
REGISTER HERE
Do you have some stories you’d like to tell? There may be stories about your life that you want to tell your children or grandchildren, perhaps about another country or culture you came from or your parents came from. Was there an experience that changed your life or your neighborhood? How about if you were in the military and you want to share something about that? If you have a desire to share or describe anything that you are fascinated by, care about or even want to change, this class is a place to do that.
What’s the Story is a 10-week writing class that intends to provoke, free and guide anyone to write a memoir that reflects their own unique voice and life experience. There will be interaction with everyone in the class, homework, time for each person to talk about their writing or their questions about what they would like to write as well as feedback from the teacher. Anyone who chooses may read their writing at a designated time period during the class.
Susan Hasho is a developmental editor which is an editor involved in the mysterious process of enabling writers and anyone interested in writing to find their way through the maze of expectations, judgement and even fear to find the true heart of what they want to write. She has trained and worked as an actor and writer, and moved into the advertising field to work as a copy editor for advertising agencies and Fortune 500 companies. She began working with writers several years ago as an editor and it became her goal to teach a writing class that would enable people to be as free of self-criticism and inhibiting expectations as possible in order to write clearly and openly with joy.

Walking Springfield Ave
2023-02-11 13:00 - 15:00 | Seated Lincoln Statue, Springfield Ave, Newark NJ, Market St & Springfield Ave, Newark, NJ, 07102, United States
Join University of Orange for our Jan Term 2023 Field Trip, a ~2 mile walk of Springfield Ave in Newark, NJ. This walk is connected to our reading group of Dr. Mindy Fullilove’s book “Root Shock”. We’ll read from the passages in Root Shock about urban renewal in Newark.
We’ll meet at the statue of Lincoln on the corner of Springfield Ave and Market Street at 1PM on Sunday February 11th. To stay up to date about possible postponements due to inclement weather, please register here.

The Long Haul: A Jan Term Reading Group
2024-01-15 19:00 - 20:00 | Online
Join UofO’s Collective Recovery team as we read Myles Horton’s autobiography, The Long Haul, with supplementary readings from We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change and A Singing Army: Zilphia Horton and the Highlander Folk School
Mondays 7PM-8PM EST
January 15th – February 5th, 2024
register for zoom link here
Reach out to us at admin@universityoforange.org if you’d like a copy of the book. ]

MLK Volunteer Day
2025-01-20 10:00 - 12:30 | 33 Cleveland Street, Orange, NJ 07050, 33 Cleveland Street, Orange, NJ, 07050, United States
Join us for a volunteer day at the HUUB on MLK Day!
We will take on some tasks to spruce up the buildings and grounds of the community campus for the coming year.

Monday, January 20th, 10am-12:30pm
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.

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.
