Jan 6th EVENT: Viral Justice

WHO & WHAT: An IRL & Virtual EVENT w/author and Professor of African American studies at Princeton University, Ruha Benjamin, alongside film maker and entrepreneur Nesanet Abegaze, discussing Ruha's newest book Viral Justice at Reparations Club.

WHEN: Friday, January 6, 2023 @ 7pm PST

WHERE: LIVE In-Person at Rep Club in Los Angeles (3054 S. Victoria Ave LA, CA 90016, vaccination + mask required) or via livestream virtually from anywhere!

COVID REQUIREMENTS: Proof of vaccination and face covering while indoors is required to attend in-person. No exceptions. 

HOW: Reserve an IRL or Virtual ticket from the drop down below:

Free virtual tickets do not include a book copy. 

Virtual ticket links will be emailed to registered guests via Crowdcast within 24 hours of the event time. Please check your spam or contact us if you do not receive. If ordering multiple tickets, please include any additional emails in the notes section at checkout. 

Please email us if you have any additional needs or accessibility concerns.

Ruha Benjamin is Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, author of the award-winning book Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code (2019) and Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want (2022) among other publications. Her work investigates the social dimensions of science, medicine, and technology with a focus on the relationship between innovation and inequity, health and justice, knowledge and power. Ruha earned a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Spelman College, MA and PhD in Sociology from UC Berkeley, and completed postdoctoral fellowships at UCLA’s Institute for Society & Genetics and Harvard’s Science, Technology & Society Program. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including from the American Council of Learned Societies, National Science Foundation, Marguerite Casey Foundation 2020 Freedom Scholar Award, and the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton. For more info, please visit www.ruhabenjamin.com.  

Nesanet Teshager Abegaze is a filmmaker, entrepreneur, educator, co-founder of Azla Ethiopian Eatery and Tesh Media Lab, whose profound love of storytelling and community unifies her wide-ranging career. At Stanford University, Nesanet earned her BA in Human Biology, an interdisciplinary major that allowed her to explore science, history, and the arts. Following her tenure supporting non-profit organizations at the New World Foundation, she earned her MA in Education from UCLA and taught in South Central Los Angeles, where she developed an innovative health/life sciences curriculum with an emphasis on the arts.

Since leaving the formal education sector, Nesanet has immersed herself in many creative fields. As Vice President of Operations at Atom Factory, a renowned entertainment management company, she helped musicians and entertainers realize their unique artistic visions. From there, she and her mother co-founded Azla, a plant-based Ethiopian eatery inspired by the idea that the dining table is a space to share food and your life. Working with and listening to her mother inspired Nesanet to preserve her family history via her lifelong interest in film. Her short film, Bereka (2020), screened at Sundance Film Festival, and won best experimental film at BlackStar Film Festival. Today, Nesanet brings her extensive career and artistic experiences to Tesh Media Lab. She works on books, films, cooking seminars, teaches visual storytelling workshops, and more to foster community and spark new narratives.