Meet the panelists of the 1619 Panel Discussion: Democracy

Join the African American Museum of Iowa and NewBo City Market for the next installment of the The 1619 Project, focused on democracy– more specifically, how our democracy's central ideals have been true and untrue since the outset, especially for people of color.

This in-person, masked and socially-distanced event will take place at NewBo City Market on Friday, February 26th at 7 p.m. and will feature Linn County Supervisor Stacey Walker, Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague, and Linn County Sustainability Manager Tamara Marcus. Since 2020, the AAMI has been putting on public panel discussions as its own continuation of The 1619 Project, an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.

Each AAMI panel discussion will feature a variety of community voices, in many cases Iowa’s own experts on topics being discussed – topics like incarceration, music, democracy, and more.

Stacey Walker, Linn County Supervisor

Stacey Walker is a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He grew up on the southeast side of town and attended Washington High School. He went on to study political science at the University of Iowa.

Throughout his career, Walker has worked for several political campaigns at the congressional, gubernatorial, and presidential level. He continues to serve as a political activist and writer, with a portfolio of work published in Little Village Magazine, Quartz Magazine, The Washington Post’s The Root, among others.

Walker served as Co-chair of the Safe, Equitable, and Thriving Communities Task Force, a multi-jurisdictional partnership between the City of Cedar Rapids, the Cedar Rapids School District, and Linn County to address systemic poverty and gun violence among other priorities.

Bruce Teague, Iowa City Mayor

Bruce Teague is Mayor for the City of Iowa City. He was elected to the city council on Oct. 2, 2018, and will serve a two-year term as mayor, from 2020-2022.

He moved to Iowa City from Chicago when he was 17 years old and graduated from West High. He graduated in 2002 from Kirkwood Community College with an associate’s degree in Applied Science in Nursing. Mayor Teague is also a 2001 graduate of the University of Iowa, where he holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Certificate of Aging Studies.

He is the Owner/CEO of Caring Hands & More LLC, which provides a variety of services, from independent living and child care programs to home cleaning and lawn care.

Tamara Marcus, Linn County Sustainability Manager

Tamara Marcus is a former Fulbright scholar where she completed two years of climate change research in the Indian Himalaya and working with local communities to translate her physical science research into local conservation policy.

Marcus is a Ph.D. candidate in the Natural Resources and Earth System Sciences Ph.D. program at the University of New Hampshire. Her research interests include using bioinformatic techniques to understand the impact of warming on microbial mediation of carbon emissions from Arctic lakes. Additionally, she studies how indigenous communities access weather and climate data to better understand how to make results from climate research more accessible and applicable to individuals and communities.

Using a combination of survey data and storytelling, Marcus works with Sami communities and indigenous Australians to record environmental change observed by the traditional owners of the land. Through this work, Marcus hopes to promote collaborative development of conservation policy by both scientists and indigenous communities.

Event rules:

• Face covering required inside the Market.

• No outside food or drink.

• If you have been sick in the last two weeks prior to the event please avoid attending.

When you enter NewBo City Market, you enter an area where photography, audio, and video recording may occur. By entering the premises, you waive all rights you may have to any claims for payment of royalties in connection with any use.