Social Justice Festival
A three-day celebration of stories from multiple disciplines that build community, manage conflict, and explore identity. This highly experiential festival is an academic ritual at Buffalo State and includes workshops, performances, and art exhibits that challenge, teach, and explore diverse social and personal justice topics.
The Anne Frank Project is a program of Buffalo State University.
Across our personal, professional, and civic lives, we recognize the need for change. We are encouraged to improve ourselves, adapt to new challenges, and pursue healthier, more meaningful lives; Personal Change. At the same time, we witness persistent calls for change within our local communities, our nation, and our world as we confront issues of equity, justice, and human dignity; Social Change. The importance of change is widely acknowledged; the challenge lies in knowing where and how to begin.
Meaningful change rarely starts with a movement of thousands. More often, it begins with a single action, a courageous decision, a new perspective, or a practical strategy that inspires others to act. Lasting transformation—whether personal or social—emerges from identifiable starting points.
At AFP 2026: Where Change Begins, we will explore those starting points. Together, we will examine how individuals and communities can move from awareness to action and from intention to impact.
18th Annual Social Justice Festival Dates: October 6th - 8th, 2026
The 2026 Festival will explore an idea that is frequently discussed but too often left unrealized: Change.
ATTEND
Here is the schedule of events for AFP 2026: Where Change Begins
PROGRAM
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
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10:00 AM–12:00 PM | Social Hall, Campbell Student Union
AFP 2026 Welcome!
Kicking off the festival with welcoming remarks from President Burris and building interactive rules of engagement for the three days ahead.
Presenters:
President Jennifer L. Burris, Ph.D
SUNY Distinguish Service Professor & Director of AFP, Drew Kahn
RSVP → Bengal Connect
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12:15 PM - 1:30 PM | Social Hall, Campbell Student Union
Sophia’s Legacy
Engage in lessons from Sophia’s Legacy program, which shares tools in bringing challenging topics into the classroom, inspired by the story of Holocaust survivor, Sophia Veffer.
Presenters:
Rebecca Zuch
Molly Barry
Dana Kemp
Matt Lapennas
RSVP → Bengal Connect
12:15 PM - 1:30 PM | Assembly Hall. Campbell Student Union
Unpacking the Past, Imagining the Future: Genealogy as a Catalyst for Change
Discover how family history and ancestral research provide vital insights into identity and community heritage. In this session we will unpack where we come from, gain fresh perspective on each of our journeys, and use those roots to intentionally chart what comes next.
Presenter: Jill Gutmann
RSVP → Bengal Connect
1:40 PM - 2:55 PM | Social Hall, Campbell Student Union
Where Change Begins: Stories of Turning Points, Possibility, and Growth
Change can start with a conversation, a challenge, a relationship, or one small step. Hear personal stories from Buffalo State's Provost and Associate Provost, then reflect on the pivotal moments in your own journey and consider practical actions you can take towards your goals.
Presenters:
Dr. Amitra Wall, Provost & VP for Academic Affairs
Dr. Atta Ceesay, Associate Provost for Student Success and Retention
RSVP → Bengal Connect
1:40 PM - 2:55 PM | Assembly Hall, Campbell Student Union
Fighting Anti-Semitism with Joy: How joyful approaches can influence community perspectives on their Jewish neighbors.
The Jewish Museum of Buffalo welcomes you to build joyful, positive first encounters with Jewish life and culture, while still addressing and combatting antisemitism. Through creativity, conversation, and hands-on activities, participants will challenge stereotypes and discover shared experiences across cultures.
Presenter: Adina Olbrys
RSVP → Bengal Connect
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3:05 PM - 4:20 PM | Social Hall, Campbell Student Union
Your Story Is Your Blueprint
Explore how your experiences shape who you are and the strengths you’ve developed along the way. Through movement, reflective writing, and collaborative activities, participants will reframe personal challenges as strengths, identify the “arsenal” they’ve developed through adversity, and consider the legacy they hope to leave behind.
Presenter: Christine Seshie
RSVP → Bengal Connect
3:05 PM - 4:20 PM | Assembly Hall, Campbell Student Union
Strategic Change: Moving Beyond Good Intentions to Sustainable Equity.
In this interactive session, participants will examine how belonging, psychological safety, self-efficacy, and intentional leadership can help individuals and organizations embrace embrace innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Presenter: Michael A. Heflin, Ph.D
RSVP → Bengal Connect
4:30 PM - 5:45 PM | Social Hall, Campbell Student Union
WRITE ON! - Personal and Social Transformation
When we feel comfortable to be ourselves, to express ourselves, and to make mistakes, then in turn we can transform our world. In this session, participants will experience intuitive writing, meditation, free-writing, and active listening, that will create space for meaningful connection.
Presenter: Hy Carrel
RSVP → Bengal Connect
4:30 PM - 5:45 PM | AFP Global Learning Lab, Campbell Student Union 419
Dungeons & Dragons: Roll for Story
Step into a character's shoes and explore how tabletop role-playing games like D&D can become tools for self-reflection, identity exploration, and connection. Experience how imaginary worlds can help us better understand ourselves and build community.
Presenter: Sam Kahn
RSVP → Bengal Connect
Wednesday, October 7, 2026
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10:00 AM - 11:30 AM | AFP Global Learning Lab, Campbell Student Union 419
Voices in Motion: Unpacking What We Carry to Find Where Change Begins
Meaningful social and personal change requires us to confront the unspoken assumptions and perspectives we carry. Explore global storytelling through a short film about a student-led study abroad experience in Kenya, then become creators in a hands-on community art studio.
Presenters:
Judi Harris
Dr. Alexandra Allen
RSVP → Bengal Connect
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM | Assembly Hall, Campbell Student Union
Stories That Heal: Using Storytelling to Advance Health, Education, and Social Justice
Explore how stories can support healing, build resilience, and promote social justice. Drawing on experiences from conflict-affected northern Uganda, psychiatric nursing, and film education, participants will engage in storytelling exercises, small-group story circles, guided reflection, and active listening activities that foster empathy, reduce stigma, and encourage dialogue.
Presenter: Anita Lakareber, RN, BSN
RSVP → Bengal Connect
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12:00 PM-1:30 PM | Social Hall, Campbell Student Union
The Story Swap: Where Change Begins
Change begins when people feel heard. Before we can change systems, we must first learn to listen to the people living within them. The Peaceprints of WNY Project Blue invites particpants to listen to a former incarcerated individual’s lived experience who has successfully navigated addiction and the challenges of reentry. Afterwards, take part in “The Story Swap,” an interactive exercise where you’ll practice listening, retelling, and recognizing how assumptions can shape the way we hear others.
Presenter: Lee Becker
RSVP → Bengal Connect
1:00 PM-2:30 PM | Assembly Hall, Campbell Student Union
The Future We Create: AI, Human Values, and the Choices Ahead
As artificial intelligence becomes more powerful and integrated into our lives, what happens to human judgment, agency, and control? In this session, particpants will discuss the potential risks of advanced AI and consider how our collective values can be preserved in light of emerging concerns associated with AI.
Presenters:
Matthew Karovski
Glasha Zinenko
RSVP → Bengal Connect
2:00 PM - 3:15 PM | Social Hall, Campbell Student Union
Standing in Our Own Names: Where Love Begin
We are taught that social justice begins out there — in the streets, the systems, the policies. This session begins somewhere more radical: within. Participants will engage in an embodied practicethat will discover that change begins at the point of reception. And it begins with the self.
Presenter: Dr. Digna Saad
RSVP → Bengal Connect
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3:00 PM - 4:30 PM | AFP Global Learning Lab, Campbell Student Union 419
Research for Change, Service for Change
In this interactive session, participants will explore issues they care about and work through a practical "challenge-to-action" framework. Through discussion and collaborative activities, you will discover how research and service can become powerful tools for personal, professional, and social change. Leave with your own Change Blueprint to translate curiosity into inquiry and inquiry into engagement, and engagement into meaningful change.
Presenters:
Dr. Amitra Wall, Provost & VP for Academic Affairs
Dr. Scott Goodman, Associate Vice President for Graduate, Research, and Special Programs
RSVP → Bengal Connect
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM | Social Hall, Campbell Student Union
Hidden Costs, Real Change: An Interactive Idea Lab
Everyday products often have environmental, social, and economic costs that are hidden behind the price tag . Through student-led investigations, participants will ask questions, share perspectives, and brainstorm ways individuals, businesses, and communities can create more sustainable and equitable choices.
Presenters:
Lorena Mathien, Ph.D.
Students from The Hidden Cost of Everything
RSVP → Bengal Connect
4:00 PM-5:30 PM | Assembly Hall, Campbell Student Union
Where Belonging Begins: Finding Courage Through Art and Story
Change does not begin when we become someone else. Change begins when we stop hiding who we are. Through poetry and conversation, participants will reflect on the parts of themselves they are learning to embrace. In the end, create a personal piece of art to be contributed to a collaborative “Azure Sheep” artwork, celebrating the many stories and serve as a reminder that belonging is built one story at a time.
Presenter: Merita Jaha
RSVP → Bengal Connect
Thursday, October 8, 2026
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10:50 AM - 12:05 PM | Social Hall, Campbell Student Union
WHY TRY - Know Your Why to Build Your Success
Knowing your WHY - whether it's your academic, personal and/or professional goals matters to achieve your future success. Coached by Social Studies Education students and faculty, participants will develop their own WHY Mantra.
Presenters:
Dana Faye Serure, Ed.D
Social Studies Education Teacher Candidates
RSVP → Bengal Connect
10:50 AM - 12:05 PM | Assembly Hall, Campbell Student Union
Personal Change and Impact from the Lessons of Anne Frank
Explore two powerful lessons from The Diary of Anne Frank: gratitude and resilience. Through discussion and reflection, consider how these qualities can shape personal and professional growth, then create a poster that connects each lesson to your own experiences and the positive impact you can have on others.
Presenter: Dr. Michael Littman
RSVP → Bengal Connect
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12:15 PM-1:30 PM | Social Hall, Campbell Student Union
Living Library
In this interactive session, attendees “borrow” human “books” from diverse and marginalized backgrounds for open conversations. These dialogues foster empathy, understanding, and connection across differences.
Presenters: Butler Library Staff
RSVP → Bengal Connect
12:15 PM - 1:30 PM | Assembly Hall, Campbell Student Union
Empty Bowls: Raising Awareness about Food Insecurity Among College Students
Nationally, 1 in 4 college students do not have access to enough healthy food, impacting their academic performance, mental health, and physical health. This session will discuss a unique initiative on campus, Empty Bowls, to raise awareness about student hunger and raise funds for Milligan's Food Pantry on campus. Participants will have the opportunity to try out using a ceramics wheel and get assistance from Dean of Student interns in applying for SNAP . Purchase soup & a ceramic bowl! All proceeds go to Milligan's Food Pantry.
Presenter: Kaitlin Crawford
RSVP → Bengal Connect
12:15 PM -1:30 PM | Czurles-Nelson Gallery, Upton Hall
Art Exhibition: Where Change Begins
Art exhibition centered on the starting points of enacting change.
RSVP → Bengal Connect
1:40 PM - 2:55 PM | Social Hall, Campbell Student Union
Where Change Begins: Weaving Community from the Skills You Already Have
What do you already have that could become a starting point for change? Hear how a passion for textile arts and and a desire to create opportunities for refugee and immigrant women formed into Stitch Buffalo. Through storytelling, reflection, conversation, and hands-on weaving, discover how small actions can connect with and empower others.
Presenter: Dawne Hoeg
RSVP → Bengal Connect
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3:05 PM-4:20 PM | Social Hall, Campbell Student Union
Move to Democracy
How do you get the people around you to move with you, to change with you? In this interactive movement workshop, learn a simple dance phrase and transform it through two different systems of governance: majority-rule democracy and consensus-based decision-making. The workshop creates space for participants to discover and express their own relationship to change, power, voice, agency, and belonging.
Presenters: ChoreoNova® Dance Company
RSVP → Bengal Connect
3:05 PM - 4:20 PM | Assembly Hall, Campbell Student Union
Building Your Personal Self-Care Toolkit. Small Habits. Lasting Wellness.
In this interactive workshop hosted by student organization, NAMI, participants will explore what self-care looks like beyond common stereotypes and learn practical ways to support their mental well-being. Leave with your own personalized self-care toolkit with strategies you can use to manage stress and prioritize your wellness.
Presenters: NAMI
RSVP → Bengal Connect
4:30 PM-5:45 PM | Social Hall, Campbell Student Union
Change Begins with Micro-Activism!
We are faced with many social problems today and social change can feel impossible and overwhelming. Social Work students will create easy, quick, practical, and effective "small steps" towards change. Move from table to table, try out these different steps to take action, and discover Micro-Activism that you can continue long after the Festival ends.
Presenters:
Nicholas Cheeves
Social Work students in SWK 302: Social Justice Advocacy
RSVP → Bengal Connect
For Buffalo State Community
RSVP through Bengal Connect. RSVP located underneath each session.
For Community Members
The Social Justice Festival is open and free to the community! No registration is required. Community attendees can check in when they arrive at the Festival.
Please park in designated parking areas for community attendees, I37, R12, R13. Parking in unauthorized areas may result in a ticket. Check the campus map below.
Since its inception in 2009, our Social Justice Festival has explored underpinnings of humanity.
HISTORY
Through our Social Justice Festival, we’ve led brave and deep explorations of issues like shared humanity, social responsibility, defining inclusion, community engagement, mental health, systematic racism, the roots of Genocide, innovations in education, and personal healing. With an emphasis on doing, the festival is part of student coursework, connecting them to experts, artists, and leaders from around the globe who facilitate the interactive sessions.
Click below to download and explore past festival programs.
