Registration opens:
January 21st, 2026

More Than a Color: The Marginalization of African Beauty

Ages 12+

Speaker Karen Anderson will illuminate history filled with women of color who refused to view themselves through social limitation. She hopes to inspire others to decide for themselves what beauty is.

Illinois Humanities Road Scholar, Karen Anderson will take participants on a walk-through history telling the stories of some women whom many may not know.

Anderson will speak about the women of color in 1760 French America who figured out how to legally free themselves from slavery only to be bound by government laws, women like Sarah Baartman who had to choose between being a circus oddity or a slave, and how women like Sarah Breedlove and Ann Malone changed the way women of African descent saw themselves—how these women redefined beauty. Anderson will also reflect on a recent development: our society has started to see women of color as beautiful.

Registration will open at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, January 21. 

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