Day of Dialogue

Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025

This campus-wide alternative day of education will suspend regular day classes to ensure full participation by students, faculty, and staff in meaningful conversations about insecurity and its impact on individuals, communities, and systems. 

This year's Day of Dialogue will feature three distinguished keynote speakers: 

Anaïs Duplan is a trans* poet, curator, and artist, and is professor of postcolonial literature at Bennington College. He is the author of a book of essays, Blackspace: On the Poetics of an Afrofuture (Black Ocean, 2020), among many other works.  In 2016, Duplan founded the Center for Afrofuturist Studies, an artist residency program for artists of color.  He is the recipient of the 2021 QUEER|ART|PRIZE for Recent Work, and a 2022 Whiting Award in Nonfiction. 

Dr. Timothy Callahan, leader of the North Adams Public Schools, has spent 27 years in the district, beginning as a substitute teacher, then holding various roles from English teacher to high school principal and district leader before becoming superintendent in 2025. Dr. Callahan is also a pop culture and role-playing game writer who has written for Fantagraphics, Goodman Games, Macmillan Publishing, and Marvel Entertainment. He is the author of Grant Morrison: The Early Years (2007), the editor of Teenagers from the Future (2008), and the designer of numerous adventures for Dungeon Crawl Classics. In 2021, Dr. Callahan completed his doctoral dissertation on “Principal Actions in Massachusetts in Relation to School Accountability Status,” and has presented at local and regional conferences on topics such as Rethinking Discipline, Public Education as Equity, and Blended Learning Models for an Online World. He believes deeply in the power of public education to build community and create a positive shared future.

Charles Redd, the Berkshire Health Systems Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer since 2022 began his career as a nursing assistant in 1985. He worked in nursing positions of increasing responsibility for nearly three decades, including at Baystate Medical Center as Assistant Manager of Telemetry and ICU Step-Down Units, Director of Emergency and Behavioral Health Services, and Clinical Documentation Improvement Lead. Prior to his appointment as BHS Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, Redd served as the Director of Quality for Fairview Hospital.
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Redd has been engaged in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work for more than 12 years, first as part of the Black Employees Connecting resource group at Baystate Health and then as a leadership fellow with Partnership Inc. in Boston. Locally, Redd represents Berkshire Health Systems on the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services’ (EOHHS) Health Equity Accountability Group and the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association’s (MHA) Hospital Incentive Workgroup. These two state-level committees work to better understand data, tracking, quality standards, and accountability in matters of race, ethnicity, language, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and economic status and make recommendations to state leaders about how to implement health-equity programming and distribute related funding. He is currently a member of the BHS Council for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and writes a weekly blog exploring relationships, respect, and equity called Dignity Freedom Fighter.

The Day of Dialogue represents MCLA's ongoing commitment to creating spaces where difficult conversations can happen productively and respectfully, fostering critical thinking and community engagement across campus.