We need to talk. We need each other. We need community.
Join the Stowe Center for Literary Activism for an open forum centered on current news and the issues shaping our lives right now. These gatherings invite neighbors into conversation, reflection, and community connection in a welcoming space where dialogue can spark understanding and action.
Conversation Focus: Immigration
Contemporary issues will remain at the heart of the conversation, with space for participants to bring their questions, concerns, and perspectives.
Come be in community, engage with others, and help turn conversation into action.
About Derek Hall
Derek Hall (he/him/his) is a dynamic anti-racist intergroup dialogue facilitator, public speaker, and activist committed to challenging beliefs and institutional culture rooted in systemic racism and other forms of oppression.
Derek has worked in the diversity, equity, and inclusion field for more than ten years, partnering with public and private school systems, for-profit and nonprofit organizations locally and nationally. His passion for decolonized education, human connection, and implementing racial equity strategies has led him to speak to audiences of more than 500 people and facilitate groups as small as 5 to 15. As a Racial Equity Consultant and Coach, Derek believes that “changed people change systems,” and he uses facilitation, storytelling, and community building to deepen the racial and social consciousness of individuals and organizations.
Historian:
Subject Experts:
Constanza Segovia
Since 2016, Constanza has been the co-founder and lead organizer of Hartford Deportation Defense (HDD), an immigrant-led immigrant rights organization that organizes neighbors to build a just and dignified future for their families and communities in the Hartford region. Their current focus is access to health care, quality public schools, renters’ rights, and workers’ rights. Constanza has represented HDD and helped lead statewide social justice coalitions like the CT Immigrant Rights Alliance, HUSKY 4 Immigrants, the CT Coalition for Immigrant Freedom, and Connecticut For All. During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, she helped start the CT UndocuFund and the Mutual Aid Hartford network. Since 2024, she has been the organizing director for the statewide community-labor-faith coalition Connecticut For All.
Among Constanza’s proudest accomplishments is the establishment of the Families Facing Deportation Fund at the City of Hartford, the expansion of the HUSKY program to include undocumented kids up to age 15 and undocumented pregnant people, and the recognition of Connecticut pardons by ICE, resulting in people avoiding deportation because of their criminal record once they obtain a pardon in our state.
Constanza grew up in Mendoza, Argentina, and moved to the US at the age of 17. She is formerly undocumented and part of a mixed status family. She lives in Hartford, CT, with her family.
Teresa Quintana
Housing Equity Organizer at Make the Road CT
