SEMO to host panel discussion of Burns's documentary 'The Central Park Five'

There will be a panel discussion of Ken Burns's documentary "The Central Park Five" from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 19 in Rose Theatre at Southeast Missouri State University.

The Department of Mass Media will host the event, the second in its See Me Series. The 2012 documentary chronicles the story of five teenagers of color who were wrongfully imprisoned for a rape that occurred in Central Park in 1989.

Panelists include Hamner Hill, professor in the Department of Political Science, Philosophy and Religion; Joseph Jefferson, director of Jazz Studies and associate professor of trombone/euphonium; Jowairia Khalid, senior multimedia journalism major; and Kennedy Hanner, senior public relations major. The event will be moderated by Jasmine Evans, an instructor with the Department of Mass Media and faculty adviser to the Arrow newspaper.

"The whole purpose of the See Me Series and this event is to bring the campus together to reflect and dialogue about how important it is that we see each other, and this entire documentary is about a case of where these five young men were not seen by the criminal justice system in society, and so it's a case study of what not to do, and so that's why we picked it," said Pam Parry, mass media professor and the event organizer.

This is the second installment of the department's See Me Series, which is designed to bring explorations of and conversations about diverse creative media work to the Southeast campus. The inaugural event in March focused on the film "Georgia, Georgia," which was written by Maya Angelou, and professors across campus incorporated the event into their courses. That same invitation has been extended to the campus community this year.

The documentary is available to stream through Kent Library's Kanopy collection. No registration is required to attend the panel discussion.