You’re invited to APEX Advocacy’s next ‘Read the Room’ Virtual Discussion, LIVE on Zoom.
On Rats and Race: Dispossession, Disenfranchisement, and Despair
May 29, 2026 | 12:00 PM–1:30 PM PDT / 3:00 PM–4:30 PM EDT
Join APEX Advocacy for our next Read the Room virtual discussion, an interactive community conversation where we unpack literature, poetry, journalism, and political analysis through a critical social justice lens.
This session will explore excerpts from Native Son by Richard Wright, selections from Arc & Hue by Tara Betts, and recent reporting from Gaza documenting rodent infestations, displacement, collapsing sanitation infrastructure, and the public health consequences of war.
Together, we’ll examine how poverty, racial capitalism, environmental injustice, housing insecurity, colonial violence, and abandonment shape the conditions people are forced to survive within. From rats becoming a form of currency for struggling families to displaced communities enduring infestations amid destroyed infrastructure, this discussion asks what these realities reveal about dispossession, dignity, and survival.
The event will include facilitated discussion, critical analysis, and a live audience Q&A.
All donations support APEX Advocacy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to advocacy, political education, and systems change work.
Reading selections and the Zoom link will be emailed to registered participants prior to the event.