UPDATED: Next Arizona Horizon Town Hall explores race, unrest and healing

Vanessa Ruiz, Arizona PBS anchor/host and Cronkite School director of diversity

Cronkite School director of diversity Vanessa Ruiz will moderate the discussion.

By Katie Jones |
May 29, 2020

UPDATE: June 5 town hall to focus on race and unrest

“Arizona Horizon,” the daily public affairs program produced by Arizona PBS, is airing weekly town hall meetings each Friday at 7:30 p.m. to give the public more information about the things that impact life during the COVID-19 pandemic. Every week, they put viewers' questions before lawmakers, other public officials and experts in a variety of fields.

Although the June 5 town hall was previously scheduled to focus on the performing arts, this conversation has been rescheduled for June 19.

In light of events in Phoenix and across the country, Vanessa Ruiz, director of diversity for the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU, will moderate a discussion with community leaders about the current unrest and how we can come together to find common ground and heal. Guests will be Debora Colbert, interim executive director of the Black Mothers Forum; Roy Tatem Jr., president of East Valley NAACP; and Lola N’sangou, executive director of Mass Liberation Arizona.

On June 19, Jaime Dempsey, executive director of the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and Mark Mettes, president and CEO of the Herberger Theater Center, will join moderator Ted Simons to answer questions from viewers on the future of performing arts in Arizona.

Find more information and watch previous town halls here. Topics have included K-12 education, higher education, public health and business and unemployment resources.