Activism and the Art of Reinvention: Lyn Slater and Christine Platt in Conversation

The Graduate School of Social Service is proud to host a conversation between author, social worker, fashion influencer, and former GSS professor Lyn Slater, Ph.D., and author Christine Platt, J.D. The topic of conversation will be “living a life of activism creatively and finding opportunities to promote and facilitate intergenerational collaboration,” using Slater’s upcoming book How to Be Old: Lessons in Living Boldly from the Accidental Icon (Plume, 2024) and Platt’s 2021 release The Afrominimalist’s Guide to Living with Less as a framework for the discussion.

About the Speakers
Lyn Slater is a writer, activist, social worker, former professor, and serial reinventer. Throughout her 47-year career as a social worker, she has creatively accessed performance, storytelling, photography, fashion, social media, and the internet in the service of her advocacy work. In 2014, when she started a fashion blog at the age of 61, she instigated a change in how older people are represented in the media, as well as challenged stereotypes about what it means to be an older adult. She walked away when her role became more about consumerism than culture change. She shares her experience in her memoir, How to Be Old. Today, Slater writes on Substack and in a column in her local newspaper that seeks to engage residents of all ages in the project of making their city an age-friendly, sustainable community.

Christine Platt is a multigenre author who has carved a unique path in the worlds of lifestyle and literature. She holds a B.A. in Africana studies from the University of South Florida, an M.A. in African and African American studies from The Ohio State University, and a J.D. from Stetson University College of Law. Platt currently serves as the executive director for Jacqueline Woodson’s nonprofit residency for artists of the “global majority,” Baldwin for the Arts. Platt is a member of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Association of Black Women Historians, and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. She also serves as an ambassador for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.