Something The Lord Made

What happens to a dream deferred? Sometimes it flowers into genius in the unlikeliest of times and places.

Join us for a screening of the award-winning film Something The Lord Made. The film shows us the relationship between heart surgery pioneers Alfred Blalock, MD and Vivien Thomas, the grandson of a slave whose dreams of becoming a physician were dashed by the economic disaster of The Great Depression, and by racism. The duo devised surgical procedures that saved the lives of “blue babies”--infants born with cyanotic heart disease.

This film garnered two Golden Globe Nominations, three Daytime Emmys and 12 other award for its stellar cast featuring Alan Rickman, Yaslin Bey (Mos Def), and Gabrielle Union.

Speakers
Harriet Washington is an American writer. She is the author of the book Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, which won the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and the PEN/Oakland Award, BCALA Nonfiction Award, Gustavus Meyers Award. Washington was born in Fort Dix, New Jersey. She is a graduate of the University of Rochester and of Columbia University. Ms. Washington is a Fellow of The New York Academy of Medicine.

Robert Ruben, MD is Distinguished University Professor, Department of Otorhinolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery; Professor, Department of Pediatrics; and Director, Clinical Research Center for Communicative Disorders. Dr. Ruben notes, “I have two main areas of research. The first is the history of medicine in general and more specifically otolaryngology, voice, speech, language, and deafness. The second area is personalized medicine apply to otolaryngology."

He has been a student and active scholar in the area of history of medicine since his first year in medical school. This has resulted in numerous historical publications and he is presently the Chairperson of the Section of History of Medicine and Public Health at the New York Academy of Medicine as well as a long time Fellow of the Academy.