Do the Right Thing

On the hottest day of the year, the residents of a close-knit Brooklyn neighborhood find themselves implicated in the long-simmering racial tension between the Black residents and the Italian-American owners of the local pizza joint. As the heat refuses to subside, these tensions continually build until violence erupts. Regarded as one of the great 20th century American films, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing is a cinematic treatise exploring the legacy of civil rights and the relationship between people, urban environments, and weather.

This screening will be preceded by a lecture from Jennifer First, Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Dr. First's lecture, "It’s Getting Hot in Here: How Extreme Heat, Health, and Inequity Intersect," draws on research from the Midwest and Southeast United States to discuss the intersection of heat exposure, social vulnerability, and adaptive capacity, grounded in the lived experiences of communities on the frontlines of climate change.