Radical Commitments: The Life and Legacy of Angela Davis

Over the past half century, national and international struggles for freedom have been deeply shaped by revolutionary action, the contributions of feminist analysis, and, most recently, calls for prison abolition.
No single person sits more squarely at the intersection of these pivotal movements than the political activist and pioneering philosopher Angela Davis.
“Radical Commitments” will use Davis’s life and work to ground discussions on the rich tradition of activism and social theory in the late 20th century, bringing together a cross-generational group of leading scholars, activists, musicians, and incarcerated women.
The conference also marks the opening of an exhibition highlighting materials from the Papers of Angela Y. Davis, an archive recently acquired by the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe in partnership with the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. This substantial collection includes correspondence, photographs, unpublished speeches, teaching materials, organizational records, and audiovisual recordings.
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Event Videos

ROUNDTABLE CONVERSATION ABOUT CHILDHOOD, CASE, AND SOCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS
INTRODUCTION
Elizabeth Hinton, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Departments of History and of African and African American Studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
SPEAKERS
Fania E. Davis, consultant and founding director emerita, Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth
Margaret Burnham, University Distinguished Professor of Law and director of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, Northeastern University School of Law
Bettina F. Aptheker, distinguished professor emerita and Peggy and Jack Baskin Foundation Presidential Chair in Feminist Studies, UC Santa Cruz
MODERATOR
Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher Jr. University Professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Harvard University

PERFORMANCES
WELCOMING REMARKS
Jane Kamensky, Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director, Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Harvard Radcliffe Institute, and Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
PERFORMANCES
“Ode to Angela” by Harold Land
“Sam Jones Blues” by Bessie Smith, composed by Andrew Bernard, J. Russel Robinson, and Roy Turk
“Pirate Jenny” by Nina Simone, composed by Marc Blitzstein, Bertolt Brecht, and Kurt Weill
“Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday, composed by Lewis Allan
“Ostinato (Suite for Angela)” by Herbie Hancock
FEATURING
Stefon Harris, jazz vibraphonist
Vijay Iyer, Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
Nicholas Payton, jazz trumpeter and instrumentalist
Cécile McLorin Salvant, jazz vocalist
Esperanza Spalding, professor of the practice of music, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
MUSICAL DIRECTOR
Terri Lyne Carrington, founder and artistic director, Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice

WELCOMING REMARKS
Tomiko Brown-Nagin, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School; and professor of history in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
Jane Kamensky, Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director, Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Harvard Radcliffe Institute, and Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
FRAMING REMARKS
Elizabeth Hinton, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Departments of History and of African and African American Studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
SESSION 1: "REVOLUTION"
Trevor G. Fowler, visiting adjunct professor, Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (South Africa)
Robyn C. Spencer, associate professor of history, Lehman College
Robin D. G. Kelley, distinguished professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in United States History, UCLA
Ericka Huggins, activist and educator
Moderator: Brandon M. Terry, assistant professor of African and African American studies and of social studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University

SESSION 2: "FEMINISMS"
Julie Dash, distinguished professor in the arts, Spelman College
Gina Dent, associate professor of feminist studies, UC Santa Cruz
Farah Jasmine Griffin, William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African-American Studies, Columbia University
Barbara Ransby, distinguished professor of African American studies, gender and women’s studies, and history, University of Illinois at Chicago
Moderator: Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and of African and African American Studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University

SESSION 3: "ABOLITION"
Kathy Boudin, codirector and cofounder, Center for Justice at Columbia University
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, professor of earth and environmental sciences and director of the Center for Place, Culture and Politics, the Graduate Center, City University of New York
Beth E. Richie, professor and department head of criminology, law, and justice and professor of African American studies and gender and women’s studies, University of Illinois at Chicago
Moderator: Tommie Shelby, Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African and African American Studies and of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University

KEYNOTE CONVERSATION WITH ANGELA DAVIS
INTRODUCTION
Kaia Stern, Elsa Hardy, and Abbie Cohen, reading from the work of The Pathways Collective, a group of incarcerated women studying Angela Davis’s life and writings
Kaia Stern, practitioner-in-residence at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, cofounder and director of the Prison Studies Project, and visiting faculty member and lead of the Transformative Justice Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University
Elsa Hardy, doctoral student in the Department of African and African American Studies, Harvard University
Abbie Cohen, community partnership lead at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University
KEYNOTE CONVERSATION
Angela Davis, distinguished professor emerita, UC Santa Cruz
Neferti X. M. Tadiar, professor and chair of women’s, gender & sexuality studies, Barnard College
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Esperanza Spalding, professor of the practice of music, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
Terri Lyne Carrington, founder and artistic director, Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice
Imani Uzuri, vocalist and composer; 2019–2020 fellow, Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Harvard University