Radical Commitments: The Life and Legacy of Angela Davis

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