Co-sponsored with the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics.
Occasioned by the work of Cedric J. Robinson, this symposium brings together leading radical thinkers to consider the history and ongoing struggle against racial capitalism. From Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition to his more recent work, Forgeries of Memory and Meaning: Blacks and the Regimes of Race in American Theatre and Film Before World War II, Robinson’s scholarship has been unafraid to think big. Through two days of conversation, we aim to do the same. We will ask:
How has the Black Radical Tradition created tools for liberation?
How must we sharpen the analysis of racial capitalism?
How are ideological struggles essential to radical politics?
What is the contemporary range, strength, and vulnerability of spaces for radical thought?
How can we transform individual pleasure into collective joy?
How can we learn from past failures without accepting defeat?
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PRELIMINARY PROGRAM
NOVEMBER 20, 2014
PANEL 1 (1.30-3.30PM)
CUNY GRADUATE CENTER, SKYLIGHT ROOM
IDEOLOGICAL STRUGGLE & RADICAL POLITICAL IMAGINATIONS
Radical opponents of racial capitalism and imperialism have offered bold counters to the dominant ideology. Through poetry, literature, radio, and oral history, they have inspired new visions of solidarity among oppressed peoples beyond borders. This panel features journalists, historians, and activists whose work has illuminated histories and cultures of liberation. Shaped by the intersections of domestic antiracist and global anti-imperialist struggles, panelists THULANI DAVIS, ELIZABETH ROBINSON, and PAUL ORTIZ will discuss their ongoing work to document, enrich, and embolden radical political imaginations. Moderated by JORDAN T. CAMP.
EVENING PLENARY (6.00PM-8.00PM)
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
ARTHUR L. CARTER JOURNALISM INSTITUTE
20 COOPER SQUARE, 7TH FLOOR
CONFRONTING RACIAL REGIMES
Cedric J. Robinson’s influential works have explored the systems of knowledge and ignorance through which race is proposed as a justification for power relations. These racial regimes, as he calls them, have been intrinsic to U.S. capitalism since its inception. From the standpoint of the early 21st century, this plenary asks what is to be learned from critiques of racial regimes in the early 20th century? As structural unemployment, militarized policing, prisons, and war have become permanent features of the political economy, how do we confront racial regimes at present? RUTH WILSON GILMORE and ROBIN D. G. KELLEY discuss these and other issues with CEDRIC J. ROBINSON.
NOVEMBER 21, 2014
PANEL 2 (10am-12pm)
CUNY GRADUATE CENTER, ELEBASH RECITAL HALL
ANTI-CAPITALIST AND ANTI-COLONIAL ENCOUNTERS
This panel explores the culture and politics of anti-capitalist traditions that emerged from anti-colonial and anti-imperial struggles across Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe. From anti-imperialist music in the Caribbean, to Pan-African currents in the Comintern, to the anti-colonial radicalism of Frantz Fanon, panelists HAKIM ADI, DANIEL WIDENER, and FRANÇOISE VERGÈS discuss these cross currents and unanticipated global solidarities. Moderated by ANI MUKHERJI.
PANEL 3 (2:00-4:00 pm)
CUNY GRADUATE CENTER, ELEBASH RECITAL HALL
ANTIRACIST INTERNATIONALISM AND PERMANENT WAR
This session discusses the question of solidarity in the struggle against apartheid, racial capitalism, and permanent war from the early Cold War to the present. JACK O’DELL, BARBARA RANSBY, and NIKHIL PAL SINGH explore the challenges and opportunities of antiracist internationalism from struggles against apartheid South Africa to the liberation of Palestine to ongoing struggles against settler colonialism worldwide. Moderated by CHRISTINA HEATHERTON
EVENING PLENARY (6:30-8.30PM)
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, MEYER HALL
4 WASHINGTON PLACE, ROOM 121
THE BLACK RADICAL TRADITION: ABOLITION FEMINISM
The closing session features ANGELA Y. DAVIS and GINA DENT in conversation about abolition feminism, policing, war, and the prison industrial complex. In consideration of urgent social movements confronting racial capitalism in the present, they discuss struggles for freedom not predicated on the unfreedom of others. Moderated by AVERY F. GORDON.
