1968/2008

‘Let Freedom Ring’ Art and Democracy in the King Years 1954 – 1968

A Lannan Literary Symposium & Festival
Georgetown University
April 15, 16, 17 2008

By sweeping away legal segregation in the public sphere, and especially by securing the right to participate in the democratic franchise for people of color, the Civil Rights Movement fundamentally changed American life. This struggle for social justice has been well documented and justly honored. Less well-documented is how the arts helped sustain the Movement and were essential to its successes. On the fortieth anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, the Lannan Literary Symposium seeks to acknowledge this legacy while paying special attention to the contributions of poets, writers, and artists to the public discourse of the Movement, especially during the period Taylor Branch has called “the King Years,” 1954 -1968.

Amiri Baraka                Sonia Sanchez            Haki Madhubuti
Vincent Harding
Michael Eric Dyson        Lawrence Guyot         E. Ethelbert Miller
Charles Cobb
Eugene Redmond        Askia Touré                Walter Fauntroy
Jabari Asim
Valerie Smith               Eleanor Traylor           Barbara Teer
Joanne Gabbin
Thulani Davis               Aldon Nielsen            Dorie Ladner
Sandra Shannon
Maurice Jackson           Ivanhoe Donaldson      Ruth Harris
Soyica Diggs
Robert Patterson         Randall Kenan            Angelyn Mitchell
Jayne Cortez

___TUESDAY, APRIL 15

5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
WELCOME AND PLENARY LECTURE (Copley) Vincent Harding.

6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
OPENING RECEPTION (Copley)

8:00 – 9:30 p.m. POETRY READING (ICC Auditorium)

Reading by Amiri Baraka, Eugene Redmond, and Haki Madhubuti

9:30 – 10:00 p.m.   RECEPTION AND BOOK SIGNING (ICC Auditorium)

10:00 – 11:00 p.m.
OPEN MIC (Bull Dog Alley)

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16

9:30  – 11:45 a.m.   SYMPOSIUM I: Art and Democracy in the King Years
and Beyond: Scholarly
Assessments (Copley)

Joanne Gabbin, Aldon Nielson, Sandra Shannon, Valerie Smith, Eleanor
Traylor.
Facilitator: Jabari Asim

1:00 - 3:15p.m. SYMPOSIUM II: Creativity, Resistance, Liberation: Forms
of Political Engagement in
the Arts of the 1960s (Copley)

Sonia Sanchez, E. Ethelbert Miller, Amiri Baraka, Barbara Teer, Haki
Madhubuti.
Facilitator: Soyica Diggs

3:45 – 5:00 p.m. PLENARY LECTURE (Gonda)

“Art as a Form of Politics.” Amiri Baraka. How artists are
political, and how politics
is used in art.

5:15 – 6:00 p.m. RECEPTION (Old North 205)

8:00 – 10:00 p.m. POETRY READING (Old North 205)

Reading by Sonia Sanchez, E. Ethelbert Miller, Askia Toure

10:00 – 10:30 p.m.    RECEPTION & BOOKSIGNING (Old North 205)

10:00 – 11:00 p.m.    OPEN MIC (Bulldog Alley)

THURSDAY, APRIL 17

9:30 a.m.– 12:00 p.m.
SYMPOSIUM III: Living History: Activists on Art and Social Justice

Lawrence Guyot, Ivanhoe Donaldson, Charles Cobb, Walter Fauntroy,
Dorie Ladner,
Ruth Harris. Facilitator: Maurice Jackson

12:30 – 2:00 p.m. LUNCHEON AND PLENARY LECTURE (Copley)

“Music of Struggle.” Ruth Harris. Turning crowds into community by
getting
people to sing.

2:15 – 4:30 p.m.    SYMPOSIUM IV: Advancing American Ideals: Democracy
as a Goal for the Arts (Copley)

Randall Kenan, Askia Toure, Thulani Davis, Eugene Redmond, Jayne
Cortez.
Facilitator: Robert Patterson

5:00 – 6:15 p.m.   PLENARY LECTURE (Copley)

“‘A Change is Gonna Come’?” Michael Eric Dyson. Art and the politics of
the
black possible.

8:00 – 10:00 p.m.  READING (ICC Auditorium)

Reading by Randall Kenan, Thulani Davis, Barbara Teer, Jayne Cortez

10:00 – 10:30 p.m. RECEPTION AND BOOKSIGNING (ICC Auditorium)

10:00 – 11:00 p.m.
OPEN MIC  (Bulldog Alley)

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