James Baldwin for Our Times: A Centennial Celebration

How does the inimitable Black writer James Baldwin (1924–1987) speak to us still? Celebrating the centennial of Baldwin’s birth, this series of events — a film screening, a lecture, and a symposium of public conversations among leading scholars — gathers a number of important thinkers to reflect on his relevance to our contemporary moment. Participants include Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (Princeton), Aliyyah Abdur-Rahman (Brown), Marquis Bey (Northwestern), Marlon Ross (University of Virginia), Salamishah Tillet (Rutgers), Maurice O. Wallace (Rutgers), and Dagmawi Woubshet (University of Pennsylvania).

Film Screening 
Dick Fontaine and Pat Hartley (dirs.), I Heard It Through the Grapevine (1982) 
Introduced by Isaiah Wooden  
Wednesday, Oct. 30, 7 p.m. 
Lang Performing Arts Center, Cinema

Lecture 
Eddie S. Glaude Jr., "James Baldwin for Our Times" 
Introduced by Joseph Derrick Nelson  
Friday, Nov. 1, 7 p.m. 
Lang Performing Arts Center, Pearson-Hall Theatre

Symposium 
"James Baldwin for Our Times: Conversations" 
Saturday, Nov. 2, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
Science Center 101, Chang Hou Hall

Welcome - 11 a.m. 

Queer Lives Now! - 11:15 a.m.
Speakers: Aliyyah I. Abdur-Rahman and Dagmawi Woubshet with Jamal Batts (moderator)

Social Justice Now! - 1:00 p.m. 
Speakers: Salamishah Tillet and Maurice O. Wallace with Isaiah M. Wooden (moderator)

Abolition Now! - 2:45 p.m.
Speakers: Marquis Bey and Marlon B. Ross with Anthony S. Foy and Nina Johnson (moderators)

Closing - 4:15 p.m.

Reception - 4:30 p.m.