Fall Features Lecture Series on Slavery, Distinguished Presenters

“Slavery and the United States Constitution”
4:15 Sept. 27 in the CAAS lounge by Lawrence Goldstone. Goldstone holds a Ph.D in American constitutional studies. He is the author of Dark Bargain: Slavery, Profits, and the Struggle for the U.S. Constitution.

“Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery”
4:15 p.m. Oct. 19 in the CAAS lounge by Anne Farrow, Joel Lang and Jenifer Frank.
Farrow, Wesleyan alumnus Joel Lang and Frank are veteran journalists for The Hartford Courant. Farrow and Lang were the lead writers and Frank was the editor of a special slavery issue published in the newspaper’s Sunday magazine, which has since been expanded and published as the book, Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery.

“Cultivating Freedom: Slavery, Emancipation, and Enterprise in Colonial New England”
4:15 p.m. Nov. 8 in the CAAS lounge by Lois Brown.
Brown, an associate professor of English at Mount Holyoke College, specializes in 19th-century African American fiction. She has won awards for her discovery and republication of a largely unknown 1835 biography of a freeborn African American child. She is currently working on a book about African American novelist Pauline Hopkins.

“American Slavery: A Most Complete Story”
4:15 p.m. Nov. 29 in the CAAS lounge by Gerald Foster.
Foster is a scholar-in-residence at the United States National Slavery Museum, the first American museum dedicated to the history of slavery. The museum is currently under construction in Fredericksburg, Va.

Other fall events include:

“The Need to Question”
8 p.m. Sept. 14 by choreographer Bill T. Jones. Jones is famous for creating powerful works that fearlessly explore sexuality, race, politics, family and mortality.

“Another Evening”
8 p.m. Sept. 15 and 16 in the Center for the Arts Theater. A pre-show talk begins at 7:15 p.m. Sept. 15 in the CFA cinema.
Bill T. Jones and the Arnie Zane Dance Company will present an ever-evolving 90-minute collage interweaving new movement, excerpts from existing repertoire, original and traditional music, and text into a vibrant multimedia work.

“A Discussion with Immortal Technique”
4:30 p.m. Sept. 22 in the CAAS lounge.
Hip-hop artist and political activist Immortal Technique addresses a wide variety of contemporary political issues in his music, including U.S. foreign policy, police brutality, political killings by the FBI and the CIA, media censorship, and economic inequality. Born in Peru, “Tech” came with his family to Harlem when he was a child. His albums include Revolutionary Vol. 1 (2001), Revolutionary Vol. 2 (2003), and The Middle Passage (2006), all released by the independent label, Viper Records.

A Reading by Author Nathaniel Mackey
8 p.m. Sept. 27 in the Russell House.
Mackey’s works of poetry include Eroding Witness (1985), School of Udhra (1993), Whatsaid Serif (1998), and Splay Anthem (2006). He also is the author of two critical volumes and an ongoing prose work, of which three volumes have been published. Mackey’s work is keenly attentive to sound and to the role of writers as cultural workers. He is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, a DJ, and professor of literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The event is co-sponsored by the Edward W. Snowdon Fund and the Wesleyan Writing Program.

“Democracy and Captivity: Race and the Penal Landscape” by Joyce James
8 p.m. Oct. 12 in the CFA Theater.
James is a professor of African studies and political science at Williams College. Her work focuses on political and feminist theory, critical race theory, and incarceration. She is the author or editor of many publications including Resisting State Violence: Gender, Race, and Radicalism in U.S. Culture (1996), The Angela Y. Davis Reader (1998), States of Confinement: Policing, Detention and Prisons (2000, revised edition 2002), and Imprisoned Intellectuals: America’s Political Prisoners Write on Life, Liberation, and Rebellion (2003). This talk was organized by WESPREP.

“The War in Iraq” presented by Jonathan Cutler, associate professor of sociology and associate professor of American Studies
Noon Oct. 23 in the CAAS lounge.
The talk is part of the CAAS’s Pizza and Policy Lunch series. Lunch is provided.