This one-day conference stages conversations between scholar-activists and organizers to recover the hidden histories of internationalism and reveal the possibilities of decolonized feminist futures. Mary Helen Washington (Distinguished University Professor, English, University of Maryland, College Park) and Vijay Prashad (Executive Director of the Tricontinental: Institute of Social Research) will deliver the keynote addresses.
Panelists include:
Elisabeth Armstrong
Chantelle Bateman
Jordan T. Camp
Rev. Claudia de la Cruz
Christina Heatherton
Cheryl Higashida
Mariame Kaba
Manu Karuka
Ani Mukherji
John Munro
Vijay Prashad
Margaret Stevens
Mary Helen Washington
Melanie Yazzie
SCHEDULE
9:00–9:45am: Coffee
9:45–9:55 AM: Welcome from The People’s Forum & short opening from Christina Heatherton
10:00–11:00 AM: MARY HELEN WASHINGTON (KEYNOTE), AFTERLIVES: LEGACIES OF THE BLACK LITERARY LEFT
11:00 AM–12:30 PM: BLACK LEFT FEMINIST INTERNATIONALISM
This panel examines the radical anti-racist, anti-colonial, socialist internationalist, and feminist visions of social change, that Mary Helen Washington terms “Black Left Feminism.” Cheryl Higashida, Mariame Kaba, and John Munro discuss key intellectuals, organizers, and artists in this internationalist tradition. They consider how Black Marxist feminists like Louise Thompson Patterson, Claudia Jones, Lorraine Hansberry and others confronted racism, patriarchy, capitalism, and imperialism in their own times. Panelists explore how the anticolonial Left survived the Cold War. They will suggest how new generations of antiracists, feminists, and socialists might engage this rich political tradition in our own times. Moderated by Jordan T. Camp.
12:30-1:30 PM: Lunch
1:45–3:15 PM: RECOVERING GLOBAL RADICALISM
Lisa Armstrong, S. Ani Mukherji, and Margaret Stevens recover lost and forgotten histories of shared global struggle. They explore the formation of radical networks across spaces and struggles from Harlem, Mexico City, San Juan, Moscow, Port-Au-Prince, to Beijing from the early to mid-twentieth century. They describe how radicals linked struggles against Jim Crow, capitalism, imperialism, apartheid, and patriarchy in shared global movements. In examining these internationalist webs, they explore how hidden histories of global radicalism can embolden international solidarity at present. Moderated by Christina Heatherton.
3:15–3:30 PM: THE PEOPLE’S FORUM PRESENTATION
3:30–4:00 PM: Break
4:00–5:00 PM: VIJAY PRASHAD (KEYNOTE), WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE LEFT?
5:00–5:15 PM: Short Break
5:15–6:45 PM: DECOLONIZED FEMINIST FUTURES
The final session explores the challenges and promises of cohering an internationalist political project around core feminist principles. Claudia De la Cruz, Chantelle Bateman, and Melanie Yazzie will discuss the centrality of feminist organization to mass protest against the current U.S. administration, situated in global contexts of struggle. Panelists will consider their work in movements such as the Poor People’s Campaign; Diné solidarity with Palestine; among others. Looking to the future, this panel will emphasize the significance of social reproduction and the centrality of feminism to dismantling cultures of war and imperialism. Moderated by Manu Karuka.
8 PM: After Party Featuring DJ Assim + DJ KayKay47
The event is free and open to the public. Wheelchair accessible through freight entrance. If you require childcare, please fill out this form.
Organized by the Racial Capitalism Working Group, Center for the Study of Social Difference at Columbia University and the Barnard Center for Research on Women.
Image credit: Lydia Gibson, Cover of the Liberator magazine (January 1920)