Clark University will host a Radical Dreaming, King, and Intersectional Activism conference, “Daring to Dream Today: Education and Hope in Difficult Times,” on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 19-20, to honor the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Ousmane Power-Greene, associate professor of history (pictured), will present a lecture, “Radical Dreaming: Re-evaluating MLK’s Radical Vision for Change,” from noon to 2 p.m. Friday in Tilton Hall, second floor, Higgins University Center. Power-Greene will examine King’s work in its historical context and ask questions such as “how radical was MLK?”; “how has the narrative of his legacy been white washed?”; and “how do we remember and honor him today?”
A conversation café will follow. Topics will include spirituality and theology, anti-war and anti-imperialism, community education, jobs and labor organizing, student activism, white supremacy and liberalism, and gender and sexuality politics.
At 7 p.m., the student-run group Floetic Fridays will present “Radical Dreaming and the Art of Resistance” in Bethune Intercultural Center (Dana Commons). The event will involve poetry, music, dance and visual art.
On Saturday, the conference opens at 9 a.m. in Bethune Intercultural Center (Dana Commons) for registration and breakfast, followed by a plenary session titled “Looking Back.” Jude Fernando, associate professor of international development and social change, will facilitate a discussion that considers “Where are we now?” and “How did we get to our current social and political moment?” Speakers will include Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, co-executive director of the Highlander Center in New Market, Tennessee; Italo Fini, a youth activist for immigrant rights and campaign field organizer for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren; and Nigel Brissett, assistant professor of international development and social change.
Workshops and conversations will be held throughout the day, closing with a plenary session on “Looking Forward,” a discussion featuring the same three speakers, facilitated by Eric DeMeulenaere, associate professor of urban schooling in Clark’s Jacob Hiatt Center for Urban Education.
The events are free and open to the public. Lunch is included.
The events are sponsored by Clark University’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Peace Studies concentration, the Hiatt Center, Africana Studies of the Center for Gender Race and Area Studies, Office of Multicultural and First Generation Student Support, Community Youth and Education Studies, and the International Development Community and Environment department.
For more information, call 508-421-3722.
