- Welcome back, everyone.
My name is Kenvi Phillips.
I am the curator for
Race and Ethnicity
at the Schlesinger Library.
[CHEERING]
Thank you.
I just want you all to join
me in welcoming our next panel
on feminism, which will be
moderated by Evelyn Books
Higginbotham, the Victor
S. Professor of History
and African-American
Studies here at Harvard.
[APPLAUSE]
- Thank you.
I sincerely thank Jane
Kamensky, and Rebecca Wassarman,
and Kenvi Phillps, and our
dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin,
and of course, Elizabeth
Hinton, and the whole staff who
worked to make this possible.
This has been truly a
wonderful wonderful occasion.
And of course, we
honor Angela Davis
and her giving the
papers to Harvard.
You know, I was
thinking, after listening
to the last conversation
about courage,
it really takes
courage to stand up
and to speak when you don't
know what others will think
about what you're
going to say, when
you recognize that what
you have to say and do
will be unpopular
with a lot of people.
And you just don't know what
the outcome will be for you.
But it is far more
courageous to be
able to stand up and speak right
to the face of forces of power
when you know what
the outcome will be,
when you know you could
possibly lose your job,
as Angela Davis first did.
You could possibly go to jail.
And when she first
went to jail, she
didn't know she was
going to win that case.
She had faith, but the outcome
could have been so different.
And yet, that courage to stand
up and to stand up for right
and to do right, this is why we
thank you so much Angela Davis.
[APPLAUSE]
So in 2013, and I
quote her, Angela Davis
stated this, "Feminism
involves so much more
than gender equality, and
it involves so much more
than gender.
Feminism must involve a
consciousness of capitalism--
I mean, the feminism
that I relate to,"
this is what she says.
"And there are
multiple feminisms.
It has to involve a
consciousness of capitalism
and racism and colonialism
and post colonialities
and ability and more genders
than we can even imagine.
And more sexualities than we
ever thought we could name."
So our panel this morning
captures this plural meaning
of feminisms.
And in the many forms that
feminisms characterize,
we will think about the life
and work of Angela Davis
and have a conversation.
We will hear about bringing a
feminist consciousness to film,
to teaching in global contexts,
to inspiring creative artists,
and understanding the
theoretical and intellectual
work of Black left feminism.
And we have a
distinguished panel.
We have filmmaker and
director Julie Dash--
[APPLAUSE]
--who is a professor in
the Department of Art
and Visual Culture
at Spelman College.
[CHEERING]
We have Gina Dent--
[APPLAUSE]
--a professor in feminist
studies at the University
of California, Santa Cruz.
Farrah Griffin.
Farah Jasmine Griffin.
[APPLAUSE]
A professor in a lot of
different departments, English,
comparative literature, and
African-American studies
at Columbia University.
And we have Barbara
Ransby, professor--
[APPLAUSE]
--in African-American
studies, gender and women's
studies, and history
at the University
of Illinois at Chicago.
So we're going to begin now.
We're going to begin
our conversation.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
- Start with me?
- Yes.
Wait, no no, I have
a question for you.
[LAUGHTER]
We're going to talk.
So Julie, you are
involved in making
a film about Angela Davis.
- Yes.
[LAUGHTER]
- She's making it for
Lionsgate pictures,
which is really a big deal.
And it's very exciting and
we cannot wait to see this.
So we'd love to hear about it.
And I'm especially
curious to hear
your thoughts and your
challenges, and perhaps even
questions that haunt you,
you as a black woman.
Because after all, you are
a black woman film director
in a largely--
overwhelmingly, actually-- white
male Hollywood film industry.
So how do you portray
Angela Davis's life
and your own efforts to
give voice to black women's
consciousness and concerns?
- Well I'm both
encouraged and deeply
haunted through this process.
But as you mentioned, I
teach at Spelman College
within the Department of
Art and Visual Culture.
One of my courses is called
Hollywood in histories.
We screen films made inside
of the studio system that
focus on histories and
biographies and events
and issues surrounding
our presence
in the African diaspora.
It's a course designed to expose
students to narrative film
genres, theories, and
critical analysis,
related to production practices,
editing, and the marketing
of dramas depicting us.
The objective of the course
is to take a critical look
at scripted narratives
that portray
real people, actual events,
and especially the depiction
of African-Americans.
So students analyze how ideas
and images are represented
and valued in narrative
film, some documentaries,
and a little bit of television.
So one year ago, in
2018, I joined a team
of veteran creatives
and producers
at Lionsgate pictures
to help them develop,
and eventually to direct, the
upcoming biographical film
about Angela Yvonne Davis.
My producers
include Eisa Davis--
[CHEERING]
Sidra Smith, Nina Yang
Bongiovi, and Mike Pasternak.
Bryan Tucker is
the screenwriter.
And I have the
opportunity to work
with him overseeing the
scripting of what I pitched
to the studio, an epic biopic.
A movie that falls
within the genres
of being a political thriller.
The biopic will cover the
period of Angela's early years
in Birmingham on
Dynamite Hill from age 14
and living with a
family through age 26
through the trial
of the century,
as described by
one of the speakers
yesterday as one of
the greatest moments
in the history of freedom.
So once again, this is daunting.
I am haunted and encouraged
by this opportunity
to share Angela's story
with a global audience.
Because I have made black
history movies of the week
before, and this
ought not be that.
[LAUGHTER]
Directing a feature
length narrative film
revolves around the
questions we ask
and the choices we make
during pre-production
and in production.
On a normal day on
a film set, there
are about 400 questions
asked of the director--
and I'm not kidding 400.
And if we don't answer
these questions,
if we don't make
decisions, someone
will make those
decisions for us.
So we have to be ready in
a deep and meaningful way.
So before we get on a set, and
during the development period,
which we are in now--
and in fact, we're on our sixth
iteration of the screenplay,
but I'm still encouraged.
So pre-production and heavy
research and development
will determine whether
the final film will
play to the audience like
a Lifetime movie made
for television or
something more powerful,
something more meaningful,
something inspirational,
transformative, memorable.
So allow me to
share with you some
of the self-directed questions
I ask of myself as we develop
this extraordinary film
project and as a screenplay is
being written.
As a filmmaker,
first and foremost,
I'm interested in redefining
how African-American women are
depicted in historical
dramas, about reimagining
their lives in bold and
epic cinematic displays,
creating visual metaphors
that replace the spoken word,
showing, evoking emotions and
actions without saying a word.
I think that's more powerful.
Where do we begin the story of
the making of a revolutionary?
How to show the seeds of
black radicalism taking root?
I pitched Aleppo.
In 2017, the faces
of the children
in Aleppo captured the hearts
and minds of the world,
but black children in
Birmingham 1947 through 1965
suffered that same
kind of trauma
from the bombing attacks.
Have we ever seen the faces of
our children among the rubble?
My intention is to fade in on
Dynamite Hill, when Angela's
14 years old, that societies and
filmmakers generally prioritize
to heteronormative male point
of view in their stories
even when the movie
is about a woman.
How do we begin to
reimagine all of that?
As a storyteller, this has
always been a concern of mine,
and there's a constant
struggle to correct
that myopic viewpoint,
that world view
we're constantly resetting.
We start with the tiny
specifics, the visual nuances,
tone and texture.
How do I do this best
in a two hour movie
and for a wide and
general audience?
We cannot think narrowly about
the storied life of Angela
Yvonne Davis, nor her family,
or the extended families that
raised her.
Yet, the constant battle, what's
always staring me in the face,
is that single story is to
what [INAUDIBLE] talks about,
the dangers of the single story.
And Sam Cooke sang
about it in 1964.
"I was born by the
river in a little tent.
And just like that river,
I've been running ever since.
It's been a long time
coming, but I know
now change is going to come."
We are not doing that.
[LAUGHTER]
How to depict Angela's
political journey?
A complex story like Margareth
von Trotta's "Rosa Luxemburg,"
perhaps, or Oliver Stone's "JFK"
or Pontecorvo's "The Battle
of Algiers," or Florian
von Donnersmarck's
"The Lives of Others," or
Olivier Assaya's limited
series, "Carlos."
Those inspire me.
We have to move past
the chick flick genres
that people are so
comfortable with.
That kind of slice of
life, coming of age story.
Would you be
interested in seeing
Angela on screen,
her story presented
as a international
political thriller?
Can Angela Davis be
as fluid as John Wick?
Will a wide and
general audience be
able to parse Angela's
philosophical ideas,
her critical thinking, the
black radical transition,
black liberation,
her association
with various factions of
the Black Panther Parties,
the Communist Party USA,
Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, the US
organization, Students
for a Democratic
Society, Black Liberation
Army, Black Guerrilla
Family, Weather Underground,
[INAUDIBLE],, Brown Bootlegs,
Republic of New Afrika,
Revolutionary Action
Movement and all
of the other organizations
that reflect the time and space
of her political journey?
Which they say, do you have
to have them all in there?
Some kind of way, yes.
Can we talk about
the Game of Thrones?
There were a cast of hundreds.
Names we had to write
down to try to pronounce.
And they say to
me, oh, do we have
to have this name and that,
does everyone need a name?
And I say yes, we
shell name them.
Do you remember
Daenerys' dragons?
Rhaegar Targaryen and Drogon?
People know those names.
So they need to know the names
of Che, Ernesto "Che" Guevera
and Patrice Lumumba as well.
So we intend to honor the
lives of those individuals,
and events, and issues
calling them out by name
as they impact upon the
story of Angela Davis:
Fania Davis, Margaret Burnham,
Bettina Aptheker, Kendra
Alexander, Franklin Alexander,
Charlene Mitchell, George
Jackson, Jonathan Jackson,
Rachelle McGee, Herbert Marcuse
and of course Che Lumumba
and Ernesto O'Shea Guevera.
Then we come to '68 which they
want me to hurry up in and get
to Los Angeles.
Okay, Los Angeles is
fine but there's so much
story before Los Angeles.
But once she does
get to Los Angeles,
what about the
Venceremos Brigade?
And they say, what?
And I say, yeah,
they're celebrating
their 50th anniversary now,
could you imagine that?
Angela Davis participated in
the first Venceremos Brigade.
And they say, well
we'll have to Google it.
And it was like,
well that's good,
Google it and once you see the
movie, once the movie is made,
you'll know more, yeah.
Cointelpro, the FBI's
counterintelligence program,
aimed at surveilling,
infiltrating, discrediting,
and disrupting, domestic
political organizations--
that's a big part of this story.
Angela Davis joined
the Che-Lumumba club,
a faction of the
American Communist Party.
And they said, What
it's not the same?
It's like, no.
Wouldn't it be helpful if
we informed the audience
about her history
and association
with these iconic activists
and political leaders
before we bring up their names?
That means we have to
introduce these subplots.
Wouldn't you be interested
in seeing those?
Yeah.
Good.
So act one, the
goal is to create
compelling authentic
stories around Angela
that speak to the
spirit of the times
and show how she interacts
with the historical events
issues and movements.
Act two, facts are
stranger than fiction.
Act three, the trial
of the century,
one of the greatest moments
in the history of freedom.
Radical imagination
requires courage
and we've talked about
that a lot today.
Angela has exhibited
this throughout her life
and it's now my time
to be courageous
and to follow her lead in the
making of the Angela Davis
biopic.
Thank you.
- Well, Gina Dent.
So the historic activism of
Angela Davis, we all know,
is recognized over the world.
And yet it's equally
true that Angela Davis'
radical commitments
have taken her
in the form of teacher and a
transnational scholarly way.
And over the years and
recently, she has taught--
and you've co-taught
up with her--
on such subjects as
transnational feminism
and abolition feminism.
And she's taught in
Brazil and Colombia
and also at the
European graduate
school and many other places.
So we'd love for you to share
your thoughts and memories
of teaching
experiences with Angela
and some of those places.
And about the subject
matter of the courses
and in what she cares about
when she's in those settings.
- Thank you, Evelyn.
I want to start by acknowledging
the traditional owners
of the land on which we are
conducting this conference.
And I want to thank all of
the organizers, of course,
and I think, all of
them have been named,
but I especially want to thank
[INAUDIBLE] Philips, Amber
Moore, and Jahan Sinclair,
who came to our house
and were kind and funny
and played with our dog
and made the experience of
having your life dragged out
of your house one that
I'll never forget.
So thank you so much.
And thank you for
the labor that you
have put in to working with
every page of that collection.
I've had the opportunity
to work with Angela now
for almost 30 years.
And I guess I should
start by saying
that the reason I think
her teaching is important
is because Angela is
always a student first.
In teaching with her, and
in her teaching in general,
I see the incredible
joy that she has
when she learns something new.
And especially her openness
to learning from people,
in every situation, of every
age, of every kind of stature.
In fact, the way that I
opened by acknowledging
the traditional
owners of the land
is something that we learned
when we were traveling,
as we do almost every
year, to Australia
to be a part of a conference
called, "Sisters Inside."
The conference is now called,
usually, "Is Prison Obsolete?"
But it involves friends of
ours who have been doing work
for women who have been inside.
But it's also an abolitionist,
feminist organization.
And Cassandra
Shaylor who is here,
has been with us several
times and works with us.
Cassandra, who
has worked with us
since her days as
a graduate student
when she and Angela conjured
up in an office somewhere,
I think with Gita Drury, the
idea for Critical Resistance.
That learning that Angela
always exemplifies,
and the collaboration
that she engages in,
is something that I
think is hard for people
normally to see.
So I think that's
really my role is
to talk a little bit about
what I have had the opportunity
to see by traveling with her.
We are fortunate
that we get to teach
in multiple parts of the world.
And I'll just name a few.
I'm naming The European
Graduate School
first because we were there
in August of 2018 in Saas Fee.
We were actually on video
in Malta a few days ago.
But what I remember
was that, we were
doing a course on aesthetics
and black politics
in the wake of
Black Lives Matter.
But what we really
wanted to do, was show
our theoretical foundations.
And I don't think Angela got
more excited than the day
that she was talking
about Kant and Marcuse.
I mean it's not even funny.
She was just giddy.
And the students were
looking and wanting
to ask us about what's happening
with Black Lives Matter which
we, of course, were going to
talk about but she wanted them
to understand and to feel her
foundations in philosophy.
How much she took from
the German tradition,
but also which part
of that tradition.
So not, of course, about
fetishizing continental
philosophy or the
German tradition
but about the radical part of
that, that she had absorbed.
In fact, Sterling Carrington,
our dear friend who
provided that amazing
music for us yesterday.
She asked Cecile McLorin Salvant
to sing "The Pirate Jenny."
But what Terry didn't
actually know, at the time,
is that, that song is not
only important to Angela
because it was sung by Nina
Simone, whose version we,
of course, adore
until we heard Cecile.
So now we have more.
But because of the
lyric by Bertolt Brecht
and the story about class
subjugation, and resistance,
and fight, and the story
from the perspective
of either the prostitute
or the working maid.
And so it's those
ingredients that I
think Angela's able to
share in the classroom
that help others understand
how, what sometimes sounds
like a very strong but
simple statement from Angela,
has behind it a deep life work
in thinking philosophically.
And I think this conference
is an opportunity for us
to recognize that.
But I want to go
now, because we just
returned from Brazil
a couple of days ago,
to talk about a relationship
that we've established there
with primarily black
feminist, but not all.
Because I think
that relationship
has been the most
profound in many ways.
Partly because the
Brazilian environment
is so conducive to the things
that are the most important
to Angela.
What we now call
intergenerational
relationships, but often
those are very static,
like a young person is
supposed to be assigned
to talk to an older person.
But in that environment,
with our students
and with everyone else,
people are always hugging us.
There's a lot of--
just an experience of living in
equality with each other that's
so important.
And there's never a division
between music and art
and the other subjects
that we might be teaching.
So I'll just give you about
a few moments from our years
of teaching there
which started in 2008.
We first, were teaching
in Salvador, [INAUDIBLE],,
at the University there.
And this, in 2008,
was only six years
after the affirmative
action legislation
was passed in Brazil.
And so at that time,
and to some extent
today, there really were not
enough black feminist faculty
members.
And at the time, there were
also very few black students
in school.
So our first
experience there was
in being a part of
teaching graduate students
and faculty who wanted
to learn about feminism.
We also did some things
on abolition feminism
and a number of other subjects.
But wanted to be able to bring
that into their communities.
And, of course,
our first reaction
was that the unidirectionality
of travel, of ideas,
was deeply disturbing to us.
The way in which we
were always privileged.
We were not expected to know
about the work of people
like Lily Gonzalez, Luisa
Bahos, I could go on and on.
And that the
generosity that people
had when they realized that
actually we had met and studied
and knew about this work and
that is very important to us.
So what was even
more exciting was
when we moved our course
from Salvador, the capital,
to a place called Cacheura.
Cacheura is a small village.
Has a very historical legacy
which I would tell you about
if I had more time.
But what is important to
understand about that region
is that, we were entering
what was a very new university
system.
In fact, that university system
is being built even to today.
This is the Federal University
of [INAUDIBLE],, which is--
[INAUDIBLE] is a region
that is mostly black
and where people
had never had access
to higher level education.
And when we first went to
a city away from Cacheura
called Cristos Almos we
went to a conference.
We were coming for
black consciousness week
and we were going
to give talks and we
were preparing our little
academic talks to be shared.
And we ended up arriving
and seeing huge tents,
like circus tents, and
thinking wow where are we?
And seeing thousands
of people hungry
to be a part of this knowledge.
Brazil for us, exemplifies
the question, I think,
we always put at the
center of our courses
which is, what is knowledge?
Knowledge is not the
information you know,
but how you are taught to
know, allowed to think.
And when we finished
our conversations
that day and the
conference was ending
we saw a stage being loaded up.
And musicians started arriving
and all of the conference
participants joined with all
the people from around the town.
And there was a huge
party and concert.
And every night in Brazil
has been for us like that.
We have a day of work
and we have a day
where that work bleeds
out into the community
and we all come to
understand really why
we're doing that work together.
There is obviously
so much more I
could say but I want
to thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- So Farrah Griffin.
Angela Davis has played an
influential, and in fact,
pioneering role in regard to
specific scholarly trends.
And we, in the
history profession,
call these turns in history.
You study one thing and then
you have a new thing that's hot
so it's the turn in history.
And I'm thinking, for
example, of her early work
on enslaved women which actually
preceded the burst of histories
on gender and slavery that
emerged in the mid 1980s.
And more recently,
Angela Davis' work
on prison abolition
which precedes
the more recent carceral
turn in academic studies.
Particularly in history
and sociology and law.
And yet these and
other writings by her
have also spoken to and
about the creative arts.
So I'd love for you to talk
to us a little bit about how
the creative and critical
works have been influenced
by Angela Davis.
The artistic turn,
so to speak, that
emerged in the wake
of her publications.
- Thank you Evelyn.
Thank you everyone, the
organizers and everyone
who's already been thanked.
And I also want to thank
Gina, who as her friend,
I know was on the other
side in California
getting those boxes
ready, so thank
you Gina for your contributions
to this remarkable archive.
So since the 70s,
Angela's scholarship
and theorizing and
activism, as we all know,
have been at the
forefront of new ways
of thinking about the past.
But also of helping to
strategize and mobilize us
for present struggles
to transform
oppressive structures.
She has identified
very important areas
that Evelyn mentioned for
further investigation.
And as we heard last night,
her courage and commitment
have also inspired
artists, musicians but also
creative writers and
visual artists as well.
And I think we should also
note that she finds inspiration
and community with artists.
I'm struck by the way
throughout the past 50 years,
Angela consistently
situates her work
as part of a critical
conversation.
And I always read
it as an invitation
to join her in thinking
about the process of creating
visions, building
frameworks, as well as
building this society towards
which her work gestures.
So it's not surprising
that her work
has inspired a number
of critical and creative
responses, all of which
enrich our analysis
but also our capacity to
imagine alternative pasts
and alternative futures.
In the time that I have,
I want to return us
to that important essay of
1971, "The Black Woman's
Role In The
Community of Slaves,"
that Patina spoke
about last night.
I thought oh, well there,
it's already been said,
but I'm going to do it anyway.
Given the importance
of this essay,
and the ways that it has
been cited and republished,
it's also republished
as an individual essay
almost 50 years
since its appearance.
I wanted to talk
about the context
of its original publication.
It's the opening
essay of volume three,
number four of "The Black
Scholar," published in 1971.
And as Patina reminded
us last night,
it was written while Angela
was incarcerated at the Marin
County jail in California.
And the editors
preface to the essay
explains the incidents
leading to her arrest,
suggests a continuity between
the context in which she
produced the essay
and its subject which
argues for the numerous
and variety of ways
that enslaved black
women resisted
the institution of slavery.
It situates, the preface does,
Davis and her contemporaries
as the legacy of an anonymous
group of four mothers who
not only ensured the
survival of black people,
but worked actively to
overthrow the system of slavery.
But if you do a quick perusal
of the issues table of contents,
you see that Davis' contribution
is among a number of works
by black women intellectuals,
all her contemporaries.
I found this fascinating
going back and reading it.
Among them, "Race and
Revolution and Women."
by Shirley Chisholm,
who would launch
her presidential campaign
the following month
in January 1972.
"Tanzanian Women and Nation
Building," by Joyce Ladner,
the former SNCC member mentee of
Medgar Evers and a sociologist
whose groundbreaking work,
"Tomorrow's Tomorrow:
The Black Women,"
which had an opening
chapter on women in slavery, had
been published the year before.
"Black Women in American,"
annotated bibliography
by the anthropologist
educator and future
president of Spelman and
Bennett colleges, Johnetta Cole.
And that bibliography contains
work that stretched well
beyond the borders
of the United States,
including a section
on socialism in women.
The volume also
included an interview
with Kathleen Cleaver.
So it's worth noting that
this issue of "Black Scholar,"
appeared during a moment rich
in brilliant publications
by black women which sought
to critically analyze
their condition in the US and
explored their relationships
to black men and the
black power movement
as well as their varying
responses to the largely white
women's liberation movement.
That same year, recall Toni
Cade Bambara's edited volume,
"The Black Woman" was published
as was Toni Morrison's first
novel, "The Bluest Eye" and
Alice Walker's first novel,
"The Third Life of Grange "
and Audrey Lord's collection
of poetry, second collection
of poetry, "Cables to Rage."
not since the New
Negro Renaissance
of the '20s or as
many black women
writing and publishing
works centered
on their specific
histories and experiences
and their relationships
to broader
social and political struggles.
Davis was part of
this vibrant whirlwind
and at this time few of these
women identified as feminist
although many of
them would go on
to be leading black feminist
theorists and activists
but here in this
context, we see them
laying the groundwork for the
emergence of a black feminism
which would greatly contrast
from the individualistic,
liberal feminism that saw
equality access in a seat
at the table.
Instead, they called
for a whole scale
dismantling and transformation
of the world they inhabited.
As early as 1971, before the
word feminism appears in her
writing Angela, like other
black women understood that
in slavery, quote
and I quote her here,
"The benefits of the ideology
of femininity did not accrue
to the enslaved woman. "
When read in this context,
when it was written, one
gets a sense of the dynamism
of Davis' work in the
period in which it emerges.
And she makes no claim
of a definitive analysis
of the position of
the enslaved woman,
but instead refers to
her piece as a quote
collection of ideas which would
constitute a starting point.
A framework within
which to conduct
a rigorous reinvestigation
of the black woman as she
interacted with her people
and her oppressive environment
during slavery.
So as with Angela's
work, from then on it,
is a starting point
and an invitation.
A call to others to participate
in this re-evaluation
of black women's historic place
in the ongoing black freedom
struggle.
In the article, Davis debunks
one enhanced pernicious myth
of the black
matriarchy and provides
an alternative
historical perspective.
And we see Angela Davis,
the critical theorist,
who provides theoretical
depth to her narrative
of this history.
But most importantly, she turns
to instances of black women's
resistance, from the
quotidian domestic activity
that ensured the survival
of the black family which
she understood to exist
beyond biological ties,
to the more explicit
participation
in actual revolts.
She transforms the way we
think about resistance.
And the essay ends
with a statement
that is proven to be a most
consistent thread in Angela's
scholarship and activism.
She writes, quote, "As
heirs to a tradition
of supreme perseverance
and historical resistance
we must hasten to take our
place wherever our people are
forging toward freedom."
Even at this moment-- yes--
I think it's worth clapping for.
[APPLAUSE]
Even at this moment,
Angela's notion
of taking our place in
struggles for freedom
extends beyond persons
of African descent,
whereby all people suffering the
ravages of racism, imperialism,
and capitalism, are our people.
In the decades following the
publication of reflections
on the black women's
role, a number of scholars
responded to Davis' call
by creating a body of work
that challenged pervasive
myths about black women
during slavery and that
argued for this in centrality
in any understanding
of that institution.
And among these we
might include works
by Jacqueline Jones,
Deborah Gray White
and the late Stephanie Camp.
But one of the most interesting
and compelling responses
to Davis' call, is
actually a work of fiction.
Sherley Anne
Williams' short story,
a novella, "Meditations
on History," which
is published in 1980,
opens with a quotation
from the Davis'
essay, "Reflections
on the Black Woman's Role."
It's an epigraph.
And then she dedicates
the story to Angela Davis.
Now, some readers are familiar
with Williams's novel,
"Dessa Rose," but "Dessa
Rose" evolved from the novella
and I prefer the novella.
We can talk about why later on.
In both works, Williams
responds to William
Styron's fictionalized history,
"The Confessions of Nat Turner,
" by imagining the
enslaved woman, Dessa,
who is inspired by the women
Davis urged her readers
to seek.
Dessa is a lover, a wife, a
mother to be an enslaved woman,
and a revolutionary.
And at the story's opening,
she is awaiting her execution
by hanging for having led an
uprising on a slave coffle.
She was initially
sold because she
attacked her master for having
murdered her beloved husband
Caine.
Her mistress,
suspecting the deaths
as violence is the consequence
of a sexual relationship
with the master, has the
visibly pregnant slave
branded on her
genitals and sold.
But on the coffle,
Dessa plans and starts
a rebellion during which
several white men died.
Her execution is delayed
until the birth of her child.
But by the story's end,
with the assistance
of her fellow
rebellious comrades,
she escapes once
again from the prison.
So I've devoted my time
to a discussion of Davis'
early essay, the context of its
production within a community
of radical black women
thinkers and its reverberation
in later works of history,
but especially of literature.
And I think a similar review
of her subsequent work
from women, race, and class, and
women, culture, and politics,
to blues legacies
and black feminism.
And her more recent work
on prison abolition,
on Ferguson in Palestine,
is certain to yield
similar findings.
The earlier works
turned our attention
to the historical
past that included
the work of radical women that
reminded feminism of its own
struggles with race and class.
And once again, prompted
other studies of radical women
like a fuller length
biography on Claudia Jones.
By the time we get
to Blues Legacies,
in 1998, Angela has gone in
search of what she calls quote,
"Unacknowledged traditions
of feminist consciousness
in working class
black communities,
hints of feminist attitudes
that emerge from their music
through the fissures of
patriarchal discourse."
Here, she is interested
in social consciousness
amongst black working peoples
and she asked, what might we
learn from the music if we
take the music makers seriously
for the ideas that they
articulate and transmit?
Angela is always in dialogue,
always in collaboration, always
using her visibility to
bring forward other lesser
known voices and struggles.
And to encourage new work.
Her style of
intellectual leadership,
like her way of
being in the world,
invites gestures toward
a collective project
to which we all have
something to contribute.
Last night, the
extraordinary musicians
demonstrated their love
for Angela, in part,
by playing the music
that she has inspired.
But we would be
remiss to not note
that the exchange
goes both ways.
Angela is inspired by the
music and by musicians.
And she works in
partnership with them.
One example is the
new and innovative,
Berkeley Institute of Jazz
and Gender Justice, founded
and directed by Terry Lynn
Carrington, for which Angela,
Gina, and I serve on the board.
And under Terry's
leadership, the Institute
ask us to envision jazz
without patriarchy.
It is not-- and this is
important-- it is not
an Institute of women and jazz,
but an institute of gender
justice.
This is the work of transforming
jazz culture, and in so doing,
help to helping to
build a more just world.
So in closing, perhaps one of
the greatest gifts of Angela
and her work is that by
re-evaluating the past
and by examining the present
through a lens informed
by a radical gender
analysis, she helps all of us
to open and free
our own imaginations
so that we may
envision and create
alternative institutions,
societies, and futures which
we, together, bring into
being through our scholarship,
our activism, and our art.
Thank you, Angela.
- So Barbara Ransby,
you have written prize--
and if you haven't
read Barbara Ransby--
please do.
You have written prize
winning biographies
of radical black women
of earlier generations.
And, of course, I'm referring to
your biographies of Ella Baker
and Eslanda Robeson.
So thinking of Angela Davis
and her generation, which
is obviously a later
generation within this pantheon
of black left feminists, what
would you describe as some
of her most, Angela's,
important intellectual
or theoretical interventions
along with her political
activism in regard to
feminism or it's plural
feminisms as our
panelists titled.
- Thank you.
Thanks for that question.
I just have to say
I've learned so much
and been touched so much
by every single speaker
and moderator.
And I was sitting
in the audience
before, I don't think I can--
sorry for other people
who've been on other panels
at other conferences that
I've been at-- but I have I
can't say that I can say that.
And who else could
convene this array
of forces but Angela Davis.
So thank you for
that introduction.
And thanks to all
the Harvard team
that has pulled this
conference together.
And I want to say a
special thank you also
to Gina Dent for all the
ways large and small,
under the radar,
that she has helped
to make this event successful
and for her own activism
and scholarship.
I am thrilled that
this archive is open.
I hope that it becomes
a hub for research
on revolution, feminism, and
abolition, for generations
to come.
I hope it becomes a place for
discovery, debate, inspiration,
collaboration, and conspiracy.
I hope that it is a place where
new revolutionary theories are
hatched, and then hitched,
to movements that will
make them real in the world.
Angela Davis reminds us of
the importance of the past,
the urgency of the present,
and the possibilities
we can imagine for the future.
I am so honored to call
her my friend, my colleague
and my comrade.
Given that, I would be
remiss not to remind us
that we gather
here on the grounds
of this privileged and
illustrious institution,
that the people and
the struggles who
have meant the most to the
life and work of Angela Davis,
are currently in motion
all over the world.
From Santiago to Damascus to
Barcelona to Port-au-Prince.
To the streets of
Chicago, where we are now
in the second week of a
militant teacher strike.
And to the Rojava autonomous
region in Northern Syria,
where brave Kurdish
women socialists,
feminists, anarchists, are
fighting for their lives.
So let us remember also
the talk the Patawomeck,
the Massachusetts,
the Wampanoag,
the indigenous peoples
that Gina evoked
and also let's remember our
enslaved ancestors whose
stolen labor helped to build
institutions like Harvard.
[APPLAUSE]
So with that, let me turn
to Evelyn's question.
I would like to respond
to that question
by talking about Angela
Davis' remarkably
consistent and unapologetic,
evolving, black,
left, feminist praxis.
That is a rubric under which
I best understand her work.
In preparation for today's
panel, I thought to myself,
I should like to spend
some time with my sister
to hear how she wants us
to talk about her life.
But of course, that was
not possible this time.
She was going all over the
world doing what she does.
And so I settled for spending
some time with her virtually.
But instead of revisiting
her text I wanted to see her.
I wanted to hear her.
So I vicariously traveled with
her to Vienna, to Sao Paolo,
to Pretoria, to
Barcelona and to Paris.
Not bad.
I listen to a speech
after speech and interview
after interview
with a lot of ashes
and secular a amens
along the way.
And what I heard reminded me
much of what I already knew.
But it also underscored
for me the depth, breadth.
And power, of Angel's
ideas, her world
view, and most
importantly, her practice.
She is a sister that shows up.
And she shows up for
people and in places
that many people do not.
Let me assert a quote
here that I think
is relevant to our
conversation and it
might be familiar to you.
And I'm going to add a
little sass to it for effect.
Feminism?
I'm not a feminist.
I'm a black revolutionary woman.
Now, as many of you know, is
a quote from Angela herself.
A quote that she
has cited many times
referring to her younger self.
Herself of the 1960s and
'70s and even early '80s.
But Angela is nothing,
if not dynamic.
The world has changed
over the past 30 years.
And she has to,
as have all of us.
But more importantly
for us and for history,
Angela Davis has
changed the very meaning
of the category feminist.
She has stretched it.
She has recolored it.
She has fortified it.
She has poked holes in it.
In the process she has made
it habitable, and meaningful,
and a tool for resistance
for an entire generation
of young black Latinx,
indigenous, Asian, queer,
trans, disabled, and radical
white women, and men.
She has insisted on a
definition of feminism
that is militantly anti-racist.
That resists imperialism
and settler colonialism.
A feminism that operates against
the very logics of patriarchy.
She has framed a
feminist politic
that opposes the
carceral state and is
anti- capitalist to its core.
I want to repeat that last part
because it often gets left off.
She has framed a
feminist politic
that is copied
anti-capitalist to its core.
I like that sound.
I want that person in
every audience I'm at.
She has done this
through her words, yes,
elegant, insightful
and provocative.
But she has also done
this through her deeds.
Intersectional is
the word we use.
But Angela Davis has embodied
an intersectional praxis long
before it had a name.
I'm going to repeat that too.
Angela Davis has
Angela Davis has
embodied an
intersectional praxis long
before it had a name.
She has traveled through the
world over the last 30 years,
conscious, choreographed,
deliberate,
and representing a legible
body of political work.
A black, left, feminist,
praxis, in motion.
She not only tells us what
black left feminism sounds like,
she shows us what it looks like.
For example, when
our beloved sister
the glorious and notorious
BGS, Beverly Guy-Sheftall,
took on the challenge
took on the challenge
to build a professional
organization
for radical transnational
feminist scholars and scholars
of color.
Angela committed to showing
up, year after year,
conference after conference.
And her presence was
truly transformative.
Many students and
younger scholars
came first to see her
and maybe get a selfie.
But they stayed to
listen and her words
seeped into their
narratives their theories
and their practice.
I have seen it.
When the Palestinian sexual
torture survivor our sister,
Rasmea Odeh, was being
threatened with deportation,
Angela Davis did not shy
away from that campaign
to defend Rasmea.
She stood with Rasmea
without hesitation
and at great personal
risk and inconvenience.
This grew out of her
long standing commitment
to justice in Palestine.
And more immediately, out of
the commitment that she made,
the radical commitment that
she made, during our indigenous
transnational feminists
of color delegation
to Palestine in 2011 that
Robin Kelly referenced earlier.
That delegation included
Gina Dent, Premilla Nadasen,
Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Chandra
Mohanty and Rabab Abdulhadi.
Half of that delegation
is here today.
More recently, when four
progressive women congressmen
were and still are
under siege for being
accountable to the movements and
communities that produce them,
Angela Davis, again agreed
to show up in solidarity.
To speak up.
To stand up in the sun on an
especially hot DC afternoon.
And her presence, her words,
were a powerful inspiration.
We had three sitting members of
Congress quoting and praising
Angela Davis with the US
capital in the background.
It was a beautiful day.
And finally, there
was a time, last year,
that she showed up at the
gates of Stateville prison
outside Chicago
where a number of us
have taught classes
over the years.
Angela was one of the 2018
commencement speakers.
And with discipline,
and humility,
and what we can only term
enormous political grace,
she arrived in Chicago late one
night, got up before 7:00 AM
to be picked up by Beth Ritchie.
And then stood around
for hours at the prison
while the other
commencement speaker,
a very famous young rap artists
who shall remain unnamed,
kept the graduates and attendees
waiting for quite a long time.
In that end, in that instance
she did not complain.
She was worried about
the incarcerated students
who were waiting in much more
uncomfortable circumstances.
She had shown up
for a bunch of guys
from the tough
streets of Chicago,
who have admittedly done harm
to others in their lives.
Men with eighth
grade educations,
with troubled pasts,
and dim futures.
And she said, you matter to
us, you are our brothers.
That is what radical, black,
left, feminism looks like
through Angela Davis' lens.
And there are other examples.
[APPLAUSE]
And there are other
examples too many to list.
But I will name a few.
There is her work
over many years
again that Gina mentioned with
sisters inside a group of women
in Australia fighting against
prisons and prison conditions.
There is her leadership role
in introducing the prison
industrial complex into
our political vocabulary,
challenging us to
imagine a time when
prisons will no longer exist.
And then helping to found
Critical Resistance along
with Ruthie Gilmore and others.
There is her choice to
speak out in defense
of Asada Shakur and other
political prisoners and exiles.
Each of these
decisions is a choice.
There was her
presence in Ferguson,
Missouri after
the uprising there
and the murder of
Mike Brown in 2014.
And I have to say, I interviewed
a lot of the young people who
were on the streets of
Ferguson, at that time,
and they were a little skeptical
of some of the older, veteran,
activists who showed up.
But they had a different view of
Angela and I asked one of them
why was Angela so special?
They said because she
came to stand with us.
She didn't come to
mold us and scold us.
[APPLAUSE]
Don't clap too much because
I don't have much time.
Her delivery of the 17th
annual Steven Biko lecture
in Pretoria, South
Africa in 2016,
at the height of the
Fees Must Fall movement,
where she unequivocally stood in
solidarity with the protesting
students telling them quote,
"she could not have imagined
that two decades earlier
after the defeat of apartheid,
that we would be confronted
with a militaristic response
to people's activism. " She
knew what side she was on.
And Angela Davis his
words she insists
I'm not talking about
Bourgeois feminism.
I'm not talking about
glass ceiling feminism.
I'm not talking about
simply supporting women
who are already at the top.
I am talking about
those at the bottom.
[APPLAUSE]
She made a place for her
politics, and our politics,
in radical feminism.
And she has made
radical, black, left,
feminism an indispensable part
of how we understand, think,
and talk about the black,
radical and revolutionary
tradition.
And she has not only
inserted her own voice
into the discourse, she brought
a lot of other voices with her.
The robust and rebellious sexual
politics of cultural workers
like Ma Rainey and
Billie Holiday.
The edginess of
black club women.
And today, the
powerful challenges
posed by black trans women
and Palestinian women
and incarcerated women.
So that is what the black left
feminist apraxia of Angela
Davis looks like to me.
It is one of depth
and generosity courage
and most of all integrity.
It is not neat.
It is not safe.
It is not self righteous.
Today, we honor Angela Davis
as an insurgent intellectual
but also as someone who shows up
when it's hard, when it's cold,
and when it's inconvenient, and
sometimes when it's dangerous.
She shows up for our people.
She shows up for the
oppressed people of the world.
That is what she
has steadily pushed
is a political vision
of a more just society,
of a post capitalist world.
Of a world without
prisons, of a society
that is radically inclusive and
holds a place for all of us.
And that centers beauty,
joy music and justice.
In one of her many speeches,
Angela concluded with
the following, even though there
are never guarantees that we
will reach the future we dream,
we can not stop dreaming,
and we cannot stop struggling.
I'm thrilled to know Angela
as a friend and colleague
and sister.
You inspire us to keep
dreaming, and keep struggling,
even if we may not
benefit from the results,
and we are enormously grateful.
[APPLAUSE]
- So what I'd like to do now
is just to get you, one by one,
just briefly say something
about how you feel Angela Davis'
legacy influences or
and informs your life
and thinking in some way.
- Well, there's an old film term
called persistence of vision.
It was used mostly when we were
working with celluloid film
stock and that when that
film stock was projected
at 24 frames per second.
Persistence of
vision, your mind made
it look like a single
frame in an image.
And when I think
of Angela, I think
of her persistence
of vision in her work
as a scholar and
intellectual and an activist.
And thank you.
- Thank you.
- Wow.
I think this is also a
theme earlier about--
I think Robin mentioned this--
about the sacrifices that
will have to be made.
I mean all of us, we
lose things because
of the statements
we make but not
thinking of that as a tragedy.
Of experiencing
the joy of struggle
and realizing that the
people that we're with, make
us feel like we're in a
completely different world.
And that's the
world that I've been
privileged to share with
Angela and with people
all over the world.
And so in thinking about
that, remembering I'm
because I think it was--
I'm losing track.
I think it was
Farah last night who
said that Angela always
focuses on the community
and it's always about that.
And we were, as I said,
recently in Brazil
and so we were among other
things there to honor,
Marielle Franco, and Angela
consistently quoted her
while we were there, with a
the famous phrase which I think
also stands for her, which
is, Eu sou porque nos somos,
which is, I am because we are.
And I think her echoing
that and making sure
that Marielle's legacy is
shared with the world is
a part of what she always
does with the privilege she
has of being so visible.
- There's so many things but I
can think of two in particular.
When I was an undergraduate
here, in class,
we didn't read a lot of
books about black women.
But I spent a lot of
time in the bookstores.
And on the table,
in Harvard bookstore
there were these little--
I think it was Harvard
bookstore might have been
a store in Central Square--
there were these little
pamphlets by the Kitchen Table
press.
And there was one by Angela and
then, "Women, Race and Class,
and those books
that Angela is part
of the reason why I felt finally
I could embrace feminism.
That I could call
myself a feminist.
That I could
recognize the things
that I believed in, and
wanted to see come into being.
Because of those things that
I read on that book table
or when I had the
money, I would buy them.
And then the second thing
is just her generosity.
And not only her generosity
on day to day basis.
When Erica was
talking about Angela
giving the woman on the
street her jacket, I was like,
she's given me a jacket.
She's reached in her closet
and given me a jacket.
So yeah, I recognize that.
But also just her
generosity with people
who we often don't agree with.
You know I will just before I
dismiss anything-- well maybe
there's one person
who I think we all
know we have to get rid of
but who shall not be named.
But anyway it's mostly
a lot of other people
I will reach out and find out
what she thinks because she
always believes in
people's capacity
to grow, to change,
to learn that maybe we
can have a conversation.
I mean just that extraordinary
generosity is something
that I'm still learning from.
- I guess I would say ditto.
I think Angela's
kindness and humility.
We know the public Angela
and I knew the public Angela
before I knew Angela personally.
And so there's enormous
inspiration there but just
the way she carries that
in the world, right?
You know, that we were--
just last night, there
was a young boy of 14
or something whose
mother wanted him
to take a picture with Angela.
She was so generous.
She asked him a question.
She tried to not make
him feel awkward.
So just that level of kindness.
Because it's easy,
sometimes revolutionaries
want to make the
world better but you
don't know who they
want to make it
better for because they don't
like too many people in it.
Right?
[LAUGHTER]
But what Angela-- no
revolutionaries we know.
I'm just saying.
But Angela reminds you of
the importance of kindness
and the importance of generosity
and the importance of humility.
So yes, so that's
an important lesson.
Thank you.
- Well thank you.
So we are going to
now open this up
to questions from our audience.
So please feel free to come to
the mic and ask us questions.
Yes.
- Hi I wanted to say something
very particular and then more
general.
First is that I actually
know also about Angela Davis.
That she can do a head
stand in a full pike,
coming all the way
down using her abs.
It's gorgeous.
- And there are photographs.
- So there is much to
appreciate on this panel.
I know I'm playing serious hooky
today and I know a lot of us
are.
I wanted to appreciate the ways
that people have appreciated
Gina Dent as a co-teacher and
as a friend gathering material
and as a world traveler.
But here's the deal.
When I think of Ossie
Davis, I think of Ruby Dee.
And when I think of Ruby
Dee, I think of Ossie Davis.
When I think of WEB DuBois, I
think of Shirley Graham DuBois.
And when I think of
Shirley Graham DuBois,
I think of WEB DuBois.
When I think of Nelson Mandela,
I think of Winnie Mandela.
And vise versa.
So Gina is a fierce scholar
and she is a transnationalist.
But she is also a
lover and a partner
for 30 years of Angela Davis.
so I want to appreciate
the Communist
Party and the black
liberation struggle
and I also want to
appreciate the LGBT struggle
and community.
And what lifelong,
lasting, love can
do to hold and transform us.
And you two have done
that for each other.
[APPLAUSE]
- Hello.
My name is Farina.
I'm a junior in high school.
So I actually moved
here two years ago
I used to live in Texas.
And when I was there, I had
a very different perspective
on the world than I do now.
I used to think that it really
was like the man's world.
And whenever I thought of
Harvard, I thought of, OK,
white rich men and that's it.
I didn't never thought that
I can stand here right now
and look at people like
you and be like, OK,
I guess we do belong here.
And now after I
moved and I sort of
was introduced to the Harvard
community I was very, very
surprised and I thought, I maybe
have a chance in this world
to actually do something,
and be somebody, that helps
other people and make a change.
And I thought for me, in order
for me to think like that,
I had to actually come here
and see amazing people like you
guys.
But I feel it's very
hard for people who live,
not only in other
parts of the world,
but also parts of the country.
My cousins, I'm so,
so lucky to have
been able to like grow
up in this country.
But my cousins in
Egypt, if you ask them
what they want to be
when they grow up,
they don't have an
answer for that.
So I want to figure out a way
to not only help my friends back
in Texas, but also my
cousins who really have
no dreams or goals in life.
I want to be able to
help them and help
them find their goals and
their purpose in life.
And I would like to ask
for advice from you guys.
[APPLAUSE]
- Well, I might give a little
bit of a cliche answer.
But thank you for
that question and when
you said you're a junior,
you look kind of startled
when people start clapping.
But we're just glad to hear
young, smart, curious, people
among us.
So you know I think everybody
has dreams and aspirations
and sometimes it takes us
a while to articulate them,
right?
And to and to embrace them and
say them out into the world.
Well, first of all, all
of us aren't from Harvard.
Just to be clear.
And there are a lot of rich
white men still at Harvard.
[LAUGHTER]
Yeah, so just to say that.
But I mean when you say
your cousins in Egypt,
I'm thinking of all the
amazing, beautiful young people
who filled Tahrir Square in
protests to oust Mubarak.
They all had dreams and
what stood between them
and their dreams was a
brutal military regime
that came in after, right?
One phase and then another.
So I would say for me, I
think when I was your age,
I found the most sort of hopeful
identity by joining a movement.
By joining with other people and
feeling bigger than what I felt
was my very small
self at the time.
Of joining with other
people, of defining
what we wanted our
community to be,
and then what we
wanted the world to be
and that allowed me
to dream really big.
Now, that doesn't have
to be their dream.
But that's what I'm
reminded of when
I hear you ask that question.
- Thank you.
- You want to say something?
- First of all, I just want
to thank Becky Thompson.
I couldn't say anything so
thank you, Becky, for being here
and being our friend.
I just wanted to say that
there's a lesson that we taught
and discussed a
lot in organizing
critical resistance
which was to have
people be a part of the
movement from wherever they are.
And I think you know
we forget that a lot.
A lot of us are--
I can't do, for example,
a single organization's
work every night anymore.
I move around too much.
I have a different life.
So I try to do things
from wherever I am.
And I think for your
friends or your cousins,
sometimes instead of
kind of feeding people
what they should be
or should believe,
just trying to figure out how
to open what they're already
engaged in and let that
be the basis for being
a part of something collectively
that can be transformative.
And I think for us, I
think one of the successes
of Critical
Resistance was that so
many people who attended that
first conference in 1998,
the 3500, is that
right, 3,500 who
attended when they were
supposed to be like well 400,
something like that.
It was really about nurses,
and artists, and musicians,
and biologists, and
whoever not having
to sort of all be the same.
I think that can be
really difficult.
And I think especially when
it's the US people or people
in urban areas, in more
elite environments, sort
of sending the message
that you can be this too.
Is probably not as
welcome and welcoming
as being able to say I'm so
interested in what you're
doing.
Tell me about it.
And it could be something
that we don't always
think about immediately
as political like sewing
or whatever it is.
But those things can also
be the basis for building
a different community together.
- I also want to say.
And I'm going to
have a shout-out
here to Julianna Richardson.
Julianna Richardson
would you stand.
She is the founder of
the History Makers.
[APPLAUSE]
And I use that
archive in my classes
and I use it in other settings
but you see Angela Davis there.
In fact, they've
already seen you.
They've seen your interview.
When Barbara said I've had
these virtual conversations,
the really fascinating thing
about this digital archive
is that there are many
people who are courageous.
Names you know.
Names you do not know.
And you hear their stories.
Some of those people
are no longer with us.
Some of those
people are with us,
but they're no longer able
to tell their stories.
I think of Charles Ogletree
for example the great lawyer.
But he's on there.
And he's talking about his life.
I think great lives inspire us
and I think great lives inspire
young people and they
look and they listen
and they want to be
like those people
so I would invite you to go
online to go to the history
makers but to go
to other sources
other YouTube voices
that are speaking.
The quote that I used
for the feminism's
was after listening
to Angela Davis
speak at the University
of Chicago for that 2013.
You were their speaker.
And I heard the entire speech.
I do think that there are many
ways that we can virtually
connect with messages
that will lead us
into important directions.
Another question.
- This is going to sound
a little simplistic
but I think I want to take an
opportunity with you brilliant
scholars to answer it.
So we're talking about
the legacy of Angela Davis
redefining feminism, black
feminism specifically,
I'd love for you all to
tell me why it's important
that black women
define themselves
as feminists, period.
- Let's take that.
- I just talked
- It's kind of like
what else is there?
[LAUGHTER]
I came up during
the 70s and that
was like during the
second wave of feminism
and in my generation we
never knew anything else.
And it informs
everything that I do.
And that's why I
was saying things
like why can John Wick be
so fluid in his screen life
and whenever it comes
to films about women
they want to just
focus on the family,
and the trouble I've seen and
all of those types of things
when there's so much more
that when we go to films
or read books, we
want to be nurtured.
We want our minds to be fed
with something more than once
again a single story.
- I think that,
for me, I would say
I do want to live in a
world without patriarchy,
and I think that having that
as a kind of mobilizing vision
for any kind of freedom
struggle or liberation struggle
that I'm involved in is
of utmost importance.
And so that's what black
feminism in particular gave me,
and it's why I embraced
that term and that politics
and why I encourage other
women to do the same.
Other men, as Angela
said in that quotation,
other kind of genders beyond
number and sexualities
beyond name.
That to me feminism as
defined by people like Angela
has a vision for the kind of
world that I'd like to build.
The kind of future that I'd like
to see or help bring it to be.
- Well I would just say you know
we've seen examples of black
liberation agendas that
don't include an anti-hetero
patriarchy agenda.
A lot of it is not pretty.
OK, and we've seen
Bourgeois feminism that
doesn't include the experiences,
the desires, and dreams
of black women and
it's not pretty.
So to me, like thinking of
a holistic, an ambitious,
a robust, future an
agenda for liberation.
I say black left
feminism because I
think that the anti capitalist
part is really important.
So that to me makes
me most hopeful.
- I would just say
one thing, which
is that the term, I
certainly claim it,
and I have for most of my
life, but it's also OK with me,
especially because I travel
around many parts of the world.
And I think starting with
the term is not necessarily
the best thing, all the time.
Of course, you know, I
teach in a department that
now has that name and
there was a lot of struggle
in not being women
and gender studies
but being feminist studies.
Declaring that we had a
political vision, not saying we
were just going to
describe more things.
That was really,
really a struggle.
And we fought for it and I
think it's mattered a lot.
But I also always want to be
open to the different ways
in which people share
values and share a struggle
and don't define
themselves in the same way.
- And I agree with
that, Gina, because we
have had a long tradition
of black feminists,
but they didn't use that
word because that word wasn't
even usable in the late or
in the middle 19th century.
But they were.
I write about church
women who are literally
using the Bible to fight
for equal rights for women
all in every way.
But I also want to say that
there is, historically looking
at the late 20th
century, a real effort
on the part of women such as
Alice Walker and other women
to use the word womanist.
In fact, I think at Spelman,
you're either having or you did
have a conversation
about that word.
But I think for black feminists,
the issue is certainly
we are fighting for
the rights of women
and I never want
to leave out men
because Frederick Douglass was
one of the greatest feminists
ever.
But at the same
time, black women
have had to struggle
against racism
and so sometimes
the word feminist
just connotes certain Bourgeois,
white women, middle class,
ideas that don't lend themselves
to black women of any class,
much less working
class black women.
So I think the word itself
has certain tensions,
but I do think we understand
when we use the word feminist,
that we are talking about
the rights of women,
no matter their sexuality,
the rights of women,
no matter where they are.
Because when you say the
home, you could be in the home
and still demand equal
rights in your own home.
So it's everywhere.
- Can I just add a
footnote to that that?
To Evelyn.
So I think that's why the
modifiers are important.
I rarely say just feminist.
I add something
to it, precisely,
to debunk that notion that
we're talking about Bourgeois
feminism and that's
what I'm sort of trying
to say in terms of
Angela's whole body of work
has been to rescue from that.
So we shouldn't have that
skewed notion of feminism
leaves out all this
work that has gone on
and it's just you
know so, so important.
- Yes, hi, my name is Jackie.
Thank you so much for
this amazing panel.
I have a related
question about feminism
and this kind of comes from--
I was listening to a podcast
where Professor Ransby, you
were on a panel about
intersectionality
and you said that one thing
that sometimes is missing
from me from an
intersectional analysis
is an analysis of class.
And I really appreciate that you
said black feminist struggle is
also anti-capitalist struggle.
And so one thing that
I definitely take away
from my feminist
community is a reframing
of what counts as labor.
Not just looking at
productive labor,
looking at domestic labor,
looking at unwaged labor
as well.
So this is really also a
question for the entire panel.
What working class
black feminist movements
do you think are historical
examples that we can look to?
- Well, for me, I
wrote a book years ago
called, "Righteous Discontent,"
and even though many people
think I'm talking about,
when you say the church,
I'm talking about middle
class women but I'm not.
Not in the Baptist
church anyway.
So these are maids.
These are domestic
servants but they
are fighting for their rights.
They put out in 1913, a
statement, a seven point
manifesto, what we
want, what we must have.
And when you listen to--
and these are domestically,
overwhelmingly, domestic
servants, they use language
like, we are the women god made
more of than the other kind.
And they will argue for
things that we are absolutely
arguing for today.
The equality of the vote.
Getting rid of convict leasing.
More humane prisons and
reform in the prison.
Then they're asking for basic
civil rights like the end
to Jim Crow, having
their streets
paved because just the
environment in which you live
creates health hazards.
It creates all kinds of
environmental racism.
So these are working class
women and they're women--
Tera Hunter writes about working
class women who are, again,
many of them maids, but
they're fighting for the right
to have control
over their bodies.
So we have these
stories in our history.
I think we need to know
more about those stories
and to hear--
again I'm going to call
back to the history makers
because there's a search you
can just search and put in there
radical women or just any kind
of search that will get you,
and you'll see these people who
you've never heard of before
and they're talking about
their experiences growing up.
And you realize that
all over this nation,
there are people who have been
struggling against the things
that Angela Davis stands for.
Or she stands for the things
that people are struggling for.
I should say it that way.
- I would like to
recommend, a few of us
have mentioned someone who's in
the audience, Premilla Nadasen,
and so students here, yeah,
I'd like to recommend,
I had to look up
the exact title,
but two of Premilla's
books, "Welfare Warrior,"
is about the women who
organized for the welfare rights
movement, I think might
address that question,
and also "Household Workers
Unite: The Untold Story
of African American Women who
built a movement," that I think
that you will find exactly
the kind of information
you're looking for there.
- And just and Ed
and Robin Spencer
and the women of
the Black Panther
Party are they
most of those women
were hardly Bourgeois
women so yeah.
- I was going to
mention, Primella, also I
think I'm glad
Farah did but I also
wanted to say you
know today there
are three formations that
I think are important, not
perfect, but important that
have black working class
women at the center.
One is the movement for
Black Lives, which comes out
of the Black Lives
Matter movement
and it's not necessarily
the names that you know,
but young people who were
on the streets of Ferguson,
in Baltimore and so
forth that have tried
to keep the spirit of that
alive their people who grew up
in the projects whose you
know have relatives in prison
and who experience what
working class families
experience because they are
from working class communities.
LeftRoots is a
political project.
A new left sort of
political project
with very, very working class
intellectuals at the center.
People like NTanya
Lee and others.
And then an
interesting experiment
with the Working Families Party.
And I'm arguing with them
about some things right
now so I'm not completely,
completely down
but I love the leadership
that Mo Mitchell comes out
of a black working class
experience in New York City,
represent for that.
And Nelini Stamp represent
for that organization.
So when we we're looking for
working class organizations,
there's Welfare Rights movement,
and National Domestic Workers
and a number of organizations.
But there's also people
with working class movement,
politics, consciousness
and background
in the organizations that
are not explicitly defining
themselves in that way.
Although, if you look at their
politics, It's reflected there.
And unions, I mean the
teachers strike, Stacy Davis
Gates and Jennifer
Johnson are two
of the most important leaders
of the teachers strike SEIU
has very power
women in leadership.
Jackie Algee and others.
- So yes to all of
that, I just want
to mention one thing
which is since I'm
on the theme of Brazil
today, one of the things
that Angela I was so
astonished to learn about
was the unionization of
domestic workers in Brazil
and I have been deeply
interested in aligning
with them and following their
struggles and someone came up
to me actually, I don't
know if I told you
this, at the last time
we were there saying
how important Angela's
essay, "The Role of Black
Women in the
Community of Slaves"
was because there are so
many black workers living
in white homes doing labor.
And so that work for them
was very inspirational
and their work has been
very inspirational for us.
- Thank you for this
incredible panel.
I'm still reeling from it.
And our entire morning
sessions I think we
have a lot to think about
and discuss over lunch.
We ask that you leave the room.
Doors will reopen here at 1:15.
We'll begin promptly at 2:00 PM.
And in the meantime we
encourage you to head over
to the gallery in the
Schlesinger library
to view "Angela Davis:
Freed by the People."
Thank you so much and we'll
see you again at 2:00.
