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Ferguson is the Future Symposium: Speculative Arts & Social Justice
September 14, 2015 @ 8:00 am - 6:00 pm
“Ferguson is the Future”:
Incubating Alternative Worlds Through Arts, Activism, and Scholarship
What stories about power, difference, and belonging fuel the social crises we face today? How does visionary fiction offer us models for creating new possible worlds? Can the combined insights and interventions of artists, activists, and scholars plot a different course forward? “Ferguson is the Future” is part of an ongoing collaboration to imagine and create alternative worlds that are more just and representative of humanity.
This symposium brings together a multigenerational panel of speculative fiction writers, activists, filmmakers, academics, and artists to discuss the historical, present-and-future manifestations of a social reality we wish to create and thrive in. As we work to shape change, we will use this space as an incubator and laboratory to grow new visions of the worlds we want to exist. Please join us for a day-long celebration and investigation to explore these timely issues.
Major support for the symposium was provided by a grant of the David A. Gardner ’69 Magic Project in the Council of the Humanities and a grant of the Lewis Center for the Arts.
Additional Sponsors:
Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network, Princeton Public Library, Princeton Department of English, Princeton Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Princeton Department of African American Studies.
A LIVESTREAM FROM THIS EVENT CAN BE WATCHED HERE
CO-ORGANIZERS
MOYA BAILEY
RUHA BENJAMIN
AYANA A. H. JAMIESON, Ph.D.
GUEST SPEAKERS
REYNALDO ANDERSON
STEVEN BARNES
LISA BOLEKAJA
ADRIENNE MAREE BROWN
ERIN CHRISTOVALE
DJ LYNNÉE DENISE
M. ASLI DUKAN
TANANARIVE DUE
JOHNETTA ELZIE
NETTRICE GASKINS
AMIR GEORGE
ANDREA HAIRSTON
NALO HOPKINSON
WALIDAH IMARISHA
JOHN JENNINGS
DENNIS LEROY KANGALEE
COLORED GIRLS HUSTLE
SORAYA JEAN-LOUS McELROY
DERAY_MCKESSON
ALONDRA NELSON
NNEDI OKORAFOR
DANIEL JOSÉ OLDER
BRITTANY N. PACKNETT
NUMA PERRIER
OUR OWN RASHEEDAH PHILLIPS
SOFIA SAMATAR
DOROTHY ROBERTS
NISI SHAWL
BE STEADWELL