The Stuart Hall Foundation invites historian and writer Professor Robin D.G. Kelley to respond to the theme of their 2024 programme Catastrophe & Emergence. Professor Kelley will examine this current conjuncture, trace the histories constituting it, and consider the political and creative possibilities that might emerge from what was.
Professor Kelley will organise his keynote around brief reflections on anniversaries marking key moments of Catastrophe and Emergence. He will consider: the Berlin Conference and its aftermath; World War I as a war between empires over colonies; and how the end of World War II marked the defeat over fascism and the reinforcement of colonial domination through the UN Charter. Professor Kelley will think through these moments to trace the colonial dialectic and the many different chapters and phases of resistance to it – thinking about resistance as always in a state of emergence, never complete, never finished, always in motion.
A chaired discussion and audience Q&A led by interdisciplinary writer, artist, editor and curator Imani Mason Jordan will follow the keynote.
Robin D. G. Kelley is Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA. His books include the award-winning Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression, Race Rebels: Culture Politics and the Black Working Class, Yo’ Mama’s DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America, and many more. He is currently completing two books, Making a Killing: Cops, Capitalism, and The War on Black Life and The Education of Ms. Grace Halsell: An Intimate History of the American Century. His essays have appeared in dozens of publications, including The Nation, New York Times, Spectre, Monthly Review, Dissent, New Labor Forum, and The Boston Review, for which he also serves as Contributing Editor.
Imani Mason Jordan is an interdisciplinary writer, artist, editor and curator interested in poetics and performance. After completing their MA in Forensic Architecture at Goldsmiths in 2019, their pamphlet OBJECTS WHO TESTIFY was published by Taylor Le Melle at PSS. Recent performance and audio projects include Earthly Accomplice with Felix Taylor, Atlantic Railton: LIVE with Ain Bailey & Welcome Note In A Welcome Speech with Libita Sibungu. They are featured in two tracks on the 2020 album BRASS by Moor Mother & billy woods. Imani is currently touring as a performer in Eve Stainton’s Impact Driver, and directing Ebun Sodipo’s theatrical debut, Vitoria : Buraco, for Live Collision 2024. Imani is co-founder of PAPERFLESH PUBLISHING.
The event is in partnership with Conway Hall Ethical Society supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust and Cockayne Grants for the Arts, a donor-advised fund held at the London Community Foundation.
All ticket proceeds go directly to support the charitable work of The Stuart Hall Foundation and Conway Hall Ethical Society. The Autumn Keynote is a key fundraising event for the Stuart Hall Foundation, helping to maintain and improve the Foundation’s programmes so that they can continue to bring you events like these, and facilitating the development of a new generation of creative and intellectual practitioners.
Price
*All prices include a £1 booking fee*
Standard (in person) £21•Concessions (in person) £16 • Standard (online) £11
If the ticket price is a barrier for you, please contact the Stuart Hall Foundation team at info@stuarthallfoundation.org.
Access Information
Due to the age and Grade Il listing of the building, there is no lift access to rooms above the ground floor.
All the ground-floor rooms are fully accessible by wheelchair. Main Hall (street access, step-free), Brockway Room (street access, step-free), Bertrand Russell Room (street access, shallow ramp), Hive Cafe (street access, step-free), There is also an accessible toilet on the ground floor opposite the Brockway Room.
If you have any questions regarding your access needs, please get in touch with our team and we will accommodate as best as we can. Get in touch: info@conwayhall.org.uk
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Further Info
This event will be held with an in-person audience at Conway Hall and online via livestream. Everyone wishing to join this event must register for a ticket in advance.
If ticket price is a barrier for you, please contact the Stuart Hall Foundation team at info@stuarthallfoundation.org.
If you have any accessibility enquiries, please contact us at info@conwayhall.org.uk / 020 7405 1818.