The Stuart Hall Foundation invited historian and writer Professor Robin D.G. Kelley to respond to the theme of their 2024 programme Catastrophe & Emergence. Professor Kelley examines this current conjuncture, traces the histories constituting it, and considers the political and creative possibilities that might emerge from what was.
Professor Kelley organised his keynote around brief reflections on anniversaries marking key moments of Catastrophe and Emergence. He considers: 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 thinks 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 follows 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.
