The UC Berkeley Center for Interdisciplinary Critical Inquiry, the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs, and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive will host a daylong exploration of the theme "Imagining Beyond Authoritarianism: Race and Gender in our Times," funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In our times, contemporary authoritarian power is invested in promoting ideals of whiteness, patriarchy, and biological reductionism, circulating phantasms of gender and race to incite fear and hatred. The day's events explore what a powerful counter-imaginary might be dedicated to reparation, livable life, and radical equality. What role do the arts and humanities play in producing a vibrant and compelling opposition to contemporary authoritarianism?
Speakers and moderators include Lisa Armstrong, Amir Aziz, Judith Butler, Maurya Kerr, Ronald Rael, Claudia Rankine, Luanne Redeye, Boots Riley, Julie Rodrigues Widholm, Debarati Sanyal, and Darieck Scott. For a full list of the speakers' and moderators' biographies, see here.
The event will take place on Saturday, February 10, 2024 at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) from 11 AM to 9:30 PM.
This event is made possible by the generosity of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California, Berkeley.
MORNING PROGRAMMING | 11 AM - 1 PM
SOLD OUT - Rush only. Separate tickets required for each session of the day. View ticketing information at bampfa.org.
Introductory Remarks
Presented by Debarati Sanyal, Judith Butler, and Julie Rodrigues Widholm.
Claudia Rankine in Conversation with Judith Butler
Claudia Rankine will speak from her current work and discuss poetry, prose, despair, exhaustion, illumination, and repair, with a response by Judith Butler followed by a conversation.
ALL DAY PROGRAMMING | 1 PM, 5 PM
Slow Dark Dances
Throughout the day and in different museum spaces will be a performance of the durational dance slow dark dances, which creatively embodies ideas explored in Imagining Beyond Authoritarianism: Race and Gender in our Times. Choreographed by Maurya Kerr, slow dark dances builds on legacies of Black joy as a form of resistance, and seeks to uncolonize the "invisible" whiteness of museum spaces. At the conclusion of the convening, attendees are invited to participate in a community slow dance, alone or with a friend, in the Crane Forum.
AFTERNOON PROGRAMMING | 2 - 5 PM
Tickets are still available. Separate tickets required for each session of the day. Reserve your ticket here or at bit.ly/3vhjHvt.
Photography and Community
Speakers: Amir Aziz and Lisa Armstrong
On the role of photography in documenting racial injustice while conveying daily life and joy in marginalized communities.
Place, Indigeneity, and Land (Faculty Panel)
Speakers: Luanne Redeye and Ronald Rael
Moderator: Debarati Sanyal
Asserting identity in one’s creative practice raises important questions about who and what the work's subjects are and how one’s relationship to place informs the outcomes of land-based and place-based practices.
EVENING PROGRAMMING
SOLD OUT - Rush only. Separate tickets required for each session of the day. View ticketing information at bampfa.org.
Film Screening: Sorry To Bother You (2018)
A special screening of Boots Riley’s 2018 film Sorry to Bother You followed by a Q & A and conversation with Riley and UC Berkeley professor Darieck Scott.