University of Connecticut |
Exploring the Harlem Renaissance
Political scientists, historians, artists, and philosophers will revisit the ideas of the post- World War I Harlem Renaissance in a conference at UConn on March 27-March 29 organized by the Institute for African American Studies (IAAS). Poet, playwright and cultural critic Amiri Baraka will open the conference on March 27. Filmmaker Spike Lee, who is producing a documentary on the Harlem Renaissance, will deliver the keynote speech on March 29 at 6 p.m. at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. Lucy Hurston, niece of Harlem Renaissance author Zora Neale Hurston, will speak about “Zora: Literature and Legacy.” The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is a co-sponsor of the three-day event. Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar, associate professor of history and director of the IAAS, called it “a very ambitious, very exciting, very promising conference” that will stimulate discussion among a broad cross-section of artists and scholars. During the conference, original editions of books by Harlem Renaissance authors will be displayed at the Dodd Center, and photos from the era will be exhibited at the William Benton Museum of Art. The 1925 film Body and Soul, starring Paul Robeson and directed by pioneering African American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, will be shown on Friday at 6:15 p.m. at the Student Union Theatre, followed by a talk by Allyson Nadia Field of Harvard University on African American Cinema and the Harlem Renaissance. Click here for the conference program http://www.iaas.uconn.edu/files/harlemProgram.pdf Click here for more information about keynote speaker Spike Lee
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