“The Art(s) of Protest” at CCSU Africana Studies Conference

The Central Connecticut State University Center for Africana Studies will hold its 2021 Conference today, March 4, 2021, on “The Art(s) of Protest”.

The Conference, themed, “The Art(s) of Protest. Black Lives Matter, the Black Freedom Struggle, and the Arts,” is to be held online.

The keynote speaker for the Conference is to be acclaimed author Reginald Dwayne Betts. Betts’ biography on his website says that,

His memoir, A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison, is the story of a young man confined in the worst prisons in the state of Virginia, where solitary confinement, horrific conditions, and the constant violence threatened to break his humanity. Instead, Betts used the time to turn himself into a poet, a scholar, and an advocate for the reform of the criminal justice system.

Betts’ was awarded a National Magazine Award for his essay “Getting Out”, published by the New York Times Magazine in 2018. His biography says that he,

transformed himself from a sixteen-year old kid sentenced to nine-years in prison to a critically acclaimed writer and graduate of the Yale Law School. He has written three acclaimed collections of poetry, the recently published Felon, Bastards of the Reagan Era and Shahid Reads His Own Palm. When awarded Betts the PEN New England Award for poetry for his collection Bastards of the Reagan Era, judge Mark Doty said: “Betts has written an indelible lament for a generation, a necessary book for this American moment.”

The Conference is to be today, March 4, 2021, with events from 2:40pm to 7:00pm. The conference is to be held online. CCSU says that people can, “Join the conference here. Meeting number: 120 732 7484; Password: PuaMuHKM326.”

From 2:40pm to 3:40p, there is to be a session on, “Visual Arts.” The Center for Africana Studies says that the session features,

Dr. Cora Marshall – “Emancipated Memories and the Art of Social Consciousness”

Dr. Jerry Butler – “JC: The Architect of Social, Economic, and Environmental Injustice”

From 3:50pm to 4:30pm, there will be a session on, “Afrofuturism and Activism,” with, the Center says, “Sean Clarke – Greg Aime – Bizzie (Madyson Frame).”

The intersession, from 4:30pm to 4:50pm is to feature the music of The Willis Moore Project, “Music of Protest and Resistance.”

The session from 5:00pm to 5:45pm is to be by Dr. Siobhan Carter and David Dr. Tanisha C. Ford on, “Black Fashion as Resistance.”

Betts will then give the keynote address from 6:00pm to 7:00pm on, “Felon: A play; A discourse.”

The Center says, “As always, the conference will be free and open to the public.”

The CCSU Center for Africana Studies says that its mission, “is to develop and encourage the study and teaching about Africa, African Americans, and people of African descent throughout the Diaspora.”