Spring 2020 Newsletter
Letter from the Director
In the fall semester, BCRW hosted an amazing array of artists, academics, and activists who taught us about the politics and poetics of memory, new horizons in brain science, the archival legacies of colonial rule, the still-urgent need to disrupt systems of mass incarceration and uproot the carceral state through resistance and the creation of better models for redressing harm, the fierce persistence of activists who insist upon housing as a fundamental right and as the basis for vibrant community, and the limits of received ideas about objectivity in journalism.
One of the most exciting events in the fall was the installation of “I Am Queen Mary,” a sculpture created by BCRW Artist-in-Residence La Vaughn Belle and Danish artist Jeannette Ehlers, in the lobby of Barnard Hall. We look forward to our spring event featuring Belle, Ehlers, and members of the Barnard community as we consider questions of public political art, representations of Black women in public art, and the impact of Queen Mary’s presence on the Barnard campus.
The 45th annual Scholar and Feminist Conference will take place in February. There, we will engage the global climate crisis and the urgent call for climate justice, bringing together climate scientists, scholars who explore the cultural and political impacts of climate change on communities, and activists who are taking on this consequential and potentially calamitous reality in creative and fierce fashion. The conference welcomes climate scientist Robin Bell, whose keynote lecture will be the Silver Science Lecture for 2020.
Among the other highlights of the spring program: poet Staceyann Chin and Alexis Pauline Gumbs ’04 in the ongoing Caribbean Feminisms on the Page series; Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, talking about her new book, The Race for Profit; and Dan-el Padilla Peralta, delivering the annual Natalie Boymel Kampen Memorial Lecture.
I am constantly reminded of BCRW’s singular role in supporting collaborations between scholars, students, activists, artists, and our wide community in pushing the boundaries of feminist intellectual and activist engagement, creating new knowledge, and sharing the fruits of these collaborations as far as possible through public programs, the Scholar & Feminist Online, our video channels, and broad outreach to our multiple communities. I feel deep gratitude to the creative and hardworking BCRW staff, to our activists/researchers/artists-in-residence, and to everyone who attends our events, finds our work online, and connects us to cutting-edge scholarship and leading-edge activism.
Warmly,
Elizabeth Castelli
Center Highlights
The Scholar and Feminist Online 15.3: Unraveling Criminalizing Webs: Building Police Free Futures
Edited by BCRW Researcher-in-Residence Andrea J. Ritchie and Levi Craske BC ‘18, this issue invites us to contemplate the question: If not police, then what? How must our everyday conversations, celebrations, and community creations lead us on a path toward transformative approaches to safety and healing? With contributions from LeeAnn Adkins, Mizue Aizeki, Gabriel Arkles, Erin Miles Cloud, Ejeris Dixon, Jeanne Flavin, Kassandra Frederique, LaLa Holston-Zanell, Chaumtoli Huq, Simone John, Mariame Kaba, Joo-Hyun Kang, Alexis Yeboah-Kodie, Robyn Maynard, Meryleen Mena, Kate Mogulescu, Victoria Law, Dinah Ortiz, Cara Page, Lynn Paltrow, Dorothy Roberts, Dean Spade, and K.B. White. The Scholar and Feminist Online is BCRW’s peer-reviewed, open-source online journal. Read this issue and more at sfonline.barnard.edu.
Transforming Harm: Experiments in Accountability
In fall 2019, BCRW released a new series of videos to ask: What do we mean when we talk about transformative justice and accountability? What is a survivor-centered response in practice? How can we support those who have caused harm without defaulting to punishment? What is real accountability? What has worked, and what obstacles have organizers and community members faced in building this difficult and necessary practice? These videos are part of BCRW’s Building Accountable Communities Project, which promotes non-punitive responses to harm through public education resources and convenings. Watch these videos and learn more at bcrw.barnard.edu/videos.
Spring 2020 Events
The Rest I Make Up
Film screening and discussion featuring Michelle Memran, filmmaker and Dasha Amsterdam Epstein Visiting Artist in Theatre, in conversation with Gabri Christa, moderated by Alice Reagan
Monday 1/27, 6:30 p.m.
Glicker-Milstein Black Box Theatre, The Diana Center, Barnard College
45th Annual Scholar and Feminist Conference: Climate Crisis, Climate Justice
Multidisciplinary conference featuring Hōkūlani K. Aikau, Xiye Bastida, Robin E. Bell, Karen Blondel, Ashley Dawson, Alexa Dietrich, Paola Del Toro, Adriana Garriga-Lopez, Jane Gilbert, Alicia Grullón, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Meg McLagan, Mon Mohapatra, Marama Muru-Lanning, Fernando Ortiz-Baez, anaïs peterson, Dev Punaini, Timmy Rose, Dean Itsuji Saranillio, Julie Sze, Lynnell Thomas, Juslene Tyresias, Paige West, Kei Francis Williams, and Thanu Yakupitiyage
Friday 2/7, 6:30 p.m. & Saturday 2/8, 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
The Diana Center, Barnard College
Discovery to Action: Change from the Poles to Our Shores
Roslyn Silver ’27 Science Lecture featuring Robin E. Bell
Saturday 2/8 , 10 a.m.
Event Oval, The Diana Center, Barnard College
‘A Woman Who Knows Her Magic’: An Immersive Shange Experience
Multimedia workshop featuring Barnard faculty, students, and staff
Monday 2/10, 4 p.m.
Movement Lab, Milstein Center, Barnard College
‘Creation Is Everything You Do’: Ntozake Shange, The Sisterhood, and Black Collectivity
Panel discussion featuring Patricia Spears Jones, Kimberly Springer, Mecca Jamiliah Sullivan, and Courtney Thorsson
Monday 2/10, 6:30 p.m.
James Room, Barnard Hall, Barnard College
Critical Caribbean Feminisms
Reading and conversation featuring Staceyann Chin and Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Tuesday 2/11, 6:30 p.m.
Event Oval, The Diana Center, Barnard College
The Haunted House of Classics
Natalie Boymel Kampen Memorial Lecture in Feminist Criticism and History Featuring Dan-el Padilla Peralta
Thursday 3/5, 6:30 p.m.
Event Oval, The Diana Center, Barnard College
Race for Profit
Lecture featuring Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Monday 3/9, 6:30 p.m.
Event Oval, The Diana Center, Barnard College
Reproductive Injustice: A Salon Honoring Dána-Ain Davis
Featuring Dána-Ain Davis, Toni Bond, Cara Page, and Dorothy Roberts
Tuesday 3/24, 6:30 p.m.
Event Oval, The Diana Center, Barnard College
The Color of Children’s Literature Conference
Third annual Kweli conference featuring Debbie Reese, Jean Mendoza, Linda Sue Park, Vanessa Brantley-Newton, Kacen Callender, Roshani Chokshi, Michaela Goade, Raul the Third, Nikki Grimes, Adib Khorram, Minh Le, Nilah Bagruder, Aida Salazar, Traci Sorell, Duncan Tonatiuh, Ibi Zoboi, and more
Friday 4/3 & Saturday 4/4
James Room, Barnard Hall, Barnard College
Queer Asylum in Germany: Between Queer Liberalisms and Colonial Sexualities
Lecture featuring Mengia Hong Tschalaer
Tuesday 4/7, 6:30 p.m.
Digital Humanities Center, Milstein Center, Barnard College
“I Am Queen Mary”: Public Art and the Politics of Representation
Panel discussion featuring La Vaughn Belle and Jeanette Ehlers with Ariana Gonzalez Stokas and Mabel O. Wilson, moderated by Monica L. Miller
Monday 4/27, 6:30 p.m.
Event Oval, The Diana Center
Abolition Feminism: Celebrating 20 years of INCITE!
Panel discussion with founders and leaders of INCITE!
Thursday 4/30, 6 p.m.
Event Oval, The Diana Center
Image: “Nature’s Watching” by Reynaldo García Pantaleón http://www.tb-credit.ru/zaim-bez-otkaza.html http://www.tb-credit.ru/news.html