Ancestral Witnesses: Maya Angelou & Amiri Baraka

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Columbia University

Ancestral Witnesses: Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka will explore the intersections of religion and African-American literature produced during the social upheavals of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements and their aftermath. The featured panel will discuss and examine how black writers engaged religion in their efforts to imagine black liberation and human freedom, as well as how black religions have shaped African-American literary visions.

While Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka will be the focal points for this event, the conversation will explore how religion and spirituality figured in the life and work of a range of other black writers. Alongside the roundtable conversation, there will be choreographed readings from selected texts and musical performances, given music’s centrality to both African American literary and religious traditions alike.

Panelists at the event include:

Elizabeth Alexander, Yale University
Eddie Glaude, Princeton University
Farah Jasmine Griffin, Columbia University
Obery Hendricks, Columbia University

Moderating:

Josef Sorett, Columbia University

Selected readings, and a musical performance by:

Imani Uzuri, composer, vocalist

Readings by performers to be announced.

Ancestral Witnesses: Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka is sponsored by the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life; Columbia University School of the Arts; the Institute for Research in African American Studies; and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

This event is free and open to all, yet registration is required.  Click here.