Why is racism a global concern is the question discussed when iconic activist Angela Davis is a guest Melafestivalen August 11 .
Angela Davis will perform at the Mela Kickoff at Saga Kino on August 11, at 6 p.m., with the lecture "Why Racism Must Be a Global Concern: Art and Politics in the 21st Century". With this lecture, Davis puts anti-racism in a larger context with art and culture as central factors.
When the Black Lives Matter movement really took shape in 2020, while the corona pandemic simultaneously turned the world upside down, the times seemed as turbulent as the break between the 1960s and 1970s. At that time, around 50 years ago, Angela Davis was already a notorious feminist, a member of the American Communist Party, with connections to the well-known Black Panther Party. She railed against war, white supremacy and colonialism, and was eventually imprisoned for her activism.
Art, culture and activism
In September 2020, Davis gave an online lecture at the Southbank Center in London, mainly on the abolition of the prison system, where she also emphasized the importance of art in the 21st century:
- I think that in moments like these, we forget how creative work, or cultural work plays a role in how we move towards a better future. I believe that art and cultural work, music and film can express what we cannot yet articulate. I think that these art forms lead us to feel what we cannot say, they are absolutely essential to the struggle for radical social transformation, said Angela Davis in the online lecture at the Southbank Centre, according to We Jazz Magazine.
Through her decades of activism and studies, Angela Davis is deeply involved in social justice movements around the world. Her work as an educator – both at the university level and in the larger public sphere – has always emphasized the importance of building a society based on the struggle for justice across economic class, ethnicity and gender. She has published over ten books, including essays and an autobiography.
Will abolish the prison system
In recent years, a consistent theme has been the span of social problems associated with the prison system, and the criminalization of those social groups most affected by poverty and racism. She builds on her own experiences from the early 1970s as a person who spent eighteen months in prison with subsequent trial, as a result of being placed on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted List".
Like many educators, Professor Davis is particularly concerned about the general tendency to devote more resources and attention to the prison system than to educational institutions. As someone who has contributed to the idea of a prison industrial complex , she now encourages the public to think seriously about the possibility of a world without prisons and to create an abolitionist movement in the 21st century.
No more tickets are available.