We Are Our Own History | How To Build A Fire: James Baldwin Convening
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How To Build A Fire celebrates the centennial birth of James “Jimmy” Baldwin with a two-day convening that reflect on the blackprints Baldwin wrote in his time.
HOW TO BUILD A FIRE | EVENT DETAILS
As we celebrate the centennial birth of James “Jimmy” Baldwin, our Great Bard of Harlem, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is excited to host a two-day convening, How To Build A Fire, October 4-5, 2024, in collaboration with the Institute for Research in African American Studies and Department of African and African Diaspora Studies, Columbia University.
We gather not only in response to a world in turmoil (again), but also to invite and engage conversations about being ourselves, doing our work, and lighting our own fires this time/in our own time. Rather than building and burnishing an unusable icon, How To Build A Fire lovingly and critically reflects on the blackprints James Baldwin wrote for his time, toward building and making our own interventions in the present.
SESSIONS PRESENTED BY AMERICAN LGBTQ+ MUSEUM
Saturday, October 5 | 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
We Are Our Own History
Dr. Jafari Allen will moderate a conversation about the importance of collecting, preserving, and interpreting archives, with panelists Suhaly Bautista-Carolina, Director of Public Programs and Partnerships, American LGBTQ+ Museum; Jessica (Jes) C. Neal, MLIS, Founder and Lead Archivist Vanguard Archives Consulting; Christopher Stahlings, Oral History Archive Project Lead, Everybody Needs A Witness: In The Life Archive 2.0, and Steven Fullwood, Archivist, Nomadic Archivist Project.
Saturday, October 5 | 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Closing Party with DJ Theoretic
theoretic is an unapologetically Black, queer, brooklyn-based DJ & producer;.a free spirit (in every sense). they are an anti-oppression consultant & educator by day, and by night they help people express their full selves by sweating out their stress on the dance floor.
ACCESSIBILITY
ASL interpretation will be provided upon availability of interpreters. Live captioning is available for streaming programs. Additional accessibility requests can be made by e-mail accessibility@nypl.org.
#SchomburgLive | Learn more about the Schomburg Center at schomburg.org.
FIRST COME, FIRST SEATED Events are free and open to all, but due to space constraints registration is requested. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. After the event starts all registered seats are released regardless of registration, so we recommend that you arrive early.
Header artwork: “Fire Time” by artist Jules Arthur.