HESS WEEK
March 13 - 20, 2023
Brooklyn College, City University of New York
The public events listed below are hosted by Brooklyn College’s Ethyle R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities Center in honor of Barbara Smith, our 2022-23 Robert L. Hess Scholar-in-Residence.
If you do not have a Brooklyn College ID but would like to attend any of the events listed below, please follow this link and RSVP to each event you wish to attend: https://bit.ly/3JOWNAR
For more information on Barbara Smith, please see: https://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/academics/centers/wolfe/hess/2022-23.php
Free versions of Barbara Smith’s writings are available online to the BC community at: https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/wolfe2022/barbarasmith
The Ethyle R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities: https://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/academics/centers/wolfe.php
In recognition of Smith’s decades-long activism on behalf of women and of Women’s History Month, all public events are co-sponsored by Brooklyn College’s Women’s Resource Center.
BC President Welcomes 2022-23 Hess Scholar-in-Residence Barbara Smith
Monday March 13th, 11:00 AM to 12:15 PM
Tanger Auditorium, Brooklyn College Library (also on Zoom)
Brooklyn College President Michelle Anderson and the BC community welcome 2022-23 Hess Scholar-in-Residence Barbara Smith to campus.
Speakers:
Gaston Alonso, Interim Director, Wolfe Institute for the Humanities and Professor of Political Science, Brooklyn College
Rosamond S. King, Interim Dean, School of Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of English, Brooklyn College
Michelle J. Anderson, President of Brooklyn College
Carla Santamaria, Wolfe Institute Faculty Associate and Professor of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, Brooklyn College
Barbara Ransby, LAS Distinguished Professor and John D. MacArthur Chair in the Departments of Black Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, and History at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Director of Social Justice Initiative; University of Illinois at Chicago
Barbara Smith, Hess Scholar-in-Residence (2022-23)
JP Howard, Poet, judge, literary activist, curator of Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon, and Brooklyn College Tow Mentor-in-Residence (2023)
“If Black women were free…”: the State of Black Feminism 2023
Monday March 13th, 2:15 to 3:30 PM
Tanger Auditorium, Brooklyn College Library (also on Zoom)
Co-sponsored with the Cal State Los Angeles Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
The panel takes its inspiration from the Combahee River Collective Statement’s observation that “If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression.”
Speakers:
Zinga Fraser, Professor of Africana Studies and Women's and Gender Studies Program; Director of the Shirley Chisholm Project on Brooklyn Women's Activism, Brooklyn College
Alethia Jones, Distinguished Lecturer, CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies
Barbara Ransby, LAS Distinguished Professor and John D. MacArthur Chair in the Departments of Black Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, and History at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Director of Social Justice Initiative; University of Illinois at Chicago
Barbara Smith, Hess Scholar-in-Residence (2022-23)
Moderator: Rosamond S. King, Interim Dean, School of Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of English, Brooklyn College
Transforming the US Academy
Tuesday March 14th, 2:15 to 3:45 PM
Tanger Auditorium (live streamed on the Wolfe Institute’s YouTube Channel)
Since the 1970s, Barbara Smith has played a central role in the transformation of the US academy by helping to build autonomous spaces to nourish fields of study that center the histories, experiences, and knowledges of marginalized peoples. The panel explores the contributions of these fields at Brooklyn College and the US academy more generally.
Speakers:
Alan Aja, Professor and Chair, Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, Brooklyn College
David Brodsky, Professor and Chair, Department of Judaic Studies, Brooklyn College
Prudence Cumberbatch, Professor and Chair, Department of Africana Studies, Brooklyn College
Bernardita Llanos, Endowed Chair, Women’s and Gender Studies Program and Professor, Department of Modern Languages and Literature, Brooklyn College
Yung-Yi Diana Pan, Director of American Studies Program, Associate Professor of Sociology, and Dean Associate, School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Respondent: Barbara Smith, Hess Scholar-in-Residence (2022-23)
Moderator: Mobina Hashmi, Professor of Department of Television, Radio and Emerging Media, Brooklyn College
Justice or Just Us?: Defining a Queer Agenda
Wednesday March 15th 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM
Tanger Auditorium (live streamed on the Wolfe Institute’s YouTube Channel)
Co-sponsored by Brooklyn College’s LGBTQ+ Resource Center
This panel takes as an inspiration a 2019 New York Times editorial in which Barbara Smith discussed her decision to “leave the Mainstream Queer Rights Movement.” In it she wrote, “Gaining rights for some while ignoring the violation and suffering of others does not lead to justice. At best it results in privilege.” How do we define a political Queer Agenda?
Speakers:
Lorie Bryant, Southerners on New Ground
Paisley Currah, Professor of Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies, Brooklyn College
Barbara Smith, Hess Scholar-in-Residence (2022-23)
Jason Wu, Attorney and community advocate, GAPIMNY - Empowering Queer & Trans Asian Pacific Islanders
Moderator: Kelly Spivey, Director, Brooklyn College’s LGBTQ+ Resource Center
Teaching as a Liberating Practice
Wednesday March 15th, 3:40 to 4:55 PM
Tanger Auditorium (live streamed on the Wolfe Institute’s YouTube Channel)
Co-Sponsored by Brooklyn College’s School of Education and by the Roberta T. Matthews Center for Teaching and Learning
This panel brings together Brooklyn College faculty and Barbara Smith to reflect on the practice and philosophy of teaching as a liberating practice.
Introductory remarks: Malka Simon, Director, Roberta S. Matthews Center for Teaching and Learning and Lecturer in the Art Department, Brooklyn College
Speakers:
Barbara Smith, Hess Scholar-in-Residence (2022-23)
Lawrence Johnson, Professor, Department of Sociology, Brooklyn College
Cherry Lou Sy, Professor of English and Asian American Studies, Brooklyn College
Laura Ascenzi-Moreno, Professor of Bilingual Education and Bilingual Program Coordinator CBSE, School of Education, Brooklyn College
Moderator: Sonia Murrow, Professor, Educational Foundations and Social Studies Education, School of Education, Brooklyn College
Working for Liberation and Having a Damn Good Time
Thursday March 16th, 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM
Tanger Auditorium (live streamed on the Wolfe Institute’s YouTube Channel)
This panel takes its inspiration from the title of an article Barbara Smith wrote in 1986. We bring together experienced frontline organizers for an urgently important conversation on how to organize for fundamental social and political change.
Speakers:
Leslie Cagan, Social Justice and Peace Organizer, Writer
Laurie Bertram Roberts, co-founder, Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund
Rachel O'Leary Carmona, Executive Director, Women's March
Adrien Salazar, Policy Director, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
Barbara Smith, Hess Scholar-in-Residence (2022-23)
Moderator: Carolina Bank Munoz, Brooklyn College Chapter President PSC-CUNY and Professor of Sociology, Brooklyn College
Robert L. Hess Memorial Lecture: "What I Believe" by Barbara Smith
Thursday March 16th, 5:00 to 6:30 PM.
Claire Tow Theater
Whitman Hall
Brooklyn College (live streamed on the Wolfe Institute’s YouTube Channel)
Speakers:
Gaston Alonso, Interim Director, Wolfe Institute for the Humanities and Professor of Political Science, Brooklyn College
Rosamond S. King, Interim Dean, School of Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of English, Brooklyn College
Michelle J. Anderson, President of Brooklyn College
Tishana Chapman, poet and undergraduate student, Brooklyn College Class of 2024
Julianna Salinas, poet and undergraduate student, Brooklyn College Class of 2024
Jeanne Theoharis, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Brooklyn College
Barbara Smith, Hess Scholar-in-Residence (2022-23)
Performers:
Lucia Bradford, mezzo-soprano
Malcolm J. Merriweather, Professor, Conservatory of Music, Brooklyn College; and Director, New York Philharmonic Chorus
Putting Class Back into Intersectionality
Monday March 20th, 6:00 to 7:15 PM
Online via Zoom
Co-sponsored with the Cal State Los Angeles Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
This event closes out the Hess 2022-23 program by bringing a former and a current Hess Scholar together to explore the proposition that the Combahee River Collective’s radical vision of intersectional politics has been undermined by the de-centering its anti-capitalist analysis and politics.
Introductory remarks by: Alejandra Marchevsky, Inaugural Chair and Professor, Department of Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies, Cal State Los Angeles
Speakers:
Robin D. G. Kelley, Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in US History, UCLA, and Hess Scholar-in-Residence (2001-02)
Barbara Smith, Hess Scholar-in-Residence (2023-23)
Moderator: Joseph Entin, Professor of English and American Studies, Brooklyn College
Barbara Smith - Hess Scholar-in-Residence Exhibit
Entry Lobby, Brooklyn College Library
An exhibit located in the main entrance of the Brooklyn College Library that will highlight the works and legacy of Barbara Smith.
Curator: Helen Georgas, Reference Librarian and Associate Professor, Brooklyn College
