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Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

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Harvard Du Bois Institute

The W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard University is the nation's oldest research center dedicated to the study of the history, culture, and social institutions of Africans and African Americans. Founded in 1975, the Institute serves as the site for research projects, fellowships for emerging and established scholars, publications, conferences, and working groups. Named after the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard (1895), the Du Bois Institute also sponsors four major lecture series each year and serves as the co-sponsor for numerous public conferences, lectures, readings, and forums.break

http://dubois.fas.harvard.edu/

  • Award-winning Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat discusses her reflection on art and exile, *Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work*. Danticat is introduced by Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. What does it mean to be an immigrant artist, especially in relation to one’s country of origin? When that country is suffering–-from violence, poverty, oppression, or disaster–-how does the artists’ responsibility change?
    Partner:
    Harvard Du Bois Institute
  • Authors Andrea Lee, *Interesting Women: Stories*, *Russian Journal*; and Jamaica Kincaid, *Annie John*, *At the Bottom of the River*, *Lucy*, *A Small Place*, *The Autobiography of My Mother*, *My Brother*, read from their work.
    Partner:
    Harvard Du Bois Institute
  • Authors Zadie Smith, *White Teeth* and *The Autograph Man*, and Caryl Phillips, *The Final Passage*, *Crossing the River* and *Cambridge* will read from their work. ** Zadie Smith**, at age 14, changed her name from Sadie to Zadie, and in 2000, as a 21-year-old Cambridge University graduate, published her first novel, *White Teeth*. In her second novel, *The Autograph Man,* Smith dissects both celebrity culture and mystic Judaism. Smith has now turned to nonfiction, spending a few years stateside as a fellow at Radcliffe College's Bunting Institute. She is at work on a book of essays, *The Morality of the Novel,* in which she considers a selection of 20th-Century writers through the lens of moral philosophy. **Caryl Phillips** was born in St. Kitts on March 13, 1958 and moved to England after just one year. There he took an honors BA at Oxford and began his writing career. Currently, he lives in Amherst where he serves as writer in residence. Phillips was recently appointed as chief editor of the Faber and Faber Caribbean writers' series. Watch ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre's two-part adaptation of Zadie Smith's [White Teeth](http://wgbh.org/program-info?episode\_id=896509) on WGBH Channels 2 and 44.
    Partner:
    Harvard Du Bois Institute
  • Political activist Angela Davis talks about abolitionism and human rights in the United States.
    Partner:
    Harvard Du Bois Institute
  • Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. discusses the comprehensive project, Encarta Africana.
    Partner:
    Harvard Du Bois Institute
  • Helen E. Lee and Randall Kenan read from their books.
    Partner:
    Harvard Du Bois Institute
  • Authors Edwidge Danticat, *Krik? Krak!*, *Breath, Eyes, Memory*; and Colson Whitehead, *John Henry Days*, *The Intuitionist*, will read from their work.
    Partner:
    Harvard Du Bois Institute
  • Authors Rita Dove, *On the Bus with Rosa Parks* (1999), *Through the Ivory Gate* (1992), and John Wideman, *Sent for You Yesterday *, *Philadelphia Fire*, read from their work.
    Partner:
    Harvard Du Bois Institute
  • Authors Elizabeth Alexander, *Antebellum Dream Book*, and Suzan-Lori Parks *The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World*, read from their work.
    Partner:
    Harvard Du Bois Institute
  • Poet Derek Walcott, author of *Omeros* (1990), *Tiepolo's Hound* (2000), and *The Haitian Trilogy* (2002), reads from his work.
    Partner:
    Harvard Du Bois Institute