5th Annual Conference
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION IN AFRICANA TRADITIONS
FROM MASS INCARCERATION TO UNIVERSAL EDUCATION:
UNLOCKING THE SYSTEM
Friday, October 26,
10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Rooms 9204/9205
CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY 10016
Saturday, October 27,
10:00 am to 6:00 pm
May Day Space
176 Saint Nicholas Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
Mass incarceration in the United States has become a dehumanizing force that is destroying the very fabric of society. Many young lives have wilted and many more are languishing in the penitentiaries for minor offenses and too often for no offense whatsoever. The racialization of the criminal injustice system has resulted in the separation and impoverishment of families and the decimation of neighborhoods.
In many communities one of the greatest barriers to a decent education is the depraved influence of the prison-industrial complex. For human beings to flourish, it is essential that they receive a “universal” form of education capable of nurturing the emotional, psychological, physical and intellectual growth of the whole person. To bring about a humane society, we need to change the trajectory currently leading to mass incarceration, redirecting it toward universal education and potentially recasting the social, political, and economic structures of the country. For such transformative education to take hold, we must eliminate pedagogies of oppression and repression and free intellectual inquiry from established forms of monopoly control.
Consequently, at the conference we will seek to move beyond policies to effective practice, by exploring such difficult questions as the following:
— Can universal education unlock an entrenched system of unjust laws? Can universal education serve as an essential instrument both in reversing criminalization of the poor and in eradicating the prison-industrial complex?
— Can education be emancipated from cultural imperialism? Can effective resistance
be mobilized against harmful institutional models, such as zero tolerance policies
and high-stakes testing requirements?
— Are we suffering from a poverty of imagination among many educational “reformers?”
Can awareness of available “best practices” encourage more innovative thinking?
— To what extent can socio-economic relationships, political systems and cultural
productions be redirected toward empathy, community, cooperation, and human
dignity? Can we truly succeed in building a just and humane society?
Philosophy and Religion in Africana Traditions 2018
From Mass Incarceration to Universal Education: Unlocking the System
Friday October 26, 2018
10:00 AM-6:00 PM
Center for Place, Culture and Politics
The Graduate Center of The City University of New York
Rooms 9204/9205
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10016
MORNING SESSION:
10: 00 am- 1: 00 pm
10:00 am- 10:20 am
Greetings and opening statement: J. Everet Green – Mercy College
Greetings: Mary Taylor – CUNY The Graduate Center
10:30-am – 11:30am
“Du Bois’ Anticipation of Mass Incarceration in ‘The Conservation of Races’”
Speaker: Kimberly Ann Harris, Ph.D. -Marquette University
Chair: Brittany O’Neal, Ph.D.- Lehman College City university of New York
11:40 am – 12:40 pm
“Poetic Pedagogy in the age of Mass Incarceration”
Speaker: John Gavin White– Ma’at Shule Homeschool Co – Operative
Chair: Jameliah Shorter-Bourhanou Ph.D.- Georgia College and Holy Cross, MA
12:45 pm-2:00 pm
LUNCH
AFTERNOON SESSION
2:15 PM – 6:00 PM
2:00pm -2:-15 pm Greetings and Introduction: J. Everet Green
2:20PM- 3:20 PM “Nightmares Beneath the American Dream: Why is it so Hard to Wake Up?”
“The American Dream,” as an aspirational concept, evokes a sunny, happy existence in a land of freedom and opportunity. Millions of people have yearned to share in these blessings, and many have succeeded. But to what extent does this cheerful picture match the full reality of American life? Beneath “the American Dream” lie dreadful nightmares of death and destruction, of suffering and injustice, that as a nation we have yet to fully acknowledge. Will we be able to wake up and honestly face the dark side of American existence, or will we continue to repress the truth about ourselves?
Speaker: Enid Bloch, Ph. D Chair: Kimberly Ann Harrison
3:30PM-4:30 PM
Understanding Black Music: a Theory of Resilience
Speaker : Althea SullyCole- Columbia University Chair: Blanche Curry , Ph.D., Fayetteville State University
4:40 pm-5:40 pm “Education and Spiritual Activism: Towards a Future Centering on Human Dignity” Speaker: Vicki Mokuria, Texas A& M
“A Necessary Step: My Time Teaching In Prison and It’s Revolutionary Potential”
Speaker: Devon R. Johnson, Ph. D. -Temple University
Chair: Zay D. Green
Saturday October 27, 2018
10 AM -6:00 PM
MayDay Community Space
176 Saint Nicholas Street
Brooklyn NY 11237
MORNING SESSION
10:30AM- 1: 15 PM
10:30AM -11:30 AM “You Can Jail a Revolutionary, But You Can’t Jail the Rrevolution”: Politics of State Violence and Mass Incarceration in the Black Community” Speaker: Brittany O’Neal, Ph.D. Adjunct Professor, Lehman College City university of New York
Chair: Chair: Jameliah Shorter-Bourhanou Ph.D.- Georgia College and Holy Cross, MA
11: -30AM- 1:15 PM
“Not Whether Education is Transformation, But How” W.E.B. Du Bois, Alain Locke and John Dewey on social Transformation Speaker: Blanche Curry Ph.D. – Fayetteville State University
Chair: Althea SullyCole -Columbia University
1:15-2:00 pm
LUNCH
AFTERNOON SESSION
2: 00PM-6:00 PM
2:00-PM -3: 00 PM
Speaker: Cachinnate Yourself about Mental Slavery: A Freudian Approach to the Horrific Humor in Get Out
Speaker: Damion Kareem Scott – City College of City University of New York.
Chair: Blanche Radford-Curry
3:00PM – 4: 00 PM
Student Panel
Chair: Brittany O’Neal
4:00PM -5:45 PM
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION IN AFRICANA TRADITIONS FROM MASS INCARCERATION TO UNIVERSAL EDUCATION: UNLOCKING THE SYSTEM Discussion:
Zay D. Green
J. Everet Green
Aileen Mokuria
Brittany O’Neal
Sincere gratitude to Mary Taylor at the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics for her support over the past five years in making this annual event possible and also to Munayem Mayenin of London ever steadfast in his support
Members of the PRAT Committee
J. Everet Green/Brittany O’Neil – Co-Directors
Aminata Cisse, Pascale Flessel, Zay D. Green, Bok-Keem Nyerere, Julie Siestreem
Books Recognition
A Political Companion to Frederick Douglass. Editor, Neil Roberts. University Press of Kentucky: Jun 13, 2018.
Clinical Trials and the African Person: A Quest to Re-conceptualize Responsibility. Ike Valentine Iyioke. Brill Publishers.
Contact: J. Everet Green at everet@verizon.net for further information.
This event is free and open to the public. It it co-sponsored by The Center for Place, Culture and Politics and HUMANITAS: The Africana Ethical and Cultural Society.
