W.E.B. Du Bois and The New World
|
|
Join us for a research symposium investigating the ideas of W.E.B. Du Bois as the originator of a new world movement of thought amid the crisis of knowledge and Western civilization today. We will also launch Issue 4 of our journal, Avant-Garde, dedicated to Muhammad Ali. Please help us bring this event to the people of Philadelphia by donating to our GoFundMe: |
|
W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) enters the stage of world history at a new epoch of modernity, marked by the emancipation of four million Black workers from chattel slavery. He declares that the problem of the 20th century — i.e., the problem of modernity — is the problem of the Color Line. He thus identifies white supremacy as the principal obstacle in the way of the peoples of the world coming together in community and communion, working shoulder to shoulder to build a future deserving of the modern man, woman, and child. He expands the conception of modernity to include all of humanity, and particularly those millions of enslaved and colonized dark peoples of the world — now conscious, and restless to leave their mark on human thought and action in the modern world. He thus begins a New World Movement of Thought, which bends knowledge, science, and morality towards achieving the total freedom of all humanity.
In these dying days of Western civilization, when chaos presses in all around us, we turn to Du Bois for light.
[...]
Ideas are the most powerful weapon for a revolutionary, and the struggle for knowledge and philosophy in our time is a revolutionary political task. We must carve, out of the chaos of Western civilization, a new revolutionary epistemology that reveals in all its glory the breaking light of a new dawn — the epoch of humanity. This great experiment will not be conducted by academics and experts in the elite university. It will involve the creative participation of the world’s billions who are coming into their own and are ready to take up the revolutionary, democratic, and emancipatory struggle for a shared human future.
We call upon all people of conscience, artists, students, youth, and children to join us in treading new regions of thought — to seek, as Du Bois did, a new heaven and a new earth. Let us come awake to the spirit of our age.
|
Program
Day 1 | The Crisis of Knowledge & Western Civilization Sunday June 28th, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Location: Church of the Crucifixion, 807 Bainbridge St, Philadelphia 9:30 am | Doors Open 10:30 am | Introductory Remarks & Vision Statement 11:00 am | Roundtable: The Collapse of the Elite Ideological Consensus 1:00 pm | Break 2:00 pm | Panel: Kant, Einstein, Lenin: A Du Boisian Investigation 4:00 pm | Roundtable: The Counter-Revolution Against Cognition, Culture, and Consciousness Day 2 | W.E.B. Du Bois & The Epoch of Humanity
Sunday, June 29th, 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm Location: Church of the Crucifixion, 807 Bainbridge St, Philadelphia 12:30 pm | Doors Open 1:15 pm | Introductory Remarks 1:30 pm | Panel: Du Bois and World Movements for Peace & Democracy 3:30 pm | Launch of Avant-Garde, Issue 4: Dedicated to Muhammad Ali Presenting an interview with Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad of the Nation of Islam 4:00 pm | Roundtable: The Black Proletarian Imaginary: A Futuristic Vision Day 3 | W.E.B. Du Bois, Architect of a New World Movement of Thought
Tuesday, July 1st, 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm (Rescheduled) Location: Lucien E. Blackwell Regional Library, 125 S. 52nd St, Philadelphia A public lecture by Dr. Anthony Monteiro, followed by community discussion |
