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Poet Nikki Giovanni to Headline Virginia State University's Second Triennial James Arthur Baldwin International Symposium (ST-JABIS | 2024) as Artist-in-Residence

VIRGINIA STATE UNIVERSITY, VA October 18, 2024 –– The Office of Academic Affairs, College of Humanities & Social Sciences, University Libraries, and the James Arthur Baldwin Africologic Institute (JABAI) at Virginia State University (VSU) – an 1890 land-grant institution – and will host the Second Triennial James Arthur Baldwin International Symposium (ST-JABIS | 2024), October 24 – 26, 2024, 9:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. “A Centennial Communion 4 Jimmy | The (Un)Cowardly Lion w. the Unapologetically Clarion Voice” is the theme of this year’s research and artistic forum that will showcase scholars and artists from around the world.  ST-JABIS | 2024 is free and open to the public. 



Petersburg Public Library (PPL), Petersburg Library Foundation (PLF), the City of Petersburg (COP), and the Virginia  Museum of Fine Arts (VFMA) are sponsoring community partners for the historic confab that will feature several surviving  artists of the Black Arts Movement (BAM), most notably iconic poet and author Nikki Giovanni, Virginia Tech University  Distinguished Emerita Professor, Inaugural JABAI Artist-in-Residence, & Lena Whitt Endowed Lecturer for 2024-2025. 


ST-JABIS | 2024 will convene in two venues: Days One and Two will be held in the Petersburg Public Library’s grand, state-of-the-art Conference and Event Center, and culminate on Day Three, at VSU’s Gateway Event Center, perched on the edge of the idyllic HBCU campus on The Hill, high above the Appomattox. 


The Baldwin Centennial will kick off with a special Trolley Tour of Historic Petersburg and Pocahontas Island, one of America’s oldest Black settlements. Seating is limited to 40 people. Tickets will be available to the first 40 people at our Welcome Table where SWAG Bags will be distributed.  


Alternatively, registrants will have the option of touring the beautiful Petersburg Public Library (PPL), led by Mr. Wayne  Crocker, PPL Director. Guests will see, among other features, the Rotunda, the Gallery, featuring the James Baldwin Review Poster Exhibit, Stacks, and POP! Market. 


“This event not only celebrates the profound legacy of one of the most influential literary and cultural figures of the 20th century but also provides an invaluable space for thought-provoking discourse, reflection, and collaboration among scholars, students, and the community at large,” observes Dr. Tia A. Minnis, VSU Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. 


The historic line-up is anchored by a cadre of iconic intellectuals and creatives who are a Who’s Who of the African American literati, including Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, Professor & Chair of Temple University’s storied Department of Africology and African American Studies, & Father of Afrocentricity, who will deliver Saturday’s Morning Plenary, “A Personal Reflection on the Life of James Baldwin.” Day One’s Opening Plenary message, “Baldwin in Critical Conversation with Kamala, America and Us: Striving to Achieve Our Country and Change the World,” will be presented by Dr. Maulana Karenga, Kwanzaa Creator & Professor and Chair, Department of Africana Studies, Cal State Long Beach.  


Daniel Jason Baldwin, nephew of Mr. Baldwin, will drive down from Providence, RI to join us for two days, during which he will deliver a Baldwin Family Centennial Reflection. 


Additionally, a range of scholarly papers explore such topics as these: 1) The Politics of James Baldwin 2) “The Welcome Table”: Food 4 the Soul in Baldwin’s Belle-Lettres; 3) What Would Jimmy Say? Channeling Mr. Baldwin N the Age of Artificial Intelligence; 4) The Killing of Richard Wright; 5) The Sadomasochistic Instinct in James Baldwin: An Analysis of Power, Perversion, and Paraphilias”; 6) “Baldwin on a Black President”; 7) “Reinterpreting James Baldwin’s ‘A Talk to Teachers’”; & 7) On Mr. Baldwin and the Black Woman: Was His Ethos Feminist...or Africana Womanist? 


The latter theme will be the focus of the Plenary Address – “James Baldwin & Africana Womanism: ‘In It Together’ (Men/Women) for True Humanity”– by preeminent scholar & conceptualizer of Emmett Till as the catalyst of the Civil  Rights Movement, Dr. Clenora Hudson (Weems), Ida Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor of African American Studies,  University of Iowa (2021-2022) & Professor of English (ret), University of Missouri-Columbia. 

Friday evening, October 25th, will close with “2 Val with Love: A Kuumba Dinner Theatre Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Val Gray Ward, recently deceased Kuumba Theatre Founder. Dr. Haki L. Madhubuti (BAM poet Don L. Lee), Founder and Publisher Emeritus of Third World Press & Chicago State University Emeritus Professor, is scheduled to deliver a keynote address, “Black Earth Movement: Val Gray Ward, Haki R. Madhubuti, Hoyt W. Fuller, Gwendolyn Brooks & the Black Arts Movement in Chicago.” The “Windy City” Inaugural Poet-in-Residence, avery r. young will also be on hand to honor “Mama Val,” as he lovingly calls the Legendary Chicagoan. 


Filmmaker, author, and Morgan State University associate professor, MK Asante, will discuss and sign his critically acclaimed epistolatory book, Nephew: A Memoir in Four-Part Harmony. The winner of the Earphones Award for Exceptional Audiobook, the tome is drawing comparisons to Baldwin’s masterpiece, The Fire Next Time. 



The Wintergreen Women Writers’ Collective led by its founder, Dr. Joanne Gabbin James Madison University Emerita  Professor of English & Founding Executive Director of its celebrated Furious Flower Poetry Center (FFPC) – will present  an august Plenary Panel – to be moderated by Nikki Giovanni – “Legacy Conversations: Identity, History, and Revelation  in James Baldwin's Conversations with Paule Marshall, Nikki Giovanni and Val Gray Ward.” Dr. Daryl Cumber Dance,  Folklorist, Author, and Professor Emerita, University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University, and Dr.  Hermine Pinson, William & Mary’s Frances L. and Edwin L. Cummings Professor of English & Africana Studies will round  out the panel. 

On Friday afternoon, October 25th, Dr. Justin A. Joyce – of Washington University in St. Louis – Senior Publications Editor and Managing Editor of James Baldwin Review (JBR), will spearhead a JBR Roundtable to explore the topic, “James Baldwin: Artist, Witness, and Historian.” 


There will also be a special screening of the remastered, DCP widescreen version of the classic documentary, James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket. Karen Thorsen, the film’s Director & Producer and James Baldwin Project founder will conduct a special audience “Talkback” following the film, Saturday, October 26. 


In the spirit of James Baldwin, JABAI will honor 90-year-old, iconic Howard University professor and administrator, Dr.  Eleanor W. Traylor at our Inaugural “Welcome Table” Gala, on Thursday, October 24, featuring Keynote Speaker, Dr.  Daniel P. Black, Clark Atlanta University Associate Professor of African American Studies. A literary critic, as well as a Baldwin friend and contemporary, she famously designed his historic, magisterial Homegoing at Harlem's Cathedral of St.  John the Divine in 1987. 


“The amazing thing,” Traylor notes, is that “James Baldwin predicted this moment when the leadership of America would change.” He said, “It cannot be trusted, and it will change...in that essay, ‘Stranger in the Village,’ in Notes of a Native Son...[he] anticipated so much. So, this moment is his, this centennial, the 100th birthday of a wonderful, delicious man, and a genius. And so, we are proud. The world is proud...after all he is the Commandeur de l'Ordre de la Légion  d’honneur. The French have awarded him that [in 1986, a year before his passing, in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, at age 63].” 


“Baldwin’s body of work stands out in the literary canon as one of the most sublime, prolific, and imposing of the 20th Century. Thus, his works and words are closely examined to pinpoint recurring themes and motifs that, even now, more than three decades since his passing, continue to resonate with – and inspire – generations of thinkers and scholars,” notes Dr.  Pamela D. Reed, Professor of English, JABAI Founding Executive Director, and Convenor of the ST-JABIS | 2024. “As such,” she continues, “his oeuvre has become a mainstay in the canons of both American and World Literatures.” 


Indeed, Mr. Baldwin’s ideas were a harbinger of things to come in the American and, indeed, the global body politic.  Thereupon, after much thought and deliberation, JABAI has settled upon the moniker, HARBINGER, to denote and honor selected leaders – artists, activists, educators, athletes, entrepreneurs, scholars, attorneys, politicians, etc. – whose ideas and works, like his, have broken new ground, heralding transformative thought and action.  



Accordingly, JABAI will fête the inaugural cohort of honorees during an evening of song, dance, and reflection at the Inaugural Harbinger Awards Regale, Saturday, October 26., 6:00 – 8:00 PM EST, featuring Keynote Speaker, Dr. Christel N. Temple, University of Pittsburgh Professor of Africana Studies & Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Black Studies. Mr. Richard Stewart, “Mayor” of Pocahontas Island will be honored posthumously, along with other luminaries, including JABAI Artist-in-Residence Nikki Giovanni, renowned poet and retired Temple University educator, Sonia Sanchez, and Julieanna Richardson, Founder and CEO of The HistoryMakers. 


Petersburg Mayor Sam Parham’s words seem a fitting conclusion: “Now, more than ever, in these contentious times, we need to read his writings which stress the need for a more humane and loving approach to our fellow humans of all hues.” 


Click HERE for the full JABIS event schedule.


Please contact Dr. Pamela D. Reed you have any questions: 804.631.3039 or jabsymposium.vsu@gmail.com 


We look forward to seeing you there!


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