Annual Stephen and Sandra Glass Lecture: Báyò Akómoláfé

NEW DATE: Monday, March 18, 4:00 – 5:30 P.M.

Báyò Akómoláfé, Poet, Philosopher, Psychologist, Professor, Passionate about the Preposterous, has been selected as Pitzer College’s 2024 Stephen and Sandra Glass Annual Humanities Lecturer. We hope you can join us for this riveting lecture.

Akómoláfé is an author, celebrated speaker, teacher, and self-styled trans-public intellectual (a concept inspired by the shamanic priesthood of the Yoruba healer-trickster). His vocation goes beyond justice and speaking truth to power to opening up other spaces of power-with and queering fond formulations and configurations of hope. Akómoláfé is author and editor of We Will Tell Our Own Story! with Professors Molefi Kete Asante and Augustine Nwoye, and These Wilds Beyond Our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home (North Atlantic Books, 2017). He is the author of multiple essays on matters ranging from the nature of science, the coronavirus pandemic, racism, tricksters, climate chaos, and unschooling. Akómoláfé is writing his third book as part of a trilogy of creative nonfiction/ fiction publications.

Annual Sullivan Lecture: Voices of the Rainforest Screening & Discussion

A John D. Sullivan Memorial 7C Event

Steven Feld is an anthropologist, filmmaker, musician, and sound artist. He is an American ethnomusicologist, anthropologist, and linguist, who worked for many years with the Kaluli (Bosavi) people of Papua New Guinea. He earned a MacArthur Fellowship in 1991.

Voices of the Rainforest is an experiential documentary about the ecological and aesthetic coevolution of Papua New Guinea’s Bosavi rainforest region and its inhabitants. The film immerses viewers in the rainforest, making connections between the everyday sounds of the rainforest biosphere and the creative practices of the Bosavi people who sing to, with, and about it.

The film is based on Feld’s 1991 acousmatic composition of the same name, which condensed 24 hours of sounds of the rainforest and the Bosavi people into an hour. Produced by Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, the piece was digitized and recomposed into a surround-sound experience. The success of the soundtrack prompted the digitization of Feld’s archive of Bosavi images and a two-month trip to Bosavi by Feld and filmmaker Jeremiah Richards, who brought high-resolution cameras and drones to renew the project.

Following the screening, Steven Feld will discuss the film with Ruti Talmor, associate professor of media studies.

Refreshments will be provided!

President’s Open Office Hour

In the interest of promoting open, collegial communication with and within our community, President Strom C. Thacker will be hosting monthly open office hours with Pitzer students, faculty and staff. These will serve as an opportunity to meet informally for open discussion on topics that people bring forward. No appointments or RSVPs are necessary. Conversations will be held in a group, open-house (come and go as you please) format. Please feel free to stop by and join the conversation.

*Lunch and refreshments available

Screening & Discussion: The Barber of Little Rock

Join a special screening of the 2024 Academy Award-nominated short film, The Barber of Little Rock, followed by a discussion with co-director John Hoffman and the titular barber himself, Arlo Washington. This event is co-sponsored by the Presidential Initiative on Constructive Dialogue and the Melvin L. Oliver Racial Justice Initiative.

February 20, 2024 at 4:30 p.m.
George C.S. Benson Auditorium

RSVP HERE

Due to copyright restrictions we are unable to livestream the screening itself, but we will livestream the discussion with John Hoffman and Arlo Washington on this page, starting at 5:15 p.m. the day of the event:

The Barber of Little Rock explores America’s widening racial wealth gap through the story of Arlo Washington, a local barber whose visionary approach to a just economy can be found in the mission of People Trust, the nonprofit community bank he founded. Experiencing the effects of generational poverty and structural racism firsthand, Arlo understands his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas and the profound mistrust of financial institutions that have historically excluded his community from financial stability and economic mobility. Operating as the sole bank within a ten-mile radius, Arlo’s People Trust fosters economic progress for underserved and underbanked residents, providing an economic beacon of hope that could reshape the future of banking.

The film is part of the The New Yorker Documentary Series, a showcase for important short films from around the world, and is available on the magazine’s digital channels.

John Hoffman co-directed the film with Christine Turner. Hoffman is also a producer who is recognized for The Antidote (2020), Allegra’s Window (1994) and The Alzheimer’s Project (2009), among other films.