The Du Bois Forum Announces Third Annual Gathering to Honor Black Intellectual and Artistic Traditions

The Du Bois Forum is pleased to announce its third annual gathering, set to take place on July 19-20, 2024

BOSTON, MA, UNITED STATES, July 3, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Du Bois Forum is pleased to announce its third annual gathering, set to take place on July 19-20, 2024. Founded by historians Dr. Kerri Greenidge and Dr. Kendra Field of Tufts University, along with Du Bois’ Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Dr. David Levering Lewis, The Du Bois Forum serves as a retreat for writers, scholars, and artists engaged in the Black intellectual and artistic traditions. Since its inception in 2022, the Forum has aimed to support creative production and social change.

Co-founders Field and Greenidge emphasize the significance of the Du Bois Forum in fostering these traditions. “The Du Bois Forum aims to shape the future of Black intellectual and artistic traditions, serving as an incubator, a meeting place, and a resting place for scholars, writers, and artists,” said Field. Greenidge added, “The role of New England in cultivating a Black intellectual tradition is significant. My work as a historian and as a scholar has been interested in the stories of Black communities in places where we don’t often think of them as existing—in places that we’ve identified as being an all-white space—and understanding Blackness being everywhere.”

The Du Bois Forum events are made possible through the support of Tufts University and the Mellon Foundation, and in partnership with Great Barrington’s Du Bois Freedom Center, Jacob’s Pillow, Kripalu, and Troutbeck. This year, the Forum is thrilled to welcome four new university partners, including Harvard University’s Institute on Policing, Incarceration, & Public Safety at the Hutchins Center, Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Africana Studies, Boston University, and Williams College.

Born in Great Barrington and laid to rest on the eve of the March on Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois (1868 - 1963) remained committed to the Berkshire hills of his childhood as a place of community, restoration, and sustenance. In addition to scouting land for a possible retreat center, Du Bois convened groups of Black scholars and writers at Troutbeck, the country estate of NAACP-co-founder Joel Spingarn in nearby Amenia, New York. The gathering happened only twice, in 1916 and 1933. This year, partnering with Troutbeck, Du Bois Forum fellows returns to the site to commemorate this historic gathering, marking the first major assembly of Black writers, scholars, and artists at the site since 1933. It is a milestone in the celebration of Black intellectual and artistic traditions. This year’s 40+ fellows include award-winning novelists, poets, and filmmakers; leading historians, scholars, and museum leaders; and several descendants whose ancestors participated in Du Bois’ 1933 Amenia gathering.

The first commemorative event of the weekend will take place on Friday, July 19th, at Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, MA. This multi-part event features a roundtable, performance, and Du Bois-inspired dinner under the stars, designed by James Beard award-winning chef Bryant Terry, author of Black Food, and 40+ writers, scholars, and artists from across the country. The roundtable will open with a fireside chat with Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian. Writers and scholars, including fellows Brandon Terry and Imani Perry, will then reflect upon the Black intellectual and artistic traditions that W.E.B. Du Bois shaped and the urgency of this work in our current moment.

On Saturday, July 20th, Du Bois Forum co-founders Dr. Kendra Field and Dr. Kerri Greenidge will lead a morning walking tour of historical sites in downtown Great Barrington. In the afternoon, attendees will commemorate the 1916 and 1933 Amenia gatherings with remarks by Du Bois’ Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and Forum co-founder, David Levering Lewis.

For further details about the weekend’s events, including ticketing information, please contact info@duboisforum.com.
For more information, visit https://duboisforum.com/.

ABOUT DR. KENDRA FIELD
Dr. Kendra Field is a scholar and public historian known for her contributions to the field of U.S. and African American history. Currently Associate Professor at Tufts University, Field has established herself as a leading authority on African American family history and genealogy. As a public historian, Field co-founded the Boston-based African American Trail Project; co-curated “We Who Believe In Freedom,” the inaugural exhibition of the National Women’s History Museum; serves as a lead researcher for Mayor Wu’s initiative on the history and legacy of slavery in Boston; and chief historian for the 10 Million Names Project. Field holds a Ph.D. in American History from New York University, a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University, and a B.A. from Williams College. Before entering the academy, Field worked in education and the non-profit sector in Boston and New York.

ABOUT DR. KERRI GREENIDGE
Dr. Kerri Greenidge is Associate Professor at Tufts University, where she also co-directs the African American Trail Project. She is the author of "Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter" (2019). Listed by the New York Times as one of its top picks of 2019, the book is the first biography of Boston editor, William Monroe Trotter, written in nearly fifty years. The book received the Mark Lynton Prize in History, the Massachusetts Book Award, the J. Anthony Lukas Award, the Sperber Award from Fordham University, and the Peter J. Gomes Book Prize from the Massachusetts Historical Society. "Black Radical" was also short-listed for the Stone Book Award from the Museum of African American History, Boston, the Cundill History Prize, and the Plutarch Award for Best biography. Her most recent book, "The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in An American Family" (2022) was listed as a best book of the year by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Boston Globe, among other publications. Her writings have appeared in the Massachusetts Historical Review, the Radical History Review, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and the Guardian.

MEDIA CONTACT
For further details about the weekend’s events, including ticketing information, please contact: info@duboisforum.com. For press inquiries, please contact publicist Nanda Dyssou of Coriolis Company.

Nanda Dyssou
Coriolis Company
+1 424-226-6148
nanda@corioliscompany.com