You are cordially invited to our second public symposium, Who Owns Black Data? Vol. 2: The Past in Danger. We have all seen recent attacks on cultural heritage and the integrity of academic research, increased censorship and the hallucinations of generative AI. When we say that the past is in danger, we mean that the material reality of the past, both as Archive and now as Data is in danger of being suppressed—or worse, sabotaged. To be able to defend ourselves properly, and in our case, to imagine a future where artifacts and data related to the history of African-Americans and the Black Diaspora are properly stewarded, we have to have a good sense of who owns the data in the first place, who owns the archives, and by extension, the past. That is what our series of conferences asks, and you are invited to our next gathering at the Humanities Quadrangle, Room 136, on Wednesday, May 14 from 9am to 8pm.
We have an exciting program in store for you, including three panels with esteemed practitioners from different sectors of society, a special presentation by the Black Bibliography Project, a dramatic reading, and a reception and keynote dialogue with Alondra Nelson, Marisa Parham, Yeshimabeit Milner, and Tamara Lanier.
