One of the things that some of us said over and over again is that we’re doing this work. Don’t expect to receive public credit for it. It’s not to be acknowledged that we do this work. We do this work because we want to change the world. If we don’t do the work continuously and passionately, even as it appears as if no one is listening, if we don’t help to create the conditions of possibility for change, then a moment like this will arrive and we can do nothing about it. As Bobby Seale said, we will not be able to “seize the time.” This is a perfect example of our being able to seize this moment and turn it into something that’s radical and transformative. — Angela Davis

Join Angela Davis and Isaac Julien for an online discussion about the influence of Frederick Douglass on contemporary movements for racial justice.

The talk will be moderated by Sarah Lewis—associate professor of history of art and architecture and African and African American studies at Harvard University—and coincides with Julien’s exhibition Lessons of the Hour at the McEvoy Foundation for the Arts in San Francisco.

See link below to register for the Zoom event.

ANGELA DAVIS and ISAAC JULIEN IN CONVERSATION

Wednesday, November 11.

6 pm on the West Coast; 9 pm East Coast.

Top: Angela Davis: Seize the Time, edited by Gerry Beegan and Donna Gustafson (Munich: Hirmer, 2020), cover image courtesy and © the publisher.

Above: Isaac Julien, Lessons of the Hour—Frederick Douglass (2019), McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, October 14, 2020–March 13, 2021, ten-screen installation, 35mm film and 4k digital, color, 7.1 surround sound, installation view photographs (2) by Henrik Kam, images courtesy the McEvoy Foundation for the Arts. The North Star (Lessons of the Hour), 2019, framed photograph on Gloss inkjet paper mounted on aluminum; Helen Pitts Class of 1859 (Lessons of the Hour), 2019, digital print on Gloss inkjet paper mounted on aluminum. Artwork images © Isaac Julien, courtesy of the artist, Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, Metro Pictures, New York, and Victoria Miro, London and Venice.

Below: Commemorative posters (2 of 3) with Douglass’ messages of action and equality celebrate a continuing history of protest movements for racial and social justice. The text is drawn from the abolitionist’s public and private writings, some of which are excerpted in Julien’s Lessons of the Hour—Frederick Douglass (2019). Design and © MacFadden & Thorpe, images courtesy of the designers and McEvoy Foundation for the Arts.