Teach-In to Reflect on Memory, Legacy

The Emerson community is invited to explore how the documents we archive and the memories we hold and pass down sustain our democracy and institutions, during the inaugural Teach-In on Timely Topics, being held March 2-5.

The Teach-In on Timely Topics will be held each spring, and focus on issues around expression, inclusion, and society, rooted in Emerson’s strengths in communication and the arts. This year’s theme is Public Knowledge, Memory, and Legacy.

The Teach-In Keynote will feature Michael J. Bobbitt, president and CEO of OPERA America, and Roosevelt Montás, John and Margaret Bard Professor in Liberal Education and Civic Life at Bard College, in conversation with Emerson Writing, Literature and Publishing Assistant Professor Amber Lee. The presentation will be held Wednesday, March 4, 1:30-3:00 pm, in the Paramount Center andonline.

One way to set the preservation of memory into motion is to participate in an Archive Project that invites community members to share their memories and reflections from the Emerson Teach-in on Race (2016-2025). Emersonians can contribute to a video recording on March 4, 10:30 am to 4:00 pm, in the Paramount Lobby, or upload reflections. Spots are first-come, first-served.

The week kicks off Monday, March 2, 12:00-1:00 pm, with a poetry craft talk on Reaching Forward, Reaching Back: Poetic Lineage & Connection, with WLP affiliated faculty member Livia Meneghin in the Beard Room.

A panel of Emerson Prison Initiative (EPI) faculty members and reentry professionals will discuss Building Rituals for Return: The Emerson Prison Initiative, the Arts, and Reentry, on Tuesday, March 3, 10:00-11:15 am, in the Bordy Theater. ArtsEmerson and the artists of their upcoming presentation, Dead as a Dodo, will lead a workshop, Grief and Memory in Times of Change, March 3, 1:00-2:00 pm, in Paramount Studio 6.

Zoë Wyner, executive director of the ProArts Consortium of Boston colleges, will lead a Zoom Webinar on Making Truth Visible: Art, History, and Public Memory, on Thursday, March 5, 2:00-3:30 pm.

The Teach-In closes out with a digital storytelling workshop on March 5, 5:00-6:00 pm, offered by the Elma Lewis Center and the Hub for Inclusive Visionary Engagement (HIVE) in the Tufte PPC entrance. Where Storytelling Becomes Capacity, and Memory Becomes Momentum looks at cultural preservation and community capacity building through the lens of Caribbean women in diaspora and beyond.

For more information on Teach-In events, visit the web page