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Atlanta’s Night of Ideas set for May 14
Inside the Arts
1
Camille
Russell Love
Camille Russell Love
Love has been
executive director of
the City of Atlanta
Mayor’s Office of
Cultural Affairs
(@atlantaoca) for
more than two
B decades.
Barely five months into the year, and
humanity seems precariously perched
on the precipice of uncertainty. The
COVID-19 pandemic, while better
understood and more under control,
continues to loom large. In the United
States and abroad, intolerance and
oppression persist. And the Russian war
against Ukraine threatens global stability.
If ever there were a need for active
listening and radical understanding, now
is the time.
On May 14, the Mayor’s Office of
Cultural Affairs will partner with the
French Embassy’s new cultural institution,
Villa Albertine, to sponsor the first
in-person edition of Night of Ideas.
Fulton County Arts and Culture and
the Science Gallery at Emory University
will participate in the event hosted at
the Woodruff Arts Center. The six-hour
cultural and intellectual marathon is a
forum in which individuals come together
from various backgrounds, interests,
and skill sets to rethink the relationships
58 MAY 2022 | [El
people have both with the world and each
other.
Night of Ideas was initiated by the
French Embassy in 2015 as the Night of
Philosophy and Ideas/Night of Ideas. It
evolved over time as a partnership with
the Brooklyn Public Library. Billed as a
philosophical marathon, Night of Ideas
is an all-night event (6 p.m. to midnight)
that includes performances, screenings,
readings, music, and philosophical
debate that bring together a wide range
of thinkers, social scientists, novelists,
activists, philosophers, and artists from
France, the United States and beyond.
In 2020, at the height of the pandemic,
120 sites hosted the live-streamed event
from seven U.S. cities (Boston, Chicago,
Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Norfolk,
and San Francisco). Guest speakers,
including 2019 Nobel Prize-winning
economist Esther Duflo, journalist and
sex columnist Mai'a Mazaurette, and
Armenian-Syrian installation artist FFratch
Arbach, addressed in philosophical ways
many of the pressing issues of the day. The
event garnered widespread media attention
and boasted an attendance of over 20,000.
More important than ever, Night of
Ideas will consider contemporary notions
of community and how we can strengthen
social cohesion while acknowledging
our struggles, celebrating activism, and
empowering individuals. The event will
showcase a wide range of creative and
collaborative practices that question
how we act, build, and create in the face
of unprecedented societal, economic,
political, and environmental challenges.
This year’s
Night of Ideas
theme is “Where
Are We Going?”
The Atlanta event
will celebrate
our resilience as
human beings and
explore local and
global pathways
to end the current
state of crisis and
reinvent our shared
values. Participants
include Atlanta
Mayor Andre
Dickens; Amelia
Schaffner
(Director, Emory
University
Center for
Entrepreneurship
and Innovation);
video game studio
Accidental Queens;
Elizabeth Strickler
(Director, Media
Entrepreneurship &
Innovation Programs,
GSU); artist Floyd Hall; culture curator
Bern Joiner; professors Dr. Cheryl Finley
(Spelman College and Atlanta University
Center), Dr. Joycelyn Wilson (Georgia
Tech), Dr. Maurice FFobson (Georgia
State University), Dr. Anne Lafont (Villa
Albertine & Williams College), and Ryan
Gravel (GeorgiaTech); Fulton County
Public Art Manager Alex Frankcombe;
award-winning journalist and Closer
Writer and filmmaker Celine Tricart developed Constellation, an 1
through the Impressionist collections at the National Gallery of Art that will
takes visitors on a real and virtual tour. (Courtesy Villa Albertine)
Look host Rose Scott; and entrepreneurs
Wanona Satcher, Brian Tolleson, and
Donray Von. DJ Salah will provide tunes
throughout the event.
In the United States, major funding
for Night of Ideas is provided by Judy
and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation and
Carnegie Corporation of New York. To
see the program schedule and register, visit
nightofideas.org/atlanta. QD
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