Frank B. Wilderson III: Afropessimism - Lecture
The Africana Studies Program introduces to campus an ongoing series, Black Studies Book Club. Each semester, BSBC brings a scholar whose recent publication has shifted the conversation in Africana Studies to campus to give a public lecture and discuss their recent work (free and open to everyone). Our next Black Studies Book Club Scholar is Frank B. Wilderson III, who will be speaking about their book Afropessimism on Thursday, October, 24 at Tulane University. There will be a reception following the lecture.
ABOUT THE DISORDERED COSMOS
Why does a perpetual cycle of slavery—in all its political, intellectual, and cultural forms—continue to define the Black experience? And why is anti-Black violence such a predominant feature not only in the United States but around the world?
Combining trenchant philosophy with lyrical memoir, Wilderson presents the tenets of an increasingly prominent intellectual movement (Afropessimism) that sees Blackness through the lens of perpetual slavery. Drawing on works of philosophy, literature, film, and critical theory, he shows that the social construct of slavery, as seen through pervasive anti-Black subjugation and violence, is hardly a relic of the past but the very engine that powers our civilization, and that without this master-slave dynamic, the calculus bolstering world civilization would collapse.
