Angela Davis in conversation with Poulomi Saha

Activist, author, educator, and cultural icon Angela Davis has been a leading force in the Black liberation, feminist, queer, and prison abolitionist movements for more than 65 years. Thrust into the national spotlight in the 1970s when she appeared on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list and was subsequently imprisoned, Davis then became the focus of the international “Free Angela Davis” campaign. In the decades since, she has remained at the forefront of movements for racial and social justice—as a professor in the History of Consciousness Program at UC Santa Cruz; as an activist involved with numerous social justice organizations; as a public speaker across the globe; and as the author of 11 influential books, including Women, Race, and Class; Freedom is a Constant Struggle; and Abolition: Politics, Practices, Promises, Volume 1.

Here, Davis reflects on Nina Simone’s iconic song “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free,” one of the great anthems of the mid-20th-century Black liberation movement, and considers how its themes suggest ways of imagining freedom that can be particularly meaningful when considered within our current social context. A conversation with Poulomi Saha, Associate Professor of English and Chair of the Program in Critical Theory at UC Berkeley will follow.

“While many people become more insular as they get older, she has become ever more outward-looking. … Today, she has an extraordinary capacity to absorb and juggle ideas, many seemingly at odds with each other” (The Guardian).

Co-presented with UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures as part of the Jefferson Memorial Lecture Series and The Program in Critical Theory.