Harris Explores "The Black Radical Imagination" for Black History Month

The Harris School of Public Policy, taking a novel approach as it celebrates Black History Month, will explore “The Black Radical Imagination” with events throughout February.

“The Black Radical Imagination,” a phrase coined by historian and University of California, Los Angeles, Professor Robin D.G. Kelley, describes Blacks’ dreams of what could be, said Aremu Mbande, Harris’ associate director of Diversity and Inclusion. Such visions of what is possible — along with the hope, courage, and persistence needed to achieve them — are the spark that fuels the radical transformation of the dreamer and of society, Mbande added. 

Harris marks Black History Month annually with a monthlong series of varied events led by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and featuring prominent speakers and community members as well as University of Chicago alumni, faculty, students, and staff. This February, Mbande said, “we are trying to really diversify.”

“The traditional view of Black History Month is to reflect on the past,” he said. “The Black Radical Imagination theme gives us a framework for respecting the past but placing ourselves in the future.” 

The five Harris marquee events this year — which include discussions, gatherings, and a documentary screening — begin Feb. 1 as the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, senior pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ, speaks about “Decolonizing the Imagination.” This kick-off community event will take place at 6 p.m. in the Keller Center Forum.

Trinity United Church of Christ, Mbande noted, is where former President Barack Obama — while a community organizer on Chicago’s South Side — found spiritual mentorship and developed his view of social justice in urban areas. 

The focus stays firmly on Chicago for Feb. 6’s event, a showing of the documentary Punch 9 for Harold Washington. The documentary chronicles the story of Washington, Chicago’s first Black mayor, who took on and defeated the Chicago political “machine,” serving from April 1983 until his unexpected death in November 1987.

“Imagine Harold Washington in the city of Chicago in the 1980s even thinking that he might become mayor and the things that he had to cultivate within himself, like courage, like hope, in order to succeed,” Mbande said. 

The 7 p.m. screening takes place at Doc Films, 1212 E 59th St #3. Tickets are $7 each.

Imagining the future stays in the foreground on Feb. 8  for “Hire Black Harris,” a networking event hosted by Black Action in Public Policy Studies (BAPPS), an HSO dedicated to creating intentionally Black spaces at Harris, and aimed at providing support for career choices and professional development. 

On Feb. 15, the Student Engagement Office will host Harris After Hours, a community-building activity that, Mbande said, will allow “folks to come and just enjoy art, entertainment, and conversation.” 

Capping the month of celebration will be “Sports, Race, and Labor,” a Feb. 23 panel discussion at the Keller Center Forum featuring Bomani Jones, an award-winning sports commentator and podcast host. A collaboration between the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility, the discussion — moderated by Harris Associate Professor Damon Jones — will dig into issues including NCAA student athletes (and their ability to earn money from endorsements), athletic labor relations, the racial dynamics in collegiate and professional sports, and how it all ties into broader labor struggles, Mbande said.  

The panel for the 5 p.m. program will include Princeton Professor of Economics Ilyana Kuziemko, Booth Professor of Economics Matthew  Notowidigdo, and Professor Emeritus, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Kenneth L. Shropshire.

Every February, Mbande said, it is important to look at how Black History Month came to be, especially at UChicago, where Carter G. Woodson, who is credited with establishing Black History Month (it started as Negro History Week), earned a master's degree in 1908. 

Woodson’s is just one example of the many Black historical experiences emphasizing a radical imagination, Mbande said. “How did these folks like Woodson and Obama and Washington and the Black leaders who preceded them,” he asked, “have the tenacity and the vision to live a life that was different from what social and political infrastructures created for them?”

“When we look at the vast tapestry of the Black experience in the United States,” he added, “there are huge narratives that typically get minimized when we talk about Black history. But throughout all the different points in history — enslavement, the Jim Crow Era, The Great Migration, the Civil Rights era, Black Power, and Black Lives Matter — there was a similar recipe, which was employing this Black Radical Imagination and figuring out how Black folks could radically imagine a different future.”

Black History Month, Mbande said, “is not just to dwell on achievements that we've made throughout time, but to hold ourselves accountable for obtaining a more secure future, one that's filled with social justice and dignity and joy.”

Get additional information, and register for events here.

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