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Angela Davis to Speak Nov. 7
Scholar, author and cultural theorist Angela Davis will give a talk titled “The Heart of the Matter: Prison Industrial Complex,” at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 7 in Occidental College’s Johnson Hall Room 200.
Davis, professor in the History of Consciousness Department at UC Santa Cruz, was a member of the Black Panthers and joined the Communist Party in 1968. She gained an international reputation in the early 1970s, when she was imprisoned and tried for conspiracy after being implicated – and later acquitted – in a shootout in front of the Marin County Hall of Justice involving members of the Black Panthers.
After her acquittal, Davis resumed teaching at San Francisco State University and went on to lecture throughout the United States, Europe, Africa, and elsewhere. She is the founder of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. Her current work focuses on racism in the U.S. prison system and exploring new ways to deconstruct oppression and racial hatred.
Davis’ books include “If They Come In The Morning” (1971), “Angela Davis: An Autobiography” (1974), “Women, Race & Class” (1981), “Women, Race and Politics” (1989), “Blues Legacies & Black Feminism” (1999), and “The Angela Y Davis Reader” (1999).
Davis’ Occidental appearance is in conjunction with Occidental’s First Tuesday Speaker Series. The series, sponsored by the Remsen Bird Fund, brings a dynamic speaker to campus on the first Tuesday of every month. Guests represent a wide variety of backgrounds and reflect the diversity of the campus. Past speakers include Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, author/educator Lani Guinier, and hip-hop artist KRS-ONE.