International Festival of Arts & Ideas

In a world in which people are the move more than ever before, whether by choice or necessity, author Pico Iyer suggests ways in which our sense of home has grown fluid, portable — and even secret.

In her book What’s the Story (2014), legendary postmodern theatre director Anne Bogart reflects on the contemporary power of story in theatre and life alike. Among Bogart’s multidisciplinary musings are scientific ones about the brain’s proven reaction to narrative. In this conversation, Bogart talks with Yale psychologist and neuroscientist Hedy Kober about our minds’ biological response to, and empathy for, the stories of others.

MacArthur “genius” and entrepreneur Majora Carter discusses how she is building tech services companies in low-status American communities to generate jobs and new economic activity, and to develop nontraditional talent streams. Thanks to her work, the South Bronx—and communities like it—can participate as tech producers and not just consumers

Our inaugural Youth Ideas panel, part of the first Citywide Youth Summit, explores the legacy of U.S. youth activism and, above all, its importance in social movements today. This discussion, featuring young agents for change who are fighting for various causes, is motivated by the conviction that teenagers are not only able to effect change but are perhaps the best equipped to do so. Moderated by Wendy Lesko, executive director of the Youth Activism Project.

The Festival's Ideas Program Presenting sponsor is

CT Humanities.

PARTICIPANTS

Moderator: Wendy Lesko, Executive Director, Youth Activism Project

Isabel Bate, LGBTQ Youth Kickback, New Haven

Jeremy Cajigas, community organizer on issues of racism and police brutality, Hamden

Montrel Morrison, NAACP Juvenile Justice Committee Chair, Southern Connecticut State University

Carolina Bortolleto, CTStudents for a Dream Co-Founder, Western Connecticut State University

The Internet has been both a blessing and a curse for musicians, allowing them to spread their work widely but also making them more susceptible to harmful, unlawful copying. Legal scholar Jessica Silbey moderates a conversation with Nancy Baym, Principal Researcher for Microsoft Research New England; Jean Cook, Co-director of the Artist Revenue Streams project; and musician-composer and activist Maria Schneider about alternative models that benefit consumers and artists alike.

On May 1, 1970, a crowd of nearly 30,000 radicals descended on Yale to protest the murder trial of nine Black Panthers. In this talk, Henry Chauncey, then assistant to Yale’s president, discusses how Yale’s leaders and the New Haven police averted crisis by welcoming, rather than fighting, the protesters, and talks about the photographs featured in his new book "May Day at Yale, 1970: Recollections".

Live music is more than just entertainment; it is a source of joy, a soothing balm, a forger of community. Singer-songwriter Mary McBride’s Home Tour, hailed by The Washington Post as "extraordinary" and by The Wall Street Journal as "a way of highlighting how communities can be nurtured, whether by sharing shelter, stories or live music,” brings live concerts and the curative power of music to tens of thousands of people living in “non-traditional” housing—those who are most in need of live music, but least able to access it. In this event, Mary will give us a window onto her work, particularly her current initiative with young adults at Connecticut Mental Health Center and participating local mental health and housing facilities.Participants: Moderator Lynne DeLucia, Journalist Mary McBride, Singer-songwriter and founder of The Home Tour Miriam Delphin-Rittmon, Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services Rick Moody, Author

Last year an epidemic of Ebola erupted in West Africa. The story about the epidemic in the US largely alternated between the fears of the disease coming to these shores and the heroic work of American healthcare workers overseas. Largely missing from the narrative was the perspective of the people from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea and any analysis of the roots of the outbreak in global political and economic policies that have decimated health systems across the region. How does the way we think about equity and justice in health affect health in Africa and across the world and set the stage for epidemic such as the one we've seen emerge over the past year?

Participants:

Moderator Gregg Gonsalves - Co-director of the Yale Global Health Justice Partnership

Chernor Bah - Associate at the Population Council, Co-Founder of A World at School and of the Salone Adolescent Girls Network in Sierra Leone

Ashoka Mukpo - Journalist and researcher Adia Benton Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Brown University

Francisco Perez - Former Business Development Program Manager, Catholic Relief Services

From star dancer to founder of New Haven’s beloved Bowen-Peters dance school to black feminist activist to distinguished professor, Angela Bowen has had many influential identities, and in each one, she has encouraged all around her— particularly here in New Haven—to reach their fullest potentials and embrace their true selves. This panel discussion among individuals who knew and were inspired by Angela honors not only Angela’s legacy in New Haven and beyond, but also the conviction threading through her multifaceted journey: self expression at any price.

Participants

LaChanze theater, film, and TV actress

Kate Rushin former member of The New Words Bookstore Collective, poet, educator

Angela C. Robinson Connecticut Superior Court Judge

Shari Caldwell dancer, choreographer, director of The Caldwell Dance Center

Moderator: Beverly Guy-Sheftall founding director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center and Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women’s Studies, Spelman College

Art and politics have a long history of complex entanglement, but in the new millennium, the global artistic scene has exploded with political controversy. From the Mariinsky Ballet to Brett Bailey's Exhibit B, from Tania Bruguera to Charlie Hebdo, via El Sistema and other social experiments, artists and their work appear more and more entwined with surrounding political issues and volatility.

In Part 1 of this talk, Graham Sheffield CBE, Global Director Arts for the British Council, offers reflections on the current situation, examining issues of conscience, freedom of expression, social action and identity in an international context.

Participants

Presenter: Graham Sheffield CBE Global Director Arts, British Council

Moderator: Paul Smith Director of the British Council (USA) and Cultural Counsellor at the British Embassy

Respondents: Afa S. Dworkin Executive Director, Sphinx Foundation

Antonio Aiello Content Director and Web Editor, Pen American Center

Part 2 of this talk features a debate on these topics with Afa S. Dworkin (Sphinx Organization), Antonio Aiello (PEN American Center) and Paul Smith (Director of the British Council in the USA and Cultural Counsellor at the British Embassy Washington DC)