Atlanta’s popular Night of Ideas event returns Friday, March 1, 2024 to explore the theme of urban mutations through the lenses of the environment, Afro-futurism, and artistic expression. How are cities preparing for the environmental challenges to come? Will Atlanta become the model for an ecological and equitable city? As a major city in the South, how Atlanta steps into the future will have a significant impact on the entire region both socially and ecologically.
Taking its inspiration from “Behold the Land,” a speech by W. E. B. Du Bois (1946), and a series of photographs by Atlanta-based artist Sheila Pree Bright (2022), the event will feature conversations, an Equitable Dinners experience, garden tours, screenings, workshops, and performances, inviting attendees to embrace our collective connection to land and imagine new patterns for urban life.
With the participation of Chandra Farley, Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Atlanta, photographic artist Sheila Pree Bright, environmental scientist Na’Taki Osborne Jelks, writer Hannah Palmer, urban planner Mark Chambers, Mvskoke scholar and author Laura Harjo, French historian in architecture and environment Sebastien Marot, Senegalese singer and performer Ngnima Sarr, aka T.I.E, and many more.
This event is free and open to the public. Registration is required. A special RSVP is also required to register for certain events with limited space (Garden Tours and Equitable Dinners).
The Atlanta History Center’s exhibitions and bookshop will be open to the public during Night of Ideas.
Presented by Villa Albertine, the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, and Atlanta History Center.
Associate curators: Clint Fluker & Nasim Fluker (Thrd Space)
“Here is the magnificent climate; here is the fruitful earth under the beauty of the Southern sun; and here if anywhere on earth, is the need of the thinker, the worker and the dreamer.” (W.E.B. Du Bois, “Behold the Land”, 1946).
