Women have been involved in the printing and production of books in what became the United States since Elizabeth Glover established a press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1638. After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 forced her to flee the United States, Mary Ann Shadd, an African American woman, founded and published The Provincial Freeman, an antislavery newspaper, in 1853 in Ontario, Canada.

A symposium at Yale University
Free and open to the public
Prison has become the punitive shadow to all the major institutions of modernity. How has contemporary mass incarceration shaped inner life, public spectacle, moral possibilities? How does writing from inside and outside prison walls help us imagine a future beyond the carceral state. This day-long symposium in the Humanities Quadrangle at Yale—featuring scholars, prison education advocates, writers, and more—is free and open to all.

Winsome Pinnock’s most recent play, Rockets and Blue Lights, takes the audience on a deep dive into J. M. W. Turner’s painting “The Slave Ship,” asking questions about received and shared history. She is joined by past prize recipient Branden-Jacobs Jenkins in a discussion about how theater can help us look more fully into history.
A complementary display of works by J. M. W. Turner, including sketchbook drawings and color studies, finished watercolors, and prints, will be on view in the Yale Center for British Study Room that day.

“Skokiaan” is a popular tune originally written by Zimbabwean musician August Musarurwa that has been covered by many musician, including Louis Armstrong. Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu chats with Regina Bain, Executive Director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum, about the song and about Armstrong’s tours through the African Continent in the 50s and 60s.

In addition to her novels, Tsitsi Dangarembga has also written, directed, and produced a number of films. In My Father’s Village is a powerful short film about the inheritance of trauma that she produced in 2017. Tsitsi will introduce the film, discuss its creation with Professor of History and African Studies Dan Magaziner, and answer questions from the audience.