With the lights dimmed and a film clip running, the scene from the film “Memory 541” echoed through Harris Hall.
Graphic images and compelling monologues signified only a fraction of what was to come Friday in a conference that brought together a group of renowned scholars to discuss the contributions of black writers from around the world.
Facing an audience of about 20 students and professors, panelists Sheree Thomas, Kodwo Eshun, Alondra Nelson and Greg Tate explored black authors’ legacies in a conference Friday.
They paid tribute to science-fiction author Samuel Delaney, whose lecture the previous day opened the symposium entitled “The Politics of the Paraliterary: A Symposium of Afro-Diasporic Speculative Fiction and Theory.”
African-American studies and English professor and event organizer Alex Weheliye said the purpose of the conference was to educate students on the little-known writer.
“I thought it would be a good idea to bring together younger scholars and writers that had been influenced by Delany’s ideas, so as to show how influential his ideas have been,” Weheliye said.
The symposium featured each panelist’s discussion of recent artistic and academic developments by black authors, including Delaney. “Memory 541” displayed artistic developments concerned with images of the future and questions of race.
“I took a class with Prof. Weheliye without really knowing what it was about and ended up being fascinated by subjects like these,” said Sherri Berger, a Weinberg junior.
Using novels like “Triton” and “A Black Mass,” the panelists discussed the logic of science fiction and its ability to broaden the nature of reading.
The scientific conception of race and the process used to create a “possible image out of the impossible” were only a few of the many issues explored, Eshun said.
Organizers publicized the event in the hope that students would expand their interests by attending.
But a few students said they were already fans of the genre.
“I have read most of the books by the authors here and it is definitely another reason for why I am here,” Berger said. “Kodwo Eshun’s book is out of print so I wanted to ask him how I can get a hold of it as well.”
