On Thursday 17th September 2020, the Stuart Hall Foundation welcomed world-famous author and activist Angela Davis for ‘An Audience with Angela Davis’, an online event hosted in partnership with Southbank Centre.

This video is an extract from the event, sharing Angela Davis’ keynote speech reflecting on what led us to this historic chapter in our history and what might come next.

Davis was also in conversation with lecturer and author Dr Brett St Louis about the political scene in the US heading into the upcoming election and the ongoing struggle for economic, racial and gender justice. Davis and St Louis then responded to questions submitted by the general public in advance of the event. We hope to make a transcript of this conversation available to the public soon.

‘An Audience with Angela Davis’ marked a highlight in the Stuart Hall Foundation’s #reconstructionwork online conversations, launched in June 2020 and bringing together writers, artists and activists, for a series of intergenerational conversations considering how we can build a better society and culture, connecting education, culture and politics, as Stuart Hall did. The event was also the inaugural event for Southbank Centre’s new Inside Out series as part of their Autumn season of events.

“We are living through a period of profound political instability, in which old paradigms are crumbling, and new ones struggling to be born. At this moment of both possibility and danger, what does ‘resistance’ look like to those seeking it on the ground, and what exactly are the forces ranged against them?”  – Jack Shenker.

The 3^rd Stuart Hall Public Conversation pursued the theme of Resistance through multiple lenses, providing a chance for questions and discussion, and punctuated with interventions and perspectives from a new generation of artists, scholars and cultural activists.

The event was introduced by the Stuart Hall Foundation’s new Executive Director Ruth Borthwick, who welcomed multidisciplinary artist and designer Bahia Shehab to deliver the opening presentation.

Journalist and author Jack Shenker took to the stage for a keynote speech. Drawing on his deep reporting on grassroots movements in different parts of the world over recent years, Jack told the story of two young people several thousand miles apart – one in Manchester, England, another in Cairo, Egypt – to explore how the children of the financial crisis are fighting to widen their political imaginations, and often paying a heavy price in return.