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What can we learn from… the radical universalism of CLR James?
Tuesday 19 March @ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Room CLM.2.05, 2nd Floor, Clement House, London School of Economics
THIS EVENT IS FREE OF CHARGE, BUT PLEASE REGISTER VIA EVENTBRITE.
As a Marxist revolutionary and Pan-Africanist, critic of European colonialism and respecter of Western civilisation, classicist and lover of popular culture, CLR James confounds many contemporary expectations. Today, when praise for ‘Western culture’ is often dismissed as ‘Eurocentrism’ and identity silos trump a sense of our shared humanity, is a universalist outlook and an emphasis on what we have in common worth defending? Looking back at his life and work, what can we learn from a man once labelled ’the black Plato’?
SPEAKERS
CERI DINGLE
director, WORLDwrite; co-director Every Cook Can Govern, the award winning film on CLR James
Ceri Dingle is director of WORLDwrite, a youth education charity that campaigns for change using film and video through its online Citizen TV channel, WORLDbytes. WORLDwrite’s free TV and film training facility for young people has assisted over 3,000 young people to produce over 1,000 challenging programmes in the past 10 years.
Ceri directed the film Sylvia Pankhurst: Everything is Possible and co-directed Every Cook Can Govern on the life and works of CLR James. She is currently working with young volunteers to produce a film on the history of solidarity in the UK and new volunteers are most welcome to join the crew.
RALPH LEONARD
writer; author, Letter on Liberty: Unshackling Intimacy
Ralph is a British-Nigerian writer and commentator on international politics, culture and sex. He is the author of the Letters on Liberty pamphlet Unshackling Intimacy, writes for UnHerd, Areo and the Telegraph, and is a regular guest on the Zer0 Books podcast. He also writes on religion, human rights and international affairs. As an ardent secularist and leftist, Ralph believes it is crucial to uphold the legacy of the Enlightenment, and the project for the universal emancipation of humanity.
SUPPORTED BY
Living Freedom University Salons are supported by the Ian Mactaggart Programme, established to foster a culture of open debate, independent thinking and free expression among young people in the UK, especially students. It is administered by the Free Speech Union.
