THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2024 5pm reception 6pm lecture—In museum & virtual
Wadsworth Atheneum, 600 Main Street, Hartford, CT Free and open to the public with required registration.
Eddie S. Glaude Jr., the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and New York Times best-selling author, talks about his forthcoming book, We Are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For (Harvard University Press, April 2024). Glaude makes the case that the hard work of becoming a better person should be a critical feature of Black politics. Through virtuoso interpretations of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Ella Baker, Glaude shows how ordinary people have the capacity to be the heroes that our democracy so desperately requires, rather than outsourcing their needs to leaders who purportedly represent them. Glaude is also the author of the New York Times best seller Begin Again, a politically astute, lyrical meditation on how ordinary Black Americans can shake off their reliance on a small group of professional politicians and pursue self-cultivation and grassroots movements to achieve a more just and perfect democrac
The Pennington Lecture is presented in honor of the Rev. Dr. James W. C. Pennington and is part of CT State Capital’s Black Heritage Project. The project aims to surface the remarkable history of the first Black church and school for Black children in Hartford through an exhibition on Hartford’s Black community formation (now on view at the college), curriculum in a variety of courses, and programs such as this.
The Pennington Lecture is produced by CT State Capital in partnership with the Wadsworth Atheneum and The Amistad Center for Art & Culture, and in association with Faith Congregational Church.