The Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, SC, announces For Freedoms Town Hall: Freedom of Expression – Arts and Justice, a free event in participation with For Freedoms’ 50 State Initiative, on Monday, Sept. 24, 2018, at 6:30pm. A panel of artistic and legal experts will discuss this First Amendment right from artistic, local, and global perspectives.
A For Freedoms event at the Brooklyn Museum. Photo credit: Wyatt Gallery.
Following the panel discussion, attendees are encouraged to “talk back” with a response wall and to visit the voter registration booth to learn how their voices can be heard this November.
Featured speakers include Nikky Finney, Chad Henderson, Kathleen McDaniel, and Shaundra Young Scott, with Aparna Polavarapu serving as moderator.
Nikky Finney is the John H. Bennett, Jr. Chair in Creative Writing and Southern Letters at the University of South Carolina. She has authored four books of poetry, the last of which won the 2011 National Book Award for poetry.
Chad Henderson is the Artistic Director of Trustus Theatre in Columbia. As a professional theatre artist, he has directed dozens of professional productions at venues across South Carolina.
Kathleen McDaniel is a founding partner in the law firm of Burnette Shutt & McDaniel. She focuses on administrative and environmental law.
Shaundra Young Scott is the first African American female executive director of the ACLU of South Carolina. She concentrates on the civil liberties of individuals within the state of South Carolina, including but not limited to racial justice, criminal justice, women’s reproductive rights, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, and youth justice.
Aparna Polavarapu is a professor at the School of Law at the University of South Carolina. As part of the Rule of Law Collaborative, she focuses her research on the rule of law and human rights.
For Freedoms is a national platform for greater engagement in the arts and in civil society. Inspired by Norman Rockwell’s 1943 paintings of the four universal freedoms articulated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1941—freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear—For Freedoms seeks to use art to deepen public discussions of civic issues and core values, and to clarify that citizenship in American society is deepened by participation, not by ideology. The CMA is participating in their 50 State Initiative, which models how arts institutions become civic forums for action and discussion of values, place, and patriotism during the lead-up to the midterm elections.
Doors open at 5:30pm. Discussion at 6:30pm. Free. Cash bar.
For more information, visit (www.columbiamuseum.org).