City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, Atlanta History Center, Out of Hand, and Equitable Dinners partner with Villa Albertine for free annual philosophy super-event on March 1, 2024 interrogates the future of urban life
Villa Albertine, the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, Atlanta History Center, Equitable Dinners, and Out of Hand Theater today announced the program for the 2024 Night of Ideas coming to Atlanta on March 1, 2024. Villa Albertine’s annual marathon of philosophical debates, performances, readings, and more, invites experts and the public to engage together in late-night discussions addressing major global issues.
This year, Night of Ideas returns across 20 US cities. Leading thinkers, scientists, novelists, activists, and artists will engage with the theme “Outside the Lines” centering urban life and development, and raising questions about the impact of climate change, new technologies, gentrification, and social and cultural activism.
In Atlanta, Night of Ideas kicks off Friday, March 1, 2024 from 5pm-11pm at Atlanta History Center, exploring the theme of urban mutations through the lenses of the environment, Afro-futurism and artistic expression.
How are cities preparing for the environmental challenges to come? Will Atlanta become the model for an ecological and equitable city? As a major city in the South, how Atlanta steps into the future will have a significant impact on the entire region both socially and ecologically. Taking its inspiration from “Behold the Land”, a speech by W. E. B. Du Bois (1946), and a series of photographs by Atlanta-based artist Sheila Pree Bright (2022), the event will feature conversations, an Equitable Dinners experience, nature walks, screenings and performances, inviting attendees to embrace our collective connection to land and imagine new patterns to urban life.
“Here is the magnificent climate; here is the fruitful earth under the beauty of the Southern sun; and here if anywhere on earth, is the need of the thinker, the worker and the dreamer.”
W. E. B. Du Bois, “Behold the Land” (1946)
“Atlanta History Center is thrilled to be the host venue for this year’s Night of Ideas,” says Sheffield Hale, President and CEO, “As an organization dedicated to connecting people, history, and culture, we are nestled in the natural landscape within our 33-acre Goizueta Gardens. Natural history is Atlanta history, and exploring these connections is essential to understanding where we live.”
Headliners include Chandra Farley, Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Atlanta, photographic artist Sheila Pree Bright, environmental scientist Na’Taki Osborne Jelks, writer Hannah Palmer, urbanist Mark Chambers, Muskogee scholar and author Laura Harjo, French historian on architecture and environment Sebastien Marot, Senegalese singer and performer Ngnima Sarr aka T.I.E.
“This event will feature speakers, artists, academics, and performers from Atlanta and around the world, leveraging our status as an international hub while paying homage to our southern cultural and ecological roots,” said Night of Ideas Atlanta associate curators Clint Fluker and Nasim Fluker of Thrd Space. “Join us at the Night of Ideas: Behold the Land as we engage with Atlanta as catalyst for fresh ideas and pathways for a regenerative future.”
For the first time, Night of Ideas Atlanta will kick off with an Equitable Dinners experience. Hosted by Out of Hand Theater, Equitable Dinners are facilitated conversations about race and equity, featuring a short performance. The actors and facilitators join audience members for dinner and roundtable conversations to have open, educated conversations about race and equity. Thriving Together Atlanta’s Equitable Dinner is your exclusive ticket to participate in this vital conversation. Insights from the Equitable Dinner experience will inform Thriving Together Atlanta, a public art project in development to address inequities in Atlanta’s healthcare system. The public art project was awarded a $1 million Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge grant and is a collaboration between the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, the CDC Foundation, National Black Arts Festival, and Out of Hand Theater.
“We are excited to present our first event for Thriving Together Atlanta at Night of Ideas,” states Camille Russell Love, Executive Director of the City of Atlanta – Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. “During the next two years our team will create art and cultural events and invite the Atlanta community to join us in a robust discussion about racial inequities in public health. With their input, our goal is to help create a more equitable, healthier, thriving Atlanta.”
Night of Ideas: Behold the Land is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Also, the Atlanta History Center’s exhibitions and bookshop are open to the public during the event. For more information and to register visit Night of Ideas Atlanta.
Night of Ideas 2024 is presented by Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation thanks to the leadership support of the Judy & Peter Blum Kovler Foundation, and with the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Carnegie Corporation of New York. It is coordinated worldwide by the Institut Français.
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