The 2018 Souls of Du Bois Conference will take place Friday, February 23 through Saturday, February 24 hosted by Penn’s Du Bois College House. The annual conference celebrates W.E.B. Du Bois’s 150th birthday and legacy of innovation in education through the arts, scholarship and the social media of his time. The Souls of Du Bois Conference brings modern day scholars and activists whose work continues Dr. Du Bois’s legacy, highlighting the beauty and struggles of Diasporan Black people through their life’s work.

Dr. Du Bois was an American scholar and activist. He was the first African American to earn a PhD from Harvard University. He accepted a position at Penn in 1896 (Almanac February 7, 2012). The research he gathered was the foundation for his groundbreaking book, The Philadelphia Negro.

Established in 1972, the University of Pennsylvania W.E.B. Du Bois College House at the University of Pennsylvania hosts students, faculty, and staff that are committed to a Penn experience that advances the legacy of Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois in a college house setting (Almanac February 17, 1981).

This year’s conference has the theme “Lift Every Voice: Innovation and Education.” Dr. Du Bois was innovative educator himself. He celebrated the arts, produced scholarship, and produced content in the most cutting-edge ways, all to bring attention to the beauty and struggles of Black people. The conference coordinators would like to invite the community to be part of this event to learn how other change-makers in the Black diaspora are continuing Dr. Du Bois’s innovative legacy through their work.

The three areas of focus are:

• Social Media as the new age “The Crisis” publication and how it serves as an innovative tool for black advancement
• Performing Arts as a tool to spread messages of the plight and beauty of Black people
• Scholarship as a ladder to success

Friday, February 23

• Opening Reception; 7:30-9:30 p.m.

A Networking Reception for students, professionals, and scholars. Beer and wine will be available for those 21 and over along with light hors d’oeuvres. The keynote address will be delivered by Howard Stevenson, the Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education, Professor of Africana studies, in the Human Development & Quantitative Methods Division in GSE at Penn.

Saturday, February 24

• Breakfast 10-11 a.m.
• Session 1 (Choose 1) 11 a.m.-noon

Slam Poetry with Jasmine L. Combs: Jasmine L. Combs is a  poet, performer, educator and event organizer from Philadelphia, PA. She was the 2015 Grand Slam Champion of The Philly Pigeon Poetry Slam, a 2015 National Poetry Slam semi-finalist, and a winner of the 2016 College Union Poetry Slam Invitational. In 2015 she won the Apiary Magazine STUNG Writing Contest and her winning piece “Night Child” was turned into an animation. Her work has also been published in Vagabond City Lit, Luna Luna, and her performances have been featured on Button Poetry, Slamfind, Blavity, and The Huffington Post. In 2014 she published her first chapbook Universal Themes. Currently, she works as an educator and co-organizes The Philly Pigeon.

Black Business Boom: Using Social Media to Level the Field with Morgan A. Brown: In the Black Business Boom workshop, Morgan Brown shows current and potential business owners how to use social media to build, thrive and advertise in innovative and creative ways. Many businesses use methods innovated in the social media era—popular hashtags, YouTube reviews, and Facebook fan pages—to bring potential customers to their products. The options are unlimited, and this workshop will provide people all the knowledge they need to choose what works for their business.

Black Scholars Classical Music with Guthrie Ramsey: Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Music, University of Pennsylvania

• Lunch noon- 1:30 p.m.
• Session 2 (Choose 1) 1:30-2:30 p.m.

Black Twitter: What has it done for you lately? with Feminista Jones, Robin Stevens, Taylor-Rae Collins-Headley, and Ernest Owens: This panel sheds light on the ways African Americans in the U.S. utilize social media as an innovative tool to challenge racial bias, strengthen communities, and influence culture. Just as many African Americans assert that Black culture is pop culture, many members of the “Twitterverse” would contend that; right, wrong or indifferent, there is no Twitter without Black Twitter. Discussions will cover everything from Critical Race and Feminist theories to how social media can be used as a voice for Black people on social and political issues. Panelists also discuss social media, specifically Twitter, as a tool for Black women and men to (re)construct their bodies and identities, challenging the “control images” widespread in mainstream media and society at large.

The Institute of Hip Hop Entrepreneurship with Tayyib Smith: The Institute of Hip Hop Entrepreneurship emphasizes a new way of teaching fiscal literacy, one that is much more accessible than formal business school to the people which it serves. By understanding the deep-rooted history of Hip- Hop’s relationship with entrepreneurship, the Institute of Hip Hop Entrepreneurship toils to manifest the best aspects of hip-hop culture in comprehensive business education for its students.

Du Bois and Nkrumah: Lessons of Pan-Africanism for Scholarship and Activism Today with Krystal Strong: In 2018, we celebrate the 150th birthday of W.E.B. Du Bois and the 75th anniversary of Kwame Nkrumah’s degree from Penn’s Graduate School of Education. The lives of Mr. Nkrumah and Dr. Du Bois, whose paths brought them both to the University of Pennsylvania and Mr. Nkrumah’s native Ghana, represent “innovation” in scholarship and, most importantly, the struggles of Black people to overturn from white supremacy, empire, and capitalism. With reference to her scholarship on youth activism in Africa and organizing work in Philadelphia, this talk, by Dr. Strong, touches on the importance of their legacies for the present moment, and what we can learn from their commitments to Pan-Africanism and the liberation of Africa and all people of African descent.

• Closing Keynote 3:30-5 p.m. at Penn Law School;

Elijah Anderson, the William K. Lanman, Jr. Professor of Sociology and Professor of African American Studies, Yale University

Reserve free tickets by visiting: https://souls-of-dubois-conference.ticketleap.com/

Former Ghanaian Prime Minister and President Kwame Nkrumah came to Penn as a graduate student in 1939, after obtaining his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Lincoln  University. After receiving his master’s degree from Penn’s Graduate School of Education in 1943, Mr. Nkrumah began another program of study with the department of philosophy on a University Scholarship. His advisor Glen Morrow noted that he satisfied the requirements for a master’s degree in philosophy in 1943, and by 1944 it appears that he had passed his preliminary exams for a doctorate. He then began working as a Twi instructor for Zellig Harris in a new African studies graduate group, and in 1945 he left the U.S. for London and Manchester. He returned to the Gold Coast, now known as Ghana, in 1947.

After Ghana broke free from British colonialism in 1957, Mr. Nkrumah became the country’s first prime minster and then its first president. He modernized Ghana in his first few years in office and promoted political unity in Africa, suggesting a “United States of Africa.”

Controversial legislation and declaring himself as president for life eventually led to him being overthrown in military coup. Exiled in Guinea, where he was named honorary co-president, he died in 1972. His remains rest at a mausoleum at Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park.