Artists, musicians and scholars will convene for a free-ranging discussion of the meaning and continuing resonance of the Civil War and the civil rights movement. “Been in the Storm So Long: Remembering 1864 and 1964 in 2014” will be held Nov. 15 at 8 p.m. at the Margaret Mitchell House, 990 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta.
The panel discussion is organized by Stephen Berry, the Gregory Professor of the Civil War Era, and Stephen Mihm, an associate professor, both in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences’ history department.
The event, a special addendum to UGA’s Spotlight on the Arts festival, is co-sponsored by the history department, the Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library at Emory University, the Atlanta History Center and the Jane and Harry Willson Center for Humanities and Arts at UGA. It is open free to the public.
Rickey Bevington of Georgia Public Broadcasting will host the far-reaching roundtable discussion of the coincident anniversaries of the 1864 Battles of Atlanta and 1964 Civil Rights Act. Panelists include former U.S. Poet Laureate and UGA alumna Natasha Trethewey; artist Robert Morris; singer-songwriter Caroline Herring; and historians Robert Pratt, Brett Gadsden and Joseph Crespino.
“We wanted to sponsor a deeply reflective discussion about race in America that acknowledges both how far we’ve come and how far we have to go,” said Berry, co-director of the Willson Center Lab for Digital Humanities.