As a professor at Eugene Lang College, Sekou Sundiata used to ask students to make their life experiences the topic of classroom conversations. At a Tuesday panel discussion for Eugene Lang College’s late writer-in-residence, held at the Theresa Lang Center, the subject was Sundiata.
The night was the first in a seven-month series entitled “Blink Your Eyes: Sekou Sundiata Revisited.” Tuesday’s panelists included University of Michigan professor Julie Ellison, Lafayette College professor Gladstone Fluney Hutchinson and New School professors Brian Lewis and Richard Harper, as well as New School for Public Engagement Dean David Scobey.
Throughout his tenure at Lang — from 1987 until his death in 2007 — Sundiata gained a reputation as one of the school’s premier writers and activists. His performances combined music, poetry and drama. He poeticized about slave reparations and the meaning of American citizenship. His teachings on art, education and politics still inspire the university community.
Sekou Sundiata was born Robert Franklin Feaster in 1948. Raised in Harlem, he changed his name at the heart of the 1960s. The name “Sekou” originates from Western Africa and means “wise one,” while Sundiata’s surname pays homage to Sundiata Keita, founder of the Mali Empire.
Sundiata made forays into poetry, playwriting and music. In all his works, he emphasized performance. His 1997 spoken word album, “The Blue Oneness of Dreams,” was nominated for a Grammy Award. He appeared on PBS’ Bill Moyers Journal and HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, performing such works as “Bring on the Reparations” and “Blink Your Eyes,” the namesake of the memorial series.
“I’m glad this event is called Sekou Sundiata Revisited, not remembered, not even Sekou Sundiata retrospective,” said Scobey. “We are not simply looking back. We are visiting a friend, a mentor, a comrade, a collaborator, someone who inspires skill.”
The panel discussed how teachers can continue Sundiata’s educational approach. “Our identities were put on the table and dissected and shared,” Lewis said. “I’m trying to teach my students how Sekou came to these questions about who are we, how can I be who I am, what is the functioning purpose of universities?”
For Harper, universities are about personal reflection; that’s what he learned from Sundiata. “We [just] talked about what we understood,” he said. “Then the most amazing stories would come, I mean truly unbelievable stories.”
The next public event in the “Blink Your Eyes” series will be on April 27 at Harlem’s Apollo Theater. Hip-hop artists Abiodun Oyewole and Rakim, along with Living Colour songwriter Vernon Reid, will perform spoken word poetry. Writers Amiri Baraka and Black Thought will also take the stage. The show begins at 8 p.m. Costs range from $20 — exclusively for students — to $45.
Francia is currently a Culture & Media major student about to graduate. She hopes to write for a cheesy sitcom or television series one day. Her hobbies include binge watching shows on Netflix and drinking wine.
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