May 2, 2024 | News | By Leigh Walden
Several hundred people waited in line outside of Shove Chapel on Friday, April 26, bearing the brunt of a chilling, horizontally blown, late-April rain. Colorado College students, faculty, staff and community members gathered together to hear from civil rights advocate, author and professor Dr. Angela Davis.
While in line, some were passed a flier advertising a pro-Palestine walkout that would be held on Wednesday, May 1. Others among the crowd wore scarves resembling Palestinian keffiyehs – a symbol of Palestinian nationalism.
Before Davis spoke, it was clear to attendees that her talk would encapsulate more than just a discussion of her previous work – this talk would be, for some, a space where organizers could find community with one another and where some, not currently engaged in justice work, would have their views challenged.
The talk, hosted by the Anthropology, Asian Studies, English, Feminist and Gender Studies, History, Italian, Political Science, Religion, Race Ethnicity and Migration, Sociology, Spanish and Portuguese, Theatre and Dance department, the Office of ADEI and CCSGA, was advertised as a discussion of Davis’s book, “Blue Legacies and Black Feminism.” Three performances started the event, as singers opened with their own strong renditions of blues music.
Before the introduction to Angela Davis, student Giorgio Gioele Sirito ‘26, gave brief remarks on the status of Colorado College’s involvement with the state of Israel. “I want to point out, as an individual student, that despite the Colorado College administration’s claim, that this college is an anti-racist institution. We must address how this institution has perpetually represented a source of oppression and discrimination since its foundation in 1874,” said Sirito.
“[Colorado College] has been supporting broader forms of settler colonialism and capitalistic imperial domination of the West, from Congo to the Apartheid regime in South Africa and Israel” he said, “The punitive responses against students and faculty activism against CC’s investments in Israel clearly show how Colorado College’s prosperity and wealth is built on the exploitation and the blood of Indigenous Peoples and BIPOC people all around the world.”
The crowd walked Sirito back to his seat to warm applause and calls of “free Palestine.”
Davis opened her remarks by addressing the ongoing war in Gaza. She spoke on behalf of student protestors who have grown more active across the United States and against some of the language used to discredit the protesters. In particular, Davis discussed how anti-protester rhetoric equates pro-Palestinian organizers with being anti-Semitic.
“Charging anti-Semitism to discredit those who are standing for justice is to severely diminish the importance of standing against those who really do promote hatred of Jews” Davis said. She also pointed out that a significant number of student protestors currently organizing on this issue are Jewish – acknowledging that identity groups can coincide.
Davis argued that America is a key actor in supporting the conflict, “The United States and a decreasing number of other countries around the world are uncritical supporters of Israel.” She finished with praise for the organizers currently doing work both on campuses and throughout the United States before moving to a discussion of the event’s intended focus: her work studying blues music and Black feminism.
“Blues women’s performances were ideologically linked to the issues confronting Black communities during that time,” Davis said. Her studies linked together how music could act as an archive of sorts for working-class Black women in the United States who were otherwise disenfranchised.
“This genre is a music of freedom under the conditions of the new unfreedom that follow the punitive abolition of slavery,” said Davis. Artists like Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday contributed to the discussion of unfreedom within the context of new freedom.
As Davis began to move from the podium to the two on-stage chairs set up for the Q-and-A portion of the event, cries came up from the crowd amongst the applause. “Organizers need you! The encampment at Auraria faced brutal arrests and they need to hear from you!”
These shouts came from Laura González, an organizer currently supporting the encampment set up at the Auraria Campus in Denver. The encampment, which has been set up since Thursday, April 25, was met with police force on Friday, April 26. At least 44 arrests were made, many of them students.
González made a public appeal asking Davis to come speak to the organizers while she was in town, again repeating “They need to hear from you.” Davis, before entering her question-and-answer session, made a commitment to attending, “We can make that happen.”
On Saturday Angela Davis spoke at the encampment, reiterating again that the current activism is part of generations of work.
The Q-and-A session, facilitated by Irina Amouzou, Colorado College’s Multicultural Student Leadership Coordinator, discussed at length current organizing happening throughout the United States.
“I think we need to try to develop a historical consciousness so that we recognize how this moment has been shaped,” said Davis. “Feel the urgency of the present, but at the same time, try to understand what has generated that present.”
Throughout the Q-and-A, calls of “free Palestine” were mixed with thunderous applause from those gathered within the church. Nearing the end of her Q-and-A session, Davis interrupted herself: “Oh look at that beautiful sign.”
At the back of the chapel, a group stood on the elevated platform with signs that read out “Free Palestine” in white lights. The Q-and-A came to a halt as applause overtook the church.
Davis continued to answer questions about the role music serves within organizing and about her time studying Blues music. “I think it’s important to try to imagine ourselves as doing the kind of work, whether it’s cultural work, you know, music, literature, art, or whether it’s political organizing, that will change the lives of people who come after us.”
As the talk came to a close Davis left the stage to enthusiastic applause, but some audience members also turned towards the back of the church, applauding the organizers still holding up their message on the balcony, “Free Palestine.”