Ideas Festival Emory returns this fall with Rosanne Cash, Kevin Young, more

Set on Emory’s Oxford College campus, the festival will again feature conversations, performances and stories dealing with important topics of our time.

“Ideas Festival Emory is based on a simple idea: Knowledge belongs to all of us,” says Kenneth Carter, founding director of the Center for Public Scholarship and Engagement and the Charles Howard Candler professor of psychology at Emory University. “When people come together to talk about the challenges we all face, the closer we can get to solutions.”

Cash boasts a recording career spanning more than 45 years and includes 10 No. 1 country singles and four Grammy Awards. Three of those Grammys came in 2015, when she won for her critically acclaimed masterpiece “The River & the Thread.”

She’s also an accomplished writer, publishing her first book of short stories, “Bodies of Water,” in 1996. Her children’s book, “Penelope Jane: A Fairy’s Tale,” was published in 2000, and her 2010 memoir, “Composed,” was a New York Times bestseller, which the Chicago Tribune called “one of the best accounts of an American life you’ll likely ever read.” Her essays have appeared in outlets including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Oxford American and the Nation.

The eldest daughter of country legend Johnny Cash, Cash will take the stage for a conversation and live taping of the “Sing for Science Podcast” with Robyn Fivush at 5 p.m. Oct. 18.

Credit: Ben Gray

Credit: Ben Gray

With arts funding dwindling, the importance of libraries and museums is crucial. At Ideas Festival, the New Yorker’s poetry editor, Kevin Young, former director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, will be on hand to discuss the importance of these institutions as they, too, face funding cuts. He served as the Andrew W. Mellon director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, stepping down in April as President Donald Trump began criticizing the Smithsonian and the African American museum. Young will be in conversation with Atlanta author Jessica Handler.

Film gets a spotlight with a discussion with producer-director Brad Lichtenstein. Two-time Emmy nominee Lichtenstein will talk about his latest film, “American Coup: Wilmington 1898″ (with producer-director Yoruba Richen), which recounts the story of a little-known coup that took place in North Carolina. Fearing self-rule by the city’s democratically elected Black citizens, a group of self-described white supremacists used intimidation and violence to destroy Black political and economic power and overthrow Wilmington’s multiracial government.

Atlanta concerns get the spotlight as well. Rose Scott will host a live taping of her WABE-FM show, “A Closer Look,” featuring an examination of the promise and costs of the World Cup as the city prepares to serve as a host city in 2026. The festival will also mark a homecoming for former Atlanta Journal-Constitution food and dining critic John Kessler, who is now a Chicago resident and chronicler of the Windy City’s dining scene. He also continues to contribute to national outlets such as The Washington Post and The Bitter Southerner.

“I couldn’t be happier about this year’s featured speakers,” Carter said in the news release. “They remind us that great ideas come from labs, libraries and from songs, poems, neighborhoods and lived experience. At Emory, we’re creating a space where those voices can come together where ideas aren’t just studied, they’re shared.”

Ideas Festival Emory will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 18 on the Oxford Campus of Emory University. Registration for the festival will open in early August. Visit the Center for Public Scholarship and Engagement website for more information.

Credit: ArtsATL

Credit: ArtsATL

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