A Revolutionary Friendship: Malcolm X and Yuri Kochiyama
Join panelists Jamal Joseph, Akemi Kochiyama, Tamara Payne, and Jaimee Swift on February 19th for a conversation about the revolutionary friendship of Malcolm X and Yuri Kochiyama. Coinciding with the 60th anniversary of Malcolm X's death, the discussion will focus on archives, truth-telling, and understanding the histories and possibilities of radical solidarities.
This event is co-created by The New York Public Library's Center for Educators and Schools, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and in collaboration with the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Columbia University and the Yuri Kochiyama Solidarity Project.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Register for free tickets (in person or virtual) at this link.
PANELISTS
Jamal Joseph is a filmmaker, producer, educator and the author of Panther Baby, A Life of Rebellion and Reinvention, which chronicles his life in the Black Panther Party and as the youngest of the Panther 21. He is Professor of Professional Practice at the Columbia University School of the Arts Film Department and former department chairperson. Joseph is co-founder of the Harlem Film Company, which released the 2016 feature and New York Times Critics’ Pick, Chapter & Verse, which he co-wrote and directed. Joseph is co-founder of IMPACT Repertory Theatre, an arts and activism initiative for youth. Joseph was nominated for a 2008 Academy Award in the Best Song category for his contributions to the song Raise It Up, performed by IMPACT and Jamia Nash in the 2007 film August Rush.
Akemi Kochiyama is a writer, scholar-activist, community builder, and co-editor of Passing it On: A Memoir by Yuri Kochiyama. Kochiyama is co-director of the Yuri Kochiyama Solidarity Project. Her work focuses on multicultural community building and BIPOC solidarity and centered in intersectional feminism. She is also co-director of the Yuri Kochiyama Archives Project. Kochiyama is the granddaughter of Yuri Kochiyama and a doctoral candidate in cultural anthropology.
Tamara Payne is a writer and served as the principal researcher and co-author on The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X. The highly acclaimed book won the Pulitzer Prize in Biography and the National Book Award for Nonfiction, was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, and was named a best book of the year by the New York Times and The Washington Post. Payne’s co-author was her late father, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and columnist for Newsday, Les Payne.
Jaimee A. Swift is the founder and executive director of Black Women Radicals, a Black feminist activism and advocacy organization and founder of The School for Black Feminist Politics, the Black feminist political education arm of Black Women Radicals. She is also co-creator of the Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities Project, a collaboration between Black Women Radicals, the Asian American Feminist Collective, and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. A conversation between Swift and Akemi Kochiyama, granddaughter of Yuri Kochiyama, was recently published as a chapter in Najaha Zigbi Johnson's recent book, Mapping Malcolm.