Villa Albertine, the Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, Equitable Dinners and Out of Hand Theater are partnering for this year’s Night of Ideas on March 1.
The event comes from Villa Albertine, a French cultural institution, and is a nighttime marathon of philosophical debates, performances, readivngs, and more. The event takes place in cities across the country and internationally, and is free.
The Atlanta Night of Ideas will take place on March 1 from 5-11 p.m. at the Atlanta History Center. According to a press release, the Atlanta theme for this year is “Behold the Land,” exploring urban mutations through the lenses of the environment, Afro-futurism, and artistic expression. The debates, performances and conversations will center around issues like climate change, urban development, and gentrification.
“We wanted to address some questions as our cities are preparing for the environmental challenges to come,” said David Ruffel, director of Villa Albertine Atlanta. “The way that Atlanta will step into these issues will have a big influence.”
Ruffel said this year’s theme takes its name from a W.E.B. DuBois speech, and was also inspired by photographs from Atlanta-based photographer Sheila Pree Bright.
“It was really interesting to see from Dubois this ecological, environmental consciousness was already there. And we thought that it was a beautiful invitation for scholars, artists here to try to reflect the theme of the environment,” Ruffel said.
This year’s event will start with an Equitable Dinners experience, according to the release. Equitable Dinners are facilitated conversations about race and equity. According to Ruffel, the conversations will center around food justice and food security.
The event will feature speakers from Atlanta and around the world, including Clint Fluker and Nasim Fluker of ThrdSpace, associate curators of Night of Ideas; Chandra Farley, chief…
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