Brooklyn Public Library’s (BPL) Night of Philosophy and Ideas — an all-night marathon of philosophical debate, performances, screenings and music — drew more than 7,000 people to the Central Library at Grand Army Plaza on Jan. 27.
The free 12-hour exchange of ideas drew top philosophers and philosophy lovers from around the world.
This year’s event, the second of what is sure to be an annual series, focused on the resonance of 1968’s protest movements, which paved the way for emancipation in areas of feminism, ecology, gay rights and tolerance.
The evening kicked off with a keynote lecture delivered by George Yancy, author and professor of philosophy at Emory University, who spoke on “The Practice of Philosophy in the Age of World Crisis.”
After writing the controversial “Dear White America” piece published in The New York Times, Yancy received “tons of hate mail — really vitriolic, white supremacist responses,” he said.
One letter began, “Dear nig**r professor, you are a f**king racist.” Another just repeated the N word more than a dozen times.
“In light of the world’s present crisis, we have to have the capacity to express moral outrage,” Yancy said.
He added, “In a free society, all are involved in what some are doing.”
Other talks included “Why Monuments Matter,” “Saving the Media,” “Tackling Democratic Entropy” and topics of social justice.
In Cynthia Fleury’s talk on democratic entropy, she said that the value of the rule of law was to invent the rights and citizenship of tomorrow. One must be careful not be let oneself “be confined by a social reality of domination,” she said, and to “resist the hegemony of thoughts and the hegemony of acts.” She added that civil disobedience was a “high place of democracy.”
Members of the French circus collective Compagnie XY performed acrobatic feats with a philosophical bent and included audience members who proved to be fearless and well-balanced.
The night also featured a flash philosophy workshop led by Peter Catapano and Simon Critchley of the Times’ Stone series; performance artist Sherrill Roland’s Jumpsuit Project; performances through the night by French circus collective Compagnie XY; music from the Women’s March Resistance Revival Chorus; and a musical program presented by National Sawdust.
A video of many of the evening’s events can be found at www.nightofphilosophyandideas.com.
