Thursday, April 3 

Pop-Up Exhibit: “You Are Present When You Are Away:” The Many Malcolms of U.S. Black Liberation Movements

4-5 PM at The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Register for a guided tour of the exhibit here.  

This pop-up exhibit draws from the Beinecke’s special collections to explore Malcolm X’s enduring impact on Black life, religion, politics, and culture from his public emergence in 1959 to the present. A pivotal figure in U.S. Black history, Malcolm’s legacy is deeply connected to sites like New Haven and Yale.

The exhibit features print news coverage of Malcolm’s 1960, 1961, and 1962 visits to Yale, alongside photographs of his organizing efforts and speeches at protests in Los Angeles and New York during the same period. Also on display is a copy of Messenger Magazine, where Malcolm served as Editor-in-Chief while a Nation of Islam minister. These materials invite viewers to consider the university and classroom as vital sites of Malcolm’s intellectual and activist work—alongside community spaces, the streets, and print media.

In addition, the exhibit showcases a range of materials from post-1965 Black liberation movements, including the Black Panther Party and the Republic of New Afrika, as well as a copy of James Baldwin’s screenplay One Day When I Was Lost, which inspired Spike Lee’s 1992 film X. This collection offers a glimpse into the many Malcolms—philosopher, saint, martyr, and civil rights icon—resurrected across Black political thought and activism in the U.S. and abroad. 

DAY 1: Friday, April 4 

Beinecke Pop-Up Exhibit: “Many Malcolms” - Open House - Self-Guided Visits

9 am - 12:00 pm 

Friday Prayer Service in honor of MX100: “Why Malcolm, Why Today” with Rasul Miller (Assistant Professor, History, University of California Irvine)

Dwight Chapel, Dwight Hall at Yale

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm (lunch to follow in the Dwight Hall Common Room)

Registration 

Conference attendees can check in between 2:30-5PM at Sterling Library Lecture Hall & Memorabilia Room

Panel 1: What Would Malcolm Say Today? 

3-5PM

Lecture Hall & Memorabilia Room, Sterling Library

This panel brings together organizers with political prisoner campaigns, teachers, scholars, and community advocates to discuss Malcolm’s influence on Black liberation and community organizing from his martyrdom to the present moment. Considering the question, “What would Malcolm say today?”, this panel explores how the answer can be found among the people—in high school classrooms, popular culture, lecture halls, community spaces, political prisoner campaigns, and the prison abolition movement. The stakes of carrying forward Malcolm’s legacy and answering his call have been high, particularly for those subjected to state violence and suppression, including the targets of COINTELPRO. This panel examines the ongoing struggles for freedom, the relevance of Malcolm’s teachings in contemporary movements, and the collective responsibility to continue his work today.

Confirmed panelists: Dhoruba bin Wahad, Maryam Kashani, Organizer Tone (with the International Campaign to Free Kamau Sadiki), Sohail Daulatzai,  Najha Zigbi-Johnson, and Kevin Staton

Seventh Annual Dr. Betty Shabazz Keynote Event with Sister Aisha Al-Adawiya

7 pm  - 9 pm

Humanities Quadrangle, HQ L02

Aisha Al-Adiwya is honored as the “Queen Mother of Harlem.” During her 30 years at the Schomburg Center, she curated many renowned collections, including the Malcolm X papers, and is a founding member of the Malcolm X Museum.  Al-Adiwya is also an internationally acclaimed human rights activist, having served on numerous boards related to U.S. Black and global Islamic community interests, including the Interfaith Center of New York and New York Jobs With Justice. In 1994, she founded Women in Islam, Inc., which raises awareness and funds for global conflicts impacting Muslim women, with a focus on peacebuilding.  Al-Adiwya retired from the Schomburg in 2021, and her extraordinary personal archive is now housed at The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary. She has received numerous awards, including the 2017 Clara Lemlich Award for Social Activism, the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2022 Outstanding Humanitarian Award.

With a special film presentation by Hisham Aidi and reflections from Donna Auston and Hisham Aidi. Moderated by Iman AbdoulKarim. 

Reception to follow.

Day 2: Saturday, April 5 

All panels are at Linsly-Chittenden Hall, Room 101 and attendees can check in at the registration table in the foyer between 9:30-4.

Panel 2: Malcolm, Gaza, and the Spirit of Badung 

10:00 am - 12:00 noon

Inspired by Malcolm’s 1964 visit to Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza and thinking with the Bandung (Asian-African) Conference, this panel will bring together scholars to discuss the Black radical tradition’s solidarity with Palestinian liberation and Malcolm’s vision of Blackness as a diasporic, anti-colonial subjectivity. 

Confirmed panelists: Nadia Alahmed, Hamzah Baig, Mamadou Taal, and Alden Young

Moderated by Zareena Grewal

Panel 3:  The Woman Question & Beyond It 

1:00 pm to 2:30 pm

This panel brings together scholars of Islam, gender, and Black Nationalism to consider how the “woman question” has both inspired and overdetermined decades of scholarship on Malcolm X. It aims to think forward new paradigms for exploring the relationship between Black nationalism and gender that both accounts for and goes beyond standard narratives. 

Confirmed panelists: Erik McDuffie,  Ula Taylor, and C. S’thembile West 

Panel 4: El Hajj Malik El Shabazz: What Makes Black Religion Black?

3:00 - 4:30 pm

This panel uses Malcolm’s revolutionary spirituality as a jumping-off point for considering the influence of Black liberation organizing on modern spirituality, Black theology, and protest traditions.  Panelists will consider how Christian normativity, secularism, and orientalism have, since Malcolm’s 1965 ascension, determined the relationship between blackness, race,  religion, and spirituality in the U.S.

Confirmed panelists: Eboni Marshall Turman, Rasul Miller, Donna Auston, and Martin Nguyen

Listening While Muslim: The MX100 Edition

Sudler Hall, William Harkness Building (TBC)

6:30 - 9:00 pm

Multimedia musical performance that explores Malcolm’s relationship to Jazz and impact on popular culture in discussion with scholars and

Confirmed participants: Asad Ali Jafri & Special Guests

Day 3: Sunday, April  6

Malcolm and Baldwin: A Love Story Breakfast!

9 - 12 pm

Possible Futures (318 Edgewood Ave, New Haven, CT 06511)

Breakfast panel featuring author, artist and activist Prince Shakur at Possible Futures that explores the intimate friendship and intellectual brotherhood between Malcolm X and James Baldwin(New Haven’s independent bookstore), with support from Kulturally Lit.