I Dream a World: Black Women Speak | The Listening Sessions

Join us for an evening of community, soul food, and spiritual nourishment as we listen to newly unearthed oral histories from I Dream a World—a sweeping archive of interviews with 75 of the most influential Black women in American history.
Created in the late 1980s by Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Brian Lanker, this body of work features voices such as Toni Morrison, Coretta Scott King, Maya Angelou, Angela Davis and many others whose wisdom, courage, and lived experience shaped the political, cultural, and artistic landscape of the 20th century.

These rarely heard interviews are now available for the first time courtesy of the Brian Lanker Collection, coinciding with a poignant opportunity for reflection and courage to create a better world. We are honored to host this intimate listening session centering these rare interviews, exclusively granted by the Lanker Estate and the University of Oregon Libraries.

Fully catered gourmet soul food from Kee's Loaded Kitchen will be included with entry. Event is free with a suggested donation to benefit The Black Memory + Preservation Lab.

About Don't Shoot Portland:
is an arts and education organization that promotes social justice and civic participation. Our mission is to harness the power of creative expression to inspire, educate, and mobilize communities towards equity, justice, and transformative social impact. www.dontshootpdx.org / @dontshootpdx

About The Black Memory & Preservation Lab:
The Black Memory Lab, an expansion of Don’t Shoot Portland’s grassroots programming, is a living archive dedicated to preserving and uplifting Black history, art, and cultural memory. Located in the Center for Social Justice in Portland, the Black Memory Lab provides a home for community archives, rare books, and cultural preservation, supporting artists, historians, and activists in protecting stories that shape our collective understanding of race, gender, and class. Through its Liberated Archives initiative, the Black Memory Lab safeguards the past to empower the future. www.memorywork.uoregon.edu

About I Dream a World:
Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Brian Lanker spent over two years interviewing and photographing remarkable Black women who profoundly influenced 20th-century American culture. He completed a series of 75 portraits and hundreds of oral histories which were assembled in a book published in 1989 and an exhibition, both titled I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America. Featured women include Maya Angelou, Lena Horne, Betty Shabazz, Cecily Tyson, Althea Gibson, Toni Morrison, Ruby Dee, Coretta Scott King, Oprah Winfrey, and Septima Poinsette Clark and many more.

This event is generously sponsored by the Oregon Humanities Center, the UO Library Diversity Committee, and UO’s Special Collections & University Archives.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher The Black Gallery