Black Legal Futurism Conference Day 1

Black Legal Futurism is related to Afrofuturism, which can be defined as a cultural aesthetic and philosophy aimed at imagining the future through the lens of people from the African diaspora. We use the term Black Legal Futurism rather than Afrofuturism because we want participants to make concrete, “outside the box” political, economic, and legal policy proposals. Taking a Black Legal Futurist view will have three important implications.

First, the conference will feature perspectives seeking the well-being of peoples of African descent in the United States of America.

Second, the conference will highlight concrete proposals for how to create positive political, economic, and legal outcomes for peoples of African descent.

Third, the conference will be oriented toward the future, which could include a five, twenty-five, or fifty-year horizon.

This conference will consist of four Roundtable discussions

• What is Black Legal Futurism?
• Arts & Culture
• Policing
• Economic Community Development

Approved for 6 Nevada MCLE credits.

Schedule & Speakers (subject to change)

Friday, April 5

1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Location: William S. Boyd School of Law Thomas & Mack Moot Courtroom

UNLV Campus - 4505 S. Maryland Pkwy., Las Vegas, NV 89154

1:00 PM - What is Black Legal Futurism

Daryl Atkinson - Forward Justice

Vinay Harpalani - University of New Mexico School of Law

Javon L. Johnson - University of Nevada, Las Vegas Department of Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies

Ngozi Okidegbe - Boston University School of of Law

Moderator - Frank Rudy Cooper - William S. Boyd School of Law Professor of Law - Director, Program on Race, Gender & Policing

3:00 PM - Arts & Culture

Monica Bell - Yale Law

Etienne C. Toussaint - University of South Carolina School of Law

Ebony Toussaint - Institute for Southern Studies College of Arts and Sciences, University of South Carolina

Briana Whiteside - University of Nevada, Las Vegas Department of English

Moderator - Stewart Chang - William S. Boyd School of Law Associate Dean For Academic Affairs

7:30 PM - An Evening with Tananarive Due

Presented in partnership with the Black Mountain Institute

Beverly Theater - 515 S 6th St, Las Vegas, NV

Tananarive Due(tah-nah-nah-REEVE doo) is an award-winning author who teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA. She is an executive producer on Shudder’s groundbreaking documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. She and her husband/collaborator, Steven Barnes, wrote “A Small Town” for Season 2 of Jordan Peele’s “The Twilight Zone” on Paramount Plus, and two segments of Shudder’s anthology film Horror Noire. They also co-wrote their upcoming Black Horror graphic novel The Keeper, illustrated by Marco Finnegan. Due and Barnes co-host a podcast, “Lifewriting: Write for Your Life!”