In his final Gifford Lecture, Professor Cornel R. West’s jazz-soaked philosophy looks unflinchingly at our own catastrophic times, and says that ‘perhaps’ we can find a way out. How do we go on loving, living, fighting, laughing, crying, swinging and singing? One answer, he proposes, lies in his tradition: the rich tradition of Black love in freedom and Black freedom in love. In literature, the two giants of this tradition are W. E. B. Du Bois and Toni Morrison. And in music, the Black tradition was honed in nearly three centuries of slavery and nearly another century of neo-slavery. This tradition kept a weary people in a God-forsaken world flowing with styles and smiles. As Prof. West powerfully concludes his Gifford Lectures, he shows us how amid catastrophe, this Love Supreme transcends words, flows beneath sentences, and becomes flesh in deeds.
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The original video, and description quoted above, can be found here.
As always these talks are syndicated for educational and nonprofit purposes in accordance with Fair Use. They are produced ad-free, because I listen to my own stuff on here and like you, I hate ads.
Furthermore my historical and philosophical writing, which is also entirely free is available at my blog, Hemlock, on Substack.
The music of the intro and outro (Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major) is licensed under non-commercial attribution, and can be found here and has been remixed by me.
Enjoy.
