Michael Eric Dyson & Dave Eggers Speaking Engagement On Social Change1

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“One of the most significant powers of a university is its power to convene,” said Dean of the College Chester Gillis on April 6th in Georgetown University’s Gaston Hall. With these words, Dean Gillis opened the third annual Lannan Symposium, “Literacy, Literature and Democracy,” which focused upon the power of the written word to foment change.

Michael Eric Dyson, a nationally distinguished Georgetown professor of Sociology, introduced keynote speaker Dave Eggers as a “remarkable force of nature” and an “active agent for social change” because of his commitment to justice. “In a culture addicted to lies, Dave Eggers is not simply a force for democracy…ultimately what he is about is telling the truth,” explained Dyson.

Most well known as the author of the much-lauded 2001 semi-autobiographical work A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and the co-founder of McSweeney’s press, Eggers’ focuses much of his energy on enacting progressive change through literature. At the symposium’s opening, he spoke at length about his current project, 826, a volunteer tutorial program that puts this methodology into practice by assisting disadvantaged children around the country. His opening address was followed by a day of panels led by writers, activists and Georgetown professors.

On April 7, Eggers and Dyson appeared on the Lannan Symposium panel “Writing Beyond Catastrophe: Literatures and Cultures of National Revival in Post-Katrina America,” which focused on the life altering power of literature in the face of social injustice and natural catastrophe. Eggers talked about his experience writing Zeitoun, a nonfiction account of an Arab-American who stayed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, while Professor Dyson drew from his visits to New Orleans and his book, Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster, to frame the events in the city following the disaster. They were joined by Georgetown graduate Happy Johnson (C’07) who shared stories of the rebuilding in New Orleans, in which he has participated since December 2005.

Through a show of hands, it was clear that this issue is an important one to the Georgetown community: about one-third of the audience at the event had been to post-Katrina New Orleans to volunteer. But for those who have been unable to get to the devastated city themselves, hearing and sharing the stories of people who experienced Hurricane Katrina first-hand is an important part of understanding the tragedy.

Noting that Zeitoun tells an important story of one survivor, Eggers added, “It’s going to take us decades and hundreds of more stories and books to unpack what happened.” The panelists encouraged the audience to listen to the authors who speak on behalf of the suffering, and answer the call to serve. Dyson called the written word “a bastion for hope” for those who have no other voice.

Johnson heeded the call to action of Hurricane Katrina as a junior at Georgetown: first as a Red Cross volunteer, then as the founder of relief organization Blanket New Orleans, which brought blankets to those dispossessed gulf residents in desperate need of bedding. The following year, back in Washington, D.C., he was an outspoken challenger of the federal government’s post-Katrina actions. It cost him his then-internship on Capitol Hill, but for Johnson, the cause was more important. Since graduating from Georgetown, Johnson has been doing community service work, which he says may not be financially lucrative but allows him to serve others—a value that was strengthened at Georgetown and ignited by volunteering in NOLA.

Professor of English Ricardo Ortiz, director of the 2010 Lannan Symposium, the conference served as a beacon of how literature and art can be positive forces in the ongoing struggle for social justice. “Georgetown, which embraces the call to teach its students to be men and women for others and […] its location in Washington, D.C., often focuses on the more purely political dimensions of social practice, it matters profoundly that we showcase for our students the powerful role that the creative and artistic imagination can play in visualizing that better world.”

–Kara Burritt & Gabrielle Matthews. Photos by Claire Callagy.
Source: http://college.georgetown.edu/94289.html