Oakland University film festival to spotlight Detroit-based activist Grace Lee Boggs

For its 31st annual film festival, Oakland University’s Women and Gender Studies program will pay tribute to Grace Lee Boggs, the Detroit-based writer and social activist who first gained prominence in the labor, civil rights and Black Power movements of the 1960s.

Acclaimed documentary

The event will feature a screening of the award-winning documentary film “American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs,” which chronicles Boggs’ vital thinking and action across decades of social transition in Detroit and around the nation. The film’s director, Grace Lee, will be a special guest at the festival.

Event organizers see the festival as an opportunity to spur dialogue on a number of important issues.

“One of the central pieces of the film is the idea that revolution requires transforming oneself to transform the world,” said Dr. Ami Harbin, who serves on the Women and Gender Studies Executive Committee. “We are excited to use the film as a discussion starter about how we can become empowered to work for justice, and about concrete ways to promote positive changes in our local communities.”

Panel discussion

The film screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Shea Howell, professor of communication at Oakland; Julia Putnam, co-founder and principal of the James and Grace Lee Boggs School; and Tawana Honeycomb Petty, a poet and Detroit-based organizer and activist.

The festival will take place from noon – 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 7, in Room 1050 of the Human Health Building. The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided.

For more information, call (248) 370-2154 or visit the Women and Gender Studies website at oakland.edu/wgs.