Monday, March 09
6:00 – 8:00 pm
Watson Theatre, Pulliam Center for Contemporary Media
609 S. Locust Street, DePauw University
Greencastle, IN 46135
On March 9, Shaka A. Shakur will join the list of DePauw University’s esteemed lecturers, including Dolores Huerta and Harry Belafonte, for the 2026 Annual Compton Lecture.
DePauw University‘s Peace and Conflict Studies Program is honored to host a screening of the new documentary followed by an engaging panel featuring Shaka Shakur, one of Shaka’s former mentors, Duncan Bridgeforth, the film’s co-directors, and others. There we will discuss:
- Why Shaka remains incarcerated despite having served the entirety of his 2002 conviction
- How prisons politicized Shaka and why he made the decision to become a citizen of the Republic of New Afrika
- Shaka’s previous organizing in Indiana prisons, which contributed to the 1999 Human Rights Watch Report, Cold Storage: Maximum Security Confinement in Indiana, a landmark document on the realities of Supermax prisons
- The connections between struggles against mass incarceration, ICE terror, and racist police killings and what they mean for organizing today
- Efforts to free Shaka and all Political Prisoners and finish the fight for the liberation of New Afrikan/Black peoples and all oppressed peoples worldwide
Organized by the Peace and Conflict Studies Program and Co-Sponsored by the Education Studies Department. This event is graciously supported by the Johnson & Wright Fund. Pizza and light refreshments will be served.
Questions? Contact Derek Ford at derekford@depauw.edu.
You can learn more about Shaka A. Shakur at www.shakashakur.org.