The Challenge and Promises of American Democracy
NONA FAUSTINE, FRAGMENT OF EVIDENCE, FROM THE SERIES MY COUNTRY, 2019.
FORD FOUNDATION, NEW YORK
OCTOBER 6 & 7, 2025
Co-hosted by Vision & Justice and the 14th Amendment Center for Law & Democracy
Co-organized by Sarah Lewis and Sherrilyn Ifill
Vision & Justice Now: The Challenge and Promises of American Democracy takes inspiration from Frederick Douglass’s Civil War speech “Pictures and Progress” about the transformative power of art and culture to inform and inspire dynamic new visions of democracy for our nation. Building on the 2019 Vision & Justice Convening at Harvard, organized by Sarah Lewis, which grappled with topics such as citizenship, algorithmic bias, and mass incarceration, and from the work of Sherrilyn Ifill, whose fellowship at the Museum of Modern Art, and creation of the 14th Amendment Center at Howard Law School explores the role of artists in reimagining democracy, the 2025 edition is designed as a platform to salute the visionaries working toward new approaches, ideas, and methods, and whose work supports a vision for dynamic collaboration that can meet the urgency of this time. We seek to celebrate and explore artistic and democratic work and thinking that sits squarely at the intersection of art and justice. From maps and monuments, to the meaning of citizenship and belonging, the democratic imagination and more, together we’ll engage over two days of presentations, conversations, and performances.
FEATURED Speakers include
DEBORAH ARCHER
FIRELEI BÁEZ
UCHÉ BLACKSTOCK
CHARLES BLOW
MARK BRADFORD
JELANI COBB
CHELSEA CLINTON
KIMBERLÉ CRENSHAW
AVA DUVERNAY
PAUL FARBER
LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER
THEASTER GATES
LEE GELERNT
DR. MONA HANNA
NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES
DR. CARLA HAYDEN
PETER KUNHARDT
SARAH LEWIS
JOHN LEGEND
AUDRA MCDONALD
TYLER MITCHELL
LEIGH RAIFORD
YARA SHAHIDI
AMY SHERALD
COREEN SIMPSON
BRYAN STEVENSON
HANK WILLIS THOMAS
DARREN WALKER
CARRIE MAE WEEMS
DEBORAH WILLIS
All speakers
Click to expand a speaker and read their biography
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Margaret B. Hoppin Professor of Law, NYU School of Law; President, American Civil Liberties Union
Deborah Archer is the President of the ACLU, the first person of color to serve in that role in the organization’s history, and a nationally recognized expert on civil liberties, civil rights, and racial justice. Deborah is an award-winning teacher and legal scholar whose articles have appeared in leading law reviews and national publications, and she has offered commentary for national and international media. Prior to full-time teaching, Deborah worked as an attorney with the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., where she litigated in the areas of voting rights, employment discrimination, educational equity, and school desegregation. Deborah previously served as Chair of the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board. She currently serves as a Trustee of Smith College and received the Smith College Medal. Deborah is also the author of the national best-selling book, Dividing Lines: How Transportation Infrastructure Reinforces Racial Inequality, and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the American Law Institute.
Deborah is a graduate of Yale Law School and Smith College.
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Artist
Firelei Báez (b. 1980, Dominican Republic) casts diasporic histories into an imaginative realm. Her empowered figures assert individuality and agency, envisioning identities as unfixed and inherited stories as perpetually evolving. Báez has exhibited internationally, including Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles (2024); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (touring) (2024); South London Gallery, London (2024); and the 59th Venice Biennale, Italy (2022). She has received the Cooper Union President’s Citation Award, New York (2022), Philip Guston Rome Prize, Italy (2021), and Artes Mundi 9 Prize, Cardiff (2021). Báez holds an MFA from Hunter College and studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
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MD; Founder and CEO, Advancing Health Equity
Dr. Uché Blackstock is a physician, thought leader, and the Founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity (AHE). A former Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at NYU School of Medicine, she also served as Faculty Director for Diversity Affairs. In 2019, she launched AHE to partner with healthcare organizations, embedding equity into leadership, strategy, and clinical practice. Over the past five years, AHE has helped hospitals, health systems, and companies design strategies to advance equitable care.
Dr. Blackstock is a former MSNBC medical contributor, and her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Scientific American, Chicago Tribune, and New York Magazine. She has been recognized by Fortune as an Innovator Shaping the Future of Health (2023), and TIME as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Health (2024). Her memoir, LEGACY: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine, became a New York Times bestseller in 2024.
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Monday, October 7
12:30 pm - Registration
1:00 pm - Welcome Remarks
Sarah Lewis, Founder, Vision & Justice
Sherrilyn Ifill, Founder, 14th Amendment Center for Law and Democracy
1:30 pm - Monuments and Commemorations: Race, Culture, and Civic Space
Deborah Archer, Margaret B. Hoppin Professor of Law, NYU School of Law; President, American Civil Liberties Union
Paul Farber, Director, Monument Lab
Theaster Gates, Artist
Moderated by Anthony Foxx, Director, Center for Public Leadership
Emma Bloomberg Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School
2:10 pm - Portraits and Resistance
Amy Sherald, Painter
Sarah Lewis, Founder, Vision & Justice
2:40 pm - Youth, Vision, and The Democratic Imagination
Lee Gelernt, Lawyer, American Civil Liberties Union
Yara Shahidi, Actor and Producer
John Legend, Artist and Activist
Salamishah Tillet, Distinguished Professor of Africana Studies and Creative Writing, Rutgers University–Newark
Moderated by Summer Durant, JD Candidate, Howard University
3:20 pm - Break
3:40 pm - Tribute to Doug Harris
Leigh Raiford, Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies, University of California, Berkeley
3:50 pm - Fireside Chat
Glenn Ligon, Artist
Moderated by Huey Copeland, Andrew W. Mellon Chair and Professor, University of Pittsburgh
4:20 pm - Break
4:50 pm - Leave Now: A Piece by Carrie Mae Weems
Carrie Mae Weems, Artist
Accompanied by Vijay Iyer, Composer and Pianist and Jennifer Koh, Violinist
5:50 pm - Art and Power
Carrie Mae Weems, Artist
Sherrilyn Ifill, Founder, 14th Amendment Center for Law and Democracy
Sarah Lewis, Founder, Vision & Justice
6:20 pm - Closing Remarks
6:45 pm - Conclusion of Program
Tuesday, October 8
8:30 am - Registration
9:00 am - Welcome Remarks
9:15 am - Fireside Chat
Ava DuVernay, Filmmaker
Sherrilyn Ifill, Founder, 14th Amendment Center for Law and Democracy
Sarah Lewis, Founder, Vision & Justice
9:45 am - Reflections
Tenzin Gund-Morrow, Student, Harvard College
9:50 am - Censorship and Curricular Bans
Kimberlé Crenshaw, Distinguished Professor of Law and Promise Institute Chair in Human Rights, UCLA School of Law; Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Nikole Hannah-Jones, Knight Chair in Race and Journalism, Howard University; Domestic Correspondent, NYTimes Magazine; Creator of the 1619 Project
Moderated by Jelani Cobb, Dean, Columbia Journalism School; Staff Writer, The New Yorker
10:40 am - Special Acknowledgements
11:00 am - Art, Archiving, and the Democratic Imagination
Theaster Gates, Artist
Dr. Carla Hayden, 14th Librarian of Congress
Darren Walker, President, Ford Foundation
Moderated by Sarah Lewis, Founder, Vision & Justice
11:45 am - Fireside Chat
Bryan Stevenson, Founder and Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative
Sherrilyn Ifill, Founder, 14th Amendment Center for Law and Democracy
Sarah Lewis, Founder, Vision & Justice
12:15 pm - Lunch
Location: Susan Berresford Room, 11th Floor
1:30 pm - Reflections
Elijah DeVaughn, JD Candidate, Yale Law School
1:35 pm - “Maps And Misreadings:” Presentations of Power in Art
Firelei Báez, Artist
Mark Bradford, Artist
Leah Dickerman, Director, Research Programs, Museum of Modern Art
Sandy Rodriguez, Artist
Moderated by Sherrilyn Ifill, Founder, 14th Amendment Center for Law and Democracy
2:15 pm - Vision & Justice Book Series
Tyler Mitchell, Artist, Photographer, and Filmmaker
Coreen Simpson, Photographer and Jewelry Designer
Moderated by Deborah Willis, University Professor and Chair, Department of Photography & Imaging, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University
2:45 pm - Culture, Citizenship, and Belonging
Charles M. Blow, Journalist
Hank Willis Thomas, Artist
P. Gabrielle Foreman, Professor of English, African American Studies, and History and Paterno Family Chair of Liberal Arts, Penn State University
Martha Jones, Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor, Professor of History and the SNF Agora Institute Director, Hard Histories at Hopkins, The Johns Hopkins University
Moderated by Adam Serwer, Staff Writer, The Atlantic
3:30 pm - Break
4:00 pm - Reflections
Summer Durant, JD Candidate, Howard University
4:05 pm - Reflection: Google and Project Frederick Douglass
Florian Koenigsberger, Technologist and Photographer
4:20 pm - Race, Technology, and AI
Joy Buolamwini, Founder, Algorithmic Justice League
Timnit Gebru, Founder and Executive Director, The Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR)
Latanya Sweeney, Daniel Paul Professor of the Practice of Government and Technology, Harvard Kennedy School
Moderated by Adam Serwer, Staff Writer, The Atlantic
5:00 pm - Health and Justice
Dr. Uché Blackstock, MD; Founder and CEO, Advancing Health Equity
LaToya Ruby Frazier, Artist
Dr. Mona Hanna, Director of Rx Kids; C.S Mott Endowed Professor, Associate Dean for Public Health, and Founding director of the Flint-based Pediatric Public Health Initiative, Michigan State University
Moderated by Dr. Chelsea Clinton, Vice Chair, Clinton Foundation; Vice Chair, Clinton Health Access Initiative
5:40 pm - Vision & Justice Award Presentation
Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr., Executive Director, The Gordon Parks Foundation
Audra McDonald, Emmy, Grammy, and six-time Tony Award winner
Carrie Mae Weems, Artist
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the
Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Harvard University