In Defiance: Launch Party - Incite at Columbia University

An arts and culture celebration, inspired by the legacy of Malcolm X, to kick off the yearlong program Countering the Carceral State.

Join Us for an Evening of Music and Community!

The Center for the Study of Social Difference at Columbia University invites you to celebrate the launch of our yearlong program Countering the Carceral State. Inspired by Malcolm X's internationalist insights and in line with CSSD's thematic focus in 2025-2026 on crisis, the program explores interconnections between the crises of disciplinary enforcement central to American power at home and abroad. Program events will probe continuities between policing, racial profiling, and police militarization; the prison industrial complex; immigrant detention; forever wars in the Middle East and Central Asia; and the transformation of war zones like Gaza into technological testbeds.

5:30 PM - Shabazz Center Tour and Opening Drinks

Our event will begin with a drinks reception and guided tour of the historic Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center.

Event seating begins at 6:15 pm.

6:30 PM - Screening Sohail Daulatzai: From the Ruins: A Prelude

We will then follow the tour with framing remarks and a screening of a video essay, From the Ruins: A Prelude, by renowned scholar and curator Sohail Daulatzai (UC Irvine). From the Ruins: A Prelude is a reckoning with the histories of radical internationalism that Malcolm X demands and a portal into the tensions between the catastrophic and the quotidian, here and there, then and now.

7:30 - Concert Vijay Iyer and Wadada Smith: Defiant Life

We will cap off the evening with an live concert featuring the acclaimed duo of Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith performing their album Defiant Life.

We look forward to seeing you there. Drinks and seating are first come first served. Make sure to get your ticket and arrive early to guarantee your entry.

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Music, and is in collaboration with the Institute for Research in African American Studies and the African American and African Diaspora Studies Department at Columbia University.