The 2025 Ideas Festival Emory will take place on Saturday, October 18, at the Oxford College campus. The event will feature discussions and performances by artists, musicians, and scholars focused on the theme of resilience.
Now in its second year, the festival is organized by Emory’s Center for Public Scholarship and Engagement. It aims to bring together members of the community to address important contemporary issues.
Rosanne Cash, a Grammy Award-winning musician and writer, will participate in a keynote conversation with Matt Whyte as part of the Sing for Science podcast. This session will be recorded live before an audience at the Oxford Student Center. Tickets for this discussion are currently sold out, but additional tickets may become available closer to the event date.
Kenneth Carter, founding director of the center and Charles Howard Candler Professor of Psychology, said: “Ideas Festival Emory is based on a simple idea: knowledge belongs to all of us. When people come together to talk about the challenges we all face, the closer we can get to solutions.”
The festival will start at 10 a.m. and continue throughout the day until Cash’s keynote address in the evening. The full schedule and participant list are available online. Attendance is free and open to everyone.
Carter also stated: “I’m so excited about this year’s lineup for Ideas Festival Emory. I can’t wait for the community to come together to feed their curiosity and have some fun.”
Highlights include live art by Senegalese graffiti artist Docta on the Oxford Quad; a panel titled “Who Did That? Public Art and the Walls of the City” featuring Randy Gue from Emory’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library; a discussion between Carol Anderson of Emory University and filmmaker Brad Lichtenstein about his documentary “American Coup: Wilmington 1898”; a panel called “Twelve Super Bowls in One Summer: The Impact of World Cup in Atlanta” with Atlanta City Council President Doug Shipman; a conversation with Karida L. Brown and Charly Palmer about Brown’s book “The Battle for the Black Mind”; author Hannah Palmer discussing her book “The Pool Is Closed”; and a session on local journalism with several regional journalists.
Outdoor performances sponsored by Georgia Public Broadcasting will occur throughout the day on Oxford Quad, including music by Kim Ware and Anya Marina, poetry readings by Megan Sexton and Kim Addonizio, dance from Covington Ballet, among others.
Carter commented on this partnership: “We’re thrilled to partner with GPB in bringing the vibrant sights and sounds of artists at work to the Oxford College Quad. Public radio is a critical voice for news and community engagement in a time when support for the arts matters more than ever.”
