Professor Huey Copeland moderated a “Fireside Chat” with artist Glenn Ligon for the 2025 convening of Vision & Justice Now: The Challenge and Promises of American Democracy. The event, which ran from October 6-7, 2025 at the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice in New York, convened artists, legal scholars, cultural leaders, and civic thinkers to examine how art and culture shape, explore, and reimagine the democratic ideals we claim to hold. Inspired by Frederick Douglass’s Civil War-era speech “Pictures and Progress,” the Convening reflected on how images and ideas can ignite progress and reimagine our collective future. Participants deepened inquiry that began at the 2019 Vision & Justice Convening, asking: What is the role of the arts in the pursuit of justice? How does culture shape, challenge, and expand our understanding of national belonging?
Learn more about Vision & Justice Now here: https://www.visionandjusticenow.com/
Read Huey Copeland's faculty profile here: https://www.haa.pitt.edu/people/huey-copeland