Melvin Van Peebles Symposium

Early purchase pricing available through Feb. 28, 2025. Ticket prices are:

• General admission – $135 per person, $155 after March 1.
• Ohio Wesleyan alumni, faculty and staff, and all non-OWU graduate and undergraduate students – $115 per person, $135 after March 1.
• Current Ohio Wesleyan students – $25 per person. (OWU students volunteering to work at the symposium will be admitted free.)
• VIP meet-and-greet with Erika Alexander – $75 per person, available only with symposium ticket purchase. (This hour-long reception will precede the closing banquet. Limited VIP tickets are available.)

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2025 Melvin Van Peebles Symposium

Theme: Disruption!! Signal Fires, Reckoning, and Jubilee Through Black Art
March 28-30, 2025

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Best known as a trailblazing Black filmmaker, Melvin Van Peebles was a twentieth-century Renaissance man, transcending the boundaries of race and gender as an innovator in film, theater, music, art, literature, and business. With his recent death, the aim of this symposium is to honor and celebrate his life and legacy by providing a platform to review, study, and share the historical and contemporary impact of Van Peebles, and how through this examination, we might gain important insights about broader political and cultural dynamics. Furthermore, the symposium seeks to recognize emerging artists and artistry that extend Van Peebles' radical tradition.

Read the About Van Peebles page for more information.