San Francisco, April 12, 2022 – Villa Albertine San Francisco, a new cultural institution dedicated to the exchange of arts and ideas between France and the US, and local partners San Francisco Public Library, KQED, California Humanities and SFMOMA today announced the 2022 Night of Ideas, an annual evening of philosophical talks, performances and more. Registration is live at nightofideas.org.
This year Night of Ideas returns in person, across a record-breaking 19 US cities and more than 100 countries, coordinated worldwide by the Institut Français. The public will join leading thinkers, authors, activists and artists around the theme (Re)building Together: Where Are We Going? The evening’s program celebrates our collective resilience while interrogating the path forward for a world in crisis.
San Francisco’s Night of Ideas takes place May 17, 2022 at 6:30 p.m. at KQED’s new state-of-the-art headquarters in the Mission District. Designed to spur dialogue on this year’s theme, the evening will invite participants to consider a world that is still reeling from the disruptions wrought by the global pandemic and to find hope in the future. How do we heal ourselves and our communities from this collective trauma? How can we dismantle systems of oppression and (re)build our institutions to meet the pressing challenges of our time? How do we fortify our democracies and stave off authoritarianism? What ideas will carry us forward to a brighter tomorrow? This unforgettable evening of talks, art, music and community features presenters that include:
- Bay Area Theater Cypher
- Bruce Cain, Ph.D, Charles Louis Ducommun Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and Director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West
- Jeff Chang, Senior Advisor at Race Forward and award-winning author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, Who We Be: The Colorization of American (St. Martin’s Press) and Who We Be: A Cultural History of Race in Post-Civil Rights America (Picador)
- Jacqueline Fabius, Chief Operating Officer, Quantitative Biosciences Institute at University of California San Francisco
- Mathieu de Fayet, Chief Innovation Officer, SUPERBLUE
- Anuradha Mittal, Founder and Executive Director of the Oakland Institute
- Lil Milagro Henriquez, Founder and Executive Director of Mycelium Youth Network
- Julie Owono, Executive Director of Content Policy & Society Lab – Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society and Executive Director of Internet Sans Frontières
- San Francisco Girls Chorus
- San Francisco Community Music Center
- Sharaya Souza, Executive Director & Co-Founder of the American Indian Cultural District
- Deanna Van Buren, Design Director at Designing Justice + Designing Spaces & Co-founder of BIG Oakland
- Debbie Lum, Filmmaker and Director of TRY HARDER! and Rachael Schmidt, documentary participant
“This year’s edition of Night of Ideas is especially important as we reconnect with our partners and communities, finally reunited in person,” says Frédéric Jung, Consul General of France in San Francisco. “Together, we will spark a promising dialogue between France, the European Union and the United States by addressing some of the most pressing challenges of our times: democracy, freedom of speech and health. By innovating, (re)building together, using art as a visionary tool, we aim to contribute to paving the way to our common future.”
This iteration of the Night of Ideas will be a more intimate affair, compared to previous in-person events at the Main Library, which drew more than 5,000 people. The program will seat 200 in KQED’s new theater, The Commons and will be streamed live online. The event will also feature a sampling of SFMOMA’s Soapbox Derby cars created by local artists and a bar in the station’s lobby for those who want to watch on the lobby media wall and imbibe at the same time. Before the main program, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., join Creativity Explored for tours of artwork installed at KQED featuring neurodiverse and disabled artists working in their San Francisco studios.
“We are delighted that Night of Ideas is back in-person, and we can’t wait to see everyone at KQED’s new headquarters,” says City Librarian Michael Lambert. “San Francisco Public Library looks forward to this event every year, and I want to thank our incredible partners for convening this very special community event for a fourth consecutive year.”
“We’re thrilled to host Night of Ideas in our new KQED headquarters,” says KQED President & CEO Michael Isip. “We’ve been honored to collaborate on this event over the years in order to highlight the intellectual and cultural dynamism of the Bay Area in a uniquely entertaining way. The theme of ‘(re)building’ is particularly resonant for this moment, and we look forward to bringing our community together in person so we can explore ideas and find common ground.”
Night of Ideas 2022 is the first major public event of Villa Albertine, a new kind of cultural institution across 10 US cities, with the mission to create international community through a shared exploration of arts and ideas. Launched in fall 2021, Villa Albertine coordinates more than 60 exploratory residencies and 15 professional programs annually, curates local and national events, and publishes a magazine – each aimed at deepening engagement with the greatest issues of our time.
The San Francisco edition of Night of Ideas is made possible by the support of the City and County of San Francisco, the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, the Consulate General of France in San Francisco and the French American Cultural Society. La Nuit des Idées is a project of the Institut français.
EVENT DETAILS
Night of Ideas 2022 – San Francisco
Date: May 17, 2022, 6:30 p.m.
Location: KQED, 2601 Mariposa Street
Cost: FREE
Register: kqed.org/live
Follow: #NightofIdeas