Ideas Festival Emory will return for its second year on Saturday, Oct. 18, at the Oxford College campus of Emory University. The event is organized by the Center for Public Scholarship and Engagement (CPSE) and aims to bring together more than 30 scientists, scholars, musicians, filmmakers, and other creative professionals.
The festival will feature a keynote conversation with Rosanne Cash. Cash has had a recording career spanning over 45 years, with 10 No. 1 country singles and four Grammy Awards. She is also an accomplished writer whose works include short stories, a children’s book, and a memoir that became a New York Times bestseller.
Kenneth Carter, founding director of the CPSE and Charles Howard Candler Professor of Psychology at Emory University, 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.”
Cash will participate in a live taping with Matt Whyte from the Sing for Science podcast at 5 p.m. Other speakers include Kevin Young, poetry editor at The New Yorker and former director of both the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Young will discuss libraries and museums as they deal with funding cuts in conversation with Atlanta author Jessica Handler.
Producer-director Brad Lichtenstein will discuss his film “American Reckoning: Wilmington 1998,” which covers events surrounding an attack on Black political power in North Carolina.
Local topics are also included in the program. Rose Scott will host her WABE show “A Closer Look” live from the festival to examine Atlanta’s preparations as a host city for the World Cup in 2026. Former Atlanta Journal-Constitution food critic John Kessler will return to share insights into Chicago’s dining scene.
Additional performances are scheduled by poet Kim Addonizio with musician Danny Caron and singer-songwriter Anya Marina.
Carter added: “I couldn’t be happier about this year’s featured speakers. They remind us that great ideas come from labs, libraries, and from songs, poems, neighborhoods and lived experience. At Emory, we’re creating a space where those voices can come together where ideas aren’t just studied, they’re shared.”
The festival runs from 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Oct. 18 at Oxford College campus. Sponsorship information is available through CPSE’s sponsorship page online; registration opens in early August via the CPSE website.
