JLF Houston Online Showcases 20+ Speakers Exploring Contemporary Topics

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and academic William Caleb McDaniel's latest book, Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America, is a stirring narrative of Henrietta Wood's journey from being a twice-enslaved woman to her fierce battle for justice and reparations. McDaniel has also written the award-winning book The Problem of Democracy in the Age of Slavery. In this session, he examines the unforgettable lessons of Woods' life and the value of the moral victory it represents.

How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom by Matt Ridley is a fascinating analysis of innovations across time and history. It argues that innovation is an incremental bottom-up and unpredictable process resulting from human exchange. The Fifth Viscount, Ridley is a hereditary peer who has been a member of the British Parliament and is also the author of The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge and The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves. In conversation with scholar, economist, and columnist Shruti Rajagopalan, Ridley discusses the importance of collective and collaborative innovation and its significance in the shaping of the 21st century.

Political philosopher and provocateur Anand Giridharadas takes on the privileged classes in his scorching new book, the bestselling Winners Take All. It investigates the global elite's efforts to "change the world" except in ways that threaten the social order and their position atop it. This searing critique of modern plutocrats who seek to do more good but never less harm is described as a call to action for elites and everyday citizens alike. A session that offers transformative perspectives to complex societal problems, this conversation is with author and critic Kanishk Tharoor.

Bollywood, and the Indian film industry in general, is dominated by men and tends to have an innately masculine bias. However, recent trends have shown films centered around women actors and themes making their mark. The spirited and hugely popular actor Richa Chadda speaks of searching for the feminine sensibility and the important perspectives it represents. Chadda has a background in theater. Her major films include Masaan, Gangs of Wasseypur, and Sarabjit. She has won awards and accolades, received both critical and popular success as an actor, and consistently spoken up against patriarchy, misogyny, and injustice. In this session, she speaks of her career, films, and beliefs.

Myth is the story that cannot be confined or constricted by time and place. The burgeoning myths that are being told and retold around the world have origins dating back thousands of years, stretching their limbs into the current time as their relevance is estimated and assessed. The speakers in their session are admirably poised to assess the cultural impact of myths in the current global setting. Amish, currently Director of the Nehru Center in London, is the bestselling author of the Shiva Trilogy, Rama Trilogy, and most recently, Legend of Suheldev. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's bestselling works include Mistress of Spices, Palace of Illusions, and Forest of Enchantments. In conversation with author and performance storytelling Vayu Naidu, the session will examine the interplay of modernity and ancient myth.

Akbar was the most admired of all the Mughals, and one of only two Indian rulers to be widely known as "The Great." But before Ira Mukhoty's writings, he has been without a modern biography. Here, Mukhoty talks to Sanjoy K. Roy about her groundbreaking study that led to her latest book, Akbhar: The Great Mughal.

Identities morph and change with borders and geographies. How do diasporic writers address displacement-driven themes of rootlessness, marginalization, fragmentation, alienation, isolation, nostalgia, assimilation, acculturation, adaptation, multiculturalism, and more in their fiction? How do they choose whose stories to tell? How do they navigate their own quests to belong, given their cultural loyalties? As diasporic writers in the U.S., Jenny Bhatt and Mimi Lok will speak to Neelanjana Banerjee on how displacement, whether physical or cultural or both, has shaped their storytelling and their own identities as writers.

The End of October by celebrated journalist and writer Lawrence Wright is an eerily timed novel on the catastrophic impact of a mysterious virus that ravages the world. Wright is also the author of books such as God Save Texas: A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Looming Tower: Al-Quaeda and the Road to 9/11. In a conversation with writer Omar El Akkad, he discusses a world which seems no stranger than our reality and the history of viral diseases and their impact on global institutions.

A crucial session exploring the deep-rooted changes sending waves through the social fabric of the United States of America and the aftereffects felt across the world. In the midst of a global pandemic, this year has seen massive Black Lives Matter protests coming to the forefront right before a national election. This sociocultural and political upheaval has led the the questioning of a plethora of issues ranging from the present gun laws to the existing healthcare situation of minority communities in the country. Scholar and critical theorist Homi K. Bhabha is the Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. His work explores postcolonial theory, cultural change, and power. In a conversation with Sanjoy K. Roy, he discusses a wide range of interconnected issues that arise from human unpreparedness and the steps forward to a more inclusive world.