Sounding the Text: Patricia Williams and Kendall Thomas in Performance

• Thursday, September 18
• 3:00 PM
• College Street Tent
• 470 College Street
• MAP
• FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Experience a unique collaboration as 2025 Windham-Campbell Prize recipient Patricia Williams takes the stage with esteemed legal scholar and performer Kendall Thomas. Patricia Williams will share a compelling reading from her work, bringing her incisive prose and powerful insights to life. Complementing her reading, Kendall Thomas will offer a special vocal performance, adding another layer of resonance and interpretation to the event. This promises to be an unforgettable afternoon where words and music complement an exploration of urgent themes.

Kendall Thomas is a scholar of comparative constitutional law and human rights whose teaching and research focus on critical race theory, legal philosophy, feminist legal theory, and law and sexuality. Thomas is the co-founder and director of the Studio for Law and Culture at Columbia Law School, where he leads interdisciplinary projects and programs that explore how the law operates as one of the central ways to create meaning in society. He is a founder of Amend the 13th, a movement to amend the U.S. Constitution to end enforced prison labor. His seminal writing on the intersection of race and law appears in Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Founded the Movement (1996), which he co-edited. Thomas is also a professional jazz vocalist who performs at venues including Joe’s Pub and is on the board of advisors of the Broadway Advocacy Coalition.

Weather Alert: In the case of a weather disruption, this event will be moved to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Mezzanine (121 Wall Street, New Haven, CT). Please check our social media channels for real-time updates.