Frances E. W. Harper 200:
Looking Back, Moving Forward, 1825–2025
Sept. 19–21, 2025
How do we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-2025), the most prolific African American writer of the nineteenth century? As part of its year-long programming, the Center for Black Digital Research/#DigBlk, joined by Penn State’s Africana Research Center, will convene an in-person symposium on the week of her 200th birthday, September 19-21, 2025.
The symposium’s theme, “Frances E.W. Harper 200: Looking Back, Moving Forward,” evokes her kinetic activism and extraordinary creativity across decades, genres, and movements. Frances Harper was the most prolific African American writer of the nineteenth century. She wrote and published collections of poetry, short stories, serialized fiction, essays, and now canonical novel, Iola Leroy. Her writing is infused by her commitment and advocacy for Black women: as a leading abolitionist orator, suffragist, and as an activist in political movements including Colored Conventions, women’s rights, and temperance.
“Life is made for earnest action!”
–Frances E.W. Harper, “Something To Do”
As we extend her legacy into the 21st century, we are motivated by her ceaseless efforts to abolish slavery, advocate for gender equality, and advance civil rights. Leading scholars and artists in Harper studies will present from a wide range of inter/disciplinary perspectives including but not limited to religious, historical, literary, rhetorical, gender, visual arts and performance studies that explore Harper’s multifaceted life, work, and legacies. Featured speakers will address Harper’s diverse canon, Harper’s activism in Black feminist networks, how we must reconstruct Harper’s legacy, and offer new perspectives in Harper studies.
“But how will we honor her?…Will we appreciate the audacity of her taking pen to paper with the grace and eloquence of a poet? Will we understand the enduring danger and indignity of the anti-slavery lecture circuit? Will we see how she championed intersectional women’s rights – a human rights vision that rejected both racism and sexism – long before that became fashionable? Will we honor her for never forgetting the extent to which Black Americans suffered, through enslavement and its legacy of racism? Will we applaud her for being a model for us: writer, activist, mother, friend and more all at once? Honor her, [certainly] we must. Let’s have that conversation now about how.”
–Martha S. Jones, historian and legal scholar
*Keynote panelist for the Harper 200 symposium
Schedule At-A-Glance
*** Check for updates as such will be provided ***
Friday, September 19
| 5:00 – 6:30pm | Welcome Reception and Registration, Penn State’s Center for the Performing Arts, Eisenhower Auditorium |
| 7:00 – 9:00pm |
Dance Performance, “The Artistry and Activism of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper,” directed by Lynnette Young Overby, Penn State’s Center for the Performing Arts, Eisenhower Auditorium. Artist Talk Back with Glenis Redmond, Ralph Russell, A. T. Moffett, Amber Rance, Lynnette Young Overby, Shirley Moody-Turner, Martha Jones, and Carmin Wong. Facilitated by P. Gabrielle Foreman, Penn State’s Center for the Performing Arts, Eisenhower Auditorium. |
Saturday, Sept. 20
All events are in Foster Auditorium in Paterno Library unless otherwise noted.
| 11:00 – 11:30 am | Coffee, Mann Assembly Room |
| 11:30 am – 1:00 pm | Panel 1 – Harper’s Canon: Short Fiction, Radical Poetics, and Oratory |
| 1:00 – 2:00 pm |
|
| 2:15 – 4:00 pm | Keynote Panel |
| 4:15 – 4:45 pm | Presentation: Harper Read-a-thon |
| 5:00 – 6:15 pm | Panel 2 – Harper and Black Feminism |
| 6:30 – 8:00 pm | Reception for Presenters and Invited Guests: Honoring Frances Smith Foster, Nittany Lion Inn |
Sunday, Sept. 21
All events are in Foster Auditorium, Paterno Library unless otherwise noted.
| 11:00 – 11:30 am | Coffee, Mann Assembly Room |
| 11:30 am – 1:00 pm | Panel 3 – Reconstructing Frances Harper |
| 1:00 – 2:00 pm |
|
| 2:15 – 2:45 pm | Presentation: Mural Arts / Digital Exhibit |
| 3:00 – 4:30 pm | Panel 4 – New Perspectives in Harper Studies |
| 4:45 – 5:15 pm | Presentation: Poetry Readings |
| 5:15 – 6:00 pm | Closing Remarks |
SCHEDULE UPDATED 9/07/25
Table of Contents
Guest of Honor
Dr. Frances Smith Foster
Dr. Frances Smith Foster is the foremost Harper scholar. Foster’s work reintroduced Frances E.W. Harper to contemporary generations of readers with her critical biography and collection of Harper’s work, A Brighter Coming Day and Foster’s cutting edge scholarship on Harper and other Black women writers defined a generation. Foster is a pre-eminent American researcher and emeritus Professor of African-American studies and women’s history. She is the Charles Howard Candler Professor Emeritus of English and Women’s Studies at Emory University.
Dance Director
Symposium Conveners
Dr. Sherita L. Johnson
Director, Africana Research Center
Associate Professor of English
Penn State University
Supported by:
Generosity of
individual donors
#Harper200 Organizing Committee:
Lauren Barnes, Jacqueline Barrios, Denise Burgher, Sergio Carmona, Lauren Cooper, Samantha de Vera, Rachel Fernandes, Gabrielle Foreman, Sherita L. Johnson, Brandi Locke, Lynnette Young Overby, Courtney Murray Ross, Gabby Sutherland, Eunice Toh, and Takina Walker.
Additional Collaborators and Partners:
Jim Casey, Chanel Edwards, Eden Mekonen, Janel Moore-Almond, Amber Rance, Jormailin Valdés Pareras, Carol Rudisell, and Curtis Small.
Additional Contributors:
Kenisha Brown, Hunter Reed, Tahfiq Williams,
and members of the Center for Black Digital Research/#DigBlk throughout the years.