About the project
Dr. Kendra T. Field | Co-Founder
W.E.B. Du Bois helped to lay the foundation for today’s Black intellectual and artistic traditions. One of Du Bois’s lifelong dreams was to bring together scholars, writers, and artists to institutionalize support for their individual and collective work. In addition to scouting land for a possible retreat center in the Berkshires and his participation in the renowned Pan African Congresses, Du Bois convened groups of scholars and writers at Troutbeck, the Spingarn estate in nearby Amenia, New York.
Drawing upon this century-old foundation, the Du Bois Forum shapes the future of Black intellectual and artistic traditions. Established in 2021 by Tufts historians and Du Bois’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, David Levering Lewis, the Du Bois Forum is an annual retreat and year-round fellowship for writers, scholars, and artists. Sponsored by Tufts University, the Forum’s annual summit has been supported by partnership with Great Barrington’s Du Bois Freedom Center and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, as well as Jacob’s Pillow, the NAACP of Berkshire County, the W.E.B. Du Bois Center at UMass Amherst, the W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation, the W.E.B. Du Bois Sculpture Project, Kripalu, Harvard, Yale, Williams College, Amherst College, Boston University, and Johns Hopkins University. The Forum supports and shapes the future of creative production and social change.
