Not only did this week show that the academic persona is not disconnected from emotions, but that feeling is profoundly important to the study and theorisation of things. This conference has been a symbolic gathering to collectively pay respect to Hall, but also revisiting key issues and remind us that conjunctions of the past and the present has become even more complex and urgent than when Hall formulated his ideas so eloquently and accessibly. Hall was a fan of the young. Hall never made the impression as if his ideas were final or propositions infallible.
"Let them bear witness to the process by which the living transform the dead into partners in struggle" Handsworth Songs
Everyone has that one story they tell about Stuart Hall, how he changed their life and I witnessed my life take a turning point when I attended a panel discussion as part of the "The Unfinished Conversation" installation at the Tate Britain as an epitaph, and John Akomfrah was speaking and he shared one of his anecdotes and he said how a friend of his, in the height of the 70's feminist explosion/implosion and there was heated argument and at some point someone turned to Stuart and asked if he does not have anything to contribute and he simply said
"I cant wait" "What do you mean, you can't wait?" "I can't wait for the young people to get here - to arrive here. Because I think this will make some difference to this discussion"
Writing these words still sends a shiver down my spine, because it gives me hope, it gives me purpose and it makes the arrival of a new generation an arrival of agents that are going to make their contribution until another generation will come and carry on the struggle and complete the conversation further.
