The advent of cable news, talk radio, and bloggers has paved the way for an explosion of political discourse in America — all heat and no light, as some say.
The founders of the new Black Mountain Institute at UNLV want to change that by bringing artists and scholars together for public forums and publication on the issues of the day. Unlike think tanks that champion traditionally left- or right-wing positions, Black Mountain Institute wants to get both sides talking to each other. “There are think tanks everywhere, but I’m going to stop using that word because this is a forum. We’re not going to let just any issue of the day come to us for an opinion,” said English professor Richard Wiley, director of the institute’s Forum on Contemporary Culture. “Our efforts are to discuss political issues in an artistic way.”
The newest of the three “strands” that make up the institute, the Forum on Contemporary Culture joins the existing North American Network of Cities of Asylum and the International Institute for Modern Letters. Together, their goals are to foster ongoing discussion of major contemporary issues, offer refuge to oppressed writers, and provide an avenue for publication.
After she leaves the UNLV presidency this summer, Carol C. Harter will lead the institute as its executive director. In many ways, she says, Las Vegas’ economic development is linked to the university’s intellectual centers and an effort to revitalize the community surrounding Las Vegas.
“Traditionally, we are a disproportionately service-industry town, but the maturing culture of Las Vegas is calling for the problem-solvers and knowledge-creators who will push the city forward,” Harter says. “I’m talking about the engineers and scientists; the designers, artists, and musicians; the business leaders, medical professionals, and lawyers. And as this group grows in the valley, they will look for the activities that let them be part of the intellectual fabric of the community.”
Dialogue with Broad Appeal
In April, the Black Mountain Institute made its public debut with an appearance by renowned author Toni Morrison. Wiley said the response to Morrison’s visit — which drew a capacity crowd of 1,500 to Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall — showed him Las Vegas is thirsty for more intellectual diversions. The tickets were snatched up in 72 hours.
It was a pleasant surprise to organizers who, without a previous event to estimate response, feared a half-empty hall for the only living American Nobel laureate in literature. But, Wiley says, “This town is no different than any other town. It houses people of wildly different political interests.”
The institute will focus on bringing dialogue to the general public and not just other academics, Wiley said. It’s about putting a real exchange of ideas back into modern politics, now so dominated by sound bites.
“In today’s world, the power of speech is diminished, not just the power of the written word,” Wiley says. “We Americans are a very rigid and entrenched people when it comes to political ideas. There’s not a lot of give and take.”
This fall the Forum on Contemporary Culture plans to examine the Israeli- Palestinian conflict by inviting two creative writers — one novelist, essayist, poet, or playwright from each side. The visiting scholars will spend the year examining the issue in public exchanges and private study, culminating in published works.
Impossible as it may sound to anyone who watches Hardball, Wiley said the fellows must be open to the other side’s point of view. “They must be willing to discuss an issue and have a temperament that’s not unchangeable,” he says.
The forum’s issues will be weighty, Wiley says, but don’t expect dry lectures. “We don’t want it to be mild. It should be dynamic. We’re looking for world-class intellectuals, so they’d better be equal at their levels of discourse.”
A Contender with a Strong Pedigree
The project takes its name from the shortlived Black Mountain College in North Carolina, which emphasized the arts in academics, and the landmark of the same name in the southern Las Vegas Valley.
Its roots go back to 2000, when the International Institute for Modern Letters (IIML) was founded by hotel executive Glenn Schaeffer to support emerging writers and combat censorship worldwide. Although it was created first, the IIML was last to join Black Mountain Institute.
Since its inception, the IIML has partnered with Cities of Asylum, which provides safe haven to writers of conscience who have been threatened by their homeland governments. The U.S. program, started in Las Vegas, has grown to include three other cities. Although Cities of Asylum had maintained close ties with UNLV, it operated independently until joining Black Mountain Institute this spring.
With the IIML connections and the strong international writing program at UNLV, Black Mountain Institute has already attracted top thinkers to its governing board, including Harriet Mayor Fulbright, widow of the U.S. senator who established the prestigious Fulbright Scholar Program. Much like Black Mountain, the Fulbright exchange program was founded to foster understanding of the viewpoints in differing nations.
Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard University, says that he is excited to be affiliated with an arts- and scholarship-driven think tank. “All of us who are involved expect that the institute will have a significant impact on the life of the mind in this country and abroad.”
Also on the board is Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian playwright, poet, novelist, and critic who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. A past president of the International Network of Cities of Asylum and himself a former political prisoner, Soyinka until recently held the Elias Ghanem Chair of Creative Writing at UNLV.
He continues to serve as the director of literary arts for the IIML, which will be the publishing wing of Black Mountain Institute. In addition to publishing the works of the institute’s scholars, Wiley says the IIML will translate into English literary works that aren’t currently available.
Taken together, these efforts help UNLV’s quest to become a world-class institution, Wiley says. “It’s gone from being an average state university to being a comer, a contender. It’s like a big baby that keeps outgrowing its clothes every two months.”
