Steve McQueen could educate you, but he has different intentions

For Steve McQueen, live presentations generate a force that no lectern speech can equal.

It’s a belief that influences the Norton Lectures he is presenting this autumn, in a series entitled “Pulse,” showcasing film, musical acts, and conversation.

“There’s a distinct type of energy that can be generated by a performative approach to communication, and that’s what piques my interest,” remarked the Academy Award-winning director of “12 Years a Slave.” “I’m not one to stand for an hour reciting from a document. I think the audience deserves more, and I sense I must offer more. I also believe the conversation — the exchange akin to two stones striking to create a spark — could be stimulating for both the attendees and the speakers.”

Globally acclaimed, McQueen is known for creating works that probe into painful and complex histories while revealing the vulnerabilities of the human experience. He has directed the feature-length films “Blitz” (2024) and “Hunger” (2008), along with documentaries “Uprising” (2021) and “Occupied City” (2023).

The initial of McQueen’s six Norton Lectures, held on Tuesday, focused on the FBI documents of iconic Black singer, actor, and political activist Paul Robeson. McQueen’s 2012-2022 video project “End Credits,” showcases an uninterrupted display of digitally scanned files from thousands of significantly redacted, unclassified records maintained on Robeson and his spouse, Eslanda Goode Robeson, throughout much of the singer’s career, severely affecting his performance prospects.

The lecture featured four performers reciting excerpts from Robeson’s FBI records while visuals from the film were projected behind them. Subsequently, McQueen and Dia Art Foundation curator Donna De Salvo conversed with Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and head of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. In a dialogue with the Gazette, McQueen stated that the first lecture aimed to convey a sense of “urgency.”

“Small Axe,” the second lecture, scheduled for Oct. 21, revolves around McQueen’s film anthology of the same name. The five films depict the narratives of West Indian migrants in London from the 1960s to the 1980s, each with distinct stories grounded in the Black British experience during a time of social and political turmoil. The films are being screened at the Harvard Film Archive before the lecture.

“It’s one of those scenarios where individuals unite to confront a certain type of power,” McQueen stated. “It exists within this adage: ‘If you are the large tree, we are the small axe.’ If we collaborate, we can truly make progress.”

The third lecture, “Bass,” highlights an immersive installation crafted by McQueen in 2024. This work, partly inspired by the Middle Passage and the trans-Atlantic voyage of enslaved individuals, presents a melding of sound centered on the low-frequency tones of the double bass, paired with colored illumination.

“‘Bass’ is about a constant,” McQueen elucidated. “It’s about how sound serves as a form of liberation, in a sense, for all of us.”

This lecture will include a performance by bassist, singer-songwriter, and poet Meshell Ndegeocello. McQueen and De Salvo will engage in discussion with Noam M. Elcott, an art historian and faculty member at Columbia and Yale.

The Mahindra Humanities Center commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Norton Lectures earlier this month, featuring a panel discussion and the publication of five new volumes from Harvard University Press celebrating previous lectures.

McQueen expressed he feels “very privileged” to be presenting the Norton Lectures during the series’ centennial year.

“People, when they attend a lecture or any kind of event, bring themselves, along with their experiences,” McQueen noted. “What they take from it is what they are grappling with personally. My hope is that they leave with something meaningful. That’s all I can aspire for.”