On November 1, 2025, Edward W. Said would have celebrated his 90th birthday. The Palestinian literary scholar and co-founder of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra died in 2003 at the age of 67, following a serious illness. “Long after his death, Edward W. Said remains a partner in many imaginary conversations,” writes Timothy Brennan in Places of Mind, his award-winning 2021 biography of Said, whose work continues to resonate in books, films, scholarly works, and throughout the internet. Brennan, an author and public speaker who teaches as Professor of Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota, was Said’s student at Columbia University in New York. He honors his former teacher as a great humanist and activist with a keynote address, which will be complemented by musical performances by students, alumni, and faculty members of the Barenboim-Said Akademie.