This is Launch Week for CRITICAL ENCOUNTERS: POVERTY & PRIVILEGE, a series of interactive, community-inclusive civic engagement that exploits and explores the relationship between art and social science, artistic action and revolution. It includes the photography exhibition LIFE AFTER KATRINA: 18 MONTHS LATER at the Conaway Center; POVERTY & PRIVILEGE FILM SERIES on Monday; BODY LANGUAGE: INTERCULTURAL EXCHANGE IN CHOREOGRAPHY and the SALON: OF BEETLES AND ANGELS on Tuesday; a TOWN HALL FORUM on Wednesday; a screening of the film POVERTY IN CHICAGO on Thursday; and LIFE AFTER KATRINA: A FILM BY COLUMBIA STUDENTS on Friday. Go to http://www.colum.edu/criticalencounters/ for complete details.
EXHIBITION
• LIFE AFTER KATRINA: 18 MONTHS LATER – THE PHOTOGRAPHS -- A weeklong exhibition of photography by students featuring images captured in March 2007, while students, faculty, and staff contributed over 1,500 service hours of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. These images represent the spirit, beauty, and devastating reality of post-Katrina New Orleans. Go to http://www.colum.edu/criticalencounters/
Time: September 24 – September 29
Location: Conaway Center, 1104 S. Wabash
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
• POVERTY & PRIVILEGE FILM SERIES -- Columbia College Graduate Students of Film Present: Perspectives on Poverty & Privilege (90 minutes) Screening and discussion. Themes of these short films include: war crimes, workers rights, artistic freedom, gender bias, class struggle, cultural conflict between old school and new school animation, poverty of pessimism, racial justice, and teen pregnancy. Go to http://www.colum.edu/criticalencounters/
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Location: The Conaway Center, 1104 S. Wabash
• VOTERS SELF-DEFENSE SYSTEM: 2008 EDITION -- A Critical Encounters Event http://www.colum.edu/criticalencounters/ An Evening with Project Vote Smart Founder Richard Kimball www.vote-smart.org
Time: 6 – 7:30 p.m.
Location: Conaway Center, 1104 S. Wabash
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25
• BODY LANGUAGE: INTERCULTURAL EXCHANGE IN CHOREOGRAPHY -- A Critical Encounters Event A panel discussion featuring: Margaret Jenkins, Artistic Director of Margaret Jenkins Dance Company based in San Francisco, CA; Tanusree Shankar, Artistic Director of Tanusree Shankar Dance Company based in Calcutta, India; and Celia Bambara, Co-Artistic Director of CCBdance Project based in Chicago, IL. Dance and choreography often cross borders without patrol. How are choreographers navigating hybridity, inter-cultural exchange, and interpretation in culturally influenced dance? How do spiritual and intellectual values factor into inter-cultural exchanges in dancemaking? How does engagement with and awareness of poverty and privilege challenge ideas of what is valuable, personally, politically, and creatively? Go to http://www.colum.edu/criticalencounters/
Time: 12:30 – 2 p.m.
Location: The Conaway Center, 1104 S. Wabash
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26
• CRITICAL ENCOUNTERS SALON: OF BEETLES AND ANGELS -- The true story of a young boy’s remarkable journey: from civil war in east Africa to a refugee camp in Sudan, to a childhood on welfare in an affluent American suburb, and eventually to a full-tuition scholarship at Harvard University. Following his father’s advice to “treat all people – even the most unsightly beetles – as though they were angels sent from heaven,” Mawi overcomes the challenges of racial prejudice, language barriers, and financial disadvantage to build a successful life for himself in his new home. Go to http://www.colum.edu/criticalencounters/
Time: 2 – 4 p.m.
Location: The Conaway Center, 1104 S. Wabash
• POVERTY & PRIVILEGE TOWN HALL FORUM – Featured Panelists to include: Amy Rynell (Director, Mid-America Institute on Poverty, Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights), Marca Bristo (President and CEO, Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago), Reverend Doris Green (Director of Community Affairs, AIDS Foundation of Chicago), Richard L. Jones, PhD (President and CEO, Metropolitan Family Services), Ngoan Le (Vice President of Programs, Chicago Community Trust), and Douglas Mann (President, Global Business Assist). Moderator: Shanita Akintonde (Professor, Marketing Communication, Columbia College Chicago). Go to http://www.colum.edu/criticalencounters/
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Location: Conaway Center, 1104 S. Wabash
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27
• POVERTY IN CHICAGO -- Poverty in Chicago, by Brian Shodorf, documents the conditions experienced by Chicago’s estimated 110,000 homeless residents. “I’ve told you, now I’m going to show you,” says one homeless man who leads the film crew into a raw look at the realities of life on the streets and the in neighborhoods of Chicago. Part of Poverty & Privilege series. Go to http://www.colum.edu/criticalencounters/
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: Conaway Center, 1104 S. Wabash
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28
• LIFE AFTER KATRINA: A FILM BY COLUMBIA STUDENTS -- On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina moved across the southeastern-costal region of the United States of America and became the costliest and most devastating natural disaster in the history of this country. Nearly two years later, relief efforts are mostly from volunteers and donations. Students from Columbia College Chicago have traveled to Mississippi and Louisiana to volunteer and join in rebuilding efforts. Life After Katrina tells the stories they collected along the way. Sponsored by Reach Out, the Office of Student Life, the Center for Teaching Excellence, the Center for Community Arts Partnerships Go to http://www.colum.edu/criticalencounters/
Time: 6 p.m.; 7:30 pm: a discussion with the filmmakers.
Location: Conaway Center