On October 4th, Columbia's first annual Graduating Student Block Party will offer all students preparing to graduate a one-stop shop opportunity to begin the graduation application process, make commencement ceremony arrangements and begin planning their life after Columbia.
Participating offices and programs include: the Alumni Office, College Advising Center, ColumbiaWorks, Commencement, Counseling Services, the Graduate School, Manifest Urban Arts Festival, Portfolio Center and Student Financial Services.
All students who have completed 90 or more credit hours, and all graduate students, are encouraged to attend.
Complete details are online at www.colum.edu/classof.
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
The student organization Click, and the Arts Entertainment and Media Management Department are sponsoring The Forum, an educational series featuring accomplished individuals in the world of entertainment business, on Wednesday, September 19, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., in the Ferguson Theater, 600 S. Michigan.
The featured guests for the evening are Jonathan Rhodes Executive Director of ThreeWalls and Neysa Page-Liberman Director of [C]Spaces.
ThreeWalls is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to contemporary art and art education. Their mission is to provide workspace and exhibition opportunities for emerging artists who are at pivotal points in their careers. The residency and exhibition programs are focused on supporting practices that might otherwise go unrepresentative in commercial settings or traditional institutions.
C]Spaces plan and promote nearly three dozen gallery exhibitions each year on Columbia’s campus, as well as fiction and poetry readings, film and video screenings, music, theater and dance performances, most of which showcase student work to the public.
The Forum creates a platform allowing the most successful people in the art business to share their stories of expertise with those who dream of being triumphant in the growing world of art. Students of Columbia College Chicago have created the series in order to promote strong, ethical, and priceless knowledge of the art industries. With one innovative guest speaker and one intelligent moderator, a discussion about the guest’s past, current projects, and opinions on the industry will take place in front of an audience hungry for knowledge.
After the event comes to a close, a coffee talk will take place in the Underground Cafe to promote networking as well as mentoring for new students at Columbia. These events are free and open to the public.
The 2007 Fall Job Fair takes place this Wednesday, September 12, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., in the Conaway Center, 1104 S. Wabash. Bring your resume if you have one.
Participants include:
American Girl
AVID Tutoring Program for Chicago Public Schools
Bank of America
Club Monaco
DuSable Museum of African American History
Garmin International
Grassroots Campaigns, Inc.
Mad Science of Chicago
NIKETOWN
Nordstrom
Photogenic, Inc.
TEFL Institute
The CAPS Group
The Chicago Theatre
University Center Conference Chicago
UPS
YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago