The
Renaissance
Society

at The University of Chicago
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Black Is, Black Ain't

April 20 – June 08, 2008

 
 
Sun, Apr 20, 20084:00 pm

Opening Reception and Discussion


Location: The Renaissance Society
Admission: free
 
There will be a talk with exhibition artists Elizabeth Axtman and Thomas Johnson, moderated by exhibition curator Hamza Walker, from 5 - 6 pm.
 
Sat, Apr 26, 20085:00 pm

Discussion

Franklin Sirmans and Hamza Walker

Location: The Renaissance Society
Admission: free
 
Race is ever-shifting terrain, as is the landscape of contemporary art. Combine the two and who knows where the discussion will go. Find out as Art Chicago and The Renaissance Society co-host a conversation between two dynamic curatorial voices.

Franklin Sirmans is Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, The Menil Collection, Houston. Hamza Walker is Associate Curator and Director of Education at The Renaissance Society, and curator of this exhibition.

This event will take place in Kent Hall room 120. Kent Hall, 1020 E. 58th St., is on the main quadrangle of the University. FREE
 
Tue, May 6, 20086:00 pm

Lecture

Race: Effects and Intents
Jeffrey Grogger

Location: Swift Hall, Room 106, University of Chicago
Admission: free
 
In the social sciences race is a statistical entity inextricably linked to studies in poverty. Grogger?s work on welfare reform, immigration, crime, and racial profiling gives him a very complex picture of the forces which produce race in effects often removed from discrimination.

Jeffrey Grogger is the Irving Harris Professor in Urban Policy in the Harris School of Public Policy, The University of Chicago

This event will take place in Swift Hall, Room 106. Swift is the building directly east of Cobb Hall. FREE
 
Fri, May 16, 20086:00 pm

Panel Discussion

Roots Revival
Saidiya Hartman, Rick Kittles, moderated by Hamza Walker

Location: The Renaissance Society
Admission: free
 
To describe scholarship in African-American studies as robust is an understatement. Coming from diverse fields, these two outstanding scholars will give voice to the current vogue of African-American genealogical research from a scientific and a humanist perspective.

Saidiya Hartman, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, is most recently the author of Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route (2007). Rick Kittles, Associate Professor of Medicine at The University of Chicago, is founder of African Ancestry, Inc., the first business venture to offer dna-based genealogical mapping.

This event will take place in Swift Hall, Room 310 (3rd floor lecture hall). Swift is the building directly east of Cobb Hall. FREE
 
Sun, May 18, 20082:00 pm

Poetry Reading

leadbelly
Tyehimba Jess

Location: Little Black Pearl, 1060 E. 47ths St.
Admission: free
 
Tyehimba Jess cut his teeth on the slam circuit, a mark he wears proudly. On the page, leadbelly, his first book, is daunting; spoken it is a tour de force. leadbelly (Verse Press, 2005), is a winner of the 2004 National Poetry Series. Tyehimba also won the 2001 Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Poetry Award, an Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship in Poetry for 2000?2001, and the 2001 Chicago Sun-Times Poetry Award.

Tyehimba is Associate Professor of Creative Writing, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

This event will take place at: Little Black Pearl 1060 E. 47th St. (47th and Greenwood) Co-sponsored with Little Black Pearl FREE
 
Wed, May 21, 20086:00 pm

Lecture

The Black Eclectic...Revisited
Travis Jackson

Location: The Renaissance Society
Admission: free
 
This talk is an examination of the contradictory relationship a selection of black musicians have had with the recording industry, the media, and audiences as their creative choices have gone against an unconscious conflation of racial, ethnic and class categories with musical styles and genres.

Travis Jackson is Associate Professor, Music and the Humanities, The University of Chicago.

This event will take place in Cobb Hall, Room 403, down the hall from the gallery. FREE
 
Thu, May 29, 20088:00 pm

Staged Reading

Orenthal
Maarten van Hinte, writer, Ron Parson, director

Location: Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone
Admission: free
 
Orenthal, a one act, one man play, portrays the rise and fall of O.J, an All-American superstar, versus Shakespeare?s Othello. It?s a monologue with cuts and scratches back and forth between Shakespeare, mainstream USA, and the streets that feed America?s dreams and nightmares.

Orenthal is written by Maarten van Hinte and directed by Ron Parson, artist in residence at Court Theater. FREE
 
Sun, Jun 1, 20082:00 pm

Panel Discussion

Post Black: There and Back Again
Darby English, Kerry James Marshall, Kym Pinder, and Greg Foster-Rice

Location: Kent Hall, Room 120, University of Chicago
Admission: free
 
Never mind transcending race, will we ever get beyond ?post-black?? That is the question. Featuring a local roster of art historians and artist laureate Kerry James Marshall this panel will feature a series of presentations, each a distinct take.

Darby English, art historian, The University of Chicago
Kerry James Marshall, artist
Kym Pinder, art historian, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Greg Foster Rice, art historian, Columbia College

This event is co-sponsored with the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media, Columbia College Chicago.

This event will take place in Kent Hall, Room 120. Kent Hall, 1020 E. 58th St., is on the main quadrangle of the University. FREE
 
Thu, Jun 5, 20086:00 pm

Lecture

An All New CHA?
Janet Smith

Location: The Renaissance Society
Admission: free
 
The most significant transformation to Chicago?s skyline has been the dismantling of the federal housing projects. Smith has conducted a process study of relocating Chicago Housing Authority tenants. She will discuss both the internal and external dynamics of the CHA as it has undergone extensive overhauling within the past decade.

Janet Smith is Associate Professor, Urban Planning and Policy Program, The University of Illinois at Chicago

This event will take place in Cobb Hall, Room 403, down the hall from the gallery. FREE
 
Sun, Jun 8, 20082:00 pm

Lecture

From the Moynihan Report to Obama's Candidacy
Camille Charles and Lawrence Bobo

Location: Swift Hall, Room 310, University of Chicago
Admission: free
 
Any discussion of race inevitably ends with a glass-half-full-or-half-empty type of question. This sweeping summary, a fitting close to the exhibition, will be delivered by two of the most lauded scholars in their field.

Camille Charles is Associate Professor of Sociology, Faculty Associate Director, Center for Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania. Lawrence Bobo is W.E.B. Dubois Professor of Sociology at Harvard.

This event is cosponsored with the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media, Columbia College Chicago.

This event will take place in Swift Hall, Room 310 (3rd floor lecture hall). Swift is the building directly east of Cobb Hall. FREE
 

   
   
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