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January 30, 2015
Dear Friends,
We hope you enjoy this biweekly update, which highlights some of our recent activities and the work of other cultural agents. Please see our websites for more information, news, and a list of our upcoming events:
http://www.culturalagents.org and www.pre-texts.org.
As we hope to support your work as a cultural agent too, please send your news to us at cultagen@fas.harvard.edu.
To all of our supporters, “connectionists” (tejedores, tecelões), and collaborators throughout the world, thank you!
With many thanks,
The Cultural Agents Team
Doris Sommer’s Work of Art in the World: Civic Agency and Public Humanities was reviewed in Forecast Public Art’s Public Art Review:
http://forecastpublicart.org/public-art-review/book-reviews/2015/01/work-art-world-civic-agency-public-humanities/.
The Cultural Agents team continues to plan for upcoming events this term, including a workshop that will offer recommendations of how to handle symbolic restitution in Colombia and a panel discussion on the disappearances in Ayotzinapa and violence in Mexico, which will be planned in collaboration with the student group Boston x Ayotzinapa.
Doris Sommer and Lisa Crossman attended the Public Interested Conference at Harvard University on Saturday, January 24 to network with students and alumni passionate about public service. For more on the conference’s events, see: http://publicservice.fas.harvard.edu/public-interested-conference.
Colombia
A Pre-Texts workshop will be held in Bogotá, Colombia on February 23 with the support of the Institute for Human Rights Education and in alliance with the Luis Ángel Arango Library, the Unit for Attention and Reparation of Victims and the Cultural Agents Initiative. The workshop will take place at the Fondo de Cultura Económica (FCE) Cultural Centre, and is part of the celebration of a new section at the FCE that aims to promote works about the construction of peace, citizen coexistence and historic memory. The event, called “Reconciliación. Orillas que se juntan” (Reconciliation. Shores that Come Together) will feature Colombian and international experts who will discuss the political transition to a post-conflict scenario, and the issues and difficulties of forgiveness and reconciliation.
United States
Beginning in January 2015, Pre-Texts has been holding weekly workshops with teachers and Principal Toledano from the Tobin K-8 School. The teachers and Principal Toledano have been interpreting Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince through visual art, music, and other creative activities. As the last few sessions come to a close, we are looking forward to working with teachers to integrate Pre-Texts into their current core curriculum and classroom teaching. The Tobin teachers represent the first cohort in Boston to officially integrate Pre-Texts into their class curriculum, and will be an example for future schools that choose to adopt Pre-Texts in Boston.
Uganda
Pre-Texts is excited to announce that we’re teaming up with the Center for African Cultural Excellence to carry out countrywide high school workshops in Uganda in June. The workshops will culminate in a national student exhibition and competition in which the students from participating schools will exhibit their artistic literary interpretations using the traditional arts, music, and theatre. The exhibition will be part of CACE’s Writivism Festival and Conference which will highlight and celebrate contemporary African writers and African literature.
Other Active Cultural Agents
Book Talk: “The State of Detention: Performance, Politics and the Cuban Public”
On February 5 at noon, artist Coco Fusco will discuss her forthcoming book Dangerous Moves: Performance and Politics in Cuba. The discussion will be moderated by Jenesis Fonseca-Ledezma, a Ph.D. Student of American Studies at Harvard University. The event will take place in the Barker Center, Room 110, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA. Attendees are welcome to bring a brown bag lunch. Light refreshments will be served starting at 11:45a.m. To read more:
http://blackhistoryarthistory.org/schedule-of-events/. |
