[URPE] [NYC] Brecht Forum: Amiri Baraka, Bolivia, Dancing of Politics, Iraq/US Labor Tour and more
urpe-moderator at lists.econ.utah.edu
urpe-moderator at lists.econ.utah.edu
Tue Apr 4 15:50:52 MDT 2006
URPE Members, please note:
April 5 with Mike Zweig
April 7-8 with Rick Wolff & Stephen Resnick
5-session class with Rick Wolff & Stephen Resnick
P L E A S E F O R W A R D W I D E L Y
The Brecht Forum
451 West St. (Betw Bank & Bethune)
New York, NY 10014
(212) 242- 4201
www.brechtforum.org
1,2,3 A,C,E to 14th st.
14A,11,20 buses to Abingdon Square/12th Street
8 bus to Christopher St.
L to 8th Ave @14th st.
F,V to 14th St. B,D to W. 4th
_______________________________________________________________________
In this Email:
4/2 Amiri Baraka & Ewuare Osayande: When a Poem is Feared More Than a Bomb
4/3 The Dancing of Politics: A Presentation & Discussion About
Socially Relevant Art
4/4 From the Mines to the Prisons to the Streets: An Activist's
History of Bolivia
4/5 Meeting Face to Face: The Iraq-U.S. Labor Solidarity Tour
4/7 & 4/8 2-DAY SEMINAR Capitalism and Communism in the USSR with
Stephen Resnick and Rick Wolff
4/8 & 4/9 Introduction to the Theater of the Oppressed: A Workshop for
Beginners
4/11 Theory for Activists / Activism for Theorists: Part II
4/12 Ending The Occupation of Iraq: Strategies at Home
4/12 Happy Endings? with Annette T. Rubinstein
4/13 War Reporting & Journalism: Charles Glass ABC News' chief Middle
East correspondent from 1983-93
________________________________________________________________________________
Sunday, April 2
4:00 pm
BOOK PARTY / READING
When a Poem is Feared More Than a Bomb: Poetry & Politics in the 21st
Century
Presentation & Readings with Amiri Baraka & Ewuare Osayande. Moderated
by Sam Anderson
Legendary poet Amiri Baraka and Ewuare Osayande will read from their
work. The program will address the current state of Black art in this
time of war and racism. These issues and more are discussed in
Osayande's latest book of poetry entitled Blood Luxury which will be
featured at the event. Baraka, author of Somebody Blew Up America and
Other Poems, provides the introduction to Blood Luxury. In it he writes,
"Ewuare is like the image Mao posed about Revolution, a ship yet some
distance away, but whose tall and inspiring sails are already visible."
Osayande's poetry offers an uncompromising look at the world from the
vantage of the oppressed/ The book addresses such issues as sweatshop
labor in China and Indonesia, conflict diamonds in West Africa, the war
in Iraq as well as the Palestinian conflict.
Baraka's Somebody Blew Up America and Other Poems is in its second
printing. Kamau Braithwaite, professor of Comparative Literature at New
York University states that the book "makes one more mark in the
development in modern Black radical and revolutionary cultural
reconstruction."
Suggested donation: $6//$10/$15
No one Turned Away
_________________________________________________________________________
Monday, April 3
7:00 - 9:00 pm
Movement Research
The Dancing of Politics: A Presentation & Discussion About Socially
Relevant Art
Ishmael Houston-Jones, Andrea Liu, Clarinda Mac Low, HanaKyle Moranz,
Lise Serrell, Jill Sigman & Arturo Vidich
In a recent workshop sponsored by Movement Research called "The Dancing
of Politics," Ishmael Houston-Jones led a group of
choreographer/performers in exploring his concern that few contemporary
works have anything to do with the world beyond that of the
choreographers creating them. "It would seem that in these times of war
and terror and the eroding of personal liberties, some work would
address these issues no matter how obliquely..." A ten week working
group grew out of that original workshop and the group has continued to
explore issues such as: What is it to make socially relevant art? How do
performance and moral conviction intersect? How can a non-verbal art
form create meaning and address political issues? How can humor, ritual,
dance genres, and game structures be political?
Through informal performance and discussion, the evening's presentation
will open these and other issues, reflecting some of the group's ongoing
explorations, raising questions, and starting dialogue.
Ishmael Houston-Jones' improvised dance and text work has been
performed in New York City, across the United States, in Europe, Canada,
Australia and Latin America.
Andrea Liu is freelance writer and performance artist/dancer living in
Williamsburg. Her writing has appeared in ArtUS, Art in America, Women
and Performance, and New York Arts Magazine, and her political
performance art has been show at Here, Hunter College, and Culture Project.
Clarinda Mac Low is currently creating DAGGER, a surreal live horror
film loosely based on Shakespeare's Macbeth, that digs into the inner
life of tyrants and investigates what lies behind the human lust for
political power.
Hana Kyle Moranz engages in dancing, rock 'n roll, and massage therapy.
She wishes to facilitate freedom and peace.
Lise Serrell is a gardner who likes to grow food, she lives in Brooklyn
but misses her dogs in Tennessee.
Jill Sigman is a choreographer, performer, writer, and teacher. In 1998
she founded jill sigman/thinkdance to raise questions through the medium
of the body: www.thinkdance.org
Arturo Vidich is a lot of things, but currently he is focused on
performance, dogs, and plans for travel. He grew up in Manhattan and
graduated from Wesleyan University.
movement research (www.movementresearch.org) is an artist-centered dance
service organization whose activities support the emerging aesthetics of
the art form today. Founded in 1978, Movement Research provides:
creative residencies for emerging and established choreographers;
performance opportunities that foreground investigation and process; and
free and low-cost activities in the areas of education - biannual
Performance Journal, classes, workshops, public forums, and
artist-in-schools programs.
Suggested donation: $6//$10/$15
No one Turned Away
____________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, April 4
7:30 pm
Co-sponsor: NACLA
>From the Mines to the Prisons to the Streets: An Activist's History of
Bolivia
Felix Muruchi Poma
Felix Muruchi Poma is an ex-mineworker and union organizer who has been
politically active in Bolivia since the period of the military
dictatorshiips from the 1970s to the early '80s. He experienced the
phase of neoliberal "restructuring" (shutdowns) of the state mines and
"relocations" (firing) of miners from the mid- to late-1980s. More
recently, as a union and university leader in El Alto, he has seen the
growth and politicization of this burgeoning Aymara city and the latest
cycle of national-popular insurgency from the 1990s to the present.
Muruchi has lived through--at close hand and as an engaged
participant--some of the most imortant processes in contemporary
Bolilvian history.
Suggested donation: $6//$10/$15
No one Turned Away
_________________________________________________________________________
Wednesday, April 5
7:30 pm
FILM SCREENING & DISCUSSION
Co-sponsor: The Center for Study of Working Class Life
Meeting Face to Face: The Iraq-U.S. Labor Solidarity Tour
Discussion with Filmmaker Jonathan Levin & Executive Producer Michael Zweig
As the war in Iraq rages on, more and more Americans are questioning
what our country is doing there and what the next steps should be. This
27-minute film documents a tour of the U.S. by six Iraqi labor leaders,
and their message to American audiences about the realities of life
under military occupation for everyday Iraqi working people and their
views on what is required for a resolution of the conflict. For more
information visit www.MeetingFacetoFace.org.
Jonathan Levin is an independent filmmaker and video producer based in
New York City. His first documentary Never The Same, about the physical
and mental health crisis faced by thousands of World Trade Center
disaster responders, was screened in the U.S. Congress He also worked as
editor and co-producer on the U.S. release of Bush Family Fortunes,
directed by BBC reporter and author Greg Palast.
Michael Zweig, a member of the National Steering Committee of U.S. Labor
Against the War, is director of the Center for the Study of Working
Class Life at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and author
of and The working Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret.
Suggested donation: $6//$10/$15
No one Turned Away
______________________________________________________________________
Friday, April 7 7:30 pm (Opening Forum)
Saturday, April 8 10am-3pm (Seminar)
2-DAY SEMINAR
Capitalism and Communism in the USSR
Stephen Resnick and Rick Wolff
This intensive seminar will apply Marxian class analysis to examine what
are communism and socialism, and based on that examination, what exactly
happened in the USSR. Key questions we will address include: (1) what
are communism and socialism in Marxian class terms (2) was private
capitalism in the USSR replaced with state capitalism, communism, or
both, (3) how did the actual class structure of the USSR change across
its history, and (4) how did the collapse of the USSR flow partly from
the contradictions in its actual class structure? The key goal will be
to draw lessons from the Soviet experience for class struggles in the
21st century including new anti-capitalist class struggles.
Resnick and Wolff are co-authors of Class Theory and History:
Capitalism and Communism in the USSR, among other works.
Entire Seminar: $25-$35
Friday Forum Only: $10
________________________________________________________________
Thursday, March 30
5:30 - 730 pm
5-SESSION CLASS BEGINS
Marxist Theory Then & Now
Rick Wolff
This short course explores the major branches of Marxist theory
developed after Marx and Engels. By selected short readings of the
Marxist theorists named below, we follow the main lines of Marxian
theory's evolution across the last century. The imperialism and monopoly
that exploded into World War 1 provoked intense debates (Lenin,
Hilferding, Luxemburg, Kautsky, Bernstein). After the war, the failure
of anti-capitalist revolutions everywhere but in Russia drove Marxist
thinkers to focus less on economics and politics and more on culture and
ideology (Lukacs and Gramsci). Splits emerged within "classical" Marxism
(Stalin and Trotsky) and between it and various alternative Marxist
theories (e.g., the Frankfurt School, Mao, and Althusser). We conclude
with the central debates agitating Marxist theory today. These flow from
Marxism's theoretical history but also from Marxism's engagement with
Third World anti-imperialism, new philosophical movements outside
Marxism (structuralism, post-structuralism, and postmodernism), and the
anti-racist, feminist, and environmental social movements.
Richard Wolff teaches economics at the University of Massachusetts.
Among other works, he is the author, with Stephen Resnick, of Knowledge
and Class: A Marxian Critique of Political Economy, and Class Theory and
History: Capitalism and Communism in the USSR.
Sliding scale: $45-$65
________________________________________________________________
Saturday, April 8
10:00 am - 6:00 pm
2-DAY WORKSHOP BEGINS
Introduction to the Theater of the Oppressed: A Workshop for Beginners
TOPLAB Facilitation Team Members TBA
Saturday, April 8, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
Sunday, April 9, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
(sign-in begins at 9:15 am on Saturday)
An overview of the theory and philosophy of popular education and
Theater of the Oppressed, and an introduction to Theater of the
Oppressed techniques, concepts, methods and games, including Image
Theater and Forum Theater. This is a workshop designed for people who
have had little or no exposure to TO. If you've been wondering what this
is all about, here is your chance to find out! No theater or acting
experience necessary.
Sliding scale: $75-$125
__________________________________________________________
Tuesday, April 11
7:30 - 9:30 pm
8-SESSION CLASS BEGINS
Theory for Activists / Activism for Theorists: Part II
Tony Alessandrini
This course is designed as a space for discussion. It is intended for
those who may have little or no prior knowledge of what has come to be
known as "critical theory," and also for those who may have little or no
experience in political organizing. But it is designed to bring together
those who have an interest in both, in order to imagine different forms
of resistance and to produce different forms of knowledge. Each week's
discussion will focus on one reading (although optional background
readings will also be available), and our responsibility will be to
connect our discussion of each reading to specific issues that arise in
political organizing, educational projects, and direct action. Ideally,
we will also connect our discussion to specific events held at the
Brecht Forum and other community venues. If the class goes as planned,
it will lead to discussions about different kinds of political actions
that we can work on together in the days ahead.
This class is a continuation of one that began in February, but it will
include a new set of topics and readings (and you don't need to have
attended the first set of classes to sign up for this class). Topics
that we will be addressing include: violence and non-violence;
nationalism and national sovereignty; aesthetics and resistance;
ecological crises; Palestine and the challenges of solidarity; struggles
around scientific knowledge; sexualities; and contemporary feminist
politics. Readings may include: Theodor Adorno, Giorgio Agamben, Hannah
Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Judith Butler, Mahmoud Darwish, Mike Davis,
Frantz Fanon, Michel Foucault, Antonio Gramsci, Joseph Massad, Arundhati
Roy, Edward Said, David Scott, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, among others.
Sliding scale: $65-$85
_____________________________________________________________
Wednesday, April 12
7:30 pm
ACTION WEDNESDAYS
A Monthly Workshop Series
Ending The Occupation of Iraq: Strategies at Home
Are you part of the anti-war movement and yet not feeling active? Are
you someone who wants to do more than participate in demonstrations (as
important as they are) and to try to find new strategies? Here is an
opportunity to develop something that you can define."Strategies At
Home" is a workshop series aimed at allowing us to self-organize into
action groups through monthly workshops--including workshops related to
art, theater, music, and more...we will provide you the forum to develop
any or more of these modes into executable projects, you define the
project yourself. Get involved!
Suggested donation: $6/$10/$15
No One Turned Away
__________________________________________________________________
Wednesday, April 12
7:29 - 9:30 pm
8-SESSION CLASS BEGINS
Happy Endings?
Annette T. Rubinstein
Shakespeare's Jacobean plays and Melville's posthumous novel have been
so described by almost every critic. But Bernard Shaw said that
"Shakespeare emerged from his tragic period believing that life is a
tale told by an idiot." and very few readers feel that this late novel's
facile optimism can outweigh Melville's Pierre's tangled destruction.
Over sixty-five years ago, although I did not know that Shaw felt the
way I did about The Tempest and had not yet read Billy Budd, I commented
on the un-Shakespearian cynicism of the last plays and the cold contempt
and pessimism of The Tempest. Now together with other Shakespeare
aficionados we will attempt to make such an analysis and consider the
influence of Shakespeare on Melville.
Class will meet at the home of Dr. Annette T. Rubinstein, author of
American Literature: Root and Flower and The Great Tradition in English
Literature: From Shakespeare to Shaw. Please call for advance
registration and location information.
Sliding scale: $65-$85
_________________________________________________________________
Thursday, April 13
8:00 pm
BOOK PARTY / FORUM
War Reporting & Journalism
Charles Glass
Charles Glass, author of The Northern Front, is a freelance writer and
broadcaster. He was ABC News chief Middle East correspondent from
1983-93, and has worked as a correspondent for Newsweek and The
Observer. One of Glass's best known stories was his 1986 interview at
Beirut Airport of the crew of TWA Flight 847 after the flight was
hijacked. He broke the news that the hijackers had removed the hostages
and had hidden them in the suburbs of Beirut, which caused the Reagan
administration to abort a rescue attempt.
Glass himself made headlines in 1987, when he was taken hostage for 62
days in Lebanon by Hezbollah, the Shi'ite Muslim group, becoming in the
process the only Western hostage in Lebanon known to have escaped.
Suggested donation: $6//$10/$15
No one Turned Away
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