Inst. for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media

UPCOMING PROGRAMS

THE BALLAD OF EMMETT TILL:  EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSHIP
April 26-June 1, 2008
Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn Street

Acclaimed playwright Ifa Bayeza is a recipient of the Institute-Goodman Theatre Fellowship, a unique partnership supporting playwrights of color.  This Fellowship supported the development of Bayeza's new play, The Ballad of Emmett Till, which will premiere at the Goodman Theatre April 26 through June 1.  The now legendary story of Emmett Till is believed by many to be the start of the modern civil rights movement of the 1950s and remains one of the most pivotal incidents in a monumental era.  This world premiere- part history and part ghost story, and directed by Oz Scott- is a jazz integration of past and present, the living and the dead, factual accounts and creative interpolation.  Bayeza captures the powerful truths at the heart of the story, creating a soaring work of music, brilliant poetry and theatricality.  For this production, the Institute is partnering on educational programs in collaboration with the Goodman Theatre and other city-wide civic and cultural organizations by helping create a multi-disciplinary program investigating issues illuminated by the production, such as cultural legacies emanating from profound social events.

BLACK IS BLACK AIN'T
POST BLACK:  THERE AND BACK AGAIN
June 1, 2008, 2pm.
University of Chicago, Kent Hall, Rm 120 
1020 E. 58th Street, Chicago

Open to the Public & Free of Charge

Never mind transcending race, will we ever get beyond "post-black?"  That is the question. 

The Institute is pleased to co-present this panel discussion with the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago.  The panel, featuring artist Laureate Kerry Jame Marshall, will address this subject through a series of presentations and offer varying perspectives on the issue.

Panelists
Darby English, Art Historian, 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 Chicago

BLACK IS BLACK AIN'T
FROM THE MOYNIHAN REPORT TO OBAMA'S CANDIDACY
June 8, 2008. 2pm. Swift Hall, Rm 310
University of Chicago, 1025 E. 58th Street, Chicago

Any discussion of race inevitably ends with a glass half-full or half-empty type of question.

The Institute is pleased to co-present this lecture event with the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago featuring Camille Charles and Lawrence Bobo, two of the most lauded scholars in their fields.

Camille Charles, Associate Professor of Sociology, Faculty Associate Director, Center for Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania

Lawrence Bobo, W.E.B. DuBois Professor of Sociology, Harvard University

BEARING WITNESS:  THE EMMETT TILL MURDER TRIAL:  A CIVIC PERFORMANCE
August/September 2008
Chase Auditorium, 10 S. Dearborn

In complement to Ifa Bayeza's major production, The Ballad of Emmett Till, the Institute is proud to co-present with DBA Studios, Bearing Witness, a staged re-enactment of the 1955 murder trial of Emmett Till adapted from original court transcripts by Bayeza.  This community-driven civic performance will engage a diverse group of city-wide individuals as both performers in the 50+ cast and as active audience members for post-discussions.  This project will locate the cultural, social and legal implications of the trial within a contemporary arena addressing issues of race, social and legal justice, coalition-building, inequity, and individual and communal rights and responsibilities.

MARGARET GARNER OPERA:  EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS
November 2008
Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress Parkway
 
The Institute has been invited to take the lead role in creating and presenting conversations about ethics, arts and cultural production as part of a series of public educational programming for Margaret Garner at the Auditorium Theatre.  Margaret Garner is a new American opera based on one of the most significant fugitive slave stories in pre-Civil War America, and is co-commissioned by Michigan Opera Theatre, Cincinnati Opera, and Opera Company of Philadelphia.  This project marks the anticipated operatic debut for the highly acclaimed creative team of Grammy-Award winning composer Richard Danielpour and librettist Toni Morrison, celebrated novelist and winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature.  Other community collaborators include Roosevelt University, Auditorium Theatre, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Foundation for Women, The Chicago Sinfonietta, DuSable Museum of African American History, Facing History and Ourselves, and WTTW Channel 11.


PUBLICATION DEVELOPMENT:  DOES HIP-HOP HATE WOMEN?
Winter-Spring 2008

The Institute is co-producing a new publication, Does Hip-Hop Hate Women? co-edited by Bakari Kitwana and Kara A. Young.  This will be the first published anthology of its kind to introduce critical new writings by more than fifteen artists and activists from the second wave hip-hop generation (those born after 1985).  The project will support new and largely unheard voices in the current hip-hop movement whose views on gender, sex, and identity have been informed by a mainstream hip-hop driven by the corporate music industry.  Publication is anticipated in 2009, at which time the Institute will organize a Chicago book launch and community discussion, as well as be instrumental in a national book tour and related programming.