Monday, February 23, 2015

On Shame: Jennifer Jacquet, Author and Scientist

Elizabeth Floyd Mair interview's Jennifer Jacquet, who visits tomorrow, in the Times Union:

"In her new book, "Is Shame Necessary?" (Pantheon, February 2015), environmental social scientist Jennifer Jacquet focuses on the role of shame in placing limits on the more egregious behavior of large corporations and powerful groups. She argues that shame can be a powerful force for social change and political change."

More about Jacquet's visit:  http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-features/article/UAlbany-speaker-to-discuss-shame-as-tool-for-6090437.php

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Thursday, February 19, 2015

Remembering Poet Philip Levine (1928-2015)

The New York State Writers Institute mourns the passing of Philip Levine who died on February 14, 2015.

Levine's poetry is grounded in the harsh reality of contemporary life. He describes his poetry as an attempt to create "a voice for the voiceless."

Watch our 26-minute episode about Levine on The Writer, our former collaboration with PBS affiliate WMHT:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p-6RA01qyY&feature=youtu.be&t=40s

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Thursday, February 5, 2015

A searing directorial debut-- Jason Osder

Jason Osder, who visits UAlbany on Friday, is profiled in Filmmaker magazine:
Osder’s searing directorial debut, Let the Fire Burn, which premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, is an archival footage marvel. With no narration and sparse title cards, it dives into the maelstrom that was the Philadelphia Police Department’s tragic raid on the black separatist group MOVE’s West Philadelphia compound in 1985, during which the home, where 13 men, women and children lived, was shot upon 10,000 times, doused with unspeakable amounts of water and then finally firebombed. Almost everyone inside died, and nearly 70 other homes in the surrounding working-class black community were destroyed.

More in Filmmaker magazine:  http://filmmakermagazine.com/people/jason-osder/#.VNO-ll8o7s0

More about Osder's visit tomorrow:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/osder_jason15.html

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Let the Fire Burn reviewed in the L. A. Times

L. A. Times critic Kenneth Turan reviews Let the Fire Burn (2013), by Jason Osder who visits UAlbany for a screening and Q&A tomorrow, Friday 2/6 at 7PM in Page Hall.

"Let the Fire Burn" is a brooding, disturbing documentary about an inferno that becomes an enigma. It earns its considerable impact by telling an unnerving story and leaving it, in ways both daring and effective, fundamentally unresolved.

The events detailed here are some of the most unsettling in modern American urban history. On May 13, 1985, the Philadelphia police, stymied in a standoff that stemmed from a bitter conflict with a radical group called MOVE that had sputtered on and off for more than a decade, dropped an incendiary device on the row house that was the group's headquarters.

More in the L. A. Times:  http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/17/entertainment/la-et-mn-let-fire-burn-review

More about our event with Jason Osder:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/osder_jason15.html

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Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Through Australian Eyes: Peter Carey

Peter Carey, who visits UAlbany today, is interviewed about his new cyber-thriller, Amnesia, by Elizabeth Floyd Mair of the Times Union:

Q: How much was the story inspired by figures like Assange [a fellow Australian] and Edward Snowden?

A: I had lunch with Sonny Mehta, my editor and publisher, and we were talking about Assange. At that stage, Knopf had just bought the rights to Assange's biography and had just found in me someone who was passionate on the subject. At a certain point he said, by the by, "I don't suppose you want to write the book."

For me, there were all sorts of reasons not to do this, not least that I am a novelist and don't have that sort of skill. The conversation lasted, perhaps, two minutes and disappeared like smoke. I didn't think Sonny was entirely serious. He now says he was.

More in the Times Union:   http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-features/article/Through-Australian-eyes-6051002.php

More about Peter Carey's visit today:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/carey_peter15.html

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