RESCHEDULED: Tonight's Event with Barbara Smith, Due to Weather

Tonight’s event with Barbara Smith and Susan Arbetter will be RESCHEDULED to Tuesday, March 31^st , same time (7PM, note early start time) and same location (Milne 200, Downtown Campus).

 

Barbara Smith, pioneering activist, will discuss the new book, Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith (2014). The book, edited by Alethia Jones and Virginia Eubanks, combines historical documents with new interviews to uncover the deep roots of today’s “identity politics” and serves as an essential primer for practicing solidarity and resistance. Smith, organizer, writer, and publisher, has played key roles in multiple social justice movements. She is Public Service Professor in the School of Social Welfare at UAlbany, and a former member of Albany’s Common Council.

 

Cosponsored by SUNY Press and Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy

 

If you would like to attend the rescheduled event, please RSVP to Rockefeller College Director of Communications, as space is limited:

 

Mary Huntmhunt@albany.edu

 

More about Barbara Smith:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/smith_barbara15.html

 

 

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Criminal Justice Scholar to Moderate Film Discussion

Dr. Christina Lane will lead audience discussion following this Friday's screening of Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action, as part of the Justice & Multiculturalism in the 21st Century Film Series, cosponsored by the NYS Writers Institute and the School of Criminal Justice.

A faculty member at the College of Saint Rose and alumna of the UAlbany School of Criminal Justice doctoral program, Professor Lane is a multiple year honoree in America’s Who’s Who Teachers of Excellence. She teaches courses in Criminal Justice, Behavior & Law, Forensic Psychology, and Forensic Science.

HOMELAND: FOUR PORTRAITS OF NATIVE ACTION
February 15 (Friday)Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Roberta Grossman
(United States, 2006, 88 minutes, color)

An artful and moving example of documentary filmmaking, HOMELAND follows the stories of Native American activists fighting to protect their lands against corporate exploitation and environmental destruction. Variety called the film, “Beautifully crafted...,” and said “Roberta Grossman skillfully intersperses vastly varied archival clips with quietly impassioned testimonials by tribal leaders and stunning lensing showcasing both the natural wonders and the man-made degradation of the landscape.”

More on the film series:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/cfs.html

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Homeland Film Tomorrow: "Visually Stunning"

Tomorrow, Friday 2/15 at Page Hall, 7:30PM, we will screen Homeland, winner of numerous prizes at documentary festivals around the world. The film follows the battles of Native American activists to save the natural beauty and resources of their reservations from corporate exploitation.

"Beautifully crafted... Roberta Grossman skillfully intersperses vastly varied archival clips with quietly impassioned testimonials by tribal leaders and stunning lensing showcasing both the natural wonders and the manmade degradation of the landscape... Homeland merits a wider audience than provided by scattershot PBS airings... At a time when 30 years of environmental protection laws are being rapidly dismantled, Homeland militantly proposes America's First Peoples as the vangaurd of resistence." -- Variety

"Visually stunning... [Homeland] is a perfect blend of visuals, words, musical background, and thought-provoking issues related not only to Native Americans but to the environmental crisis facing America. " -- School Library Journal

"The story of a U.S. tragedy -- multinational companies doing their deadly work in Native peoples' backyards -- and of the brave few who stand up to combat it." -- The Utne Reader

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Keenaghan on Emerson on Pacifica Radio

UAlbany English Prof Eric Keenaghan will discuss Ralph Waldo Emerson's politics today (3PM EST) on Pacifica Radio/NPR affiliate KPFA Berkeley, CA. He writes:

 

Dear Colleagues:

Recently I recorded an interview with C.S. Soong for "Against the Grain," a program on Pacifica Radio/NPR out of Berkeley that usually interviews activists and intellectuals. My interview's topic is on Emerson [pictured here] and reading and politics. The interview will be broadcast on Monday afternoon, on air and online. (Details below.) This all came about because the host read my non-specialist essay in the The Other Emerson (U of Minnesota P, 2010), co-edited by two (now former) members of our department, Branka Arsic and Cary Wolfe.

It is heartening because it has reminded me that non-academics can, and sometimes do, read our work. And some of them are better poised for helping us disseminate our ideas and voices than the usual academic routes.

--Eric

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John Sayles: Filmmaker for the Environment

John Sayles, who visits UAlbany this coming Monday, Feb. 27, is this year's recipient of Duke University's LEAF Award for Lifetime Environmental Achievement.

"Nicholas School Dean Bill Chameides said the LEAF Award does not necessarily go to artists whose work is explicitly environmental, but goes to those who explore environmental themes on a profound level."

"'[Sayles examines] the theme of our connection to land, to the earth and to the difficulties we have in trying to balance the various needs and desires for the resources of that land,' Chameides said." More.

Picture: Water buffalo in Amigo, to be screened Friday, Feb. 24 in the Performing Arts Center uptown.

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