New Event! Sacco & Vanzetti Brown Bag Lunch 2/21

You are invited to bring your lunch to the following free events:

February 21 (Tuesday): THE TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS OF SACCO AND VANZETTI...
Discussion-- 12:15 pm, Husted Hall, Room 014, University at Albany Downtown Campus
Moderator: Frankie Bailey, Ph.D. – Professor of Criminal Justice
Panelists: Gerald Zahavi, Ph.D. – Professor of History, “The Anarchist World of Sacco and Vanzetti”
Richard Hamm, Ph.D. – Professor of History, “What the Sacco and Vanzetti Case Meant to One Legal Liberal”
Picture:  Ben Shahn's Sacco and Vanzetti
Sponsored by the School of Criminal Justice’s “Crime and Multiculturalism in the 21st Century”
series in association with Friday’s free upcoming film event:

February 24 (Friday): SACCO AND VANZETTI
Film screening followed by a conversation with director Peter Miller and film editor Amy Linton — 7:00 p.m. [note early start time], Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Peter Miller (United States, 2006, 80 minutes, color)
This documentary, winner of the American Historical Association’s best film award, tells the story of two Italian politically radical immigrants charged with the 1920 robbery of a Massachusetts shoe factory and the murder of two of its employees. As it recounts their trials, public protests, and appeals on their behalf the film offers insights into present-day issues of civil liberties and immigrant rights. Ken Burns called it “A wonderful film, as timeless as the struggle for human justice, as relevant as today’s headlines.”
Peter Miller is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose films include the theatrically-released A.K.A. DOC POMUS, JEWS AND BASEBALL, and SACCO AND VANZETTI. He has directed numerous documentaries for PBS and has been a producer for documentaries by Ken Burns and Lynn Novak including THE WAR and JAZZ, and the Peabody Award-winning FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT.
Amy Linton has edited numerous award-winning films including Julie Dash’s DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST, a Sundance winner that was selected for the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. She has worked on dozens of documentaries, feature films, and music videos in her 25-year career.
Sponsored by the Writers Institute in conjunction with UAlbany’s School of Criminal Justice’s Justice & Multiculturalism in the 21st Century: Crime, Justice, and Public Memory Film Series

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What the Fly Saw in Publishers Weekly

UAlbany Criminal Justice Professor Frankie Bailey's new crime novel, What the Fly Saw (2015), is reviewed in this week's Publishers Weekly:

"The murder of funeral director Kevin Novak, found dead with an arrow in his chest and a skeleton clutched in his arms, propels Bailey’s appealing second near-future mystery featuring Albany, N.Y., detective Hannah McCabe (after 2013’s The Red Queen Dies). Kevin’s family reports that he was coping badly with the sudden death of his best friend, and he was seen acting skittish toward a self-proclaimed psychic, Luanne Woodward, whom he had recently met. In addition, Kevin’s son is showing disturbing signs of irrationality, the minister of Kevin’s church is evasive, and someone serves an arsenic-laden pie with fatal results after a séance. Hannah and her detective partner, Mike Baxter, retrace Kevin’s steps, uncovering evidence that the seemingly steady husband and father was enmeshed in a crisis with significant repercussions for Kevin’s circle. Other deaths, ostensibly from drugs, pose complications for Hannah that promise to carry into the next book, which readers are sure to look forward to. Agent: Josh Getzler, Hannigan Salky Getzler Agency. (Mar.)"

PW link: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-250-04830-1

Frankie's website:  http://www.frankieybailey.com/

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On Crime and Fashion-- Frankie Bailey

Frankie Bailey, who shares the stage tonight with bestselling author Walter Mosley, discusses her forthcoming book on crime and fashion in an interview last year in the Times Union:

The police scanner crackles with a report of a liquor store stickup. The suspect was last seen fleeing on foot, wearing a black hoodie and Yankees cap.

It’s become a uniform of sorts for today’s young, urban street-level criminal with a hip-hop sensibility.

Frankie Y. Bailey, associate professor of criminal justice at the University at Albany, is not surprised by the scanner chatter. She’s been tracking the trend as part of her research for a book-in-progress, tentatively titled “Strip Search: Crime, Justice and Clothing in American Culture.”

More from Paul Grondahl in the Times Union:  http://blog.timesunion.com/localarts/author-revisited-frankie-y-bailey/29769/

More about today's events: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/mosley_bailey14.html

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A Serial Killer in Albany

Michele Leber reviews Frankie Bailey's new crime fiction novel, The Red Queen Dies (2013), in Booklist. Bailey will share the stage with bestselling author Walter Mosley on Feb. 4th.

More about the events: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/mosley_bailey14.html

Here's the Booklist review: "In 2019, a serial killer is on the loose in Albany, New York. Two women in their twenties have been murdered by having phenol injected into their hearts, and when Broadway actress Vivian Jessup, known as the Red Queen for her role in Alice in Wonderland, is killed in the same manner, Albany PD detective Hannah McCabe and partner Mike Baxter struggle to connect the dots in what has become an even higher-profile case. In the near future, everyone has an ORB (smartphone successor?), a drug named Lullaby can erase memories of crime victims (but causes a problem when used by a witness), and a threader (blogger successor?) with inside knowledge plagues the police. What has not changed is that crime solving requires hard work and good instincts. McCabe shows she has what it takes to succeed at her work and to win readers. University of Albany criminal justice professor Bailey, author of the Lizzie Stuart mysteries, leaves some intriguing questions unanswered in this strong start to a projected series."

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Exterminating Angel: "Like rats in an overpopulation study"

Friday's film at Page Hall is Luis Bunuel's The Exterminating Angel (1962)-- part of the Food, Crime and Justice film series, cosponsored by the School of Criminal Justice. William Kennedy, novelist, screenwriter and Institute Executive Director, and Donald Faulkner, Institute Director, will provide commentary after the film.

Here's a review and reassessment by the late Roger Ebert that appeared in May 1997:

The dinner guests arrive twice. They ascend the stairs and walk through the wide doorway, and then they arrive again--the same guests, seen from a higher camera angle. This is a joke and soon we will understand the punch line: The guests, having so thoroughly arrived, are incapable of leaving.

Luis Bunuel's "The Exterminating Angel" (1962) is a macabre comedy, a mordant view of human nature that suggests we harbor savage instincts and unspeakable secrets. Take a group of prosperous dinner guests and pen them up long enough, he suggests, and they'll turn on one another like rats in an overpopulation study.

More: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-exterminating-angel-1962

More about the event:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/cfs.html#angel

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400 People at Page Hall for Central Park Five Event

Film director Sarah Burns (daughter of leading filmmaker Ken Burns) and her husband and
codirector David McMahon met with an Albany audience of approximately 400 at Page Hall last Friday following a screening of their award-winning documentary, Central Park Five.

Picture:  Sarah and David talk with the audience at Page Hall.

Special thanks to our cosponsors, the UAlbany School of Criminal Justice, and PBS station WMHT.

The documentary tells the story of five Harlem teenagers falsely convicted of the rape and attempted murder of a female jogger in Central Park in the 1980s.

Sarah and David has such a great time that they expressed a wish to come back to Albany with the "five," who are seeking damages from the City of New York.

More about the film:  http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/centralparkfive/

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Central Park Five Screening in Albany

Sarah Burns, daughter of  major  documentary  filmmaker Ken Burns) and her husband David McMahon will present a Q&A following a screening of their new film, Central Park Five, winner of the New York Film Critics Circle Award. 

Sarah Burns and David McMahon codirected and cowrote the film with Ken Burns. Based on Sarah's book of the same name, the film documents a miscarriage of justice of epic proportions-- the wrongful conviction of five Harlem teenagers in the rape and beating of a white jogger in Central Park in 1989.

The event is cosponsored by UAlbany's School of Criminal Justice, PBS television station WMHT, and the New York State Writers Institute.

More about the event:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/cfs.html#central

More about the film on the PBS website:  http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/centralparkfive/

Picture:  Sarah Burns

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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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The Execution of Wanda Jean in the news....

One of the stars of tonight's film, The Execution of Wanda Jean (7:30pm at Page Hall with discussion) is death penalty opponent Jesse Jackson, who has recently taken his fight to the African nation of The Gambia.

There's an article on Jackson's fight that mentions Wanda Jean Allen in an October 2012 issue of The Nation:

http://www.thenation.com/article/170284/jesse-jackson-fights-capital-punishment-gambia#

Photo: Jackson with Gambian president Yahyah Jammeh.

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Vivien Ng and James Acker at the Movies

Vivien Ng (pictured here) will join James Acker at Page Hall on Friday 10/19 at 7:30 PM to lead audience discussion following a screening of The Execution of Wanda Jean, a documentary about the first African American woman to be executed in modern times, and a finalist for the Grand Jury Prize of the Sundance Film Festival.

Vivien Ng is chair of the UAlbany Women's Studies Department and the first president of the National Women's Studies Association (1993-4). More on Vivien:  http://www.albany.edu/womensstudies/fac-ngv.shtml

James Acker is Distinguished Teaching Professor of the School of Criminal Justice and author of the standard textbook, Criminal Procedure: A Contemporary Perspective (1999, now in its 3rd edition, 2012). More on Acker: http://www.albany.edu/scj/james_acker.php

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Capital Punishment Documentary and Discussion Friday

Dear Readers, Writers, Teachers, Students and All Members of the General Public,

 

We invite you to attend the following free film event, which will be followed by an audience discussion led by UAlbany professors Vivien Ng, Chair of the Women’s Studies Department, and James Acker, Distinguished Teaching Professor of the School of Criminal Justice:

THE EXECUTION OF WANDA JEAN
October 19 (Friday)
Film Screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Liz Garbus
(United States, 2007, 94 minutes, color)

A spare and unsentimental documentary about the first African American woman to be put to death in modern times, EXECUTION follows the clemency appeal of mentally-impaired death row inmate Wanda Jean Allen. NY Times reviewer Julie Salamon said the film “offers an unusual opportunity to observe the inequities in the death penalty, not just the inherent immorality but also the haphazard administration of it.... In the end, Execution achieves a torturous, race-against-time desperation. Against a well-captured background of extended-family grief, the film inflates with optimism and then helplessly watches the state squeeze the air out. As Allen’s execution date closes in, the documentary gives an especially poignant portrait of her friendship with the never flagging legal investigator David Presson. For all his chin-up attitude, he slowly comes apart, sweating, sighing, laughing uncontrollably at Allen’s good-natured faith that all will end well….” The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.

 

For more information contact 518-442-5620 or writers@albany.edu, or visit us online athttp://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/ . You may also wish to visit our blog at http://nyswiblog.blogspot.com/, or to friend us on Facebook. 

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