Read / See / Do
Week of April 30, 2018
Read
1) "Museum of Material Memory" by Aanchal Malhotra and Navdha Malhotra
"The Museum of Material Memory is a digital repository of material culture of the Indian subcontinent, tracing family histories and social ethnography through heirlooms, collectibles and objects of antiquity. It’s premise is to promote the preservation of material memory infused within objects and further advance the knowledge and appreciation of it as a significant resource in understanding culture and civilization. The objects in the Archive are from or before the 1970s."
2) "Bright Lines" by Tanwi Nandini Islam
"A vibrant debut novel, set in Brooklyn and Bangladesh, Bright Lines follows three young women and one family struggling to make peace with secrets and their past."
3) "Communion: The Female Search for Love" by bell hooks
"Intimate, revealing, provocative, Communion challenges every female to courageously claim the search for love as the heroic journey we must all choose to be truly free. In her trademark commanding and lucid language, hooks explores the ways ideas about women and love were changed by feminist movement, by women's full participation in the workforce, and by the culture of self-help."
See
1) Adam Feibelman and Taravat Talepasand at Guerrero Gallery
On view till Sunday, May 6th | Learn more
"As artist Adam Feibelman found on a recent trip to walk the rugged trails traversing the border between Tucson and Nogales, the sharp divisions ingrained in national identities and our senses of place are rendered hazily ambiguous as the paths between nations wind off into the distance—no hard line in sight. In a similar sense, the work of Taravat Talepasand capitalizes on the image systems that indoctrinate Iranian identity, state power and gender, and how these notions are portrayed within and augmented through a steady stream of American popular culture. Through their respective exhibitions, Adam Feibelman’s personal Provenance and Taravat Talepasand’s Born in Iran, Made in America, the artists explore the critical boundaries and borders that separate places and people—questioning, transgressing and meditating on both the systems of separation as well as a seemingly growing need for intensifying said divisions."
2) Projects 108: Gauri Gill at MoMA PS1
Currently on view | Learn more | Entrance: adults $25; students $14 (one-time free admission for students from select schools + $5 guest pass)
"MoMA PS1 presents the US premiere of photographer Gauri Gill’s most recent body of work, Acts of Appearance, a series of vivid color photographs for which the artist worked closely with members of an Adivasi community in Jawhar district, Maharashtra, India. Gill’s collaborator-subjects are renowned for their papier-mâché objects, including traditional sacred masks. In these pictures they engage in everyday village activities while wearing new masks, made expressly for this body of work, which depict living beings with the physical characteristics of humans, animals, or valued objects. A range of scenarios and narratives, situated in both “reality” and dreamlike states, come together in the photographs, which simultaneously portray symbolic or playful representations as well as the familiar experiences of community members against the backdrop of their home and culture."
3) Syvilla: They Dance to Her Drum by Ayoka Chenzira at Brooklyn Academy of Music
Sunday, April 29th at 7:30 PM | Learn more | Entrance: general admission $15; members $7.50
"This tribute to innovative dancer-choreographer Syvilla Fort sheds light on a pioneering black woman artist who influenced a generation of dancers."
Do
1) Support Lupus Research Alliance
"The Lupus Research Alliance is the world’s leading private funder of lupus research. Established in 2016 – from the merger of the Alliance for Lupus Research, the Lupus Research Institute, and the S.L.E. Foundation – the Lupus Research Alliance was created to improve treatments for lupus while advancing toward a cure. This effort includes raising funds and advocating on behalf of the lupus community in the public policy arena. A chronic and complex autoimmune disease, lupus can affect the joints, skin, brain, lungs, kidneys, and blood vessels, causing widespread inflammation and tissue damage in the affected organ. While anyone can get lupus, the disease most often affects women. In fact, women make up about nine out of ten adults with the disease. It’s also more common in women of African American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American descent than in Caucasian women."
"Puerto Rico is in the midst of the largest blackout in American history, nearly half the Island is still without power. #Power4PuertoRico is a coalition of organizations, leaders, and advocates from across the nation working together to address the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria through advocacy, strategic communications, and direct mobilization, and to call on Congress and the Administration to adopt an ambitious, new agenda that will put Puerto Rico’s economy on the road to future growth and prosperity. We are building lasting power for Puerto Rico and the diaspora."
