All Events
Cup of Culture-Meet the Filmmaker
Queer China, Comrade China With Director Cui Zi’en
MCC Theater
China’s most prolific homosexual filmmaker presents a historical account of the queer movement in modern China. This film documents the changes and developments in LGBT culture that have taken place in China over the last 80 years and explores the historical milestones and ongoing advocacy efforts of the Chinese LGBT community. The film culminates with the submission of Dr. Li Yinhe’s Same-sex Marriage Bill to the Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People’s Congress in 2003, a major landmark event in the ongoing struggle for acceptance of queer identity in China. Discussion with Director Cui Zi’en will follow the screening. Cui Zi’en, 60 min., Mandarin with English subtitles, 2009, China. Co-sponsored by the Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures; the Department of Feminist Studies; the Department of Film and Media Studies; the East Asia Center-ISBER; The Mellichamp Fund; the National Science Foundation: Partnership in International Research and Education in Electron Chemistry and Catalysis at Interfaces; and the Resource Center for Sexual & Gender Diversity
Performance
Roger Guenveur Smith’s Rodney King
MCC Theater
History, poetry and tragedy collide when Obie Award-winning actor, writer, and director Roger Guenveur Smith tackles the thorny odyssey of Rodney King—deemed 'the first reality TV star'—from the harsh initial glare of the national spotlight as the victim of police brutality to his involuntary martyrdom that ignited the L.A. riots to his lonely death at the bottom of a swimming pool. Smith's solo performance seamlessly fuses facts and friction, motion and emotion into a gripping narrative that poses impossible questions while illuminating his subject with grace and empathy. Co-sponsored by American Cultures & Global Contexts; AntiRacism, Inc.; the Black Student Union; and Hemispheric South/s Research Initiative.
Performance
Arthur Adams
MCC Theater
Known as 'Mr. Rhythm of the Blues,' Arthur Adams returns this spring to deliver an energetic and soulful performance of blues music. Born in Tennessee, Adams has performed throughout the US, recording with such talents as B.B. King, Quincy Jones, James Brown, James Taylor, and Bonnie Raitt. Tickets $5 UCSB Students and Children under 12/$15 general. Contact the A.S. Ticket Office at 805-893-2064 or buy online at www.mcc.ucsb.edu (extra fees apply). Limited Seating. Co-sponsored by the Santa Barbara Blues Society
DIVERSITY LECTURE
My Brother’s Keeper? The Intracommunal Practice of Love and the Redefinition of Diversity Felice Blake
MCC Theater
There is a limited range of ideas and actions in our current definition of diversity. If the vision of diversity attempted to include people of color in the institutions that excluded them historically, such inclusion did not (and perhaps never intended to) dismantle the structure of racial power in the U.S. Nonetheless, we live in a moment of social and political unraveling in which we witness, disavow, or simply live with unearned advantage or undeserved suffering. We need to reconfigure the work and politics of diversity. Our ideas about, and our practices, and commitments to diversity need to ask and answer the questions that are valuable to communities of color. These questions are formed, debated, and answered in struggle. Paying attention to intracommunal practices of revolutionary love, care, and support enable us to seek new meanings and values of diversity based on the collective consciousness towards social justice that these very communities envision. Felice Blake is Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Director of American Cultures & Global Contexts at UCSB. Co-sponsored by American Cultures & Global Contexts; AntiRacism, Inc.; the Office of the Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Academic Policy; and the Office of Equal Opportuniry & Sexual Harrassment/Title IX Compliance.
