All Events
Race Matters Series
How Racism Takes Place George Lipsitz
MCC LOUNGE
Relations between races are relations between places. White identity in the United States is place bound. It exists and persists because segregated neighborhoods and segregated schools are nodes in a network of practices that skew opportunities and life chances along racial lines. The racial imagination that relegates people of different races to different spaces produces grossly unequal access to education, employment, transportation, and shelter. Racial justice requires a new spatial imaginary, one that will replace hostile privatism and defensive localism with a commitment to open, inclusionary, and egalitarian places. George Lipsitz is Professor of Black Studies and Sociology at UCSB. He is the author of ten books, the most recent one How Racism Takes Place. He is senior editor of the journal KALFOU, editor of the Critical American Studies series at the University of Minnesota Press and co-editor of the American Crossroads series at the University of California Press. Lipsitz serves as president of the advisory board of the African American Policy Forum and as a member of the board of directors of the National Fair Housing Alliance.
Cup of Culture
Budrus
MCC THEATER
Ayed Morrar, an unlikely community organizer, unites Palestinians from all political factions and Israelis to save his village from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier. Victory seems improbable until his 15-year-old daughter, Iltezam, launches a women’s contingent that quickly moves to the front lines. Budrus shines a light on people who choose nonviolence to confront a threat yet remain virtually unknown to the world. Julia Bacha, 82 min., English, 2010, USA.
The Language of Hip Hop Dr. Farai 'Fafi' Bere (A.K.A. 3 Percent)
MCC LOUNGE
A Zimbabwean born academic and musician, Dr. Farai Bere focuses on what he calls Black performativity, the performance of Blackness as a political force and how Black performance can be said to embody Blackness. He looks at the context of Black performance in Africa, the United States, and the rest of the African Diaspora. Bere received his PhD from New York University in Performance Studies with an emphasis on African and Afro-Diasporic music, theater, and orature. Fafi will perform briefly after his lecture. Co-sponsored by the African Studies Research Focus Group, Friends of Africa, and professors Peter Bloom, Mhoze Chikowero, and Stephan Miescher.
Cup of Culture
Hustle and Flow
MCC THEATER
Hustle and Flow is the redemptive story of DJay, a streetwise Memphis hustler trying to find his voice and realize his long-buried dreams. When he hears that a local boy who made good is coming back to Memphis, he throws together his greatest hustle for what he thinks is his last chance at a record deal. Join an engaging discussion on the representation of African American masculinity and gender roles through the controversial main character in this film. Craig Brewer, 116 min., English, 2005, USA. Co-sponsored by Counseling Services, the Men’s Think Tank, and the Resource Center for Sexual & Gender Diversity.
