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Art Gallery Events

A Conversation about Histories, Continuities and Futurities

Rocío Aranda-Alvarado & Deborah Cullen-Morales
With introduction by Dr. Cid, Dean of Arts and Sciences
December 1, 5:30 p.m.

Rocío Aranda-Alvarado is Program Officer, Creativity Free Expression, The Ford Foundation.

Deborah Cullen-Morales is Program Officer, Arts and Culture, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Meeting Link: Zoom


Past Events

All events are on Zoom except the David Antonio Cruz talk

Reading of “Into the Beautiful North”

Hispanic Alliance of Southeastern ConnecticutMigdalia Salas and Mirna Martinez
Oct. 3, 2020

Eastern Alumna Migdalia Salas, vice president of the Hispanic Alliance of Southeastern Connecticut, and educator and activist Mirna Martinez will be joined by immigrant Latinx students from New London High School, who will read “Into the Beautiful North.” They will also engage in conversations and writing about their or their families own journeys through a series of ZOOM meetings to be held each Saturday, Mi Historias. The Hispanic Alliance will also exhibit The FUTURE is LATINX, with four contemporary artists who anticipate their diverse future. Participating students will choose works from the exhibit and write responses to the art selected.


Poetry Reading

Bessy ReynaBessy Reyna
October 7, 3 p.m.

Bessy Reyna, poet laureate of the Town of Bolton, CT, and cultural critic, lawyer and Windham community spokeswoman, will read her poems about freedom, love and connectedness.
http://bessyreyna.com/

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xECXWdEcLIw


Ariella Aïsha Azoulay talk

Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Photograph: Núria Solé Bardalet. © Fundació Antoni TàpiesOctober 7, 4:15 p.m.

Azoulay claims that “It is not possible to decolonize the museum without decolonizing the world.” She argues that those whose worlds have been destroyed by five centuries of imperialism have the right to live near the objects that have been plundered from their culture. Azoulay will speak about her new book, "Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism", Verso, 2020.

Ariella Aïsha Azoulay is the writer, filmmaker and a curator who teaches political thought and visual culture at Brown University.

Meeting Link: will be sent via email to faculty/staff/students


Gallery Talk

David Antonio CruzDavid Antonio Cruz
October 8, 3 p.m. 

David Antonio Cruz is a multidisciplinary artist and a professor in the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. Cruz will speak about his practice, which fuses painting and performance to explore the visibility and intersectionality of Brown, Black and queer bodies.
http://www.cruzantoniodavid.com/


Kick Off

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, “Border Tuner/Sintonizador Fronterizo, Relational Architecture 2,” 2019Bowie High-School/Parque Chamizal, El Paso/Ciudad Juárez, Texas / Chihuahua, United States/ México; photo by Mariana YañezOctober 8, 4 p.m.

“THE FUTURE IS LATINX” is an exhibition that features 20 critically engaged artists who challenge the marginalized position of being foreigners in their own land. The kick-off event is the formal exhibition opening.  It will be presented in two venues: Eastern Art Gallery (Oct. 8– Dec. 11) and the Hispanic Alliance of South Connecticut, New London (Sept. 25–Dec. 11, 2020).

View the Exhibition Catalog


Reading of “Into the Beautiful North”

Hispanic Alliance of Southeastern ConnecticutMigdalia Salas and Mirna Martinez
Oct. 10, 2020

Eastern Alumna Migdalia Salas, vice president of the Hispanic Alliance of Southeastern Connecticut, and educator and activist Mirna Martinez will be joined by immigrant Latinx students from New London High School, who will read “Into the Beautiful North.” They will also engage in conversations and writing about their or their families own journeys through a series of ZOOM meetings to be held each Saturday, Mi Historias. The Hispanic Alliance will also exhibit The FUTURE is LATINX, with four contemporary artists who anticipate their diverse future. Participating students will choose works from the exhibit and write responses to the art selected.


Poetry Reading

Martín EspadaMartín Espada
October 13, 12:30 p.m.

Puerto Rican poet, attorney and activist Martín Espada will read new poems from his forthcoming poetry collection Floaters (Norton, 2021).
http://www.martinespada.net/

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g7jT1nQMVg


Border Tuner

Robyn Greenly and Kerry Doyle
October 13, 11 a.m.

Robyn Greenly (University of Connecticut) and Kerry Doyle (University of Texas-El Paso) will discuss “Border Tuner” (2019), a large-scale, site-specific, participatory installation by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer that has connected the cities of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua by powerful searchlights and opened live sound channels for communication across the US-Mexico border. Moderated by Eastern Professor Christine Garcia. (Border Tuner’s video documentation will be presented at Eastern Art Gallery as part of The FUTURE IS LATINX.)
https://www.bordertuner.net/home 

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHtLEVV3AnM


Conversation with Luis Alberto Urrea

Luis Alberto Urrea
Luis Alberto UrreaOctober 14, 3 p.m.

Luis Alberto Urrea, celebrated author of “Into the Beautiful North,” will speak about his prolific writing career (Urrea has published 14 books) and what it means to him that more than 100 cities and colleges have chosen his book for a community read.
http://luisurrea.com/

Meeting Link: will be sent via email to faculty/staff/students


Reading of “Into the Beautiful North”

Hispanic Alliance of Southeastern ConnecticutMigdalia Salas and Mirna Martinez
Oct. 17, 2020

Eastern Alumna Migdalia Salas, vice president of the Hispanic Alliance of Southeastern Connecticut, and educator and activist Mirna Martinez will be joined by immigrant Latinx students from New London High School, who will read “Into the Beautiful North.” They will also engage in conversations and writing about their or their families own journeys through a series of ZOOM meetings to be held each Saturday, Mi Historias. The Hispanic Alliance will also exhibit The FUTURE is LATINX, with four contemporary artists who anticipate their diverse future. Participating students will choose works from the exhibit and write responses to the art selected.


Community Conversation

CautionOctober 21, 3 p.m.

Presentations by elected officials, Eastern President Elsa Núñez, undocumented students and community stakeholders. Concludes with a musical performance by Eastern Voice faculty and students, who wrote original music compositions to the poems of LATINX writers.


Reading of “Into the Beautiful North”

Hispanic Alliance of Southeastern ConnecticutMigdalia Salas and Mirna Martinez
Oct. 24, 2020

Eastern Alumna Migdalia Salas, vice president of the Hispanic Alliance of Southeastern Connecticut, and educator and activist Mirna Martinez will be joined by immigrant Latinx students from New London High School, who will read “Into the Beautiful North.” They will also engage in conversations and writing about their or their families own journeys through a series of ZOOM meetings to be held each Saturday, Mi Historias. The Hispanic Alliance will also exhibit The FUTURE is LATINX, with four contemporary artists who anticipate their diverse future. Participating students will choose works from the exhibit and write responses to the art selected.


Reading of “Into the Beautiful North”

Hispanic Alliance of Southeastern ConnecticutMigdalia Salas and Mirna Martinez
Oct. 31, 2020

Eastern Alumna Migdalia Salas, vice president of the Hispanic Alliance of Southeastern Connecticut, and educator and activist Mirna Martinez will be joined by immigrant Latinx students from New London High School, who will read “Into the Beautiful North.” They will also engage in conversations and writing about their or their families own journeys through a series of ZOOM meetings to be held each Saturday, Mi Historias. The Hispanic Alliance will also exhibit The FUTURE is LATINX, with four contemporary artists who anticipate their diverse future. Participating students will choose works from the exhibit and write responses to the art selected.


Public Mural Painting

October TBA

A public mural will be painted by residents of Windham, Willimantic under the guidance of the Nicaraguan artist Alejandro de la Guerra, currently artist in residence at El Instituto (Institute of Latina, Caribbean and Latin American Studies), UCONN, sponsored by Artist Protection Fund (NYC) and the community of Willimantic on the premises of CLICK - multi-cultural, community kitchen in Willimantic. Guerra mural will be inspired by the style of Nicaraguan folk artists- muralists who created hundreds of murals in response to the Revolution in 1979. Guerra will engage students from local schools and the community. He will conduct a workshop on value of public art for the community.


Book Discussion

October TBA

Book discussions on zoom hosted by La Communidad, in collaboration with El Instituto and the Puerto Rican and Latin American Cultural Center (PRLACC), at UCONN. The discussion will tie the subjects in Urrea’s book to the issues of immigration, racism, escalating tensions on the border between Mexico and the US, bravery and more.


Artists in Conversation

Esteban Ramon Perez and Felipe Baeza
November 10, 3 p.m.

Esteban Ramon Perez and Felipe Baeza will discuss the multiplicity of LATINX and Chicano identity politics as it is manifested in their art work. Moderated by Eastern Professor Christine Garcia. Esteban Ramón Pérez is an interdisciplinary artist from the greater Los Angeles area who lives and works in New Haven, CT. He is an artist in residence at NXTHVN. Born in Guanajuato, Mexico, Felipe Baeza incorporates painting and printmaking to examine how memory, migration and displacement create a state of a state of hybridity and fugitivity. Last year Baeza was the artist in residence at NXTHVN.
https://www.nxthvn.com/

Meeting Link: will be sent via email to faculty/staff/students

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