Resource Theme Guides to selected programs from the Fall 2021 Visions & Voices program were created in partnership with USC Libraries faculty and staff. Look for recommended books and readings pertaining to the people, performances and topics covered by these events. Please scroll down for events beginning in September, 2021. Events are listed in chronological order through December, 2021. Visit the current season of: USC Visions and Voices Image source: Dr. Melissa L. Miller "Palace of Fine Arts" pond, located in San Francisco, CA. Make Mend: I’m DYE-ING to Make That! (Resource Theme Guide PDF) Wabi-Sabi Workshop Series Date: Monday, December 6, 2021 at 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Location: USC Fisher Museum of Art (HAR), Courtyard USC Libraries Contributor: Christina Snider Event Description: Wabi-sabi is the Japanese concept of “flawed beauty,” or beauty in imperfection. Many of the art and craft practices associated with wabi-sabi include everyday techniques and skills to elevate or showcase broken or damaged objects and highlight their flaws. Such mending and reflecting on repair can bring with it healing and acceptance of imperfection or transience. Make Mend is a series of wabi-sabi workshops presented by the USC Roski School of Art and Design that will explore fixing or improving what is damaged, broken, or torn, with respect towards the handmade and creativity as a wellness practice. Participants are invited to bring items that need repair, embellishment, or altering, and all skill levels are welcome. At the “I’m DYE-ING to Make That!” hour-long workshops, participants will join USC Roski professor Sherin Guirguis, Dean of USC Roski Haven Lin-Kirk, and members of the Roski staff around the indigo vat and stitch table to dye Shibori patches and learn the art of Boro mending. All materials and supplies will be provided to make one-of-a-kind creations and repair or elevate tattered or damaged clothing. Limited materials and space available per hourly session. Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative. Organized by the USC Roski School of Art and Design. Co-sponsored by the USC Fisher Museum of Art and the USC Pacific Asia Museum. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee: A Marathon Reading (Resource Theme Guide PDF) Date: Friday, December 3, 2021 at 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Location: School of Cinematic Arts - SCA (SCA), SCA Gallery, Steven Spielberg Building Lobby USC Libraries Contributor: Melissa Miller Event Description: Dictee is the pathbreaking and genre-defying magnum opus of internationally renowned artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, whose practice encompassed conceptual, visual, performance, film, and video art and creative writing across three languages. Posthumously published in 1982, the profoundly influential book continues to underscore the urgency of experimental memory work and challenge the boundaries between written text, speech, performance, and image. Dictee is widely taught across fields including literary studies, arts-based practice, American studies, ethnic studies, and gender and sexuality studies. To commemorate the 70th anniversary of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s birth, USC students and guests will collectively read Dictee in its entirety, both orally and in ASL. The event will also include presentations by Laura Hyun Yi Kang (UC Irvine), Lawrence Rinder (UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive), and John H. Cha (the artist’s brother and biographer); projected images of Theresa Cha’s work; and selected video works, addressing the sobering consequences of colonialism, forced migration, displacement, and violence. Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative. Organized by GYOPO, Annette Kim (Public Policy), Holly Willis (Cinematic Arts), and Yong Soon Min (Professor Emeritus, UC Irvine). Rhythms and Revolution: Race, Gender, and Jazz—Terri Lyne Carrington, säje, and Patrice Rushen in Concert (Resource Theme Guide PDF) Date: Thursday, December 2, 2021 at 7 p.m. Location: Bovard Auditorium (ADM) USC Libraries Contributor: Andrew Justice Event Description: In an extraordinary union, legendary drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, vocal supergroup säje (rhymes with “beige”), and award-winning pianist and USC Thornton professor Patrice Rushen will join artistic forces to perform original compositions, contemporary covers, and jazz standards while challenging barriers in the jazz industry and advocating for change in society. Following the concert, they will discuss their experiences and efforts as women and BIPOC artists in jazz. Bassist Anna Butterss and USC’s premiere vocal jazz ensemble CreSCendo will also perform. Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative. Organized by Sara Gazarek (Music). Midnight Traveler: Capturing the Global Refugee Crisis on Film (Resource Theme Guide PDF) Midnight Traveler: Capturing the Global Refugee Crisis on Film Date: Monday, November 15, 2021 at 7 p.m. Location: Ray Stark Family Theatre (SCA) USC Libraries Contributor: Kelsey Vukic Event Description: Join us for a thoughtful conversation with Afghan-born filmmakers Hassan Fazili and Fatima Hussaini about Midnight Traveler (2019). Shot entirely on cell phones, the award-winning documentary traces their family’s multiyear odyssey, spanning several continents and numerous refugee or migrant camps in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Following an introduction by USC History professor Paul Lerner and Exile Studies lIbrarian Michaela Ullmann, Fazili and Hussaini will show sequences from Midnight Traveler, discuss their difficult circumstances and creative choices, and address broader issues relating to migrant and refugee experiences and global film culture with Doris Berger (Senior Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures), Bernardo Rondeau (Senior Director of Film Programs at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures), and historian Marjan Wardaki of Yale University.Midnight Traveler will be made available to USC students for online viewing before the event. Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative. Organized by Paul Lerner (History) and Michaela Ullmann (USC Libraries). Waging Peace in Vietnam: An Exhibition of Protest Movements and Social Change (Resource Theme Guide PDF) Date: Thursday, November 11, 2021 - Friday, December 3, 2021 Location: Wallis Annenberg Hall (ANN) USC Libraries Contributor: Robert Labaree Event Description: Nearly five decades after America left the Vietnam War, and hundreds of books, articles, films, and television programs later, the GI resistance movement remains largely ignored. Based on the photo book Waging Peace in Vietnam, this exhibit will showcase photographs, oral histories, and archival documents related to the GI antiwar movement, illustrating how this pivotal movement unfolded and helped to end the war. Related Event: Waging Peace in Vietnam: Protest Movements and Social Change Thursday, November 11, 2021, at 7:30 p.m. Wallis Annenberg Hall For more info, click here.Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative. Organized by Diane Winston (Communication and Journalism) and William Short (Moorpark College). USSR 30: Cinema after the Collapse (Resource Theme Guide PDF) Date: Thursday, November 4, 2021 - Saturday, November 6, 2021 Location: School of Cinematic Arts - SCA (SCA), Ray Stark Family Theatre, SCA 108, and Frank Sinatra Hall, Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre Complex USC Libraries Contributor: Steve Hanson Event Description: On the 30th anniversary of the fall of the USSR, this three-day program will provide a front-row seat to history, featuring films from various countries and filmmakers, scholars, activists, and other international thought leaders participating in discussions about life and filmmaking in the post-Soviet world. The large-scale shifts in society that resulted from the dissolution of the Soviet Union will be represented and interpreted through feature, documentary, and short films. Such artistic responses to this pivotal political moment pose fundamental human questions, tackling the effects of displacement—physical, ideological, psychological, economic, spiritual—amidst the difficulty of interpreting arbitrary and constantly shifting borders. As the remnants of a fallen empire deal with the lingering effects of war, ethnic conflict, economic collapse, and new world orders, human dramas emerge as we come to terms with history, identity, community, and hope.Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative. Organized by the USC Dornsife Institute of Armenian Studies and USC Department of Slavic Languages and Literature. Co-sponsored by the USC School of Cinematic Arts, USC School of International Relations, and USC Armenian Students Association. An Evening with Zadie Smith (Resource Theme Guide PDF) The Subir and Malini Chowdhury Foundation Distinguished Speakers Series Date: Tuesday, November 2, 2021 at 7 p.m. Location: Bovard Auditorium (ADM) USC Libraries Contributor: Eimmy Solis Event Description: Zadie Smith is the award-winning author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW, and Swing Time, as well as collections of essays such as Changing My Mind and Feel Free. She was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002 and listed as one of Granta’s 20 Best Young British Novelists in 2003 and 2013, and is a tenured professor of fiction at New York University and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Born in North London in 1975 to an English father and a Jamaican mother and graduated from Cambridge in 1997, Smith wrote a short and timely series of reflective essays, Intimations, during the early months of lockdown. “Smith does more than illuminate what we’re going through,” according to John Powers of NPR’s Fresh Air. “She teaches us how to be better at being human.” At this special event, Smith will read from her recent work. A conversation with USC’s renowned writer-in-residence, Geoff Dyer, will follow. Presented by the USC Department of English, USC Office of the Provost, and USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative with support from the Subir and Malini Chowdhury Foundation. Masters of the Currents (Resource Theme Guide PDF) A Visions and Voices Signature Event Date: Thursday, October 21, 2021 at 7 p.m. Location: Bovard Auditorium (ADM) USC Libraries Contributor: Lisa Crow Event Description: Following three youth who have fled their island nations due to environmental and economic pressures and must now overcome conflicts of identity in their new home of Hawai’i, Masters of the Currents is a theatrical journey inspired by multigenerational voices of Micronesians living in the Aloha State today. Combining community-based story collection and social justice practices, this engaging and relevant ensemble play co-created by Leilani Chan and Ova Saopeng of TeAda Productions takes us from remote islands to urban cities, from ocean water passageways to paved asphalt highways. As the waters of our planet rise, what can we learn from the culture and descendants of the original ocean navigators of the Pacific? Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative. Co-sponsored by Asian Pacific American Student Services. Because of Anita: Truth, Justice, Race, Gender, and Power—30 Years Later, with Professor Anita Hill (Resource Theme Guide PDF) Date: Saturday, October 16, 2021 at 3 p.m. 3 to 5 p.m.: Panels, Conversations, and More 5 to 6 p.m.: Keynote Interview with Professor Anita Hill Location: Norris Cinema Theatre (NCT), and Bing Theatre USC Libraries Contributor: Kelsey Vukic Event Description: In October 1991, Anita Hill’s landmark testimony—that her former boss, Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, had sexually harassed her—ignited a movement. This month marks the 30th anniversary of the hearings, and the issues they raised are as urgent today as ever. What’s changed, what hasn’t, and what needs our attention now? Cindi Leive and Dr. Salamishah Tillet, co-hosts of the new podcast Because of Anita, will host an afternoon of programming culminating in a keynote interview with Professor Anita Hill and Beverly Guy-Sheftall, professor of women’s studies at Spelman College, that will look at the 30-year ripple effects of Hill’s testimony. Additional speakers to be announced. Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Intiative and The Meteor. Co-sponsored by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, USC School of Cinematic Arts, USC School of Dramatic Arts, and USC Gould School of Law. Special thanks to Audible. Dance as Radical Self-Care (Resource Theme Guide PDF) Date: Sunday, October 10, 2021 at 1 p.m. Location: USC Village, Lawn USC Libraries Contributor: Javier S. Garibay Event Description: Join us for an inspiring afternoon of dance intended to create connection, build community, foster well-being, and prompt reflective discussion on the intersection of dance, health, and thriving. Presented during Trojan Family Weekend, the event will include two guided movement workshops led by renowned Kaufman faculty d. Sabela grimes and Bret Easterling and a performance by USC students and alumni.d. Sabela grimes will lead a hip hop session using Funkamental MediKinetics, a technique he created that focuses on the methodical dance training and community-building elements evident in Black vernacular dance practices, engaging the physical and metaphysical body through a series of movement meditations. In the second workshop, Bret Easterling will lead an exploration of Gaga, an Israeli movement language that trains individuals to listen to their bodies, increase their energy, and cultivate attunement to one another as a group. A performance by USC students and alumni will feature dancers Bella Allen, Alexis Augustine, Timmy Blankenship, Eugene Bois, Emily Carr, Valerie Chen, Nina Gumbs, Anne Kim, William Okajima, and Jordan Powell; musicians Hazel Thunes, Austen Mendoza, Dario Bizio, and Carter Boyle; and spoken word artist Mykael Cammorto.Presented by USC Visions and Voices: the Arts and Humanities Initiative. Organized by the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, the Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, the Dance Medicine Team, and Change the Stigma. The Role of Science and Medical Schools in Propagating Racism in Medicine (Resource Theme Guide PDF) The Medical Humanities, Arts, and Ethics Series Date: Thursday, September 23, 2021 at 4 p.m. Location: Mayer Auditorium USC Libraries Contributor: Amy Chatfield Event Description: Dorothy Roberts is an acclaimed scholar whose pathbreaking work in law and public policy focuses on urgent contemporary issues in health, social justice, and bioethics. Her scholarship, which shows how biological ideologies about race, structural inequities, and individual biases work together to promote racial injustice, has been recognized with the American Psychiatric Association’s 2015 Solomon Carter Fuller Award and the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Family Planning, and by her election to the National Academy of Medicine in 2017. Casting a critical eye on the malign-but-often-overlooked effects that respected, liberal institutions can have, Roberts will address how racism in medicine is fostered by science and medical schools. Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative. Organized by Pamela Schaff (Medical Education, Family Medicine, and Pediatrics), Alexander Capron (Law and Medicine), Ricky Bluthenthal (Preventive Medicine), Ron Ben-Ari (Internal Medicine and Medical Education), Erika Wright (Medical Education and English), and Joyce Richey (Physiology & Neuroscience and Medical Education). Co-sponsored by Keck School of Medicine’s HEAL (Humanities, Ethics, Art, and the Law) Program and the USC Pacific Center for Health Policy and Ethics. Make Mend: DARN. (Resource Theme Guide PDF) Wabi-Sabi Workshop Series Date: Friday, September 10, 2021 at 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Location: Watt Hall (WAH), Courtyard USC Libraries Contributor: Rebecca Corbett Event Description: Wabi-sabi is the Japanese concept of “flawed beauty,” or beauty in imperfection. Many of the art and craft practices associated with wabi-sabi include everyday techniques and skills to elevate or showcase broken or damaged objects and highlight their flaws. Such mending and reflecting on repair can bring with it healing and acceptance of imperfection or transience. Make Mend is a series of wabi-sabi workshops presented by the USC Roski School of Art and Design that will explore fixing or improving what is damaged, broken, or torn, with respect towards the handmade and creativity as a wellness practice. Participants are invited to bring items that need repair, embellishment, or altering, and all skill levels are welcome. At the “DARN.” hour-long workshops, join Dean of USC Roski Haven Lin-Kirk and members of the USC Roski faculty and staff in a sewing circle for demonstrations of visible stitching, Sashiko (slow stitching), and darning techniques. Kits will be provided to participants, who will repair and elevate their damaged clothing through patching, mending, and visible sewing, and promote sustainability on a personal level. Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative. Organized by the USC Roski School of Art and Design. Co-sponsored by the USC Fisher Museum of Art and the USC Pacific Asia Museum. LaToya Ruby Frazier: The Last Cruze (Resource Theme Guide PDF) Date: September 8, 2021 – March 20, 2022 Location: California African American Museum USC Libraries Contributor: Stacy Williams Event Description: Artist LaToya Ruby Frazier works in photography, video, and performance to build visual archives that address industrialization, Rust Belt revitalization, environmental justice, healthcare inequity, family, and community history. Frazier’s work is exhibited widely in the United States and internationally, and she is currently an assistant professor of photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In The Last Cruze, Frazier chronicles the lives of workers at the General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio, which stopped production in 2019 after more than 50 years of operation. This shutdown presented Lordstown facility workers with limited choices: relocate, sometimes leaving behind family and support networks, or find work elsewhere—a familiar conundrum facing workers globally. Through 67 photographs, video, and an architectural installation that echoes the Lordstown assembly line, The Last Cruze extends Frazier’s longstanding commitment to visualizing how working-class people are impacted by industrial exploits, environmental injustice, and systemic racism. A corresponding conversation series, The Last Cruze: Conversations on the Ground in L.A., will feature discussions with Frazier and other artists, architects, scholars, and activists exploring themes in Frazier’s work and their connections to activism locally. Related Event: Industrial Residue in the Rust Belt: LaToya Ruby Frazier and Taylor Renee Aldridge in Conversation Date: Thursday, September 16, 2021 at 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Location: California African American Museum Related Event Description: To inaugurate The Last Cruze exhibition at the California African American Museum, artist LaToya Ruby Frazier will be joined by CAAM Visual Arts Curator Taylor Renee Aldridge to discuss Frazier’s ongoing work in documentary film and photography. In various interconnected bodies of work, Frazier uses collaborative storytelling with the people who appear in her artwork to celebrate working-class individuals and to address topics of industrialism, environmental justice, workers’ rights, human rights, and family. The Last Cruze extends this impulse by offering a monument to the workers of the former General Motors factory in Lordstown, Ohio, which was “unallocated” in 2019, leaving many of the factory workers unemployed. Frazier and Aldridge will discuss Black Americans’ contributions to the history of industrial advancement in this country, and how post-industrial decline continues to negatively impact working-class communities in Rust Belt cities, like Frazier’s hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania. Presented by the California African American Museum in partnership with USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative, the USC School of Architecture, and the USC Roski School of Art and Design. Crying in H Mart: Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast (Resource Theme Guide PDF) Date: Tuesday, September 7, 2021 at 6 p.m. Location: Virtual Event USC Libraries Contributor: Bree Russell Event Description: On the heels of publishing her critically acclaimed memoir, Crying in H Mart, and releasing her latest album, Jubilee, musician and author Michelle Zauner will join USC professor Karen Tongson for a reading and conversation. As a singer and guitarist, Zauner creates dreamy, shoegaze-inspired indie pop under the name Japanese Breakfast, winning acclaim from major music outlets around the world. As a writer, Zauner's new memoir powerfully explores growing up Korean American, losing her mother, the relationship between food and identity, and forging her way as an artist. Vivacious, plainspoken, lyrical, and honest, Zauner’s voice is radiantly alive on the page and onstage, and her ascent is being celebrated by Rolling Stone, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, The New Yorker, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and NPR, among other outlets. After reading from her bestselling book, Zauner will discuss her art and career, identity and entertainment, food and family, and more. Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative and the Department of Gender & Sexuality Studies. Co-sponsored by the USC Bedrosian Center and Asian Pacific American Student Services.