[Marxism] AGITPROP NEWS: 4.20.08

[Mike Alewitz]

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LaBOR aRT & MuRAL PRoJECT
AGITPROP NEWS: 4.20.08




In this issue: 


1.  Artworks: The Role of the Arts in U.S. Workers¹ Struggles
2.  The 2nd 1st New Britain International Mural Slam
3.  The Kent State Massacre: We Will Never Forget
4.  Doesn¹t Get Stranger Than This


____________________________



1. Artworks



Artworks: The Role of the Arts in U.S. Workers¹ Struggles


April 22-24/ Syracuse University


Workers, labor activists, scholars, musicians, artists, filmmakers, and
writers will gather at Syracuse University April 22 to 24 to celebrate and
explore art with a social conscience during the 2008 Ray Smith Symposium,
³Artworks: The Role of the Arts in U.S. Workers¹ Struggles.² The symposium
will include musical and dramatic performances, film showings, readings, and
panel discussions. All events are free and open to the public. A complete
schedule is available on the Web at http://artworks.syr.edu.


Art Works opening ceremony:
> 
³Working: A Celebration of Syracuse Workers in Words, Photography, and
Music² will be held 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 22 in SU¹s Maxwell
Auditorium. The event will feature music by Herrera;  singer-song writer Tom
Juravich, professor of labor studies and director of the Labor Center at the
University of Massachusetts; and readings from ³Working: An Anthology of
Writing and Photography.²


Keynote event:

Esther Cohen, executive director of the New York City-based Bread and Roses
workers¹ cultural project. She will present ³A Visual History of Workers
Lives,² 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, April 23, in SU¹s Physics Building, Stolkin
Auditorium. The evening celebration will include musical performances.


Film screenings: 

³A Day¹s Work, A Day¹s Pay,² documents the efforts of three welfare
recipients in New York City from 1997 to 2000 to transform the city¹s
welfare-to-work program, 1 to 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, SU¹s Schine Student
Center, Rooms 304 A, B, and C.
 
³Hammering it Out² spotlights women involved in the Century Freeway Women¹s
Employment Project in Los Angeles

³Transnational Tradeswomen² documents current and historical roles of women
in the construction industry in Asia, 1 to 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 23 in
SU¹s Schine Student Center, Rooms 304 A, B, and C.


Syracuse University Special Collections workshops:

³Visual Arts and Labor Activism,² a presentation of materials of
20th-century artists related to labor and arts, including works by Fred
Ellis, Hugo Gellert, Diego Rivera, and photographer Margaret Bourke White, 1
to 2 p.m.  Tuesday, April 22

³The Written Word and Labor Activism,² the story of the labor movement as
portrayed through novels, poetry, drama, and song, 1 to 2 p.m. Wednesday,
April 23. Both workshops will be held in the Antje Bultman Lemke Seminar
Room, 6th Floor Bird Library. Pre-registration is required. E-mail
sjparks at syr.edu.


Panel discussions: 

A series of panel discussions will be held between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on
April 22 and 23 in SU¹s Schine Student Center, Rooms 304 A, B, and C.  The
panels will feature guest presenters Kathy Leichter, co-director of ³A Day¹s
Work, A Day¹s Pay;² Marty Pottenger, performance artist and writer and
director of the Abundance Project; Mike Alewitz, internationally renowned
muralist and labor movement activist; Nick Pollard, board member of FED‹an
alliance of working-class writers in Great Britain; Anne Marie Taliercio,
president and business manager of UNITE HERE Local 150; and Jan Cohen-Cruz,
director of Imagining America and University Professor at SU, among others.


Graphic Arts and Labor Struggle:
THURSDAY, APRIL 24 - 9 to 10:30 a.m.

€ Mike Alewitz, internationally renowned muralist and labor movement
activist, will present: ³Up Against the Wall: Agitprop Murals and the Fight
for Working Class Power²

€ Lincoln Cushing, Digital photo cataloger, Kaiser-Permanente
Labor-Management Partnership, will present ³Art/Works‹A Survey of American
Labor Posters²

€ Peter Sawchuk, associate professor/ Department of Sociology & Equity
Studies in Education,?Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University
of Toronto, will present ³The Hidden Potential for Art for Expansive Labor
Education²


(Excerpts from official press release)

> 
____________________________



2.  MURAL SLAM 

> 
> 
The 2nd 1st New Britain International MURAL SLAM

(Rescheduled from October, 2007)

Information at www.myspace.com/ccsumuralslam

_______________________________


The World¹s First MURAL SLAM!
> 
Featuring:

- Internationally recognized artists!
 
- Internationally unrecognized artists!
 
- Muralists!
 
- Graffiti artists!
 
- Moderately attractive people making art!
 
- Awkward prizes!
> 
_ _ _ _ _ _ _

> 
Calling all graffiti artists, muralists, scenic painters, air brush artists,
and activists!  

The 1st International Mural Slam is being held in New Britain, CT in
conjunction with the community-based mural painting program at Central CT
State University.
 
Artists will paint 4¹ x 12¹ sections of wall on the roof of Welte Parking
Garage, with prizes awarded for the best and worst pieces.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

April 26, 2008
9am -  5pm

Welte Garage
Central CT State University
New Britain, CT

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

One 4¹ X 12¹ Wall and 8 Hours to Paint!

Everyone is a winner or loser!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This is a juried competition.
BYOP (bring your own paint)
Anyone spraying paint must wear an OSHA approved respirator.

For further information and links to registration:
www.myspace.com/ccsumuralslam
> 
> 

_____________________________



3.  We Will Never Forget
> 


Mayday Event:

THE KENT STATE MASSACRE: An Eyewitness Account

A slideshow and discussion about how students fought to end the war in
Vietnam

- - - - - - - -

Thursday, May 1, 1 PM
Theater Lobby/ Art Building
Central CT State University

- - - - - - - -

On May 4, 1970, the National Guard fired upon a peaceful anti-war protest at
Kent State University in Ohio.  The unprovoked attack left four dead and
nine wounded. 

Students had gathered to protest President Richard Nixon¹s announcement that
the US had invaded Cambodia ­ a major escalation of the war in Southeast
Asia.

The massacre at Kent was followed two days later with the police barrage of
bullets into a dormitory at Jackson State in Mississippi, killing two
students and wounding an unknown number of others.

The massacres at Kent and Jackson, after years of government lies about the
war, sparked a national student strike that became the largest political
demonstration in U.S. history.  Tens of thousands of students occupied their
universities and used the facilities to spread the strike. The protests
played a crucial role in forcing the government to bring the troops home.

This slideshow provides a stark documentation of the events of May 4 and
it¹s aftermath.  We will discuss the Kent events in the context of the
current occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the US threats against
Iran.

- - - - - - - -

Speaker: MIKE ALEWITZ

Mike Alewitz was the founder and chairman of the Kent Student Mobilization
Committee Against the War in Vietnam.  He was a participant and eyewitness
to the massacre of May 4, 1970, and a leader of the national student strike
that followed.

> 
_____________________________
> 
> 
> 
4.  Doesn¹t Get Stranger Than This
> 
http://www.tothepointnews.com/content/view/3114/85/
>> 
>> 
>> ___________________________________________
>>> 
>>> 
>>> MIKE ALEWITZ
>>> Labor Art & Mural Project
>>> __________________________________
>>> 
>>> Art Dept/ Central CT State University
>>> 1615 Stanley Street/ New Britain, CT  06050
>>> ___________________________________
>>> 
>>> Office: 860.832.2359/ Mobile: 860.518.4046
>> 
>> 
>> 


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