Friday, August 29 South Broadway Cultural Center Reception for Conference Arrivals—5-7 p.m Poetry Reading South Broadway Cultural Center-7-10 p.m. Invited readers includeHakim Bellamy, Lisa Gill, E.A. Mares, Demetria Martinez, Simon Ortiz, Maritza Perez, Charles Potts, Margaret Randall, Levi Romero, Danny Solis, Luci Tapahonso, and Jason Yurcic. Interludes by performance poets. Saturday, August 30 Harwood Cafeteria Registration 9 a.m.—5 p.m. Book and Art Exhibit 10 a.m.—5 p.m. 9 a.m.—10 a.m. Greetings and Orientation: Culture in a Time of Crisis In this period of social, economic, and political crisis, our cultural forms, means of expression, the audiences we reach, and the results we achieve are all under challenge. We'll begin with a discussion of the issues we face and the relationship of our cultural work to those issues. Discussants include John Crawford, Renny Golden, Mike Henson, Mary Oishi, Adam Rubenstein, Shigeko Sasamori, and Danny Solis. 10:30 a.m.—12 noon Panel 1. Creating a Culture: Poets and Artists Face the World (roundtable discussion) We’ll address the challenges facing writers of conscience in the modern world: the need for time, space, and financial support; the meeting of message and form; the recovery of community in a fragmented society; music, poetry, and story as public performance; and confronting oppression from inside and out. Participants include poets from the Friday night reading. Panel 2. The Southwest Nuclear Complex Long after the end of the Cold War, the Nuclear Age continues in the new century. Open uranium mining is planned on sacred land of Native peoples. Construction of nuclear triggers is underway at Los Alamos. New weapons are in the planning stages. Invited panelists include Sophia Martinez, Greg Mello, Gilbert Sanchez, Maria Santelli, and Shigeko Sasamori. 1 p.m.—2:30 p.m. Panel 3. Culture at Work: Education and Community Service This panel will discuss building culture from the ground up, through grassroots educational projects, prison arts, folk arts, labor arts, and popular forms of expression including poetry, music, and drama. We’re inviting presenters from a variety of settings: grassroots teachers and community organizers. Discussants include Mandy Gardner, Renny Golden, Mike Henson, Norma Smith, and Danny Solis. Panel 4. Critical Images: the People, the Cities, and the Land The place of the human community, its art and narrative in relation to our dwelling place in the cities and on the land. We especially note the performers, artists, photographers, and filmmakers of the Southwest who explain and interpret what they see. Discussants include Francisco Dominguez, Miguel Gandart, and Margaret Randall. 3 p.m.—4:30 p.m. *Panel 5. Southwest Culture and Society This panel explores traditional culture in a changing world. Special attention will be given to issues affecting Hispanic and Native American peoples of the Southwest: economic development, land and water use, the nuclear establishment, and border issues. Invited presenters include Estevan Arellano, Tomas Atencio, Enrique Lamadrid, E. A. Mares, Simon Ortiz, and Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz. Panel 6. Alternative Media—Telling the Truth for a Change Investigative reporting and its radical cousin, reportage, are a vital part of progressive American culture. Truth-telling demands organs of expression courageous enough to allow the truth to come out. Invited presenters include Hakim Bellamy, Leslie Clark, Francisco Dominguez, Rosamund Evans, Aaron Glantz, and Maria Santelli. 5 p.m.—6:30 p.m. Catered dinner Harwood Cafeteria 7 p.m.—10 p.m . An Evening of Conference Presentations Harwood Cafeteria Poetry, music, and the arts: Invited readers and speakers. Invited readers: Linda Hogan, Maisha Baton, and Sara Ortiz. lead off followed by an open mic event. Sunday, August 31 Harwood Cafeteria Registration 9 a.m.—3 p.m. Book and Art Exhibit 10 a.m.—5 p.m. Feedback Session Harwood Cateteria 9 a.m.—9:45 a.m We’ll review the panels and presentations of the first day with an eye to moving the rest of the weekend program forward. 10 a.m.—11:30 a.m. *Panel 7. Cultural Memory and Survival This panel will examine the lifetime work of two great cultural performers and activists of recent memory. Raul Salinas and Paula Gunn Allen. We'll consider their influence on us, their survivors. We'll also observe the passing of the renowned Palestinian poet. Mahmoud Darwish. Participants include John Crawford, Levi Romero, Patricia Clark Smith and others. Panel 8. Festivals of the Oppressed Starting from the saying, “A revolution is a festival of the oppressed,” we’ll look at the role of festival in public life, ranging from traditional cultural events to rallies and demonstrations to modern movements for social change. Invited presenters include Jaime Chavez, Juba Clayton, Dair Obenshain, Mary Oishi and Maritza Perez. 1 p.m.—2:30 p.m. Panel 9. Border Crossings, Immigration, and the New Imaginary The act of witness engages the issue of the border. What are we to do with the current situation, in which the globalization of the economy has produced a worldwide crisis in the movement of goods and services, raising the desperation of the people who provide them? Invited presenters include Marcela Diaz, Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, E.A. Mares, Demetria Martinez, and David Romo. Panel 10. The Idea of Peoples Culture We'll explore a movement long in the making, from the populist, ethnic, and labor cultures of the forties to the multicultural and solidarity movements of the sixties to the culture of rap music and performance poetry today. We'll invoke the spirit and examine the ideas of Midwestern author and activist Meridel Le Sueur, a frequent early visitor to New Mexico. We'll consider extra dimensions of the struggle including the relationship between art and revolution. Participants include Hakim Bellamy, John Crawford, Jenneta Mish, Simon Ortiz, Margaret Randall, and Fred Whitehead. 3 p.m.—4:30 p.m. Workshop 1. Resilience: Where the Personal is Political. Plain talk, and shared talk on keeping oneself alive and able to respond in difficult times. John Crawford and Mandy Gardner co-convenors. $10 conference fee Workshop 2. Poetry and Social Change. The writing of poetry, the reading of poetry, the publication of poetry. Interactive workshop. Michael Henson, convenor. $10 conference fee Workshop 3. Video: The founding of El Corno Emplumado. Documentary account of the creation of a radical literary magazine of the Sixties and ensuing events in Mexico City, leading to the student massacre of 1968, with commentary by Margaret Randall. $10 conference fee Workshop 4. Bill Witherup presents. A brief encounter with the writings and labor archives of Bill Witherup, including a speech by Eugene Debs. $10 conference fee 4:30 p.m.—6 p.m. Dinner on your own. An Evening of Conference Presentations Harwood Cafeteria 6 p.m. The Bomb: a History of Destruction. A critical talk on the bombing of Hiroshima and its continued meaning today by Hiroshima survivor and long-time anti-nuclear activist Shigeko Sasamori. Discussion follows. 7 p.m.—9:30 p.m. Poets and authors, West End Press. A celebration of the works of West End Press—recent past, present, and future. Keynote reader, Glenna Luschei. Featured readers include: Marianne Broyles, Jen Vernon, Sy Hoahwah, and Jeanetta Mish, and published West End authors. Followed by an open-mic. Monday, September 1 Harwood Cafeteria 9:30 a.m.—11 a.m. Plenary Session Looking again at the political, social, and economic crisis, we ask: what is the place of our culture as a means of expression and a vehicle of change? Where do we go from here? Shall we establish the cultural conference as an ongoing activity? When and where? How do we draw writers and activists and members of the performing arts, visual arts, and humanities together? What projects can we undertake? Recovery Session at Acequia Bookstore Acequia Bookstore Afternoon Recovery, surrounded by books, beverages, and a festival environment for those still standing. Directions and transportation to the bookstore will be provided. |
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Albuquerque Cultural Conference
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