Examining Migration Issues Through Art, Music, Film, Multimedia and Public Discourse

Series of programs, special events sponsored by Rutgers University, Newark

Rutgers University, Newark, is mounting a three-month long series of public programs that will draw upon the arts and multimedia, as well as discussion, to examine the migration issue from a variety of voices and viewpoints. All of the programs are open to the public, free of charge, at a variety of venues on campus, with the final event taking place in the Newark Museum. 

“The United States of Migration,” a series of exhibits, screenings, performances, artist talks, panels, and workshops, is organized by the Center for Migration and the Global City at Rutgers-Newark, in collaboration with Rutgers-Newark’s Graduate Program in American Studies; the Rutgers-Newark Department of Arts, Culture and Media; the Paul Robeson Galleries on the Newark campus; the Eagleton Institute of Politics, Program on Immigration and Democracy, Rutgers-New Brunswick; and The Newark Museum. 

“Immigration is a transnational phenomenon with distinctly local consequences,” explains Tim Raphael, director, Rutgers Center for Migration and the Global City.  “We in northern New Jersey live in a region that is being remade by immigrants.  ‘The United States of Migration’ explores the challenges and rewards of immigration and its transnational redefinition of American culture and politics.” 

Here is the full listing of events and exhibitions for “The United States of Migration:” 

FEB. 10-APRIL 6, 2011, Gallery Exhibit: Judith Sloan & Warren Lehrer, Crossing The BLVD: Strangers, Neighbors, Aliens, in a New America; http://www.crossingtheblvd.org/  Paul Robeson Galleries, Paul Robeson Campus Center, 350 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Newark

As immigration issues and policy are being hotly debated around the country, Crossing the BLVD presents the stories of the immigrants and refugees who people the global village along Queens Boulevard in Queens, NY.  For three years, Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloan traveled the world by trekking the streets of their home borough. The exhibit documents the experiences of the people they encountered along the way and the multiple media (oral history, book, graphic design, radio, photography, performance) Sloane and Lehrer have employed to tell their stories. 

MONDAY, FEB. 14, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.—Artists Talk /Exhibit Opening/Reception; Judith Sloan & Warren Lehrer, Crossing The BLVD; Paul Robeson Galleries, Paul Robeson Campus Center, 350 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Newark

Warren Lehrer will speak about the conception of the Crossing The BLVD project and the use of multiple media for representing and disseminating the stories. 

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 23, 2:30 – 4:30 p.m.—Screening/Panel Discussion; Joel Katz, White: A Memoir in Color, http://www.onierafilms.com/films/sf_desc.html,

Dana Room, Dana Library, 185 University Ave., Newark

 The filmmaker of Strange Fruit will screen and discuss his new work-in-progress memoir/documentary about being white in America. The film is told from several different personal perspectives: as an adoptive father to a mixed-race child (he and his wife are both white and Jewish; their daughter is Irish/Italian and African- American, born in Newark); as the son of a white Jewish father who spent most of his working career as a Professor at Howard University; as a Professor himself in a university with a predominantly non-white student body (New Jersey City University in Jersey City).

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2:30-5 p.m.—Screening/Panel Discussion; Carlos Sandoval, Catherine Tambini, Farmingville; http://www.farmingvillethemovie.com/  Dana Room, Dana Library, 185 University Ave., Newark

This multiple award-winning film documents the tensions spawned by immigration in a Long Island town. Farmingville’s story reflects the challenge facing many communities as the Latino population not only spreads across the nation farther than any previous wave of immigrants, but also bypasses traditional immigrant gateways and heads directly to suburbs and the American heartland. 

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 2:30-4:30 p.m. and 7-9 p.m.—Solo Performance, Judith Sloan, Crossing The BLVD performances, Bradley Hall Theater, 392 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Newark 

Based on Lehrer and Sloan’s critically acclaimed book, actor/writer Judith Sloan channels many of the people that the couple interviewed on their three-year journey around the world along Queens Boulevard. The performance is illuminated by projections of Lehrer’s stunning photographs and an original soundtrack of music and sounds, including Sloan’s audio mixes, and music by Scott Johnson and Gogol Bordello. 

THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 12:30-1:30 p.m.—Musical Performance, The Momenta Quartet:  Coming to America:  Music by contemporary American immigrant composers and Dvorak’s “American” Quartet, Paul Robeson Galleries, Paul Robeson Campus Center, 350 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Newark; www.newark.rutgers.edu/arts 

  WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2:30-4 p.m.—Photography/Artist Talk, Jonathan Hyman, 9/11 and the New American Landscape, Dana Room, John Cotton Dana Library, 185 University Ave., Newark

On Sept. 12, 2001, photographer Jonathan Hyman set out to document how Americans would remember 9/11. Nearly 20,000 photographs later, his images depict the creation and evolution of a vernacular memorial culture and vocabulary that arose in response to the events of 9/11. Hyman will screen a selection of photos and discuss what they reveal about how our memories of 9/11 impact our current understanding of what it means to be an American.  

 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2:30-5 p.m.—Screening/Artist Talk/ Workshop, Muriel Hasbun, barquitos de papel, www.murielhasbun.com , Paul Robeson Galleries, Paul Robeson Campus Center, 350 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Newark

Through an intergenerational, transnational and transcultural lens, photographer Muriel Hasbun constructs contemporary narratives where individual memory and collective memory spark new questions about identity and place. With barquitos de papel/paper boats, she draws from the autobiographical as a point of departure, and alludes to the role of lens-based media in the telling of our stories. Hasbun will speak about her work and conduct a workshop in which participants will create their own paper boats inscribed with their family history and stories of migration. 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2:30-5 p.m.—Screening/Artist Talk/Panel discussion, Kobina Aidoo, The Neo-African-Americans, http://neoafricanamericans.wordpress.com/ , Dana Room, John Cotton Dana Library, 185 University Ave., Newark

Are you African American? Black? Hispanic? Caribbean? African? American? There are millions walking down the street who are ethnically African but not necessarily American, yet we call them African American. Consequently, the stories of some of the fastest growing immigrant populations have been lost in the traditional African American narrative. The Neo-African-Americans explores how rapid, voluntary immigration from Africa and the Caribbean is transforming the African American narrative. Following the screening, filmmaker and public policy consultant Kobina Aidoo will participate in a panel discussion about how these trends are powerfully transforming Black American identity, neighborhoods and academic institutions. 

APRIL 26, 6- 7 p.m., reception, Screening/Panel Discussion, 7 – 9 p.m., Kim A. Snyder, Welcome to Shelbyville http://welcometoshelbyvilleonline.org/wordpress/  Billy Johnson Auditorium, Newark Museum, 49 Washington St., Newark

Change has come to rural Tennessee. Set against the backdrop of a shaky economy, Welcome to Shelbyville takes an intimate look at a southern town as its residents – whites and African Americans, Latinos and Somalis – grapple with their beliefs, their histories and their evolving ways of life. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers. 

Funding for “The United States of Migration” series is provided by the Rutgers-Newark Council on Community Based Learning, the Cultural Programming Committee and the Office of the Associate Vice President for Academic and Public Partnerships in the Arts and Humanities at Rutgers-New Brunswick. Dana Library, Bradley Hall and Paul Robeson Campus Center are handicapped- accessible.

GETTING TO RUTGERS UNIVERSITY IN NEWARK BY MASS TRANSIT: Rutgers-Newark can be reached by New Jersey Transit buses and trains, the PATH train and Amtrak from New York City, and by the Newark Light Rail, Washington Street Station or Broad Street Station. 

BY CAR: Rutgers-Newark can be reached by the Garden State Parkway, New Jersey Turnpike, Routes 95, 21, 78, and 280, and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels. Metered parking  available on University Avenue; other parking: Rutgers-Newark’s parking garage (200 University Ave.) or the Bradley Hall Lot.  Printable maps and driving directions at: www.newark.rutgers.edu/maps/index.php