FOTA promises artistic diversity

The Festival of the Arts, an annual student-run festival, will feature art of every possible description, including Arabic calligraphy, klezmer music, drag cabaret, wood carving, installation art and a circus, not to mention photography, theater, classical music, rock concerts and a daily craft workshop on the Main Quadrangle.

Speakers include renowned performance artist Annie Sprinkle and American-Israeli filmmaker B.Z. Goldberg.

Among this year’s highlights:

Exhibitions

Arabic calligraphy by Nihad Dukhan, a Palestinian artist, will be exhibited with a collection of photographs by Sabeel, a Christian organization in Bethlehem. The exhibition, sponsored by the Arab Student Union, will be displayed from Sunday, May 12 to Sunday, May 26, in the Ida Noyes Library and Lounge.

Art of the Eye, a collection of paintings by visually impaired artists, is being sponsored by Friends of the Greek Council and Delta Gamma. (Delta Gamma’s community service focuses on helping the blind.) The exhibition will be displayed from Sunday, May 12 to Sunday, May 26, in the Social Science Administration Building.

Alterity and Everyday Political Consciousness is a collection of photographs of Afghan refugees in Pakistani refugee camps, taken by fourth-year Daniel Pepper in December 2001. The collection will be on display on the first floor of the Joseph Regenstein Library from Sunday, May 12 to Sunday, May 26.

Cigarette Box Shrines. Third-year Sarah Vogel and several other student artists have converted used cigarette packs into “shrines”––some featuring Catholic or other religious imagery, some with dirt and seeds for planting. The shrines will be sold for 75 cents out of a converted cigarette machine in Ex Libris coffee shop, Joseph Regenstein Library. Sunday, May 12 to Sunday, May 26.

Public art. Student work will be displayed in Crerar Library, Harper Memorial Library, Hutchinson Commons, Ida Noyes Hall, and the Joseph Regenstein Library, Sunday, May 12 to Sunday, May 26. Exhibitions include paintings by Melissa Buschey, Vicente Cano, John Clayton, Ayelet Even-Nur, Wylie Garcia, Daryl Osuch and Tim Schneider; photography by Jean Bauer and Andrea Parker; collage by Arline Welty; and installation art by Elliott Brennan and Johnathan Puff, Ceyda Oskay, Arturo Perez and the artists’ collective The Staff. Exhibition openings begin at 4 p.m. Sunday, May 12 and 4 p.m. Monday, May 13. Food and drink will be served, and the artists will be available to answer questions.

Music, theater and performance

At the Apartment, a rock opera about life in a Hyde Park apartment. Written and directed by Ethan Sellers (A.B., ’96) and performed by University Theater. Francis X. Kinahan Theater, 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 14, third-floor, Reynolds Club.

Drum circle. Bring your own drum for a drumming session at 2 p.m. Tuesday, May 14, in the FOTA tent near Bond Chapel.

Lollapalivingroom, a festival of student and local bands, will take place from 5 to 8 p.m., Tuesday, May 14 and Wednesday, May 15, in Hutchinson Courtyard.

Cinderella: A Hip-hop Tale of an Illegal Alien, a piece brought by the Organization of Black Students and the Movement, will begin at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, May 19, in the Francis X. Kinahan Theater, third-floor, Reynolds Club.

An Evening of Klezmer and Storytelling, featuring the Maxwell Street Klezmer Sextet, is being sponsored by Newberger Hillel Center. The event will take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 23, in the Francis X. Kinahan Theater, third-floor, Reynolds Club.

Film

Promises, an Oscar-nominated film about children caught up in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by filmmaker B.Z. Goldberg, will be screened in the Max Palevsky Cinema at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 15. Goldberg will answer questions after the screening.

Haunting Pierrot’s Ghost (see story, Page 6) will premiere in Max Palevsky Cinema, at 9:30 p.m. Sunday, May 26.

Lectures and Other Events

Spread the Love: Art for All. Fourth-year Ricky Abisla will set up a craft table, complete with construction paper, glue, glitter, paper plates and popsicle sticks. Students, faculty and staff are welcome to stop by and rediscover their inner artist. Craft sessions will take place on the Main Quadrangle Sunday, May 12 to Sunday, May 26.

Euphony Release Party/Hyde Park Band Showcase. Listen to Hyde Park bands and pick up a free copy of the literary magazine Euphony, featuring work by former Poet Laureate Mark Strand. The event will take place from 5 to 11 p.m. Thursday, May 16, in Ida Noyes Theater.

Drag Attack Cabaret Workshop, featuring drag kings and queens from Olympia, Wash., is being sponsored by the Center for Gender Studies. The workshop will be at 4 p.m. Friday, May 17, in Harper Memorial Library, Room 125.

Annie Sprinkle, a renowned performance artist, will talk about her life and work at 3 p.m. Friday, May 24, in Max Palevsky Cinema.

Le Vorris and Vox, Circa 3002, a post-apocalyptic circus, will feature acrobats, clowns, stilt-walkers, fire-breathers, jugglers and a sideshow (i.e. a German student reading Hegel in German) in a ring made of industrial trash. The event will be at 4 p.m. Saturday, May 18, on the Main Quadrangle.

Wood Carving Project: Journey to Adulthood. In a culture without defined rites of passage, how do young people establish themselves as adults? Fourth-year Johnathan Puff and second-year Shawn Lavoie will explore this question in a performance-based wood-carving project from dawn to dusk Sunday, May 26, on the Main Quadrangle.