Friday, February 23, 2007

Marching for change: Immigrant Movement

MARCHING FOR CHANGE: CHICAGO IN THE NATIONAL IMMIGRANT
MOVEMENT (Conference schedule attached)

Thursday, March 1, 2007
9.00am - 7.30pm
Room 302 Student Center East
University of Illinois at Chicago
750 S. Halsted
Chicago, IL 60607

Friday, March 2, 2007
9.00am - 6.00pm
Room 329 Student Center East

You are cordially invited to attend a two-day conference this upcoming March 1-2, hosted by the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Immigrant Mobilization Research Project.

The March 10th and May 1st mobilizations are the first national level mobilizations in U.S. history to be spearheaded by Latinos. They are also the first national mobilizations to focus on the rights of undocumented immigrants. An important feature of the immigrant movement
is that it reflects new and unprecedented connections among immigrant rights, civil rights and workers' rights.

UIC and Chicago area scholars will join community activists and artists in analyzing the impact of the immigrant marches, and the social and political significance of the immigrant movement at the local and national levels. Everyone interested is welcome to attend.

Keynote speakers will include:
Ms. Dolores Huerta, a lifelong workers' rights activist and
proponent of social justice, as well as Dr. Gaspar
Rivera-Salgado, Program Director of the Labor and Workplace
Studies Minor at the UCLA Center for Labor Research and
Education, and Ms. Xiomara Corpeno, the Organizing Director
of Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights.

*Please RSVP/Register with us by February 27th to nlesin2@uic.edu
(Please include your name, email/phone and affiliation) if you are planning to attend the conference. This event is free and open to the general public.

For questions or additional information email
Nawojka Lesinski - nlesin2@uic.edu or
Marta Elena Ayala - martae@uic.edu or call 312.996.2445.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Coalition of Immokalee Workers' Campaign for Fair Food

This April, farmworkers and their allies will gather in the Chicago area for an historic mobilization marking a new phase in the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' Campaign for Fair Food.

But we know this campaign for human rights and dignity in the fields will not end with the actions against McDonald's in April. Now's the time to come together and build the connections and skills we'll need in the months and years ahead.

Come join us this February 23-24 in Chicago for the Midwest Encuentro - A networking and strategy gathering of community, youth/student, and labor allies of the CIW:

  • Friday, February 23, 7pm: video, food, music and presentation with the CIW
  • Saturday, February 24, 9am-9pm: strategy discussions and workshops
(let us know if you can only make it for part of the day)
  • All events take place as Casa Aztlan, 1831 S. Racine, Chicago, IL
  • Download and share the outreach flyer here.

Workshop topics include:
  • Presentation and discussions with farmworker leaders from Immokalee
  • "Fair Food Animators" training - How to talk about the campaign with your community
  • Mobilizing for the April 13-14 actions
  • Educating and engaging communities beyond April
  • Solidarity and connections between our struggles

We will also be making art and holding an action at a local McDonald's Saturday afternoon!

Come join us, whether you're in the immediate Chicago area or the broader Midwest. Participating cities include Urbana-Champaign, Carbondale, Minneapolis, and Madison.

Housing will be provided for those coming from out of town.

Contact us at organize@sfalliance.org or 239.986.0847 to RSVP or for more information.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Finishing School


WWFSD?
: Finishing School


mini-exhibit: Lucia Gomez
flatscreen DVD: Amelia Winger-Bearskin

Opening Friday February 9, 2007 from 6pm-10pm
February 9- March 3, 2007

Finishing School’s new project, WWFSD?, which is primarily formatted as a blog, investigates specific ideas that they feel influence their practice. This introspective exercise helps them become more critically conscious of themselves and the world around them. Their goal is to share one idea each day for the year 2007. The installation at Polvo will include a selection of pieces from this project. You can visit the blog at www.wwfsd.blogspot.com

Finishing School (FS) is a collective identity that investigates the many intersections between critical, covert, and common subject territories. All FS projects attempt to demystify cultural production and engage viewers into various participatory models. The collective has been open for business since 2001. You can visit them at www.finishing-school.net


mini-exhibit: Lucia Gomez

Lucia Gomez (born in Guatemala) is pursuing her B.F.A. in Photography with Columbia College Chicago. Her exhibited work deals with identity politics, dealing with her bi-cultural heritage. Presently, Gomez is documenting the Immigrant Rights Movement, photographing the life of activist, Elvira Arellano. Her photographs have been published with "Hoy" Newspaper and can seen on "Deviant Art" website.



flatscreen DVD: Amelia Winger-Bearskin

Amelia Winger-Bearskin is currently an MFA Candidate at the University of Texas in Austin where she is majoring in Transmedia, the study of time based art which includes Video Art , Performance art, and time based Installation. Amelia is greatly interested in exploring the 4th dimension in art, and to challenge the visual experience in addition to the temporal connection to artistic experience.

She was classically trained as an Opera Singer in Rochester NY at the Eastman conservatory of music, and then pursued an undergraduate degree in the area of sculpture and Performance art at George Mason University outside of DC. Growing up in Rochester NY , close to her seneca-cayuga tribal lands and the site of their largest city, was influential in shaping her narrative and outlook of her current work. Her mother is a traditional native storyteller from the Seneca Cayuga tribe of the Iroquois nation. Stories of all kinds weave themselves into her works and are re contextualized to shape her work, unfolding destination, space, and time. She is currently working out of Austin Texas, and is showing works with live performance art and digital video. Amelia Winger-Bearskin has shown in various galleries in major US cities, as well as in Mexico and Central America, where she lived for many years. She has received various grants, fellowships and awards in the artistic fields, and has a large body of collaborative artwork in addition to her solo pieces.

POLVO
1458 W. 18th St. 1R
Chicago, IL 60608
info@polvo.org
773 344 1940
http://www.polvo.org
HOURS: Saturdays from Noon-5pm or by appointment

Self- Adored

Calles y Sueños- Chicago in Collabration with Café Mestizo Presents:
Self- Adored


Artwork by: Miguel Jimenez & Mitchell Lara

Opening Reception
Saturday, February 10th, 2007 from 6pm-9pm
Exhibit will run til March 1st, 2007

Music by: Ivan Resendiz, classical guitar

For more information: cys_94@hotmail.com

This show is in support for Jose David, cordinator of Casa de Arte y Cultura, Calles y Sueños, Juchitan, Oaxaca-Mexico.

Café Mestizo
1646 West 18th Street
Chicago, Illinois , 60608
www.cafemestizo.com