FALL 2005 CAST COMPARATIVE CULTURAL ACTIVISM IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

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1 FALL 2005 CAST COMPARATIVE CULTURAL ACTIVISM IN THEORY AND PRACTICE Professor Lisa Kahaleole Hall M/W 2:30-4:00, SCTR A154 Office: King 141-I Phone: Office Hours: M/F and by appt. This course will examine how a wide range of activist/artist/intellectuals have used performance, visual art and writing to provoke, inspire and critique multiple dimensions of racial, gendered and sexualized identities in the US. Includes work by Coco Fusco, Marlon Riggs, Toni Cade Bambara, ACT-UP, the Gran Fury Collective and Cherrie Moraga among many others. Students will be ultimately responsible for a final group project that raises issues they will collectively choose. REQUIRED TEXTS The Yes Men: The True Story of the End of the World Trade Organization The New World Border- Guillermo Gomez Pena English is broken here : notes on cultural fusion in the Americas--Coco Fusco First Indian on the moon --Sherman Alexie All textbooks can be purchased at the college bookstore. Articles are available on Blackboard. COURSE REQUIREMENTS Class attendance and participation (20 percent): Class attendance and participation are mandatory. After two unexcused absences, your course grade will be lowered one half grade per unexcused absence. To obtain an excused absence, you must contact me prior to class, provide a legitimate reason for your absence, and make arrangements to turn in the daily class preparation assignment Reading Responses (40 percent): 1-2 pp. due each week analyzing method and content of each class session s artist/activists. One half of the class will be responsible for Monday readings, the other half for Wednesday readings. Website/visual/ aural presentation (10 percent): Each class member will be responsible for a short presentation on websites, visual arts projects and/or musicians to be determined later. Final Class Project (30 percent): Multiple genre artistic activist group project whose themes and modes of presentation will be decided collectively within the class.

2 CLASS POLICIES LATE WORK: All assignments must be completed on time. Papers not turned in at the beginning of class on the specified date will be considered late and will be penalized 1/3 grade for each day it is overdue. Late papers will not receive written comments. HONOR CODE: The policies described in the Oberlin College Honor Code apply to this class. Written work must include proper citations and must be the product of your own work. You are also required to include the following statement on all written assignments: "I affirm that I have adhered to the Honor Code in this assignment." If you have any questions about how to properly cite sources or about the Honor Code, please feel free to approach me. For more information on the Honor Code, see STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: If you need disability-related accommodations in your work for this course, please let me know. Support is available through Student Academic Services please contact Jane Boomer, Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities (Room G27 Peters Hall, ext ) for assistance in developing a plan to address your academic needs. ACADEMIC INCOMPLETES at the end of the semester will not be given except case of an emergency. SCHEDULE OF TOPICS: This schedule is subject to change as the class evolves this semester. Week One Wed. Sept. 7 Introduction to Class Toni Cade Bambara video Poetry for the People Week Two Mon. Sept. 12 Wed. Sept. 14 VIDEO: A Place of Rage NOTE: Friday, September Coco Fusco will be giving a performative lecture in West Lecture Hall from 4:30pm-6:00pm Week Three Mon. Sept. 19 Selections from English is Broken Here Wed. Sept. 21 Colonial Dreams/Post-colonial Nightmares: A Chronicle of Performance Projects ( ) (The New World Border) pp VIDEO: The Couple in the Cage NOTE: Thursday, September 22- Jose Esteban Munoz will be giving a lecture on Latino/a Sexuality in West Lecture Hall- 4:30pm-6:00pm

3 From poetry to film-making Week Four Mon. Sept. 26 Selections from First Indian on the moon --Sherman Alexie Wed. Sept. 28 VIDEO: The Business of Fancydancing Hold Me Closer, Fancy Dancer: A Conversation with Sherman Alexie b7b9?OpenDocument Week Five Mon. Oct 3 Language and The Writer ( DSRM) pp How She Came By Her Name ( DSRM) pp Wed. Oct. 5 Reading the Signs, Empowering the Eye: Daughters of the Dust and the Black Independent Cinema Movement ( DSRM) pp VIDEO: Sisters in Cinema Anthology as Community building Week Six Mon. Oct 10 Making Ourselves from Scratch Joseph Beam Brother to Brother: Words From the Heart - Joseph Beam Ruminations of A Snap Queen: What Time is it?! Marlon Riggs Spring 1991 Marlon Riggs Wed. Oct. 12 VIDEO: Tongues untied Black Macho Revisited Week Seven Mon. Oct 17 Unleash the Queen Letter to the Dead Marlon Riggs VIDEO: I shall not be removed Wed. Oct. 19 TBA

4 Week Eight FALL RECESS October VISUAL ARTISTS Week Nine Mon. Oct 31 Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie Portraits Against Amnesia Mattie pictures Visual/aural presentations Wed. Nov. 2 Visual/aural presentations Week Ten Public Spaces Mon. Nov. 7 Judy Baca SPARC murals Wed. Nov. 9 This Is to Enrage You: Gran Fury and the Graphics of AIDS Activism Richard Meyer from But Is It Art? : The Spirit Of Art As Activism ed. Nina Felshin (Seattle: Bay Press) Week Eleven Mon. Nov. 14 Louder Than Words: A WAC Chronicle Tracy Ann Essoglo Globalization and its discontents Wed. Nov. 16 The Free Trade Art Agreement/El Tratado de libre Cultura (The New World Border) pp Week Twelve Mon. Nov. 21 VIDEO: The Yes Men Wed. Nov. 23 Selections fromthe Yes Men: The True Story of the End of the World Trade Organization Yes Men Website Week Thirteen Mon. Nov. 28 Selections from (The New World Border) Wed. Nov. 30 TBA

5 Thanksgiving Friday November 25 Week Fourteen Mon. Dec. 5 TBA Wed. Dec. 7 TBA Week Fifteen Mon. Dec. 12 FINAL PROJECT Wed. Dec 14th Last Day of Class