UC African Studies MRG

Goodbye Solo at UCLA

30 03 2009

Goodbye Solo

Tuesday, March 31 at 7:30pm
FREE Sneak Preview - 91 minutes

Winner of the Venice Film Festival’s FIPRESCI International Critics Prize, Goodbye Solo is the latest movie from acclaimed filmmaker Ramin Bahrani (Chop Shop, Man Push Cart). On the lonely roads of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, two men forge an improbable friendship that will change both of their lives forever. Solo is a Senegalese cab driver working to provide a better life for his family. William is a tough Southern good ol’ boy with a lifetime of regrets. One man’s American dream is just beginning, while the other’s is quickly winding down. But despite their differences, both men soon realize they need each other more than either is willing to admit. Through this unlikely friendship, Goodbye Solo deftly explores the passing of a generation as well as the rapidly changing face of the United States.

“Has an uncanny ability to enlarge your perception of the world.” -A.O. Scott, New York Times
“Powerful, riveting, inspiring.” -Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times
“Warm hearted and cheerful. A Force of Nature. And Bahrani has established himself as a major American director.” –Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times

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Categories : Events

Excavating the Past: Archaeological Perspectives on Black Atlantic Regional Networks (UCLA)

17 03 2009

“Excavating the Past: Archaeological Perspectives on Black Atlantic Regional Networks“

A Conference in Honor of Merrick Posnansky

Friday, April 3 – Saturday, April 4, 2009

In William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

2520 Cimarron Street

(West Adams District)

Los Angeles, CA 90018-2098
323-731-8529 or 310-206-8552

www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/c1718cs

A conference at the Clark Library organized by Andrew Apter, UCLA, and Patrick A. Polk, UCLA.

Co-sponsored by the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, the Mellon Transforming the Humanities Grant, and the James S. Coleman African Studies Center.

The UCLA Mellon Seminar in Black Atlantic Studies explores an emerging paradigm shift in African Diaspora scholarship. Inspired by Paul Gilroy’s innovative work in black cultural studies, the shift can be described as one from “roots” to “routes,” recasting Africa from a “baseline” to a “circuit” predicated on ethnic mixing and hybrid forms from the inception of the triangle trade. If European ports and capitals, Caribbean plantations, American shipyards and African cities became co-equal sites in an emerging trans-Atlantic field, so trade-union politics, plural societies, Pan-African movements and expressive musical and ritual hybrids developed as hallmarks of a distinctive “counter-modernity.”

Excavating the Past, a two-day conference in honor of UCLA emeritus professor Merrick Posnansky, will bring together a select group of leading archaeologists and historians of the Black Atlantic, most trained by Posnansky himself. Beyond recognizing Merrick’s contribution to the archaeology of Africa and the Americas, the aim is to develop a better understanding of how archaeological sites in Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States provide “grounds” for hypothesizing the presence and impact of regional symbolic systems and/or social networks. Particular emphasis will be placed on the development of Creole societies during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in relation to West-Central Africa and Europe.

Papers:

Conference papers presented at the Clark Library will be posted to the Center’s website by March 23, and will remain accessible until April 17.

http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/c1718cs/calendar.htm

Registration Deadline: March 26, 2009

Registration Fees: $25 per person; UC faculty & staff, students with ID: no charge*
*Students should enclose a photocopy of their current ID with the registration form.

Fees are not refundable and apply to full or partial attendance.

To register, please visit:
http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/c1718cs/content/progs/excavating09.htm or

http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/c1718cs/

Parking:

Free parking; for where to park info/directions, visit http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/clarklib/loc.htm

Handicapped Accessibility:

Please call a week ahead to arrange for wheelchair access. Inquiries: 310-206-8552.

Please be aware that space at the Clark is limited and that registration closes when capacity is reached. No confirmation will be sent, but you will be contacted if personnel receive your registration after capacity has been reached.

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Categories : Events

Global Perspectives on Youth and Violence at UCLA

10 03 2009

USA for Africa, the Latin American Institute, the Center for Near Eastern Studies,

the African Studies Center, and the Department of French and Francophone Studies present

Global Perspectives on Youth and Violence

Thursday, March 12, 2008

Covel Commons

UCLA Campus

10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Free and open to the public

Lunch will be provided

Young people make up almost a fifth of the world’s population. Close to 85% of the 1.1 billion young men and women between the ages of 15 and 24 live in developing countries. Rapid population growth, the unavailability of housing and support services, poverty, unemployment and underemployment among youth, the decline in the authority of local communities, overcrowding in poor urban areas, the disintegration of the family, and ineffective educational systems are some of the new pressures young people must deal with.

This forum will examine the issues facing young people today and explore the increased global phenomena of youth involvement in violence both as perpetrators and victims.

Panels (schedule is subject to change)

10 AM - Opening - UCLA & USA for Africa

Broad Overview - Malia Lazu, The Gathering for Justice

Social Justice Panel - Moderated by Alex Sanchez, Homies Unidos

Tshaka Barrows (Community Justice Network for Youth) - “US and Cuba: Youth and Social Justice System”
Julie Peteet (University of Louisville) - “Palestinian Youth in the Refugee Camps”
Juan Pacheco (Barrios Unidos) - “Trans-nationalization of Youth Gangs”

Q & A for Youth and Social Justice Panel

12:00 PM - lunch break for approximately an hour; free lunch will be provided for attendees

Afternoon Sessions:

Culture and Technology Panel - Moderated by Cheryl Keyes, UCLA Ethnomusicology (2009 NAACP Image Award Winner for World Music for her CD, “Let Me Take You There”)

Gregory (Beef) Jones (The Run Group) - “Hip-Hop, Culture and Technology”
Ben Herson (Nomadic Wax) - “African Underground: Exploring Youth, Hip-Hop, Technology & Social Change in Africa”
Malia Lazu (The Gathering for Justice) - “Youth Mobilization in Africa”

Q & A for Culture and Technology Panel

Special Presentation: