This event explores the particular ways in which we use language -- dialects, registers of speaking, non-verbal speech -- in relation to the knowledge we produce for imagined publics, as well as its impacts and, ultimately, how we convey our ideas. A group of artists who think profoundly about these issues will be joined by anthropologists and language specialists, as well as educators, art historians and Indigenous scholars to contend with myriad related questions including: Do we imagine a particular person or a group when we formulate speech? Is this choice conscious? What might this reveal about us? What does the actual language we use to communicate convey? Is it a native tongue or in translation? Does it take up the languages of theory, or of daily speech? What does a silent position mean? What role does the refusal to speak play in the right to free speech? The evening begins with "Brighter Than the Brightest Star I've Ever Seen," a special performance by Kite (Suzanne Kite), Oglala Lakota composer and performance and visual artist. It will be followed by a discussion among Kite, writer and art historian Aruna D'Souza, artist and educator Kameelah Janan Rasheed, anthropologist Stefania Pandolfo, Mojave poet, language activist, and educator Natalie Diaz, and Ross Perlin, Co-Director of the Endangered Language Alliance. Carin Kuoni and Laura Raicovich will moderate, and seminar participants will be asked to reflect on the readings provided as well as contribute to the discussion.
New York City, NY; NYC