The Brown Arts Initiative (BAI), together with its member departments and programs, today announced highlights of its much-anticipated fall 2018 season of programming, featuring influential artists, curators, filmmakers, musicians and poets.  In addition, on November 29 and December 1, the BAI will present a multi-media performance piece by artist Edgar Arceneaux commissioned by New York-based Performa for its 2015 biennial. Other prominent artists and presenters for the upcoming season include:

• Photographer Danny Lyon;
• Singer-songwriter and musician Erin McKeown;
• Visual artists Rina Banerjee and Shaun Leonardo;
• Contemporary art curator Helen Molesworth;
• Writers Teju Cole, Chris Kraus and Susan Stewart;
• Documentary filmmakers Nathanial Kahn and Yoruba Richen; among many others.

 BAI Faculty Director Butch Rovan said, “The launch of a new season is always an exciting time. The rich array of creative practices represented in our fall programming reflects our belief in the important contributions that artists and scholars make to contemporary society. We look forward to showcasing a range of presentations and facilitating critical dialogue by sharing their ideas and insights with our students, faculty, staff and the greater Providence community.”

In addition to BAI programming, the six academic departments and two programs (David Winton Bell Gallery and Rites and Reason Theatre/Africana Studies) comprising the BAI sponsor a host of performances, exhibitions, lectures, events, readings, screenings, workshops, and festivals that are part of the fall season.

Most programs take place at the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts on Brown’s campus unless otherwise noted. Almost all are free and open to the public; some require advance registration. Because programs are subject to change, for more information click here.

Highlights of the fall 2018 season include:

50 Years Since 68: The Walkout

September 22, 12:00 – 6:00 pm and September 23, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm,

Churchill House (155 Angell Street)

For information: brown.edu/go/africana-events

1968 was a volatile year for the country and for Brown University, when 65 African American students walked out of classes for five days to protest the University’s limited enrollment of blacks. Documentary filmmaker Yoruba Richen ’94 interviews alumni who participated. This event celebrates the 50th anniversary of this act of resistance, which ultimately led to the creation of Rites and Reason Theatre in 1970, and the Afro-American Studies Program in 1971, now the Department of Africana Studies.

Chris Kraus: Reading & Conversation

September 27, 5:30 pm, McCormack Family Theater

(70 Brown Street)

Writer and filmmaker Chris Kraus reads from her fiction and converses with the audience as part of the Writers on Writing series. Kraus is author of the best-selling novel I Love Dick, which was adapted for television in 2016. One of the co-editors of Semiotext(e), she has also published a significant literary biography of Kathy Acker.

On Protest, Art & Activism

An affiliate program of the Warren and Allison Kanders Lecture Series

October 1 – December 19,  Reception: November 2, 5:30 pm, Cohen Gallery

November 2 – December 19, List Art Center (64 College Street)

A series of exhibitions, installations and public programs exploring art and activism features works by Badlands Unlimited with Paul Chan, Hermine Freed, Ja’Tovia Gary, Theaster Gates, Suzanne Lacy, Josephine Meckseper, Howardena Pindell, Martha Rosler and Dread Scott. BAI’s calendar contains a full list of affiliated talks and other events.

November 2, 5:30 pm, Granoff Center, Studio 1

Whitney Museum of American Art assistant curators Jennie Goldsten and Ru Hockley join Brown’s David Winton Bell Gallery curator Ian Alden Russell in conversation about constructing a curatorial narrative around the history and impact of protest art and artistic activism.

Shaun Leonardo: Artist Talk

October 3, 5:00 pm, Granoff Center, Martinos Auditorium

The artist and activist Shaun Leonardo speaks about his performance work that addresses issues of masculinity, criminal justice and race, and his recent social practice commission on gun violence at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. He is joined in conversation by Christina Yang, director of public programs at the Guggenheim.

Erin McKeown: In Concert | BAI Songwriting Series

October 4, 7:00 pm, FREE to Students.  $10

Brown Faculty & Staff. $20 General

Public. Granoff Center, Martinos Auditorium.

For tickets: arts.brown.edu

Singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, producer and activist Erin McKeown ‘00 performs an acoustic set of her genre-defying compositions that encompass folk, rock, pop, swing, electronics and more.

Teju Cole: Artist Talk

October 15, 5:00 pm, List Art Center, Room 120 (64 College Street)

Nigerian-American writer, art historian and photographer Teju Cole discusses his work. Cole is the author of four books, including a recent collection of photographs and essays entitled Blind Spot (2017), in which he reflects on his illness that caused temporary blindness.

Audiovision: Animating Obsolescence

October 17, 8:00 pm, Granoff Center, Martinos Auditorium

An exploration of historical media featuring groundbreaking works including Conlon Nancarrow’s Studies for Player Piano, György Ligeti’s Poème Symphonique (for 100 metronomes), John Cage’s Williams Mix (for eight simultaneously played independent magnetic tape machines) and more.

Helen Molesworth: In Conversation

Warren and Allison Kanders Lecture Series

October 24, 5:30 pm, Granoff Center, Martinos Auditorium.

Registration required. For tickets: arts.brown.edu

Contemporary art curator and writer Helen Molesworth shares her views on art, life and art world politics. Former chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (2014-18) and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2010-14), Molesworth is known for championing under-recognized artists. She has organized critically acclaimed solo exhibitions for Steve Locke, Kerry James Marshall, Catherine Opie, and Amy Sillman, among others. She is currently working on a book of essays about what art does.

Paysagisme and the Art of Eco-Responsibility

October 25 – 27; November 1 – 2, November 8 – 10

Granoff Center. For information: brown.edu/go/french-studies-events

Paysagisme is a French term for blending landscape architecture, sustainable gardening, public space use and contemporary art into a network that allows them to inform one another. A leader in the field, Gilles Tiberghien from the Panthéon/Sorbonne is in residence for a series of interactive events in the field.

Danny Lyon: The Only Things I Saw Worth Leaving

November 2  – December 19, Artist’s Talk/Reception: November 1, 2018, 5:30 pm

David Winton Bell Gallery, List Art Center (64 College Street)

 Driven by his twin passions for social change and the medium of photography, Danny Lyon immerses himself in his documentary subjects. He photographed the Civil Rights movement as the first official photographer of the Student Non-Violence Coordinating Committee; the Chicago Outlaw Motorcycle Club as a member for three years; and the Texas prison system.

The Price of Everything: A Screening and Conversation

Warren and Allison Kanders Lecture Series

November 7,  7:00 pm, Granoff Center, Martinos Auditorium

Documentary filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn explores the contemporary art world market in his new production The Price of Everything, featuring interviews with artists, gallerists, auction house specialists, curators and others. A discussion with Kahn follows the screening.

Annual CD Wright Memorial Lecture: Susan Stewart

November 8, 7:00 pm, McCormack Family Theater (70 Brown Street)

Poet, critic and translator Susan Stewart delivers the second annual CD Wright Lecture.  Regarded as an influential figure in contemporary letters, she has received both the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry and the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism. Stewart’s talk focuses on contemporary poetry, fusing her analysis of contemporary literary movements and the legacy of CD Wright.

Rina Banerjee: In Conversation

Warren and Allison Kanders Lecture Series

November 28, 5:30 pm, Granoff Center, Martinos Auditorium

Registration required. For tickets: arts.brown.edu

 Rina Banerjee is a multi-faceted artist whose practice includes painting, sculpture, works on paper and installation that draw on her science background in polymer engineering and chemistry. Born in India and raised in New York City, Banerjee discusses her use of natural and man-made materials and how her work examines identity, culture and tradition. 

Until, Until, Until… by Edgar Arceneaux

A Performa Commission

November 29 – 30 and December 1, 7:00 pm, Granoff Center, Studio 1

FREE to Students. $10 Brown Faculty & Staff. $20 General Public

Registration required. For tickets: arts.brown.edu

Edgar Arceneaux’s first live work, Until, Until, Until…, investigates the infamous 1981 performance of Broadway legend Ben Vereen, televised nationally as part of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration celebration. Intended as an homage to vaudevillian Bert Williams—one of America’s first mainstream black entertainers—the final five minutes of the performance were censored for the television audience, causing Vereen’s biting commentary on the history of segregation and racist stereotypes in performance to be lost on viewers at home. Until, Until, Until… is based on the footage that never aired that night. This piece questions the truth of past narratives and creates an opportunity to reconsider our collective understanding of historic events.

Information about additional BAI and affiliate department programming is available here.

About Brown Arts Initiative 

The Brown Arts Initiative (BAI) at Brown University seeks to cultivate creative expression and foster an interdisciplinary environment where faculty and students learn from one another and from artists and scholars in a wide range of fields across the campus and around the world. A consortium of six arts departments and two programs that encompass the performing, literary and visual arts, BAI works collaboratively to enhance curricular and co-curricular offerings, directly engage students with prominent artists working in all genres and media, and supports a diverse program of concerts, performances, exhibitions, screenings, lectures, and symposia each year. BAI takes full advantage of the University’s Open Curriculum and builds on Brown’s reputation as a destination for arts exploration, contributing to cultural enterprise through the integration of theory, practice, and scholarship with an emphasis on innovation and discovery that results from rigorous artmaking and experimentation.

BAI comprises and integrates History of Art and Architecture; Literary Arts; Modern Culture and Media; Music; Theatre Arts and Performance Studies; Visual Art; the David Winton Bell Gallery; and Rites and Reason Theatre/Africana Studies. www.arts.brown.edu