Walker Art Center's Target Free Thursday NIghts in June Highlighted by Panel Discussion on Art in Hip-Hop, Picasso Lecture, and Films from Queer Takes Series
The Walker Art Center’s Target Free Thursday Nights in June are highlighted by the panel discussion Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop, featuring Cey Adams, Jeff Chang, Roger Cummings, and Rachel Raimist (June 14, 7 pm). This panel discussion focuses on how hip-hop is expanding in ways that cannot be so easily defined. Other highlights in June include another edition of the Walker book club discussion The Artist’s Bookshelf, featuring Slaughterhouse-Five by the late Kurt Vonnegut (June 7, 7 pm); the lecture Why Is Picasso Famous? Art, Celebrity, and Becoming a Fan, led by Joli Jensen, scholar of American cultural and social thought at the University of Tulsa, and in conjunction with the June 16 opening of the Walker’s newest exhibition Picasso and American Art (June 21, 7 pm); and two programs of short films from the Walker’s monthlong series Queer Takes, highlighting the work of gutsy emerging filmmakers and their unique stories (June 28, 7 and 9 pm).
Target Free Thursday Nights sponsored by Target.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal grant-making agency dedicated to creating and sustaining a nation of learners by helping libraries and museums serve their communities, supports the Walker Art Center.
Target Free Thursday Nights
June 7, 14, 21, 28
Galleries open 5–9 pm; special events follow.
Free
Thursday, June 7
Gallery Tour, 6 pm
Book Club
The Artist’s Bookshelf: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, 7 pm
Star Tribune Foundation Art Lab
Free, but reservations required; call 612.375.7600
This summer, the Walker book club examines contemporary mythologies through literature. Kurt Vonnegut’s modern classic revolves around a unique odyssey through space and time, reflecting the mythic journey of our own fractured lives. Refreshments included. Come early for a gallery tour at 6 pm. For discussion questions, visit blogs.walkerart.org/ecp and look for posts marked Artist’s Bookshelf. Books are available at the Walker Shop and the Minneapolis Public Library (mplib.org). Presented in partnership with the Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library.
Thursday, June 14
Body Politics: Figurative Prints and Drawings from Schiele to de Kooning Gallery Tour, 6 pm
Panel Discussion
Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop, 7 pm
Featuring Cey Adams, Jeff Chang, Roger Cummings, and Rachel Raimist
Cinema
Free tickets available at the Bazinet Garden Lobby desk from 6 pm
Since its beginning, hip-hop has left its mark on theater, poetry, performance art, dance, visual arts, film, and video. Though it is one of the big ideas of this generation, hip-hop is often subcategorized into such themes as “spoken word poetry,” “street literature,” “post–black art,” or “urban art.” This panel discussion focuses on how hip-hop is expanding in ways that cannot be so easily defined.
Cey Adams’ graphics can be seen on countless album covers (Jay-Z, Method Man, DMX) and have been featured in clothing lines (Sean John), movies, and TV shows (Belly, Next Friday, Chapelle’s Show). Jeff Chang, author of the books Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop and Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, has written extensively on race, culture, politics, and the arts for numerous publications. Roger Cummings is the cofounder and artistic director of Juxtaposition Arts, a North Minneapolis urban art center whose mission is to empower youth and community to use the arts to actualize their full potential. Rachel Raimist is a Twin Cities–based filmmaker and director of Nobody Knows My Name, which chronicles the stories of five women in hip-hop. Presented by the Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council (WACTAC).
Walker Teen Programs sponsored by Wells Fargo. Support provided by Best Buy Children’s Foundation. Walker Teen Programs are also supported by the Surdna Foundation.
Thursday, June 21
Picasso and American Art Gallery Tour, 6 pm
Lecture: Why Is Picasso Famous? Art, Celebrity, and Becoming a Fan, 7 pm
Cinema
Free tickets available at the Bazinet Garden Lobby desk from 6 pm
Was Picasso a genius, a self-promoter, a media icon, a product of the museum system, or all of the above? Each role brings to light different assumptions about ways that art, celebrity, and fandom connect, including the relationships between the “master” artist and the painters he inspired. Joli Jensen, scholar of American cultural and social thought at the University of Tulsa, explores evidence for each of these options. Jensen’s teaching interests are in media, culture, and society. Her most recent book, Is Art Good for Us? Beliefs about High Culture in American Life (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002) questions our taken-for-granted assumptions about the transformational power of high culture. Her previous books analyze media criticism (Redeeming Modernity: Contradictions in Media Criticism) and explore how and why cultural genres change, in relation to concerns about culture and commerce (The Nashville Sound: Authenticity, Commercialization and Country Music). She has also written a number of essays on media criticism, communication technologies, communication theories, the social history of the typewriter, country music, and fans and fandom.
Thursday, June 28
Picasso and American Art Gallery Tour, 6 pm
Film: Queer Takes
Women Unite!, 7 pm; Odd Man Out, 9 pm
Cinema
These two free programs of shorts show the work of gutsy emerging filmmakers and their unique stories.
Women Unite!, 7 pm
Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves
Directed by Andrea Janakas
Two young women plan to escape their stifling upstate New York town on a snowy night during the Iran hostage crisis. Winner of the Best Student Short at the Provincetown Film Festival. 2005, U.S., color, 35mm, 22 minutes.
Hold Up
Directed by Madeleine Olnek
The motive for the robbery of a neighborhood bodega isn’t initially clear in this hilarious short. 2005, U.S., color, video, 7 minutes.
Kathleen’s Closet
Directed by Sheila Jordan
An unconventional hospice nurse develops a bond with her nearly comatose patient by helping her connect with a long-mourned love. 2005, U.S., color, video, 13 minutes.
Rape for Who I Am
Directed by Lovinsa Kavuma
The South African constitutional protection against bias based on sexual orientation is ignored in the townships around Johannesburg. Organizing against the violence, a group of lesbians hold a retreat dedicated to sharing and healing in this candid documentary. 2006, UK/South Africa, color, video, 26 minutes.
Odd Man Out, 9 pm
Before I Was Sad
Directed by Jean-Gabriel Périot
This acerbic commentary on the assimilation of the homosexual into mainstream society makes its point using cutout animations. 2004, France, color, video, in French with English subtitles, 2 minutes.
The Saddest Boy in the World
Directed by Jamie Travis
Driven by derision from his family and classmates, Timothy Higgins plans his departure from this world on his ninth birthday. 2006, Canada, color video, 13 minutes.
The Famous Joe Project
Directed by Eli Rarey
A young gay man aims to spread love in the world by recording his sex life with a webcam, but can’t deal with a relationship that isn’t a performance. 2007, U.S., color, video, 16 minutes.
Bugcrush
Directed by Carter Smith
A shy loner at a small-town high school becomes bewitched by an enticing new student, leading him to test his boundaries. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. 2006, U.S., color, video, 36 minutes.
Still
Directed by Lucky Kuswandi
Guy, a gay teenager who is misunderstood at home, runs away to a small beach town, where he tries to find his chosen family in a stream of unsatisfying tricks. 2005, Indonesia/U.S., color, video, 15 minutes.