Walker Art Center's Target Free Thursday Nights in April Include Programs Which Further Explore Themes in the Work of Kara Walker
The Walker Art Center’s Target Free Thursday Nights in April are highlighted by programs related to the exhibition Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love (through May 13). Featured events include the lecture Violating Black Women’s Bodies: The Legacies of Slavery in Contemporary U.S. Society (April 12, 7 pm), during which Northwestern University law professor Dorothy Roberts will discuss the plight of women during slavery; the gallery talk The Influence of Uncle Tom (April 19, 7 pm), as Taiyon Coleman, poet and scholar of African American literature, discusses Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 book as it relates to Kara Walker’s work; and the lecture Humor Noir (April 26, 7 pm), at which Simon Critchley, professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research and the Getty Research Institute, speaks about the definition and possibilities of the comic as well as humor’s ethical limits and function in culture and visual art. Other highlights in April include another edition of the Walker book club discussion The Artist’s Bookshelf, featuring The Known World by Edward P. Jones (April 5, 7 pm), which will be preceded by a curator-led tour of Kara Walker. Also, a program of short films from around the world, part of the Walker’s Global Lens series, takes place on April 19 at 9 pm.
Target Free Thursday Nights are made possible by Target. Additional support provided by The Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Target Free Thursday Nights
April 5, 12, 19, 26
Galleries open 5–9 pm; special events follow.
Free
Thursday, April 5
Kara Walker Curator Tour, 6 pm
Book Club
The Artist’s Bookshelf: The Known World by Edward P. Jones, 7 pm
Star Tribune Foundation Art Lab
Free, but reservations required; call 612.375.7600
African American slaveholders in the post–Civil War era are the focus of this novel that takes painful measure of slavery’s legacies. The story’s social complexities also mirror Kara Walker’s interest in examining the assumed truths of our collective past. Join a special curator-led tour of the Kara Walker exhibition at 6 pm. For discussion questions, visit blogs.walkerart.org/ecp. Presented in partnership with the Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library. Note: Author is not present.
Thursday, April 12
Paper Trail: A Decade of Acquisitions Gallery Tour, 6 pm
Lecture: Violating Black Women’s Bodies: The Legacies of Slavery in Contemporary U.S. Society, 7 pm
Cinema
Free tickets available at the Bazinet Garden Lobby desk from 6 pm
Kara Walker’s portrayal of the antebellum South pays particular attention to the plight of women in slavery. Northwestern University law professor Dorothy Roberts approaches this subject through her sociopolitical work on the interplay of gender, race, and class in legal issues concerning reproduction, bioethics, and child welfare. Join her for a lecture linking the historical and contemporary use of black women’s bodies as sites of control and experimentation as well as a discussion about the connections between the artist’s work and her own.
Thursday, April 19
Gallery Tour, 6 pm
Gallery Dialogue: The Influence of Uncle Tom, 7 pm
Meet in the Bazinet Garden Lobby
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 book Uncle Tom’s Cabin remains one of American literature’s most influential works giving rise to racial and cultural representations that remain part of society today. Taiyon Coleman, poet and scholar of African American literature, discusses the history, interpretation, and relevance of the text in relationship to Kara Walker’s work The End of Uncle Tom and the Grand Allegorical Tableau of Eva in Heaven (1995), on view in Gallery 4.
Film: Global Lens Shorts, 9 pm
Cinema
The Perfect Day (El Día Perfecto)
Directed by Bernardo Loyola. Plans for a spectacular suicide are derailed by a phone call. 2004, Mexico, video, 13 minutes.
A Little Bit Higher (Kami Balatar)
Directed by Mehdi Jafari. Two ill-prepared men wait for the workday to begin on a construction site. 2005, Iran, video, 12 minutes.
Your Dark Hair Ihsan (Tes Cheveux Noirs Ihsan)
Directed by Tala Hadid. A young man returns to North Africa for his mother’s funeral and reflects on the sacrifices she made for him. 2004, Morocco, video, 14 minutes.
Riding with Sugar
Directed by Sunu Gonera. A South African teen finds BMX championship racing as a way to escape the lure of drugs. 2005, South Africa, video, 10 minutes.
Broad Day (Üks päev)
Directed by Rajeev Ahuja. Returning to the crime site, actors reenact the rape of a woman on a train in Mumbai. Based on a true event. 2004, India, video, 11 minutes.
Absent (En Ausencia)
Directed by Lucia Cedron. Violent memories haunt Maria as she waits for her pregnancy test results. 2003, Argentina, video, 15 minutes.
Girl of Faith (Mina De Fé)
Directed by Lucina Bezerra. Silvana and her boyfriend must outfox the police and gangs in order to survive in the favelas of Rio. 2004, Brazil, video, 15 minutes.
Repeat screening Sunday, April 22, 12 noon, Free
Thursday, April 26
Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love Gallery Tour, 6 pm
Lecture: Humor Noir, 7 pm
Cinema
Free tickets available at the Bazinet Garden Lobby desk from 6 pm
“I have a funny problem with humor, I guess, because I don’t consider it fun.”—Kara Walker, 1996
Humor is a complicated human response, prompting us to laugh at things both absurd and tragic. Kara Walker constantly tests these boundaries by employing her sense of humor within violent imagery. To address these issues, Simon Critchley, professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research and the Getty Research Institute, speaks about the definition and possibilities of the comic as well as humor’s ethical limits and function in culture and visual art.