Open mike storytelling competition sponsored by The Moth, the NYC-based nonprofit that also produces a weekly public radio show. Ten storytellers are selected at random to tell a 3-5 minute story–this month’s themes are “Envy” (Mar. 5) & “Ruse” (Mar 19)–judged by a 3-person team recruited from the audience. Monthly winners compete in a semiannual Grand Slam. Seating limited, so arrive early.
7:30-9 p.m. (doors open and sign-up begins at 6 p.m.), Greyline, 100 N. Ashley. General admission tickets $10 in advance only at themoth.org beginning a week before each event. 764-5118.
Following the devastation resulting from the 1915 Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, the survivors of the massacres were dispersed across the Middle East, Europe and North and South America. Not content with watching World War I silently from the sidelines, a large number of Armenian volunteers joined the Légion d’Orient. They were trained in Cyprus and fought courageously in Palestine alongside Allied commander General Allenby, eventually playing a crucial role in defeating the German and Ottoman forces in Palestine at the Battle of Arara in September 1918. The Armenian legionnaires signed up on the understanding that they would be fighting in Syria and Turkey, and, should the Allies be successful, they would be part of an occupying army in their old homelands, laying the foundation for a self-governing Armenian state.
Susan Pattie describes the motivations and dreams of the Armenian Legionnaires and their ultimate betrayal as the French and the British shifted their priorities, leaving their ancestral homelands to the emerging Republic of Turkey. Complete with eyewitness accounts, letters and photographs, this book provides an insight into relations between the Great Powers through the lens of a small, vulnerable people caught in a war that was not their own, but which had already destroyed their known world.
Copies of “The Armenian Legionnaires” will be available for purchase (cash only) at the event.
Susan Pattie, former Director of the Armenian Institute in London is currently leader of the Pilot Project of the Armenian Diaspora Survey, funded by the Gulbenkian Foundation. She holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Film screening and discussion with writer, director & producer, Marcos Colón
Winner of several awards, including:
>> “Best-Awareness Raising Documentary,” World Wildlife Fund, International Environmental Film Festival [FICMA-Barcelona], November 2017.
>> “Best Feature Documentary,” Cabo Verde International Film Festival, October 2017.
>>”Award of Excellence, Documentary Feature,” Impact DOCS Awards, July 2017.
MARCOS COLÓN is a dissertator in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and a Graduate Student Associate of the Center for Culture, History, and Environment (CHE) of UW-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. His research focuses on the representation of the Amazon in 20th-Century Brazilian literature from an environmental studies perspective. In particular, he is examining a variety of viewpoints from the post-rubber era Amazon through written texts, oral reports, and films; observing changes in the region, its nature and its people.
“Beyond Fordlandia” will be shown at 4pm. Discussion with filmmaker Marcos Colón will follow.
Refreshments will be served.
Presented by RC faculty member, Jane Lynch, and the Residential College Program in Social Theory and Practice.
A farce by Patrick Barlow, presented by RC Players. 39 Steps is a parody of the classic Hitchcock spy thriller, where four actors play every role.
Also Saturday, March 23, at 8 pm.
Keene Theater, East Quadrangle, 701 East University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Free.
A farce by Patrick Barlow, presented by RC Players. 39 Steps is a parody of the classic Hitchcock spy thriller, where four actors play every role. Keene Theater, East Quadrangle, 701 East University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Free.
Join us for a free public screening of Chernobyl Heart and White Horse, followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Maryann De Leo and Residential College and Slavic Languages and Literatures professor Herb Eagle.
Maryann De Leo is an American director and producer. She has been working in documentary filmmaking for over twenty years. Her work addresses timely issues under the umbrella of social justice, such as gender-based violence (Rape: Cries from the Heartland, 1991 and Terror at Home, 2005), mental illness (Bellevue: Inside Out, 2001), and urban blight (High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell, 1995). De Leo has received numerous awards, including an Academy Award for Chernobyl Heart, 2003.
Chernobyl Heart (39 min.) is an Oscar-winning documentary about the effects of radiation on the children of Belarus, 16 years after the accident at the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl. The film begins with the journey into the exclusion zone, driving to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and follows the invisible trail of radiation to the country’s hospitals, cancer centers, orphanages, and mental asylums, where the children live, or are being treated for their disease.
White Horse (17 min.) is a short documentary by filmmakers Maryann DeLeo and Christophe Bisson that features a man (Maxym Surkov) returning to his Ukraine home for the first time in twenty years. Evacuated from the city of Pripyat, Ukraine in 1986 due to the Chernobyl disaster, he has not returned since then. White Horse was nominated for a Golden Bear in the 2008 Berlinale.
Literati is thrilled to be partnering with the Neutral Zone and the Ann Arbor District Library to celebrate the NEA Big Read month-long exploration of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen
Community members will come together and celebrate the culmination of this month-long NEA Big Read program around Citizen by Claudia Rankine. Featured artist Kush Thompson will perform poetry and talkback with the audience. Members of the Neutral Zone teen book club will also share their poetic responses to Citizen and all of the identity collages created earlier in the month will be displayed for viewing.
The NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) designed to broaden our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the sharing of a good book. For more information, see www.arts.gov/national-initiatives/nea-big-read. This event is in partnership with the Neutral Zone.
A political drama by Beau Willimon, presented by RC Players. Farragut North tells the story of Stevie Bellamy, a young press secretary working for Morris, a candidate in the democratic presidential primary. . Keene Theater, East Quadrangle, 701 East University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Free.
Like the original Blue Beard, Heinrich Blaubart brings death to women he meets. Unlike the original Blue Beard, though, he doesn’t seek to do so; in fact, his fear of relationships makes him try to avoid women. Presented in German by students enrolled in RCHUMS 334: From the Page to the Stage. Surtitles will make it possible for even non-German speakers to follow the action on stage. April 6, 8pm-10pm and April 7, 2pm-4pm, Keene Theater. Non-perishable food items or donation at the door.
Music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, presented by Room 6 Productions. A cautionary tale of a high school honors student who falls for a cute transfer girl. He goes to great lengths to oblige her request for marijuana in the hopes of winning her affection – only to find out that his crush is actually an undercover cop planted in the school to find drug dealers. Keene Theater, East Quadrangle, 701 East University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Free.
