SEEING THE SKY:

7th Annual Prisoner Art Exhibition

March 11 - April 11,  2015

Opening Reception, March 11,  7:00 to 9:00 pm

Big Red Barn at Cornell University

 

The Prisoner Express is proud to announce its 7th annual prisoner art exhibition displaying the work of prisoners throughout the United States. The artwork from several projects from the past year will be presented.

 

Prison is a place of disorientation.  In the "Points of a Compass" art project, the prisoner is asked to orient themselves in relationship to the earth.  The curriculum asks, "Where is the horizon in prison? How does the earth reveal itself to you?  How do you see the sky?  Where is the sun when you wake up in the morning?"  - question that implies, "Yes, you have a place in this world."   The drawings are the prisoners answers.

 

Another art project asks the prisoner to create a series of self-portraits in underscoring the fluidity of the self through different aspects of portraiture. This is based upon the experience that the self is always changing; an experience which stands in total opposition to the basic premise of incarceration that does not allow a changing self.  

 

The work of several artists who have been continuous in their active participation with the arts of Prisoner Express will be highlighted also.   

 

At Prisoners Express we receive so many letters from so many people who are incarcerated throughout the United States.  With these letters, there are often postscripts that suggests the prisoner has not seen the sky for some time - as in Robert's p.s.  "I haven't seen the sky for 10 years, When you go out today - look up at it for me."

 

For more information about this show or the Prisoner Express project email us at alt-lib@cornell.edu

 

 

Bike Walk Tompkins

 

 

 

CUSLAR

 

Luis Hernández Navarro

 

Ayotzinapa: Between Pain and Hope*

(Ayotzinapa: Entre el Dolor y la Esperanza)
a talk in Spanish with English translation

 

Monday, March 16, 4:30-6:00 pm       

Café at Anabel Taylor Hall
Cornell University

 

In September 2014, 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College in the Mexican state of Guerrero disappeared after an attack that left six dead and more than 20 injured. The incident sparked nationwide protests and international condemnation.  Mexican journalist Luis Hernández Navarro will discuss the event, its aftermath, and the implications for Mexican politics.

 

Luis Hernández Navarro is opinion editor and columnist for the Mexico City daily La Jornada. A writer, consultant, social activist and political analyst, he has been an astute commentator on Mexican politics and social movements for over thirty years. He has served as an advisor to several grassroots organizations, and was a founding member of the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE). He participated in the San Andrés Dialogue seeking a solution to the crisis in Chiapas after the Zapatista uprising and was the technical administrator of the commission charged with overseeing the Chiapas Peace Accords.

 

Hernández has published widely in Mexican and international publications, and is the author of several books, including, Hermanos en armas: policías comunitarias y autodefensas (2014); No habrá recreo: Contra-reforma constitucional y desobediencia magisterial  (2013); Cero en conducta: Crónicas de la resistencia magisterial (2011); Sentido Contrario: Vida, obra y milagros de rebeldes contemporáneos (2007); Acuerdos de San Andrés (with Ramón Vera, 1998); and Chiapas: La guerra y la paz (1995).

 

*The talk will be in Spanish with English translation.

 

This event is co-sponsored by CUSLAR, MEChA, and ILR.