Sustaining Life & Sustaining Joy Events

Spring 2023 Semester

Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023
Artist Exhibition: Record Keeper

Virtual Panel Discussion 5:30 p.m. (Changed to virtual due to weather)
Click Here for Link

Record Keeper is an exhibition of ceramic artworks that explores how artists use clay, one of the oldest artistic mediums, to grapple with time. The included artists take a wide range of approaches to this theme. Adero Willard explores her diverse ancestries by employing building techniques indigenous to West Africa and by using red clay as the skin of the vessel. Megumi Naitoh's ceramic animations combine clay with digital technology to address the waves of racism currently aimed at Asians during the global pandemic. Paul Briggs' box-like forms reference the architecture of confinement within the prison system, suggesting what it means to be held in place and lose time. Elshafei Dafalla's contribution to the show will be a literal record of his time spent working with students in the art department during Fall 2022 to make an installation of forms that document the community and show how art can bridge differences.

Wednesday, March 8, 2023
Barbara Amaya: A Story of Survival and Contemporary Slavery

Hybrid Format, Alumni Room, McCarthy Center at 10:30 a.m. 
Register for Zoom Link Here

In the book Nobody’s Girl, Barbara Amaya shared her stories of sexual abuse, human trafficking, drug addiction, rape, imprisonment, and domestic violence. All these sufferings happened on the streets of Washington DC and New York City before she even turned sixteen, as she was brutally exploited and trafficked for over a decade. Amaya was arrested multiple times, even though she was a child and a trafficking victim, not a criminal. Her experiences were far from ordinary, but her life is a reflection of our systemic failures to protect vulnerable teenagers and the pressures that trap them in contemporary slavery and human trafficking. In her lecture, Amaya will describe the process of how she survived contemporary slavery and transformed her pain and agony with courage.

Contact Information:
Abigayle Versackas, aversackas@student.framingham.edu

Sponsorship:
Arts & Ideas, Council on Diversity and Inclusion, the Center for Inclusive Excellence, The Sociology and Criminology Department, the English Department, the History Department

Tuesday, Mar. 21, 2023
The Linda Vaden-Goad Authors and Artists Series

Hybrid Format, Heineman Ecumenical & Cultural Center at 4:30 PM
Register for Zoom Link Here

Jennifer Dowling’s creative work explores various art and technology approaches. Her focus is on health challenges that are simultaneously personal and universal, to encourage healing despite adversity. Zahra Tohidinia’s work on green consumers focuses on analyzing their frustrations
and providing solutions.

Thursday, Mar. 30, 2023
Miriam Levine Reading

Hybrid Event, Heineman Ecumenical & Cultural Center at 4:30 PM
Register for Zoom Link Here

Author Whitney Scharer will read from her award-winning debut novel, The Age of Light (2019), based on the life of fashion-icon turned renowned photographer Lee Miller, who famously said “I’d rather take a photograph than be one.” Imagined through Scharer’s vivid prose, Lee's journey of self-discovery takes her from the cabarets of bohemian Paris to the battlefields of war-torn Europe during WWII, where she was one of the first female war correspondents. Scharer will discuss the challenging constraints of writing historical fiction while celebrating its power to breathe new life into the past.

Tuesday, Apr. 4, 2023
Voices of Color series: James Edward Mills

Hybrid Event: In-person in the Dwight Hall Performing Arts Center at 4:30 PM
Register for the Virtual Webinar Here.

How can we work to make the outdoors a space that is welcoming for all people, particularly the BIPOC community? Join us to discuss this topic with James Edward Mills, a journalist, adventurer, and co-writer/co-producer of An American Ascent, a documentary film about the first African-American expedition to climb North America’s highest peak, Denali.

Thursday, April 6, 2023 (rescheduled from February)
Humanity, Design + Happiness by Daryl Christopher

McCarthy Center Alumni Room, at 4:30 PM

How can we sustain joy and connection in our modern, fast paced world? Through design elements, true stories, and reflective dialogue, this participatory event will discuss simple practices for sustaining happiness and be led by Daryl Christopher, a designer, educator, and founder of RE_KIN, a magazine focusing on communal wholeness through responsiveness.

Monday, Apr. 10, 2023
The Arthur Nolletti Jr. Film Series - Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom 

Dwight Hall at 7:00 PM

A college student aspires to leave Bhutan for Australia to pursue a singing career, but instead he gets assigned to teach children in a remote mountainous village isolated from modern life. The extraordinary 2019 film Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom was an Academy Award nominee for Best International Feature Film.

Wednesday, April 12, 2023
Scholarly and Creative Showcase Series - "I know we have a lot to say about the situation…but, like, who has the time?”: A window into the formation and research of the MotherScholar Collective

McCarthy Center Alumni Room, 6 to 8 PM (Hybrid Event)
Zoom Link Here

Members of the MotherScholar Collective, a multidisciplinary research group formed during the pandemic, discuss their research on the intersection of motherhood and academia, and collaborative possibilities of radical feminist flexibility. Panel participants: Maggie Campbell-Obaid, Ph.D, Katharina A. Azim, Ph.D., Kathryn Frazier, Ph.D, Helen Ho, Ph.D., Ivanna Richardson, M.A.