Thursday, March 11, 2010

PAPS Series presents Trouble the Water

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield’s Political Art and the Public Sphere series presents a screening of the film Trouble the Water. The film will be followed by an open discussion about Hurricane Katrina and the significance of race and class on what happened to the residents of New Orleans.

WHEN: Monday, March 29, 2010 at 6:00 p.m.

WHERE: Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library on the UIS campus

DETAILS: During the spring semester, all three installments of PAPS will provide a forum for focusing on particular political issues under the general heading “Water and Politics.”

On the day before Hurricane Katrina - just blocks from the French Quarter but far from the New Orleans that most tourists knew - Kimberly Rivers Roberts, an aspiring rap artist, turned her new video camera on herself and her 9th Ward neighbors trapped in the city. Kim and her husband Scott continued to film their harrowing retreat to higher ground and the dramatic rescues of friends and neighbors. When the couple finally returns to the devastation of their neighborhood, they’re met with the appalling and repeated failures of government. Relegated to the role of refugees in their own country the moment the levees broke, these two New Orleans residents document their struggle against the forces of nature, poverty, and politics, as they attempt to rebuild their lives amidst one of the greatest natural disasters ever to befall the United States.

Each semester, Political Art and the Public Sphere features a showing or performance of some kind of “political art,” followed by a group discussion of the issues it raises. The basic idea behind PAPS is to consider how ‘art’ raises provocative social and political questions.

For more information, contact Dr. Richard Gilman-Opalsky at rgilm3@uis.edu or 217/206-8328.

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