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   A while south african who is parallel to Alexander Calder for his fanciful and absurd

multi media sculptures..I saw him for the first time or his works at The Seattle Art

Museum.  On the wall of the first floor gallery were plates from Persia and Islam and

William Kentridge's shadow play "Processional" that was of the many puppets of

the people that I interpreted as being from Dafur evacuating and leaving their homeland

with the music in the background of "What a friend I have in Jesus". The processional

is really sad...there are lynched bodies hanging from sticks that some are carrying on their

shoulders. 

  William Kentridge is best known for his puppets...some are made from scraps of metal

on wire and then projected as shadows on a skrim.  His inspiration is drawn from

Alfred Jarry and others from The Theatre of the Absurd.  He is mocking the oppression

of the people of color who live in South Africa.  The Frye museum which is in

Seattle at the other end of the city held an exhibit of puppet making that Mr.Kentridge

conducts in his studio in Johannesburg, South Africa andin Durbin.  The demonstrations

of puppetry are about the oppression and violations of human rights. 

  He is a worthwhile artist and is worth emanating in my opinion.

This show was part of a celebration of international womens day.....Thursday, March 4, 2010.

  At the Regal Theatre...a movie with the Duchess of York and the author of the book Half

the Sky (stems from a chinese proverb about how women hold up half the sky).  His wife,

Sharon and he (Nick Kristoff) are working hard at facing the oppression of women and

what is being done about it. The panel discussion at NYU auditorium was thorough...

very moving African women were singing original songs, a white women, Ms. Birch

sang an original song and played the piano.  Three films were shared, one about the

forced marriages in Euretrea where women who are raped by men are often forced to

marry their rapist.  The law because of the featured woman in the film and her father

is being changed albeit very slowly.  The most stirring scene in the movie from my

view was of the villagers gathered in a circle and talking with the men who had raped

their women. IN some cases, the man went to his wife and apologized ...they both kiss

and make up.  Very awkward to me to see this but in the movie the villagers are laughing

and even the violated wife is smiling.

  The other issues addressed by the Duchess of York was about the oppression in Nepal

of women who are seen as genetic garbage for being made pregnant before marriage

and the conditions in Haiti. In each case the films and tales end on positive notes with

positive input by the panel ....that the women in Euretrea are being defended and the

law is changing, that the business women in Haiti are hopeful that the attention brought

to their city will help to rebuild a better city with better opportunities for business to

thrive once again.   The people in Nepal are being helped and in Afghanistan there are 

secret schools being formed so that the girls who number in the thousands may attend

school and be educated.

  The overall and repeated message of the evening was that these issues are solved through

education...this message was heard at the discussions at Harvard by Robert Reich economist,

and are said over and over again...we need to look toward education as the answer for these

problems.

  It was not so bad...the evening was not a soap box lecture..it was an eye opener about

these third world less developed nations.

Open-mic and presentations. Beautiful view from the ICA! Visit the galleries and mingle with other educators. This is a great event.

Thursday, March 4, 2010, 6 PM
Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston
100 Northern Avenue, Boston, MA 02210

Bring your own innovative middle school, high school and college web classroom strategies, or just come to learn!

The event is free, but RSVPs are required. Please RSVP to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call Joe Douillette at 617.478.3133. More info at http://www.rymaec.org/

Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education will be taking place in Second Life this year on March 12th and 13th.

If you have been curious about the use of Second Life and other virtual worklds in education, or in the creative uses of SIM 3d software you should try and make it "inworld" for this conference. There will be plenty of freebies and fascinating lectures. See what's happening on the bleeding-edge of e-learning.

Secondlife.com

My avatar, Doomsday Sorbet, will be in attendence. I will also host noob sessions at my private land if anyone is interested.

This is a simple weblog that registered users can use to quickly post to the site. Each blog can be filtered by choosing an author or commenter's name, its category or tag. Currently, only registered users can coment so you don't have to worry about spam. Your entries can be public or private, you can even share them at social media sites like twitter and facebook.

Below the editor you'll find drop downs to customize your entry. Choose the best category and tags to make it easier to search for later. You can decide who can see it (public or registered only) and whether or not you want to allow comments. You can also upload images and some file types to your pages. Organize your images in folders so you can keep track of them and also take advantage of some of the lightbox and gallery effect features.

There are more options available for students or faculty who would like to maintain a full featured blog such as WordPress at massarted.org. Contact Eleanor if you are interested. You can also keep files, images and webpages at MassArt's Babel Website.

A heads-up to myself to remember that the Holiday Sale will be December 7-12, 2009, 10:00am-7:00pm in the Lobby of the Tower. There is always a nice selection of hand crafted goods, jewelry, glass and art. Students should contact Elizabeth DiCicco, Director, Student Activities and Programs at 617 879 7710 asap, if they want to sell at the event.