Workshop and Talk with Ruth Behar

Workshop and Talk with Ruth Behar
University of Colorado, Boulder
April 6, 2016

In collaboration with the Laboratory for Race and Popular Culture, we are supporting a workshop and talk with Ruth Behar at the University of Colorado, Boulder. 

Workshop - Ethnographic Writing, 9:30 - 11:30 AM, registration required.
*location change, and details emailed to participants. 

Public Talk - "Between Two Cubas," 5PM refreshments, 5:15 Talk
Center for British and Irish Studies, M549, 5th Floor Norlin Library

Convener: Lara Stein Pardo

Presented by the Laboratory for Race and Popular Culture and Blackbird Arts and Research

Co-sponsored by: Graduate Committee on the Arts and Humanities, Anthropology, Film Studies, University Libraries, English, Latin American Studies Center, Art and Art History, Geography, Sociology, Critical Media Practices, History, Writing and Rhetoric, Ethnic Studies, and Jewish Studies

Blackbird's Year in Review, and Welcome to our new Board Member!

Happy New Year from Blackbird Arts & Research!

Thank you for your support throughout 2015! We have had a great year bringing arts and research together.

Here's a recap: 
- This year, we have partnered with Honey Pot Performance and Juke Cry Hand Clap in Chicago, and we are at work to add the city to Mapping Arts Project. The project received a grant from the Propeller Fund.
- Our executive director, Lara Stein Pardo, began a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Laboratory for Race and Popular Culture at the University of Colorado at Boulder. While there she is working with the Lab on on-going projects bringing together arts and technology. She has also developed the course, Geographies of the Arts, and will work with students in the course to build and launch Mapping Arts-Denver. 
- Lara Stein Pardo was interviewed about her work in digital humanities, and she spoke about her work with Mapping Arts Project and on topics including collaboration and academic research.
- We received a grant from Denver Arts & Venues' IMAGINE2020 Fund to seed fund the early stages of Mapping Arts-Denver, and to connect to local artists and organizations. In addition to funding, we have also participated in trainings for artists and arts organizations. 
- Our web team collaborators at Efeqdev reconceptualized their work, and are now Giant Hat Works, where they focus on custom-designed apps and software.
- On the horizon for Mapping Arts Project in 2016 is a new timeline feature and redesigned genre and search functionality. We are working with Giant Hat Works on these new features.
- We welcomed new Board Member, Tayana Hardin. 

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Tayana Hardin brings to the organization a love for the arts and a commitment to inspired academic research. She holds a doctorate in American Studies (2012) from the University of Michigan, where she also completed a graduate residency in the Center for World Performance Studies. In 2013, Tayana joined the faculty of the English Department at the University of Denver. She teaches courses on American literature and culture, as well as more specialized courses that focus on twentieth century African American literature and its creative and historical connections to visual art, music, and dance. Although great literature and compelling criticism nourish her mind and soul, her true sustenance comes from Colorado sunshine, good food, lots of laughter and dancing, and quality time with family and friends. 

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Looking forward to 2016! Help support our work with an end of the year tax deductible donation. $10, $20, or any amount you can give helps to support the work we do and bring arts and research to broad public audiences. With your donation, we can conduct more research, update web features on Mapping Arts Project, train and hire artists and researchers, give public talks, work with organizations and artists around the world to develop new programs, and create art that is embedded in the world we live in. Thank you!

If you like our work, share this post with people you know! 

Going to Denver!

We are happy to announce that Founder and Executive Director, Lara Stein Pardo, will take up residence in Denver, Colorado in August. While there she will be a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Race and Popular Culture Lab at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She will teach courses, engage in research, and work on projects related to race and popular culture. Of the projects she will be working on, we are looking forward to the addition of Denver to the Mapping Arts Project in collaboration with local artists, organizations, and individuals. If you are in Denver, and would like to collaborate, get in touch via email at blackbirdartsorg@gmail.com.

View from US36, on route from Denver to Boulder, May 2005

Mapping Arts-Chicago, coming soon

New Year, New City
Introducing Mapping Arts-Chicago!

We are happy to announce there will soon be a third city in the Mapping Arts Project. Welcome, Chicago! Mapping Arts-Chicago is the work of a partnership between Blackbird and Honey Pot Performance. Honey Pot Performance's project, Juke Cry Hand Clap, looks at the histories of house music in Chicago throughout the 20th century. They've been hosting workshops, creating dance performances, and gathering information about the people, places, sounds, and movements that have been instrumental in Chicago's music scene through the "Mapping Sessions." Now, we are collaborating to bring this to the MAP!

Juke Cry Hand Clap, photo by Michael Sullivan, 2014

Juke Cry Hand Clap, Mapping Sessions, 2014