The Occupation of Kashmir: How We Celebrate Freedom!
The Transnational Solidarity Initiative warmly invites you to a discussion on the ongoing military occupation of Kashmir, in the context of U.S. Imperialism, violations of United Nations treaties, and women's movement against the forced disappearances of young Kashmiris.
Kashmir has been occupied by the military forces of India and Pakistan since 1947. The demands for independence in Kashmir have been met with forced disappearances, curfews, control on communication, and greater military control, resulting in Kashmir being the most militarized zone in the world. This event will feature a screening of Jashn e Azadi, or How we Celebrate Freedom, a film by Sanjay Kak on life under India-Occupied Kashmir, followed by a talk by Asgar Qadri from George Washington University. When: Friday, May 8th at 7:30 PM Where: Independent Media Center, 202 S Broadway Ave, Urbana, IL 61801 |
On 1st October, 2014, three African students were beaten up by a mob in an underground metro station in India's capital in full view of law enforcement authorities, marking another violent instance in the complex life of African students living in urban India. This event will feature a screening of Cry Out Loud, a film by Gabriel Dattatreyan, from the University of Pennsylvania, on the lives of African students living in India. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with the filmmaker and Nima Lamu Yolmo from University of California-Irvine. When: Thursday, May 7th at 7:30 PM Where: Independent Media Center, 202 S Broadway Ave, Urbana, IL 61801 |
Gernika: 78 Years Later
On 26th April 1937, the Basque city of Gernika was air-bombed by fascist and Nazi forces, in the first instance of saturation bombing on civilians in Europe.
This event will feature an exhibit titled Guernica/Gernika on the intertwined and divergent life of the 1937 bombing of Gernika and Picasso's painting Guernica, that showcases the complex intersections of memory and resistance in contemporary times. The exhibit will be accompanied by the screening of the documentary Guernica (2011), at 7:30pm. Venue: Independent Media Center, 202 S Broadway Ave, Urbana, IL 61801 Date: May 5, 2015, 7:30pm |
Struggle and Solidarity: A Democratic History of Champaign-Urbana
All images are courtesy of the University of Illinois Archives, Student Life and Culture Archives, African Activist Archive, eblackcu.net, Erlantz Ortiz, and the American Indian Studies Program archives, curated in collaboration with Noah Lenstra, Anna Trammell, John McKinn and Cristina Lucio. We would like to thank the archivists and staff at each of these institutions for their assistance.
Click here to see Joy Ann Williamson-Lott's Black Power on Campus: University of Illinois 1965-75 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003) Click here to see more of the great archival footage from eblackcu.net |
This exhibition, covering the years between 1965 and 2004, connects the movements for Civil Rights, and Black Power, with the movement against the Vietnam War, the campaign to end apartheid in South Africa, and the struggle to remove the Chief as the mascot for the University of Illinois. It features images of pamphlets, protests, and clips from student publications like Free Prairie Press, The Geek, Walrus, People, and La Carta.
The opening will feature a screening of a short video documentary 'Oral History of Champaign-Urbana Days,' followed by panel discussion on archives and activism with residents of Champaign-Urbana, and activists in struggles for democracy and justice. "Champaign-Urbana Days" is an annual community reunion organised since the mid-1960s, currently held in Douglass Park. The list of speakers at the opening is as follows: Imani Bazzell is a community activist on concerns around Black women. She founded SisterNet, a local network for African-American women, as well as Family Advocacy of Champaign County. She was active in the campaigns in Champaign Urbana against apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s. Carletta Donaldson will be speaking with her father, Alonzo Donaldson, who worked on campus and was a key figure in the struggles to desegregate the Urbana School District in the 1960s. Patricia Lewis, was a Project 500 Student from Danville, Illinois. She has lived in Champaign-Urbana since coming to the University of Illinois to study. Estelle Merrifield, a lifelong Champaign-Urbana resident, has been an active voice in African-American social justice struggles. She will talk about changes in African-American community over the years. A. Belden Fields is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. During his undergraduate life here, he was active in movements for campus democracy, free speech, and civil liberties. He has also been a vocal advocate for criminal justice reform in the community, besides being active in the campaigns against US imperialism in Central and South America. Al Kagan is Professor Emeritus of Library Administration and was the library's African Studies Bibliographer at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He campaigned against apartheid South Africa in Boston and Connecticut. In his time here, he has been actively associated with the movement against the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. We hope to see you there! Venue: Independent Media Center, 202 S Broadway Ave, Urbana, IL 61801 Dates: Monday, May 4, 7:30pm (ongoing till Sunday, May 16). |
Concerning Violence: Nine Scenes from Anti-Imperialistic Self-Defence
|
The
Transnational Solidarity Initiative warmly invites you to the screening
of Concerning Violence: Nine Scenes from Anti-Imperialistic
Defence directed by Göran Hugo Olson (2014) on Tuesday, February
17 at 7:30pm in the Art Theater in downtown Champaign. The screening
will be followed by a roundtable discussion featuring Teresa Barnes
(History/Gender and Women's Studies) and Augustus Wood
(History).
Concerning Violence is a documentary film that uses archival footage to explore African liberation movements of the 1960s and 1970s, with excerpts from Frantz Fanon’s essay "Concerning Violence" ("De la violence") from his famed anticolonial text The Wretched of the Earth (Les damnés de la terre, 1961) -- narrated by actor and singer Lauryn Hill -- as a narrative guide. The film premiered in-competition in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and has won several awards (64th Berlin International Film Festival, Göteborg International Film Festival, Oslo Films from the South Festival) since then. The speakers on the panel are active members of the campus and the community of Champaign-Urbana. Teresa Barnes is a historian of African social movements, gender, and education, especially in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Augustus Wood is a graduate student working on Black radicalism in the United States, and Co-President of the Graduate Employees Organization. As systemic forms of violence against African American communities in the United States have been exposed and resisted in the past months, and as African decolonization and Islam are being debated anew in the context of contemporary neo-imperialism, Concerning Violence's provocative take on colonialism, revolution, violence, and race can give us some insight on the current political predicament. This event is free and open to the public. |
Discussion Panel on Resistance in Kobane
The Transnational Solidarity Initiative warmly invites you to a discussion panel, Resistance in Kobane: Democratic Autonomy and the Rojava Revolution, on Friday, December 5, at the Illini Union room 407 from 2:30 pm to 4:30pm.
In recent months, the city of Kobane has attracted the attention of the international media due to the courageous resistance of its people against the so-called Islamic State. These news reports, however, rarely touch upon the political commitments and projects of the Rojava revolution of 2012 in the same region and the decades spanning the history of the Kurdish liberation movement in the Middle East. We invite you to participate in a conversation about the most recent chapter of resistance in the long history of the Kurdish movement, which is taking place in Kobane today. Panelists: Mehmet Yuksel, HDP Washington Representative Mutlu Civiroglu, Kurdish Affairs Analyst and Journalist Hanifa Hussein, Coordinating Committee Member of Tev-Dem (Movement for a Democratic Society), Rojava Moderator: Osman Cen, Kurdish Activist, Researcher at Northwestern University |
The 2014 Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture
The Transnational Solidarity Initiative will host the 2014 Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture at the University of Illinois, by Professor Robert Warrior, Director of American Indian Studies and Professor of AIS, English and History.
Professor Warrior's talk, "Remembering Said's Minority Imperative, and the Persistence of Lost Causes," will be on Thursday, October 30 at 7 pm in 319 Gregory Hall. Prof. Warrior's lecture will follow a film screening of Edward Said's famous speech on "Palestine, Iraq, and U.S. Policy."
On the occasion of the the 79th anniversary of Said's birth (November 1), and 2014 being the 35th anniversary of the publication of The Question of Palestine and the 20th anniversary of the publication of The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination 1969-1994, please join us in an experimental pairing of lectures between Edward W. Said, and his one-time student, Robert Warrior.
The Transnational Solidarity Initiative is an endeavor of the 'Rethinking Transnationalism in the Age of Mediatized Social Protest' research group, generously supported by the first Focal Point Breakthrough Grant of the Graduate College at UIUC. The initiative includes a group of international graduate students, faculty and community members attempting to interrogate the nature of solidarity networks across borders.
We hope to see you there!
Professor Warrior's talk, "Remembering Said's Minority Imperative, and the Persistence of Lost Causes," will be on Thursday, October 30 at 7 pm in 319 Gregory Hall. Prof. Warrior's lecture will follow a film screening of Edward Said's famous speech on "Palestine, Iraq, and U.S. Policy."
On the occasion of the the 79th anniversary of Said's birth (November 1), and 2014 being the 35th anniversary of the publication of The Question of Palestine and the 20th anniversary of the publication of The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination 1969-1994, please join us in an experimental pairing of lectures between Edward W. Said, and his one-time student, Robert Warrior.
The Transnational Solidarity Initiative is an endeavor of the 'Rethinking Transnationalism in the Age of Mediatized Social Protest' research group, generously supported by the first Focal Point Breakthrough Grant of the Graduate College at UIUC. The initiative includes a group of international graduate students, faculty and community members attempting to interrogate the nature of solidarity networks across borders.
We hope to see you there!