Every so often, a creative dark horse will storm through Atlanta and give the arts world a healthy shake, just when things were starting to look dull. Artist Jenny Zhang, who serves as the Atlanta Printmakers Studio’s inaugural Emerging Artist in Residence, headlines a discussion panel at Apache CaféMon., July 13 at 8:30 p.m. The talk will center on issues raised by the artist’s JUBA SPIDER — an edition of prints inspired by hip-hop artist Juba Kalamka, an outspoken member of the black gay community — and will feature the voices of critics Cinqué Hicks (Creative Loafing) and Felicia Feaster (The Atlantan), as well as Charles Stephens of AID Atlanta and Karen Fain of Apache Café, who will moderate the discussion. Oh, and the artist herself, of course.
The panel is interdisciplinary to say the least, covering both music and visual art, and its themes unite a surprising cross-section of Atlanta groups interested in art and social justice. Hell, even WonderRoot’s involved: They’re responsible for video you just watched (or should be watching, soon)!
The scope of professor Saskia Sassen’s research is, in a word, international. How international, you ask? Her work is so cosmopolitan, she’s comfortable lecturing on both sides of the Atlantic. Sassen currently serves as the Robert S. Lynd professor of sociology at Columbia University, as well as a centennial visiting professor at the London School of Economics (where, inexplicably, even the smarty-pants journalists spell “globalization” with an “s”).
Sassen visits Atlanta this week to deliver a talk on “Today’s Cities as Frontier Space” at Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture Auditorium Tues., March 24 at 7 p.m. Sassen, whose books include The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo, has written on topics ranging from global economics and technology to urban culture and terrorism. Her lecture is the latest installment of ART PAPERS Live!, a continuing series of free events sponsored by Atlanta’s ART PAPERS magazine.
From ART PAPERS’:
[Sassen's] newest books are Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages (Princeton University Press, 2008) and A Sociology of Globalization (W.W.Norton, 2007) … She has just completed a five-year project commissioned by UNESCO on sustainable human settlement with a network of researchers and activists in over 30 countries; it is published as one of the volumes of the Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (Oxford, UK: EOLSS Publishers). Her groundbreaking book The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo came out in a new fully updated edition in 2001.
Sassen’s books have been translated into nineteen languages. She serves on many editorial boards and is an advisor to several international bodies. She is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Cities, and a former chair of the Information Technology and International Cooperation Committee of the Social Science Research Council (USA). She has written for The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde Diplomatique, The International Herald Tribune, Newsweek International, OpenDemocracy.net, Vanguardia, Clarin, The Financial Times, and Huffingtonpost.com, among others.
Though he’s a native Egyptian, Zahi Hawass is no stranger to Atlanta. The city’s become a hotbed of Egyptian activity thanks to Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum’s dedication to the subject, as well as the popular exhibit Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs currently on view at the Atlanta Civic Center. As a result, the Egyptologist has likely spent as much time here as on some excavation sites. Hawass, the secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, visits the King Tut exhibit March 19 to give the lecture “Mysteries of Tutankhamun Revealed,” and sign books. Here, he discusses his explorations and finds, both Egyptian and Atlantan.
What initially drew you to Egyptian archaeology?
Actually, when I was a young boy … I wanted to be a lawyer. At 15 I went to study at the Faculty of Law, bought all my assigned books, read one line and realized I hated it. Then I moved to the Faculty of Arts, where I joined the archaeology department quite by accident.
One day I was preparing to go to Cairo, dressed in my best clothes, and the workmen asked me to come and see the new discovery of a tomb. I descended into the tomb, no longer caring that my nice clothes were getting very dirty, and I still remember the Reis (Arabic for the overseer of workmen) [handing] me a brush and saying, “Young man, clean in the middle of the tomb.” And while I was cleaning, I saw a statue. It was a statue of Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and beauty. I began to clean the statue with my brush. At that moment, I fell in love with archaeology. It has been the great love of my life ever since.
Though he’s a native Egyptian, Zahi Hawass is no stranger to Atlanta. The city’s become a hotbed of Egyptian activity thanks to Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum’s dedication to the subject, as well as the popular exhibit Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs currently on view at the Atlanta Civic Center. As a result, the Egyptologist has likely spent as much time here as on some excavation sites. Hawass, the secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, visits the King Tut exhibit March 19 to give the lecture “Mysteries of Tutankhamun Revealed,” and sign books. Here, he discusses his explorations and finds, both Egyptian and Atlantan.