Memories of Home: Memorial, Meaning, and Filmmaking

This conversation pairs Atlanta-based documentary filmmaker djones in dialogue with James E. Young, distinguished professor emeritus and founding director of the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. They will discuss djones’ film 631 (2008), which documents his family’s stories through their ownership and struggles to maintain a multigenerational home in Youngstown, Ohio. Employing the film’s visual narrative as a lens, the panelists will address the intersections of personal narrative and how these shared private stories inform public socio-cultural discussions and understanding of memory and memorializing events.

The Common Ground: Artist Reimagining Community multi-part transdisciplinary lecture series pairs an artist and researcher in conversation to discuss concepts of “community” from their disciplines. Future fall semester 2020 discussions include Judaism and Global Voices, Home Sweet Home: Homeownership and Community Building, and Latinx Identities: Performing Community Formation.

Visual Arts adjunct faculty member Jennifer Vanderpool created the programming for these lectures in conjunction with the upcoming exhibition (Oct. 30, -March 5) of the same name, which she guest curated. Inspired by mutual aid societies, Vanderpool integrated the participatory strategies of social practice art that organizes communities in debate and collaboration with curatorial activism approaches that challenge the assumptions and erasures of voices in hegemonic narratives to develop Common Ground: Artist Reimagining Community.

Click the link below to join the webinar: https://clu.zoom.us/j/97325852214 International numbers available: https://clu.zoom.us/u/aesLyFCMpe

Click here to find more information on the event.