CSRC Newsletter - December 2017

In October, Illinois Humanities announced the winners of the first annual Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards for K-12 students. The competition had been announced on June 7, 2017, the centennial of the renowned poet’s birth. This award revived one that Brooks—who served as poet laureate of Illinois from 1968 until her death in 2000—initiated in 1970. She personally ran and funded the program until she died, declaring in 1977, “All the children who entered the contest are winners. . . . They worked hard. They created. And that is what is important.”

 

This summer I was contacted by Illinois Humanities. They had come across my own 1973 submission in the Gwendolyn Brooks Archives at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They wanted to know if I had won and, if so, would I share my memories of that experience. This was my response:

 

Here's what I remember. Somehow my younger sister had found out about the poetry award, perhaps through school. She was ten and was going to submit a poem. So naturally, as her older brother, I felt the need to submit one, too. We both saw ourselves as writers, due in large part to our father, who in his spare time wrote poetry, dreamed about writing novels, played guitar, and painted. He always encouraged us to be both creative and intellectual, and to care about writing. He was always giving us copies of William Strunk's The Elements of Style, which somehow suggests we kept throwing them away. Regardless, for me, writing was central to how I came to understand myself and the world around me. I continue to write poetry, but I have only intermittently submitted poems for publication.

 

 

Writing about Paul Robeson in her book of poems Family Pictures (1970), Brooks sums up the impact of the singer and actor’s powerful “music-words” as that of a “warning”: “That we are each other’s / harvest:” She calls him “The adult Voice.” So was Brooks, speaking to generations of children to work hard and create. Today, more than ever, that is what is important.

 

 

Following its successful summer run at LACMA, the CSRC-organized exhibition Home—So Different, So Appealing opened on November 17 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Opening events included panel discussions with artists Abraham Cruzvillegas, Grupo Mondongo, Daniel Joseph Martinez, and Amalia Mesa-Bains, which were moderated by exhibition co-curators Mari Carmen Ramírez and Chon A. Noriega. Press coverage of the exhibition at MFAH includes reviews in the Houston Chronicle and Texas Observer (see In the News, below). Home will be on view at MFAH through January 21, 2018. The exhibition catalog will be available this month (see CSRC Press, below).
 

Give the gift of books! CSRC Press books are now 50 percent off (tax and shipping additional) through December 21. This offer includes the PST: LA/LA exhibition catalogs Home—So Different, So Appealing (available as of December 11) and Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell, as well as all titles in the award-winning A Ver: Revisioning Art History series! Stop by 183 Haines Hall, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m.–5:00 p.m., or contact Darling Sianez at support@chicano.ucla.edu or 310-825-3428 to make your purchases. Browse all CSRC Press titles on our website. Please note: Subscriptions to Aztlán are not included in the sale.

 

Black represents CSRC at IUPLR meeting
CSRC associate director Charlene Villaseñor Black represented the CSRC at a consortium meeting in Mexico City hosted by the Inter-University Program for Latino Research (IUPLR). She presented on the CSRC’s currently active research projects—Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA exhibitions and Latinos and Economic Security—and archival projects, including the La Raza Photograph Collection, the Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Music, and the collections of Chicano movement leaders. She also spoke about the CSRC’s participation in a nationwide search with the Luskin School of Public Affairs to fill a faculty appointment that will focus on Latino policy (see Opportunities, below). Black also met with a government official to discuss how Mexican universities are preparing to help the DACA students who are being deported to Mexico. The CSRC is a founding member of the IUPLR.

 

Black conducts tours of PST: LA/LA
In November, Charlene Villaseñor Black, recipient of the prestigious 2016 Gold Shield Faculty Prize, conducted two tours of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA exhibitions for members of and donors to Gold Shield Alumnae at UCLA. The prize is given each year to a mid-career faculty member who has displayed “outstanding accomplishments in teaching, research, and community service.” Black is professor of art history and Chicana and Chicano studies and the associate director of the CSRC.

 

Black publishes on Aztlán in Diálogo
Charlene Villaseñor Black, professor of art history and Chicana and Chicano studies and editor of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, published the article “Founding Artists and the History of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies” in the fall 2017 issue of Diálogo (volume 20, number 2). The article examines the history of the journal, founded in 1970 at the CSRC, in terms of its commitment to visual artists. In particular, Black discusses the journal’s first cover artist, Chicana artist Judithe Hernández, whose “indigenizing” covers appeared from 1970 to 1975. Black also describes how the editor’s role has evolved.

 

CSRC visiting scholar Jonathan Yahalom has received a 2017 Distinguished Dissertation in Qualitative Inquiry Award from the American Psychological Association, Division 5 (quantitative and qualitative methods division). His dissertation, “Social Dimensions of Alzheimer's Disease among Caregivers in Oaxaca, Mexico," is an ethnography that is based on research conducted primarily in the Zapotec language. It interweaves clinical psychology, medical anthropology, qualitative research theory, and gerontology. Yahalom received his PhD in clinical psychology from Duquesne University.

 

CSRC visiting scholar and Ford fellow Chris Perreira presented the paper “Full Frontal Figure’: Looking at Colonial (Re)production and Dissent” at the American Studies Association (ASA) Conference, November 9–12 in Chicago. The panel on which he spoke, “Dissenting Archives,” focused on tensions that can arise between archives and their housing institutions.

 

Deborah R. Vargas, Henry Rutgers Term Chair in Comparative Sexuality, Gender, and Race at Rutgers University and former CSRC visiting scholar, is co-editor (with Nancy Raquel Mirabal and Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes) of Keywords for Latina/o Studies. The anthology, designed to explore the field’s established and emerging terms, categories, and concepts, was published this month by NYU Press.

 

Rita Gonzalez, curator and acting department head of contemporary art at LACMA and former CSRC arts project coordinator, is one of twelve curators invited to participate in the 2018 fellowship program led by the Center for Curatorial Leadership (CCL). The fellowship, which begins in January, provides training in all aspects of museum management. The program comprises two weeks of instruction in New York City, a five-day museum residency, and a diversity mentoring project that seeks to introduce young people from underrepresented communities to museum careers. The program ends in May with a final week of training.

 

Home artist Amalia Mesa-Bains is one of ten women selected to receive a 2017 Anonymous Was A Woman Award, which provides an unrestricted grant of $25,000 to support artistic practice. The award is given to women artists who are over forty years of age and are at a significant point in their careers. The award is a recognition of the artists’ accomplishments and potential.

 

The retrospective Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell was reviewed in Art in America. The exhibition is currently on view at the Vincent Price Art Museum through February 10, 2018. The images presented in the show are courtesy of the artist and the CSRC.
Art in America, November 30, 2017 (PDF)

 

The New Yorker featured a review of Laura Aguilar’s first retrospective, Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell, currently on display at the Vincent Price Art Museum. The images presented in the piece are courtesy of the artist and the CSRC. The CSRC Press recently published the exhibition catalog. 
The New Yorker, November 29, 2017 (PDF)

 

CSRC associate director Charlene Villaseñor Black was among the panelists assembled for the 1A Movie Club to review the new animated feature film Coco. Listen to the broadcast here.

1A Movie Club, WAMU 88.5 FM, November 29, 2017

 

CSRC director and show co-curator Chon A. Noriega was mentioned in a review of the CSRC-organized exhibition Home—So Different, So Appealing at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Several images from the exhibition, courtesy of LACMA, are included in the piece.
Texas Observer, November 28, 2017 (PDF)

 

The Houston Chronicle featured a review of the CSRC-organized exhibition Home—So Different, So Appealing at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. CSRC director and exhibition co-curator Chon A. Noriega was quoted about the show’s theme and some of the artworks.
Houston Chronicle, November 24, 2017 (PDF)

 

Laura Aguilar’s first retrospective, Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell, was featured in Contemporary Art Daily. The images presented in the piece are courtesy of the artist and the CSRC. The CSRC Press recently published the exhibition catalog.
Contemporary Art Daily, November 22, 2017 (PDF)

 

CultureMap covered the preview of Home—So Different, So Appealing at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, which was attended by more than one hundred people. Among them were the exhibition’s three curators, including CSRC director Chon A. Noriega.
CultureMap, November 20, 2017 (PDF)

 

Home—So Different, So Appealing was listed as number one of the “Top Five” exhibitions to visit in Texas.
Glasstire, November 16, 2017 (PDF)

 

The Houston Chronicle previewed the CSRC-organized exhibition Home—So Different, So Appealing at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Houston Chronicle, November 16, 2017 (PDF)

 

The CSRC was mentioned in an article discussing the exhibition La Raza, organized by the Autry Museum of the American West in collaboration with the CSRC, for the 25,000 photographs received by the CSRC for preservation, exhibition, and research. The exhibition, which showcases photographs taken for La Raza newspaper and magazine, is on view through February 2019.

Angelus News, November 15, 2017 (PDF)

 

Home—So Different, So Appealing was mentioned in an article discussing “Where the Heart Is,” a home-themed dance concert at the Midtown Art and Theater Center in Houston on November 16–18.
Houston Chronicle, November 15, 2017 (PDF)

 

Luis Garza, co-curator of the exhibition La Raza, shared the history of the 1960s Chicano newspaper and magazine in an interview in Capital and Main. The exhibition, organized in collaboration with the CSRC, is on view at the Autry through February 2019. The article includes images from the show, courtesy of the La Raza photographers and the CSRC.
Capital and Main, November 9, 2017 (PDF)

 

Truth Dig profiled the exhibition La Raza, organized in collaboration with the CSRC and on view at the Autry Museum of the American West. Several images in the piece were furnished by the CSRC.
Truth Dig, November 7, 2017 (PDF)

 

Home artist Ramiro Gomez is now represented by Chelsea’s P.P.O.W. gallery in New York. His first solo exhibition at the gallery will open in Spring 2018.
Artnews, November 6, 2017 (PDF)

 

The Los Angeles Times previewed an event at the Vincent Price Art Museum (VPAM) that paid tribute to The Plush Pony, a defunct working-class lesbian bar in Los Angeles. In the early 1990s photographer Laura Aguilar took pictures of the clientele, and some of these photos are included in the retrospective Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell at VPAM through February 10, 2018. The images presented in the show and article are courtesy of the artist and the CSRC.
Los Angeles Times, November 3, 2017 (PDF)
Los Angeles Times, November 4, 2017 (print edition) (PDF)

 

CSRC associate director Charlene Villaseñor Black was interviewed by A Martínez for the radio program Take Two. Listen to the show here.

Take Two, KPCC 89.3 FM, November 2, 2017

 

CSRC director Chon A. Noriega was quoted in an essay that mentioned the exhibition Home—So Different, So Appealing. The piece discussed the necessity of continued art programming and initiatives for the Latino community after the Getty-funded arts initiative Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA ends in January 2018.
Hyperallergic, November 2, 2017 (PDF)

 

CSRC associate director Charlene Villaseñor Black participated in a talk with artist Judithe Hernández at the Millard Sheets Art Center in Pomona. They discussed Hernández’s work in the exhibition One Path Two Journeys, part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA. Hernández was the original cover artist for Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, a CSRC Press publication for which Black now serves as editor.
Artillery, November 2, 2017 (PDF)

 

Home—So Different, So Appealing was mentioned in an article discussing the recent Twitter battle between the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The two institutions, collaborators on the Home exhibition, exchanged friendly banter, rooting for their home baseball teams in the World Series. 
Hyperallergic, November 1, 2017 (PDF)

 

The CSRC-organized exhibition Home—So Different, So Appealing was mentioned in a profile of Home artist Carmen Argote and artist Jose Dávila. The artists discussed their Guadalajara origin and its impact on their work.
LALA Magazine, October 7, 2017 (PDF)

 

 

The UCLA Digital Archiving Collective will hold the second session its 2017-18 UCLA visiting speaker series. This session will focus on access and outreach. The featured speakers are Audra Eagle Yun (UC Irvine, Special Collections & Archive), Thuy Vo Dang (UC Irvine, Southeast Asian Archive), Eric Hoyt (University of Wisconsin, Media History Digital Library), and Mark Williams (Dartmouth College, Media Ecology Project). Presentations will be followed by a roundtable session and a closing Q&A session. Light refreshments will be served. The CSRC is a co-sponsor of this event. 

 

The CSRC will participate in the Los Angeles Art Show. Details to follow.

For general information, visit http://www.laartshow.com/.

 

Flores participates on panel with Castillo
On November 2, California State University, Channel Islands hosted “The Oscar Castillo Papers and Photograph Collection,” a panel discussion and book talk held in conjunction with the PST: LA/LA exhibition The Latino Museum of History, Art and Culture (1995-2000) Revisited. Castillo, one of the two artists featured in the exhibition, and CSRC librarian Xaviera Flores discussed the scholarship and historical significance of Castillo’s photography. The CSRC has the Oscar Castillo Papers and Photograph Collection, donated by the photographer, and the CSRC Press published a companion research guide, which is volume 5 in the Chicano Archives series.

 

Flores provides instruction to English composition and Chicana/o studies students
On November 21, Flores provided research instruction to nineteen students in “English Composition 3: K-12 Education” and primary source/archival methods to thirty students in “Chicana/o Studies 188-5: Radical Women in Latin American Art.”

 

Ortiz exhibition in final weeks
Raphael Montañez Ortiz: Shred Your Worries and Other Destructions highlights three works that the multimedia artist created for the LA Art Show in January 2017: Shred Your Worries, Couch Destruction: Angel Release (Pennies from Heaven), and Piano Destruction Ritual: Cowboy and Indian, Part Two. The exhibition also displays key documents from throughout the artist’s career, from his “Destructivism Second Manifesto,” written for the Destruction in Art Symposium in London in 1966 to “digital experiments” conducted in the early 2000s. This exhibition highlights the Raphael Montañez Ortiz Papers at the CSRC Library, an extensive collection spanning eight decades that includes audiovisual materials, correspondence, ephemera, exhibition documentation, manuscripts, performance scripts, personal papers, photographs, printed materials, and academic publications. Curated by CSRC librarian and archivist Xaviera Flores, the exhibition will be on display through December in the CSRC Library and hallway vitrines. It is viewable during regular library hours, Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Ortiz, recipient of the UCLA Medal, is also a featured artist in the CSRC-organized exhibition Home—So Different, So Appealing.

 

This month we say goodbye to Archna Patel, library project team senior staff, who will be leaving the CSRC for a position at University of California Press. Patel has worked at the library for two years on a continuing project, funded through a Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) grant, to digitally preserve and provide access to the La Raza Photograph Collection. In addition, she has been invaluable to the CSRC’s collaboration with Autry Museum of the American West on its exhibition La Raza, serving as a liaison to the curatorial staff and overseeing quality control and data support for the exhibition’s digital interactive feature. We sincerely thank her for her dedication and hard work. We will miss her and wish her the very best.

 

 

Now available from CSRC Press: the catalog for Home—So Different, So Appealing, the acclaimed exhibition that explores the universal concept of “home,” whether envisioned as dwelling, residence, or place of origin. Home, which opened at LACMA and is now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, presents the artwork of forty US Latino and Latin American artists. Home breaks ground by placing these works—which span the hemisphere and seven decades of artistic production, from the 1950s to the present, and include paintings, photographs, videos, and multimedia works and installations—in a dynamic dialogue.

 

Curatorial essays by Chon A. Noriega (UCLA), Mari Carmen Ramírez (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston), and Pilar Tompkins Rivas (Vincent Price Art Museum) discuss the works and explore their interrelationships. The plate section includes installation photographs that show how the exhibition promotes this dialogue without imposing a common identity, cultural influence, or inheritance.

 

With more than two hundred illustrations in a lavish format, Home—So Different, So Appealing is the perfect gift for any art lover—and a beautiful volume for holiday giving. Order today from the distributor, University of Washington Press, or purchase directly from the CSRC this month during its annual holiday book sale (see News, above).

 

Digital-only subscriptions are now available to institutions and individuals. All subscribers receive online access to every issue of Aztlán. For information about digital-only subscriptions, visit

http://www.chicano.ucla.edu/publications/purchase-and-subscribe.

 

The Luskin School of Public Affairs, in partnership with the Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) at UCLA, seeks a professor in the general fields of Latino social, economic, and political issues. (A starting full professor may be appointed under extraordinary circumstances.) A successful applicant should be appointable in one or more of three departments in the Luskin School of Public Affairs: Public Policy, Social Welfare, or Urban Planning.

 

The Luskin School is an interdisciplinary environment that focuses on human well-being at every level of analysis. As part of this mission, the School, the CSRC, and UCLA’s Division of Social Sciences have launched the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, with the goal of establishing a multi-faceted think tank working on a broad range of challenges faced by the California Latino plurality. Latinos in the US face a multitude of challenges beyond immigration, including issues such as voting rights, environmental racism, K12 educational equity, quality health care, job opportunities, higher education access, worker protection, and criminal justice reform among many others. Scholars of all methodological traditions, interested in any of these substantive areas, as well as others, are invited to apply.

 

Applicants should hold a PhD in social welfare, public policy, urban planning or any of the cognate fields of sociology, political science, psychology, economics, law, etc., and be interested in problem-driven research and teaching. The Luskin School offers master’s degrees in the three fields, doctoral degrees in urban planning and social welfare, and in 2018 will be launching an undergraduate major in public affairs. In addition to three departments, the School has several large and thriving research institutes focused on various aspects of governance, social well-being, and solution seeking for challenging issues.

 

Position is opened until filled, but early inquiries are encouraged. Applications will be reviewed beginning October 26, 2017. To apply, go to UC Recruit, submit a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, writing sample/representative publications and three letters of recommendation to: https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/apply/JPF03332. For questions related to the position, please contact Julie Straub at jstraub@luskin.ucla.edu. For the full listing, visit

http://luskin.ucla.edu/about/open-positions/#toggle-id-8.

 

The Institute of American Cultures offers in-residence appointments to support research on African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, and Chicanas/os. We especially encourage applications that advance our understanding of new social and cultural realities occasioned by the dramatic population shifts of recent decades, including greater heterogeneity within ethnic groups and increased interethnic contact.

The 2018-19 IAC Visiting Scholars will receive funding for one or more quarters, with an approximate funding of $35,000 for three quarters (contingent upon rank, experience, and date of completion of their terminal degree). In the event that an award is for less than three quarters the stipend will be prorated in accordance with the actual length of the award. Visiting scholars who have a home institution, these funds can be used to supplement sabbatical support for the total that does not exceed the candidate’s current institutional salary. These visiting scholars will be paid through their home institution and will be expected to continue their health benefits through that source. Visiting scholars who do not have a home institution will receive funding for living expenses and may be eligible for health benefits. In the event that an award is for less than the nine-month appointment, the funds will be prorated in accordance with the actual length of the award. Awardees may receive up to $4,000 in research support. The Bunche Center for African American Studies will not have a visiting scholar this academic year.

 
Applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States and hold a PhD from an accredited college or university (or, in the case of the arts, an appropriate terminal degree) in a relevant field at the time of appointment. UCLA faculty, staff, and currently enrolled students are not eligible to apply.

 

Application deadline: January 11, 2018. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed. Applicants will be notified in March.

Click here for a preview of the application pages. 

 

For further information, please contact the coordinator of the appropriate UCLA Ethnic Studies Research Center.

 

The Inter-University Program for Latino Research is now accepting applications for the IUPLR/Mellon Fellowship Program (academic year 2018-19). The program supports ABD doctoral students in the humanities who are writing dissertations in Latina/o studies. Doctoral students in the social sciences whose research uses humanities methods may also be considered. The fellowship facilitates completion of the dissertation and provides professional development, job market support, and mentoring from Latina/o faculty members. 

With support from the Andrew G. Mellon Foundation, IUPLR will select fellows through six designated research centers. Applicants must be affiliated with the following centers to be eligible:  
 

 

The fellowship includes a $25,000 stipend, participation in an intensive summer institute in Chicago, and professionalization and writing workshops and programs. For more information and to view the online application, visit _{https://form.jotform.com/62325487948166}.
 

Application deadline: January 30. All queries should be directed to the Mellon coordinator, Dr. Jennifer Boles, jlboles@uic.edu. UCLA applicants are additionally asked to contact Dr. Rebecca Epstein, CSRC communications and academic programs officer, repstein@chicano.ucla.edu.