Socially Engaged: Public and Private Storytelling

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On Monday, Nov. 8, artist LaToya Ruby Frazier will discuss the value of collaboration—with individuals, families, and communities—to create a powerful platform for social change. Today, mass media dictates the dominant narrative, often silencing vulnerable communities and perspectives. Parallel realities and experiences can be found across poor and working-class America—urban decay, white flight, economic stagnation, crime, illness, and unravelling civic connections—and these can make for a bleak vision of the country. However, there are ways to engage marginalized groups and individuals to amplify their voices and come together with renewed agency. With references to art, activism, and grassroots political action, this lecture will inspire audiences to use digital technology and storytelling together in order to foster greater empathy, connection, and understanding.

Following her talk, Frazier will be in conversation with Sarah Lewis, assistant professor in the Departments of History of Art and Architecture and African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Sebastian Smee, Pulitzer Prize–winning art critic from the Boston Globe, will be moderating the discussion.

This program is presented in conjunction with Sarah Lewis’s curricular installation Vision and Justice: The Art of Citizenship, on view in the University Teaching Gallery until January 8, 2017. Before the talk, from 5 to 6pm, visitors will have an opportunity to view the Vision and Justice installation on Level 3. The lecture hall doors open at 5:30pm. The lecture will begin at 6pm in Menschel Hall, on the Lower Level.

Free admission. After 5pm, please enter the museums via the entrance on Broadway.

Complimentary parking available in the Broadway Garage, 7 Felton Street, Cambridge.