Multimedia Art Show Focuses on Coping with Violence, Tragedy
October 9, 2012
The UC Merced Art Gallery debuts "Living with the Memory," a multimedia exhibit that combines documentary photography, written text and voice recordings to tell the stories of black women, men and children coping in the aftermath of violence and tragedy in California’s East Bay.
Between 2001 and 2003, photographer Susan Latham followed the lives of women whose children were homicide victims. Many started community networks and organizations to prevent more murders, empower youth and end cultures of violence.
Latham began the project as her master’s thesis at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, where she met and collaborated with former Sacramento Bee crime reporter Nigel Hatton, now a literature professor at UC Merced.
"Living with the Memory" showcases a group of Latham’s powerful photographs and revealing interviews of grief, love, despair and hope. It raises issues that resonate in the East Bay and urban centers, as well as in the Central Valley.
The opening colloquium is from 1 to 4 p.m. Nov. 5 in Social Sciences and Management Building, Room 117. It's free and open to the public.
It will include a series of talks featuring Latham in dialogue with women involved in the project, as well as presentations by Hatton, UC San Francisco Professor Howard Pinderhughes, author of "Race in the Hood: Conflict and Violence Among Urban Youth" and the forthcoming "Dealing With Danger: How Inner City Youth Cope with the Violence that Surrounds Them," and art history Professor ShiPu Wang, who oversees the UC Merced Art Gallery. A reception follows the colloquium.
The exhibition and events are made possible by generous support from the UC Merced School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, the UC Merced Center for Research in the Humanities and Arts, and the Center for Collaborative Research for an Equitable California, a University of California Multi-Campus Research Program funded by the UC Office of the President.
Wang and students in his museum studies seminar curate the exhibition. The show runs from Nov. 1 to Feb. 1 in the UC Merced Art Gallery, Room 106 of the Social Sciences and Management Building. The gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday. It will be closed for winter break from Dec. 7 to Jan. 21.
