The Asian/Pacific/American Institute opens its fall events schedule with “Visualizing Pacific Mythologies” (Sept. 10), a pair of talks and a discussion featuring artists Alexander Lee and Jason Wing, and a conference on the past and present of eugenics in the United States (Sept. 25-26).

Asian/Pacific/American Institute to Host “Visualizing Pacific Mythologies” & Eugenics “Then and Now” in Sept.
The Asian/Pacific/American Institute opens its fall events schedule with “Visualizing Pacific Mythologies” (Sept. 10), a pair of talks and a discussion featuring artists Alexander Lee and Jason Wing, and a conference on the past and present of eugenics in the United States (Sept. 25-26).

New York University’s Asian/Pacific/American Institute opens its fall events schedule with “Visualizing Pacific Mythologies” (Sept. 10), a pair of talks and a discussion featuring artists Alexander Lee and Jason Wing, and a conference on the past and present of eugenics in the United States (Sept. 25-26).

Both events are free and open to the public. To RSVP, please call 212.992.9653 or visit www.apa.nyu.edu/events. Subways: N/R (8th Street), 6 (Astor Place)

Thursday, Sept. 10, 6-8 p.m.
Visualizing Pacific Mythologies: Alexander Lee and Jason Wing (talks & discussion)
Location: 8 Washington Mews (below 8th Street, between University Place and Fifth Avenue)

California-born and Tahiti-raised artist Alexander Lee's interests in storytelling, mythology, the anthropic process, and post-colonial transformation are explored in his works of site‐specific installations and murals, drawings, paintings,
and sculptures. In his latest project, THE BOTANIST, Lee revisits the uru (breadfruit) and how its migration through colonial history has helped in the construction of the myth around Tahiti. He is currently Guest Artist Lecturer at the Centre des Métiers d'Arts de Polynésie Française.

Jason Wing, a Sydney-based Chinese-Aboriginal artist, calls into question our understandings of history and current socio-political realities by repurposing everyday objects and imagery. His works of street art, photography, installation, and painting explore the themes of indigeneity, mythology, colonization, migration, and racism, particularly as they relate to history and everyday life in Australia. Wing, who is currently an artist-in-residence at the International Studio & Curatorial Program, will present a talk entitled, “In-between Two Worlds.”

Friday, Sept. 25-Saturday, Sept. 26
America & Its Unfit: Eugenics Then & Now
Location: NYU’s Silver Center for the Arts and Science (100 Washington Square East [enter at 31 Washington Place])
Hemmerdinger Hall, 1st Floor

Disoriented by the “unwashed” immigrants arriving every day, New Yorker Madison Grant’s screed The Passing of the Great Race (1916) sounded the alarm for elite Anglo American Protestants. The Eugenics Record Office emerged in the breach of this Gilded Age moment of great extremes—immense wealth and immense urban and rural poverty. “Slum clearance” was framed in a social Darwinist language of progress. Forced sterilization was justified in the name of “social efficiency.” Closing the gates was their survival defense. Creating institutions segregating those deemed "feebleminded," "degenerate," and "unfit" was part of a new meritocratic system of social ranking.

Today, how have we pushed back these top-down exclusionary policies? How does this era continue to shape our political and cultural institutions? Join us for two days of problem-posing and strategy-building. Poets, musicians, scholars, performers, writers, and organizers come together to explore what we need to do now to create change during this two-day conference.

For a complete conference schedule, go to: http://bit.ly/eugenicsconf.

The event is co-sponsored by NYU’s Department of History, NYU’s Department of Social & Cultural Analysis, the Native Studies Forum, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts’ Art and Public Policy Department, and NYU’s Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies.
 

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James Devitt
James Devitt
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