Liz Magic Laser: Tell Me What You Want To Hear
April 6 – May 18, 2013
Opening Reception: Friday, April 5, 7 – 9 pm
Liz Magic Laser’s live performances and videos have involved collaborations with actors, dancers, surgeons, and motorcycle gang members and often intervene in public spaces. Tell Me What You Want To Hear is a video installation that explores story-telling methods and interview techniques employed by politicians and newsmakers to elicit public empathy. Utilizing the format of a political talk show, Tell Me What You What To Hear poses a dialogue between political experts, the television media, and the audience. Laser’s collaborators in Tell Me What You Want To Hear include Nick Anderson, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist; Shannon Buggs, journalist and Director of Communications for the University of Houston’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences; Maurice Duhon, realtor, former political candidate, musician, and reality TV personality; Linda Lorelle, Emmy Award-winning journalist and former KPRC-TV news anchor; and students of Keith Houk and Randy Polk at the University of Houston’s Jack J. Valenti School of Communication.
Nora Chipaumire: Miriam
April 26-27, 2013
In conjunction with Austin’s Fusebox Festival, DiverseWorks will present Miriam, the first character-driven work by renowned Zimbabwean dance-theatre artist Nora Chipaumire. Deeply personal, the work looks closely at the tensions women face between public expectations and private desires; selflessness and ambition; and the strive for perfection and ultimate sacrifice of the feminine ideal. The inspiration for Miriam springs from the cultural and political milieu of Chipaumire’s southern African girlhood, her self-exile to the United States, and her self-discovery as an artist. But Miriam also reverberates with other literary and legendary influences: the writings of Joseph Conrad and Chenjerai Hove; the life of South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba; and the Christian iconography of Mary.