Out of Place: Three Writers on Fiction, Language, Exile, and Utopia

This event on Tuesday, September 6 at 5:30pm ET at Weis Cinema, Bard College, brings together in person three esteemed writers—Nuruddin Farah, Ilija Trojanow, and Aleksandar Hemon—to read from and discuss their work. As suggested by the titles North of Dawn (Farah) and Nowhere Man (Hemon), all three writers are concerned in their work with questions […]

The Utopian Prerogative

Bard College Campus Road, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, United States

This event will take place on Wednesday, 7 September, 5:30pm ET at Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation (RKC) 103 at Bard College. "Each day we are sold different versions of yesterday, but rarely offered a different tomorrow. The apocalypse streams into every household at a flat rate. In an era of dystopian […]

Erased, ___Ascent of the Invisible

CHRA will be screening Erased, ___Ascent of the Invisible (1976) by Lebanese filmmaker Ghassan Halwani at 4pm on Thursday, 29 September at Upstate Films in Rhinebeck. The event is free and open to the public. The film screening is organized by CHRA's 2022-2023 Fellow Sabine El Chamaa. A Q&A between Ghassan and Sabine will follow. […]

Zayaan Khan: From Seed-as-Object to Seed-as-Relation in South Africa

Governments in South Africa and beyond are working to ratify new laws that limit and criminalize seed access and use. In response, a local and global resistance movement is working to keep seeds free and accessible. The idea of freedom is inherent to a seed, its very purpose is to share itself as widely as […]

Juliana Steiner: Flood the river, grow the food: embodying food systems

This talk will focus on the work of Ecotone: Chagras, Payaos, Camellones, a program curated by Juliana Steiner as part of the as part of Common Ground, an international festival on the politics of land and food. By investigating and honoring food sovereignty and distinct foodways, Ecotone explores some examples of restorative and regenerative agricultural […]

Michael Rakowitz: (G)hosting

A talk about hosts, ghosts, hospitality, hostility, and the complicated nature of a good time. In this lecture, Rakowitz will discuss (g)hosting, a term he uses to explore the intersection of hospitality and hostility in his work, as well as the recuperation of disappeared objects, smells, tastes, customs, and relationships through reactivations and substitutes.

Jumana Manna: When A Goat Eats the Scene

In her talk, Jumana Manna will speak about her dual practice as a sculptor and a filmmaker, and her ongoing inquiries into the contradictions of preservation and ruination. Manna will focus on her recent film, Foragers, which depicts the criminalization of Palestinian plant foraging traditions. The film challenges the logic of extinction debates under settler-colonial […]

Nicholas Galanin: Unshadowed Land

Culture is rooted in connection to land; like land, culture cannot be contained. I am inspired by generations of LingĂ­t & UnangaxĚ‚ creative production and knowledge connected to the land I belong to. From this perspective I engage across cultures with contemporary conditions. My process of creation is a constant pursuit of freedom and vision […]

Tender Edges: Microfestival by First-Year M.A. Students in Human Rights & the Arts

Tender Edges is a microfestival of live art projects created by the first year M.A. students in Human Rights & the Arts at Bard College. These works-in-progress are part of The Politics of Interactive Live Art course taught by Tania El Khoury. The microfestival takes place at various times and locations on campus on Saturday […]

Danielle Purifoy: “Remote Control”—Plantations and Black Forest Ecologies in the Black Belt

This talk examines how the contemporary timber industry reproduces plantation power. It explores the “remote control” of land — such as absentee land ownership, Black family land grabs, new markets for energy, and legal regimes designed to “devalue” common property in favor of individual ownership and profit. Multi-generation Black homeplaces and communities, rooted in alternative […]

Baha Hilo: The Olives of Palestine

Olive trees have been a major part of Baha's practice as an educator and community organizer. His talk will focus on the significance, history, and place of olive trees in Palestine, as well as the different methods used by the state of Israel to destroy this ancestral staple and tradition. Baha will share his project […]

Miguel’s War with director Eliane Raheb, in conversation with Sabine El Chamaa

CHRA will be screening Miguel's War (2021, 128 min) at Upstate Films, with director Eliane Raheb in person. The film will be introduced and discussed by CHRA Fellow and filmmaker Sabine El Chamaa. Eliane Raheb’s hybrid documentary follows Miguel, a gay man exiled in Spain who returns to Lebanon after 37 years to reflect on […]