To Do List

I’m told Holler If Ya Hear Me, the Broadway musical based on Tupac Shakur’s music, is very good, but it is closing Sunday after poor box office returns. If you’ll be in NYC before then, you should definitely check it out. I plan to. Fuck Broadway, though, and their expensive tickets. (Heeey, I wonder if the poor ticket sales are in part because those who are most interested in Tupac probably don’t have much spare cash for Broadway tickets.)

If you find yourself in Chicago this weekend instead, the Latina/o Studies Conference is at the Palmer Hilton. The conference “will bring together for the first time on a large scale scholars, teachers, and students who study the history, politics, and culture of the many Latina/o communities in the United States.”

Also in Chicago, the opening of the No Selves to Defend: Criminalizing Women of Color art show, on Friday the 18th, at 6-9pm. “The exhibition includes original art by Micah Bazant, Molly Crabapple, Billy Dee, Bianca Diaz, Rachel Galindo, Lex Non Scripta, Caitlin Seidler, and Ariel Springfield. It also includes ephemera and artifacts from Mariame Kaba’s collection.” RSVP here. There are also a few books left (they are amazing!), benefiting Marissa Alexander’s defense fund.

Our friends at the Interference Archive in Brooklyn are opening their show Imagining Apartheid this Friday, 6:30-9pm. “Imaging Apartheid is a Montréal-based initiative, in collaboration with the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative, aimed at bringing awareness and support to the Palestinian struggle for liberation through the production and dissemination of poster art. Stefan Christoff is one of the organizers of Imaging Apartheid and will present the project and speak about the growing role of poster art in the global Palestine solidarity movement and specifically the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign. Stefan (@spirodon) is a Montreal-based community organizer, musician and media maker.”

This Saturday, July 19, La Casa Azul is hosting the discussion “Breaking the Mold: Male Characters in Latino Young Adult Literature.” Speaking will be local YA authors Torrey Maldonado and Matt de la Peña.

Next Wednesday, the 23rd, is the July edition of Radio Dispatch Live! John & Molly will be joined by Aram Schvey & Irin Carmon to talk reproductive rights. Show is at 8pm, downstairs at Le Poisson Rouge, but get there a little early to mingle.

Did you know McNally jackson hosts a Spanish-language book club? Yup! Next meeting is Friday, July 25, at 7pm. The book is Las Orejas del Lobo, by Antonio Ungar.

Thursday, August 14, at 7pm, Astronomy on Tap returns to my local nerd bar, The Way Station. Astronomy on Tap “features several short accessible, engaging science presentations on topics ranging from planets around other stars to supermassive black holes to the beginning of the Universe. Presenters are your neighbors, who also happen to be scientists and educators at local research and educational institutions or their collaborators and friends who are visiting or passing through town. This is their chance to share their most recent research results, experiment with new ways of explaining their explorations of the Universe, and to be honest about which Nature papers are complete and utter bull [shit].”

And! MOST IMPORTANTLY the eighth series of Doctor Who premiers on August 23. I’ll be watching it at The Way Station, drinking some of their delightful Who-themed cocktails.

September 12-14 is the Braking AIDS bicycle tour from Boston to NYC, to benefit Housing Works. That sounds like an amazing ride! New England is at its best in early fall. And, Housing Works is just the greatest.

If you feel like a trip to Canada (or you are maybe there already), there’s the Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies Colloquium in Toronto, on October 18. I might have intended to submit a proposal but never got around to it, oops.

October 30 is the Schomburg Center’s The State of Black Collections Conference.

On November 6-7, there’s the Freedman Center for Digital Scholarship Colloquium: Pedagogy & Practices at Case Western Reserve, in Cleveland. They are accepting abstracts until July 31, for “panels, papers, and presentations that address pedagogical approaches for using digital tools in humanities, science, and social science classrooms.”

CritLib Unconference in Portland next March? CritLib Unconference in Portland next March.

Looking EVEN FURTHER AHEAD, there’s the Black Arts United States: Institutions and Interventions conference next June at Northwestern. They are accepting proposals through December 5.