UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA: The Making of Ex Machina | 2024 Festival on the Hill

Moeser Auditorium, Hill Hall 135 E. Cameron Ave., Chapel Hill, NC, United States

Join us for a talk with the artists of Ex Machina and learn how the project was shaped from idea to performance. EX MACHINA is an interdisciplinary and multimedia project exploring the complex connections and relationship between technology and humanity through visual art and music. Evolving technology has been changing our lives, including how we experience arts and music. The title, Ex Machina, or From the Machine, reflects on humanity’s creativity and struggle of identity in this fast changing world. As a starting point, the piano is a musical machine with which I create sound stories to evoke ideas and emotions. In this project, we will explore the machine’s multifaceted meanings artistically, musically, and philosophically. -Dr. Clara Yang

Free

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA: “Afrobeats and the Popular Incredible in Nigeria,” Dr. Adeshina Afolayan | UMRF 23-24

Person Hall 181 E Cameron Ave, Chapel Hill, United States

Afrobeats, as the current preeminent articulation of popular music in Nigeria, participates in and embodies the reign of the postcolonial incredible in Nigeria. In this lecture, I will insert Afrobeats into the existential dynamics of the Nigerian postcolonial agon. The postcolonial agon in Nigeria is constituted around the agonistic struggles of Nigerians within the context of the governance failure of the postcolonial Nigerian state, and the universe of possibilities and impossibilities that the state’s sovereignty and absence reveal for Nigerians.

Free

Triangle Wagner Society: Nicholas Vazsonyi, Ph.D

The Forest at Duke 2701 Pickett Road, Durham, NC, United States

In a recent talk to the Triangle Society, Paula and Ed Bortnichak presented a defense of the controversial “post-structuralist” 2013 Bayreuth Ring production by Frank Castorf, which featured meandering crocodiles, oil rigs in central Asia, and Berlin’s Alexanderplatz. Their defense had two parts. One was that Wagner was also inherently a post-structuralist, a 20th-century movement that celebrates the breakdown of truth and meaning, and the abandonment of coherence. They then proceeded to undermine their own argument by explaining what the staging meant and how it related coherently to Wagner. During his talk, Nicholas will show that Wagner was the very opposite of a post-structuralist. Wagner certainly understood the “death of God” which set us on the path to post-structuralism and the accompanying self-immolation of the West we witness today. His artistic project is an exploration of that world, our world, in all its seductive beauty and resulting devastation.

Museum of the Southeast American Indian: Lecture: On the Life of Dr. Helen Maynor Scheirbeck

Museum of the Southeast American Indian 1369 Old Main Rd, Pembroke, United States

Dr. Helen Maynor Scheirbeck (1935-2010), a Lumbee political scientist, educator, and community organizer, both led and served as a consultant to governmental and non-governmental organizations related to American Indian tribal recognition, education, and community development. Dr. Scheirbeck assisted with the founding of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to chair the Indian Education Task Force, and served as the director of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Office of Indian Education. She also assisted in the development of the Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act (1978), was appointed head of the Indian Head Start Program, and served as assistant director for public programs at the National Museum of the American Indian. Dr. David E. Wilkins (Lumbee) is the E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professor in Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond. He concentrates much of his work on Native politics and governance, particularly on the transformations that Indigenous governments have both coercively and voluntarily engaged in from pre-colonial times to the present.

Appalachian State University: An Appalachian Summer Festival: Artist Showcase Series

Turchin Center for the Visual Arts 423 W. King Street, Boone, NC, United States

As we celebrate App Summer’s 40th anniversary, this series offers behind-the-scenes discussions with artists from the music, dance, and visual arts worlds that center around a common theme of legacy and longevity.

Free

Museum of the Southeast American Indian: Book Talk: Dr. Ryan Emanuel

Museum of the Southeast American Indian 1369 Old Main Rd, Pembroke, United States

Dr. Ryan E. Emanuel will discuss and sign copies of his new book, On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice, at 6:30 p.m. in the Museum of the Southeast American Indian (Old Main First Floor) at UNC Pembroke. In On the Swamp (2024), Dr. Emanuel (Lumbee) shares stories from North Carolina about Indigenous survival and resilience in the face of radical environmental changes. Addressing issues from the loss of wetlands to the arrival of gas pipelines, these stories connect the dots between historic patterns of Indigenous oppression and present-day efforts to promote environmental justice and Indigenous rights on the swamp. His scientific insight and deeply personal connections to his home blend together in a book that is both a heartfelt and an analytical call to acknowledge and protect sacred places.

Appalachian State University: An Appalachian Summer Festival: Artist Showcase Series

Turchin Center for the Visual Arts 423 W. King Street, Boone, NC, United States

As we celebrate App Summer’s 40th anniversary, this series offers behind-the-scenes discussions with artists from the music, dance, and visual arts worlds that center around a common theme of legacy and longevity.

Free

Nikole Hannah-Jones

The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture 551 South Tryon Street, Charlotte, NC, United States

We're excited to present Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of the 1619 Project and a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine, to the Charlotte community on July 11, 2024, at Knight Theater. Hannah-Jones will discuss the 1619 Project's implications, impact, and impetus for Black futures, all timely topics given the current political climate and upcoming 2024 elections.

The 1619 Project illuminates the legacy of slavery and highlights contributions of Black Americans to every aspect of American society. It's also an Emmy® Award-nominated six-part Hulu docuseries.

$$

Appalachian State University: An Appalachian Summer Festival: Artist Showcase Series

Turchin Center for the Visual Arts 423 W. King Street, Boone, NC, United States

As we celebrate App Summer’s 40th anniversary, this series offers behind-the-scenes discussions with artists from the music, dance, and visual arts worlds that center around a common theme of legacy and longevity.

Free

Appalachian State University: An Appalachian Summer Festival: Artist Showcase Series

Turchin Center for the Visual Arts 423 W. King Street, Boone, NC, United States

As we celebrate App Summer’s 40th anniversary, this series offers behind-the-scenes discussions with artists from the music, dance, and visual arts worlds that center around a common theme of legacy and longevity.

Free

SEED20 OnStage

The New Theatre at CPCC 1201 Elizabeth Ave., Charlotte, NC, United States

Social Venture Partners Charlotte's annual SEED20 program has returned! Join us for this high-energy event where ten nonprofits compete to win by telling their compelling three-minute pitches to you, our community audience. SEED20 OnStage includes a post-event reception where in-person attendees can interact with the nonprofit participants to learn more about their mission and opportunities for support and engagement.

$85