"Reparative Memory"
Since the onset of COVID-19, many of us have had to deal with the trauma of loss—the lives lost, the livelihoods that have disappeared, the environmental destruction, the assumptions about social and political responsibility, the unspoken mandate to forget—and move on. Without pitting individualized experiences and treatments of trauma against collective ones, I propose here that performance-based reparative memory practices and trauma-driven performances offer victims, survivors, artists and activists ways to address the global/local repercussions of the pandemic that also, indirectly, help us imagine livable futures.
About Diana Taylor:
Diana Taylor is University Professor and Professor of Performance Studies and Spanish at New York University. She is the award-winning author of multiple books, among them: Theatre of Crisis (1991), Disappearing Acts (1997), The Archive and the Repertoire (2003), Performance (2016), and ¡Presente! The Politics of Presence (2020). Her new book(s) on Mexican performer, activist, and politician Jesusa Rodríguez, Shape Shifting Performance, is in process. Taylor is coeditor of Holy Terrors (2003), Stages of Conflict (2008) and Estudios avanzadas de Performance (2011), among others. She was the Founding Director of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics from 1998 to 2020. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and several other major awards. In 2017, Taylor was President of the Modern Language Association, and in 2018, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Science. In 2021, she was awarded the Edwin Booth Award for “outstanding contribution to the NYC theatre community, and to promote integration of professional and academic theatre.”
Workshop: “Performance, Memory and Activism in the Americas”
Sept. 28, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Siebel Center for Design
L1- Starlight Room (Cafe)
Contact: cbian20@illinois.edu
Limited spots available
Sponsors:
- School of Art & Design Visitors Committee
- Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
- The Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies
- Latin American Cities Collective.
Accessibility: The Art & Design Visitors Series endeavors to be accessible to all. If you have questions or would like to request an accessibility accommodation, please email art@illinois.edu.