Belarus symposium at Harvard; performances by Jakub Kolas Theatre (Viciebsk)

[Curt F. Woolhiser]

Symposium: "The Arts, National Identity and Cultural Politics in Belarus"
Harvard University, October 13-15, 2005


Harvard University's Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures is pleased
to announce a symposium on "The Arts, National Identity and Cultural Politics
in Belarus" to be held at Harvard on October 13-15, 2005, in conjunction with
the first North American performances by the Jakub Kolas Academic Theatre at
the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, Massachusetts (please see
announcement below for further information about the performances). The
symposium will focus on the role of literature and the arts in the construction
of competing visions of Belarusian national and cultural identity, and the ways
in which the Lukashenka regime has sought to shape post-Soviet Belarusian
society through state intervention in the cultural sphere. Presentations are
planned on contemporary Belarusian literature, theatre, music, visual arts and
film, as well as cultural and educational policy in Belarus under Lukashenka.
In addition, there will be a screening and discussion of the recent, critically
acclaimed film "Occupation: Mysterium" (2004) by the Belarusian director A.
Kudzinenka (banned in Belarus for its unflattering portrayal of Soviet
partisans during WWII), a reading of contemporary Belarusian poetry, and an
exhibit of Belarusian visual arts and photography.
	   A preliminary schedule of the symposium and related events is appended
below. Please check the website of the North American Association for
Belarusian Studies (www.belarusianstudies.org) for updates. For further
information, please contact Dr. Curt Woolhiser (Department of Slavic Languages
and Literatures, Harvard University) by e-mail at cwoolhis at fas.harvard.edu.


The Arts, National Identity and Cultural Politics in Belarus

Co-sponsored by the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures (Harvard),
The Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, The Davis Center for Russian and
Eurasian Studies, the Orsa-Romano Cultural and Educational Foundation and the
North American Association for Belarusian Studies.

Monday, October 10-Friday October 21

Exhibits of contemporary Belarusian visual arts and photography (Ticknor
Lounge, Boyston Hall (Harvard) and Arsenal Center for the Arts, Watertown)

Thursday, October 13

2:30-3:30 Meeting with members of the Jakub Kolas Theatre at Harvard
(Humanities Room, Barker Center 133)

4:00-7:00 Screening of "Occupation: Mysterium" followed by discussion (Fong
Auditorium, Boylston Hall, Harvard University)

8:00 Performances of "Chagall...Chagall..." and "The Arrest" by the Jakub Kolas
Theatre, Arsenal Center for the Arts, Watertown

Friday, October 14

Session I (Humanities Room, 133 Barker Center, Harvard University)

3:30-3:40 Opening remarks

3:40-4:20 Arnold McMillin (University of London) "Aspects of Belarusian
Literature since 1994"

4:20-5:00 Zina Gimpelevich	(Waterloo U, Ontario) "Vasil Bykau: My Biography is
in My Books"

5:00-5:40 Paula Survilla (Wartburg College, Iowa) "Back in the BSSR, or And the
Beat Goes On: Adaptations in Sound and Vision in the Belarusan Rock Movement,
1989-2005"

5:40-6:00 Thomas Bird (CUNY-Queens College) -- discussant

6:00-6:30  presenters' responses, questions and discussion


8:00 Performances of "Chagall...Chagall..." and "The Arrest" by the Jakub Kolas
Theatre, Arsenal Center for the Arts, Watertown


Saturday, October 15

Session II (Humanities Room, 133 Barker Center, Harvard University)

10:00-10:40  Grigory Ioffe (Radford U, Virginia) "Cultural Wars, Soul-Searching
and Belarusian Identity"

10:40-11:20  Iryna Vidanava (Johns Hopkins) "The State vs. the Nation:
Lukashenka and Educational Policy"

11:20-12:00  Elena Gapova (European Humanities University, Minsk/Vilnius) "The
Cultural as the Political in Belarusian Intellectual Journals"

12:00-12:20  Timothy Snyder (Yale) -- discussant

12:20-12:40  Vital Zajka (YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York) --
discussant

12:40-1:30  presenters' responses, questions and discussion


2:00 Performances of "Chagall...Chagall..." and "The Arrest" by the Jakub Kolas
Theatre, Arsenal Center for the Arts, Watertown

4:30-5:30  Reading of contemporary Belarusian poetry (Humanities Room, 133
Barker Center)

5:30-6:30  Business meeting of the North American Association for Belarusian
Studies(Humanities Room, 133 Barker Center)

8:00 Performances of "Chagall...Chagall..." and "The Arrest" by the Jakub Kolas
Theatre, Arsenal Center for the Arts, Watertown



Performances by the Jakub Kolas Academic Theatre (Viciebsk, Belarus) at the
Arsenal Center for the Arts, Watertown, Massachusetts, October 13-15, 2005

The Jakub Kolas Academic Theatre is the second-largest theatre company in
Belarus and the country's premiere touring company. With funding from the Trust
for Mutual Understanding (New York), Harvard University, and the Orsa-Romano
Cultural and Educational Foundation, on its first North American tour the Jakub
Kolas Theatre will be performing two of their most popular pieces, Uladzimir
Drazdou's "Chagall... Chagall..." and Sakrat Janovich's "The Arrest", at the
Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, Massachusetts, October 13-15, 2005.
Both plays will be performed in the original Belarusian with projected English
supertitles.
	    "Chagall" is the theatre's most internationally acclaimed and recognized
production, having been performed at the East Goes West Festival in London; at
the Edinburgh Festival Fringe where it was awarded the "Fringe First" award by
the Scotsman; at the Espace Pierre Cardin in Paris at the behest of Mr. Cardin
himself; at Mittelfest in Cividale del Friule, Italy; at the International
Festival "Contact" in Toruº, Poland; and at the Baltic Home Festival in St.
Petersburg, Russia. The Scotsman writes: "'Chagall, Chagall...', from Vitebsk
in Belarus, is a staggeringly beautiful show about the early life of the artist
Marc Chagall, as he remembers it in his dying moments. Born in Vitebsk in 1887,
Chagall was entirely shaped as an artist by the life of the city's Jewish
community and by his love for the little city he never left in his
imagination....Here, nine magnificent actors from the Jakub Kolas Academic
Theatre recreate that life in a series of ten exquisite, tableau-like scenes
that shimmer with respect for the world Chagall knew, and with sorrow for the
horrors that were to sweep it away."
     The second production, "The Arrest," a unique example of the theatrical
mastery of Artistic Director Vital Barkouski, is an exploration of Belarusian
identity and the modern Belarusian experience based on episodes from the life
of the Belarusian scholar, educator and political activist Branislau
Tarashkevich (imprisoned by the Poles in the 1920s as a "Soviet agent," and
later executed by the Soviets as a "Polish spy"). As in Drazdou's "Chagall," in
Janovich's "The Arrest" the viewer is made acutely aware of Belarus's
historical role as a contested cultural and political borderland -- a role that
was to have particularly tragic consequences over the course of the 20th
century.
     For more information about the Jakub Kolas Theatre's performances at the
Arsenal Center, as well as about possible performances in other cities during
the theatre's first North American tour, please contact the theatre's
international manager, Mr. James Mallinson, at james at mallinsonarts.com.


================================
Curt F. Woolhiser
Preceptor in Slavic Languages
Department of Slavic Languages
and Literatures
Harvard University
12 Quincy St., Barker Center
Cambridge, MA 02138-3879 USA

Tel. (617) 495-3528
Fax (617) 496-4466
email: cwoolhis at fas.harvard.edu
==================================

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