April 27, 2014
Sorry about the highlighted last entry but I had some difficulties.........
I think the Mamiya are my event planners for the spring season!!! Not only the documentary that was extraordinary but now an event, just as inspiring from another Vassar graduate!!!
STACEY FLOYD-THOMAS--presently a Professor of Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University
(Tara's Alma Mater)
In April Stacey came back to Vassar for a lecture on "The Color Line and the Culture Wars: Religion, Education and Sub-rosa Morality in the Age of Obama".
Stacey was a former student of Larry Mamiya--a Professor at Vassar and the DEAR FAMILY I speak of so often. The lecture was also being presented "in honor of Professor Lawrence Mamiya's legacy as a scholar-activist"--who is retiring this year.
Stacey's "research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of ethics, feminist/womanist studies, Black Church studies, critical pedagogy, critical race theory and post colonial studies with an overall approach to the study of Christian social ethics that engages broad questions of moral agency, cultural memory, ethical responsibility and social justice. Her work in Christian social ethics has a threefold focus- race, gender and class. She is concerned with what she calls 'the why crisis' of faith. This lends itself to a meta-ethics that guides moral reasoning and ethics towards constructive thought that leads to visions of social justice and the common good. She considers the work of religious discourse and Christian faith to be inseparable from thinking about how to construct a justice-seeking community."
She has received numerous honors and awards and is a dynamic speaker that can capture an audience completely!!
In a Q&A she was asked how Vassar had prepared her for her future work.
She explained that Vassar was her stepping stone but Professor Larry Mamiya was her foundation!!
He allowed her the freedom to explore, the tools to use, the knowledge to build her confidence and the total concern for her as a human being. What could be more rewarding, as a "teacher," but to have influenced a student to such an extent that she was able to go out into the world confident in her mission and so well equipped to help others. Bravo Professor Larry!!
Such a vision into a world I am so unfamiliar with and explained in a way that I could appreciate.
Thank-you Stacey.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Saturday, April 26, 2014
The Longest Kiss
Its been a long time since I wrote:
At the end of March I went to Vassar College for a viewing of the documentary "The Longest Kiss"
It was just so compelling and such an eye opening experience that I want to start from the beginning
and share this story with you.
Henry and Ralph Mamiya have been friends since Vassar Nursery School and we have been fortunate enough to be friends with the Mamiya family ever since.
Ralph graduated from Vassar and one of his classmates was Alexandra Sicotte-Levesque originally from Canada. They knew each other but that was it. Then they both, unknowingly, went to the Sudan with the UN after College. There Ralph and Alex met again and began dating. Although Alex was there with the UN, in her spare time, she was creating this documentary. The story begins:
I will quote Alexandra at first to be certain my facts are correct.
"The meeting of the Blue and White Nile in Sudan's capital Khartoum, is referred to as 'the longest kiss in history'. As the Arab Spring was in full bloom, Sudan, straddling between the Middle East and Africa,was about to split in two. The film follows six young Sudanese searching for a place to call 'home' as their journeys take us up and down the Nile, between north and south Sudan, ahead of the south's secession. Facing conflicting identities, youth in north Sudan grapple with a stale dictatorship while others in south Sudan hope to start over ---but a what costs? For the first time a film gives a voice to Sudanese youth from different origins, Muslims and Christians. It is an intimate portrait of a complex society that bears witness to its inevitable fragmentation"
These six young Sudanese, try to understand and define their national identity facing the gloomy atmosphere of Khartoum, the refugee camps, Juba--the new capital of South Sudan with the settings for their dramas both great and commonplace about love, desire and dreams of a better life.
I was "taken" with many of the stories as our newspapers don't seem to portray the real picture as we see in this documentary.A great lesson in geography, political movements, cultures facing problems we can't even fathom and about REAL people--just like us-- but in such a different place.
Alexandra founded Journalists for Human Rights in 2002 with Benjamin Peterson. She has also worked as a Radio Producer for the UN radio in Sudan, and the BBC. I feel so humbled when I am in her presence!! Yet she is so gracious, confident, well spoken with great knowledge of such a sensitive subject.
Ralph and Alex are still dating and that brought all of us to Vassar with the Mamiya family to view this documentary, back to Vassar where Alex graduated.
I wish everyone could be as fortunate as I was to view this great work and to meet Alexandra.
At the end of March I went to Vassar College for a viewing of the documentary "The Longest Kiss"
It was just so compelling and such an eye opening experience that I want to start from the beginning
and share this story with you.
Henry and Ralph Mamiya have been friends since Vassar Nursery School and we have been fortunate enough to be friends with the Mamiya family ever since.
Ralph graduated from Vassar and one of his classmates was Alexandra Sicotte-Levesque originally from Canada. They knew each other but that was it. Then they both, unknowingly, went to the Sudan with the UN after College. There Ralph and Alex met again and began dating. Although Alex was there with the UN, in her spare time, she was creating this documentary. The story begins:
I will quote Alexandra at first to be certain my facts are correct.
"The meeting of the Blue and White Nile in Sudan's capital Khartoum, is referred to as 'the longest kiss in history'. As the Arab Spring was in full bloom, Sudan, straddling between the Middle East and Africa,was about to split in two. The film follows six young Sudanese searching for a place to call 'home' as their journeys take us up and down the Nile, between north and south Sudan, ahead of the south's secession. Facing conflicting identities, youth in north Sudan grapple with a stale dictatorship while others in south Sudan hope to start over ---but a what costs? For the first time a film gives a voice to Sudanese youth from different origins, Muslims and Christians. It is an intimate portrait of a complex society that bears witness to its inevitable fragmentation"
These six young Sudanese, try to understand and define their national identity facing the gloomy atmosphere of Khartoum, the refugee camps, Juba--the new capital of South Sudan with the settings for their dramas both great and commonplace about love, desire and dreams of a better life.
I was "taken" with many of the stories as our newspapers don't seem to portray the real picture as we see in this documentary.A great lesson in geography, political movements, cultures facing problems we can't even fathom and about REAL people--just like us-- but in such a different place.
Alexandra founded Journalists for Human Rights in 2002 with Benjamin Peterson. She has also worked as a Radio Producer for the UN radio in Sudan, and the BBC. I feel so humbled when I am in her presence!! Yet she is so gracious, confident, well spoken with great knowledge of such a sensitive subject.
Ralph and Alex are still dating and that brought all of us to Vassar with the Mamiya family to view this documentary, back to Vassar where Alex graduated.
I wish everyone could be as fortunate as I was to view this great work and to meet Alexandra.
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