Monday, April 6, 2009

responses: April 6, 2009

Carl Flink sent the following email cosigned by him and Dr. Ananya Chatterjea. See the April 6 entry in the annotated timeline for our responses to pertinent quotes from this email.

Subject: [Dance] Today's Peers Brown Bag Lunch - Please Attend

Date: April 6, 2009 9:39 AMTo: THEATRE-L@LISTS.UMN.EDU , 'Dance list serve', dancemajors@cla.umn.edu
CC: 'Ananya Chatterjea', 'sos', 'TAD FacStaff Mailing List'

Dear Theatre Arts & Dance Students:

We want to thank the department peers for taking on the task of continuing the discussions going on among students around race, privilege and power dynamics within our department in an open and public manner. We encourage as many of you to attend this brown bag lunch as possible, especially inlight of the changes made by another group of individuals to the THIS materials at the Barker last night that we were unaware of until earlier this morning.

We're not certain if it has been made clear that the peers asked Josh Casper from the U of MN Ombudsmen's Office to facilitate this brown bag. Josh has been a real asset during the discussions around THIS and we think his presence at this meeting can only be a benefit. We look forward to hearing back from the peers after today's brown bag lunch.

We strongly hope that both dance and theatre arts students will come together to join in this discussion. These are difficult and multifacted conversations, but we also think they present an opportunity to bridge the gaps that stubbornly continue to separate many of the programs in our department as we look for next constructive steps in this process.

Our Sincere Best Wishes,
Carl & Ananya

Carl Flink Ananya Chatterjea
Theatre Arts & Dance Chair Dance Program Director

Click here to read full text and see images.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Responses: April 5, 2009

Tonight a group of all White students and alumni tore down the materials of the protest. They acknowledge their actions and identify themselves on our blog comments here (where you may scroll down to continue reading others' comments in response to the destruction of our protest).

[details and photos to be added to this post at a later date.]