Syracuse’s Spark Contemporary Art Space to host “Open-Mic Feminist Performance Party”

Syracuse’s Spark Contemporary Art Space to host “Open-Mic Feminist Performance Party” October 13, 2008Judy Holmesjlholmes@syr.edu

Writing Program associate professor Gwendolyn Pough, feminist scholar, hip-hop activist, poet and novelist, will headline the “Open-Mic Feminist Performance Party” Friday, Oct. 24, from 8–11 p.m. at Spark Contemporary Art Space, 1005 E. Fayette St. The event is being held in conjunction with “Feminist Rhetorics for Social Justice,” the Fall 2008 Ray Smith Symposium presented by Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences Humanities Council and the Writing Program Oct. 23 and 24. The open-mic party is free and open to the public. Feminist performers are invited to attend and participate in the entertainment. Parking is available on the premises.

The open-mic master of ceremonies will be community poet Georgia Popoff, author of “Coaxing Nectar from Longing” (Hale Mary Press, 1997). A published poet with a specialty in arts in education, professional development for K–12 classroom teachers of all disciplines, as well as active teaching with students, Popoff is also an editor, part-time college lecturer and spoken-word producer. In addition to the open-mic performances, the evening event will feature an exhibition of feminist art produced by students enrolled in SU’s master’s program in fine arts and local Syracuse artists, and a brief viewing of a video produced by the Women’s Herstory Peace Encampment.

The Ray Smith Symposium Series was established in 1989 as the result of a bequest from the estate of SU alumnus Ray W. Smith ’21 to support symposia on topics in the humanities in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences. Funding for “Feminist Rhetorics for Social Justice” is also provided by the Writing Program, the Department of Sociology, the Department of Geography, the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, the Department of English, and the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics in The College of Arts and Sciences; the University’s Humanities Center; the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies in the College of Visual and Performing Arts; the College of Human Ecology; and Colgate University’s Upstate Institute, Department of Writing and Rhetoric, Program in Women’s Studies and Division of University Studies.