Since Tomas Lopez was a young boy, he always had a fascination with photography. Fast forward years later, and Lopez has made it his mission to use his passion for photography to document little known aspects of history. His latest exhibition, “The Forgotten Exodus—An American Refuge,” is made up of 24 portraits of the last generation of Sephardi Jews born in North Africa, the Middle East, and Iran.
“The project focuses on people who were kicked out of their country. There has been very little written in history about diaspora,” said Lopez.
In the years following the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, close to a million Jews fled their native Arab lands. Hostility and expulsion brought an abrupt end to the once vibrant communities, scattering inhabitants to the four corners of the earth. Until recently, little has been formally documented, leaving a significant part of Jewish history largely untold.
“There’s a kinship I have with everyone I have photographed, we all know what it’s like to not be at home,” Lopez said.
“The Forgotten Exodus—An American Refuge” was photographed entirely in South Florida and curated by Henry Green, professor in the University of Miami’s Department of Religious Studies, and David Langer, media director.
“We began photographing three years ago after Henry Green introduced me to this project. It deals with the human condition of displacement and loss, which is more common than people are aware. When you hear the stories of pain and suffering of the people affected by it, you have to care. Henry’s passion for this project piqued my interest and I signed on,” said Lopez.
Through Lopez’s exhibition, he hopes to illustrate that you can archive history not only with words, but often more eloquently with photography. For those he has photographed, he looks forward to seeing their reaction during the opening of the exhibition.
“I’m interested to see what they think when they see their photographs in such a large scale,” he said. “As an artist all you can do is the work and let the chips fall where they are meant to be.”
THE FORGOTTEN EXODUS—AN AMERICAN REFUGE will be on view at the University of Miami Gallery, 2750 NW 3rd Ave., Suite 4, Miami, Florida 33127.
Visit https://art.as.miami.edu/exhibitions/index.html for more information.
Lowe Art Museum
Through March 2020
ArtLab @ the Lowe: Russia Unframed
Russia Unframed seeks to highlight the impact of Russia's immense cultural, ethnic, racial, and religious diversity on the arts, both within its borders and throughout the diaspora. Now in its 10th year, ArtLab @ the Lowe is an annual student-curated exhibition that provides University of Miami students with hands-on experience in the curatorial and museum fields.
Through May 3, 2020
Carlos Estévez: Cities of the Mind
The most recent project of renowned Cuban-American artist Carlos Estévez, Walled Cities features nine, large-format circular paintings that reference the artist’s fascination with city plans. Inspired by the Havana of his youth, the Medieval European cities to which he has traveled extensively as an adult, and his abiding interest in symbolic cosmology and origin stories, Estévez has created in this body of new work personal maps of the human mind influenced by ancient cartography. Guest curated by Dr. Carol Damian, a former professor of Art History, Florida International University.
Thursday, Feb. 6, 7–9 p.m.
Lowe After Hours
The Lowe's signature social event is free and open to the public. Come explore the Lowe's galleries and exhibitions, and enjoy food, entertainment, and refreshments by Bacardi—after hours!
Thursday, Feb. 6, 7:30 p.m.
Gallery Talk with Carlos Estévez
Join us for a gallery tour of the exhibition Carlos Estévez: Cities of the Mind, led by the artist. During the Lowe After Hours 7–9 pm. Free admission.
Saturday, Feb. 8, 12–3 p.m.
Art making workshop with Carlos Estévez
Join us for a gallery tour of the exhibition Carlos Estévez: Cities of the Mind and for a hands-on art workshop with the artist.
Thursday, Feb. 13, 7:00 p.m.
"Madwomen on the Slave Ship: Reproduction and Racial Capitalism"
In this presentation, Professor Jennifer Morgan explores the connections between the slave trade, the concept of kinlessness, and the origins of Atlantic capitalism. Drawing on the ideological work of gender and reproduction in the early modern Atlantic, Morgan writes that notions of kinship and its absence were crucial in both justifying racial slavery and in the practices of accounting, demography, and valuation that subtended the rise of capitalism as discourse and practice. Building on the critical work of Cedric Robinson, Morgan argues that the roots of racial capitalism are entwined with the harnessing of African women’s reproductive capacities to the economies of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Thursday, Feb. 20, 7–9 p.m.
Opening Reception of “History, Labor, Life: The Prints of Jacob Lawrence”
“The History, Labor, Life: The Prints of Jacob Lawrence” provides a comprehensive overview of influential American artist Jacob Lawrence’s (1917–2000) printmaking oeuvre, featuring more than 90 works produced from 1963 to 2000. This exhibition is organized by the SCAD Museum of Art and is made possible with support from the Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation.
Saturday, Feb. 22, 7–9 p.m.
Opening Reception of “NEXUS: Contemporary From Leading Miami Collections”
A celebration of the Lowe’s 70th Anniversary, “NEXUS” features select works of stellar contemporary art generously lent by Miami’s top collectors. These paintings and sculptures embody our city’s now irrefutable importance in the realm of contemporary as well the intimate connection these collections share with artists whose work they steward, with one another, and with the broader community.
Jerry Herman Ring Theatre
The Trojan Women
Feb. 20–29
A war to retrieve the beautiful Helen of Troy has ended. The city has been laid to waste; its men slaughtered. Its women have been forced to the beach where the Greeks will soon enslave them as the spoils of war. As they await their fate, Queen Hecuba, her daughter Cassandra, and the other women confront the travesties and devastation of war. Ellen McLaughlin’s contemporary adaptation of Euripides’ centuries-old drama is a lucid and humbling perspective on the refugees of war.
Visit https://ring-theatre.as.miami.edu/ for more information.
Frost School of Music’s Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
Tuesday, Feb. 4, 7:30 p.m.
Boston Brass, The Stamps Brass Quintet
Boston Brass and the Stamps Brass Quintet perform together for an evening of music and entertainment. Boston Brass aims to play “a wide selection of musical styles in unique arrangements … in a friendly and fun atmosphere.” The Stamps Brass Quintet is simply one of Frost’s elite ensembles. Expect brilliance when both quintets join efforts on pieces such as the “Duke Ellington Suite,” arranged by James Hudson, drawing from “Take the ‘A’ Train,” and other classics.
Thursday, Feb. 6, 7:30 p.m.
Strauss’s A Hero’s Life–Frost Symphony Orchestra
Gerard Schwarz, conductor
The centerpiece of the evening is Richard Strauss’s tone poem Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life). It stands as the culmination of 19th-century romanticism and as an autobiographical statement, as Strauss quotes from several of his previous works. This program also includes Walter Piston’s “Three New England Sketches” and the unveiling of a new work by a Frost student composition competition winner.
Saturday, Feb. 8, 7:30 p.m.
CNCO!
In just three years, CNCO has become one of Latin pop’s most influential and prolific hit-makers. With two No. 1 albums under their belt, the group has garnered numerous awards including: Latin American Music Awards, Premios Juventud, Billboard Latin Music Awards, Premio Lo Nuestro, Premios Tu Mundo, iHeartRadio Music Awards, Kids Choice Award, and a Teen Choice award. With more than 3 billion cumulative streams, 6.5 billion total music video views, 12 Gold and Platinum certifications in the U.S. alone, and countless sold out shows, their influence can be felt in nearly every corner of the globe.
Tuesday, Feb. 11, 7:30 p.m.
Bang on a Bassoon
Brett Dietz, director, Shelly Berg, piano, Andrew Riley and Matthew Nichols, percussion, Hamiruge, LSU Percussion Ensemble
No, you’ve never heard the bassoon sound quite like this before. Frost faculty artist and bassoonist Gabriel Beavers, as well as Frost’s Dean and pianist Shelly Berg, call on their superior technique and varied experiences for Gernot Wolfgang’s and James Lassen’s challenging works, in which the bassoon is treated like a rock guitar. Brett Dietz’s “Behold a Pale Horse,” for amplified bassoon and percussion quartet puts the bassoon through a guitar pedal effects. And, Theodor Burkali’s “TRaInspOrt,” is a fiery piece for bassoon and two percussion.
Feb. 24. 7:30 p.m.
Lieder-Spirituals-Jazz: In Honor of Black History Month
Alan Johnson and Shelly Berg, pianos; Jeanette Thompson, soprano; Robynne Redmon, mezzo-soprano
Frost voice faculty artists Jeanette Thompson and Robynne Redmon join Frost pianists Shelly Berg and Alan Johnson in a voice recital, which will include honoring the history and evolution of the spiritual. A product of the introduction of Christianity into slaves’ lives, spirituals also became a coded means of communicating resistance and escape. In time, spirituals became a formative piece in the development of jazz and blues and has remained a source of inspiration to many jazz artists today.
Weeks Center for Recording & Performance, Clarke Recital Hall
Friday Feb. 21, 5:00 p.m.
Marian Anderson and Racial Desegregation of the American Concert Stage
Carol Oja, lecturer
Marian Anderson’s debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1955 broke through the company’s longstanding Jim Crow practices. Carol Oja, Professor of Music at Harvard University, revisits the campaign waged by the NAACP and Anderson’s manager, Sol Hurok, to gain equal access to concert halls and major performance institutions.
Center for the Humanities
Thursday Feb. 6, 7:00 p.m.
"On complaint" by Feminist Scholar and Author Sara Ahmed
Kislak Center
This lecture draws on interviews conducted with staff and students who have made complaints within universities that relate to unfair, unjust, or unequal working conditions or to abuses of power such as sexual and racial harassment. Making a complaint requires that an individual become an institutional mechanic: one has to work out how to get a complaint through a system. It is because of the difficulty of "getting through" that complaints often end up being about the system. The lecture explores the significance of how complaints happen “behind closed doors,’’ and shows how doors are often closed even when they appear to be open.
Friday Feb. 7, 12:30–1:45 p.m.
Stanford Lunch Seminar
Following her public Stanford Lecture on February 6, Sarah Ahmed will offer a lunch seminar for faculty and students.
Tuesday, Feb. 18 3:30–5:00 p.m.
"Explanation: The Good, The Bad, and the Beautiful" by Tania Lombrozo
Richter Library: Flexible Learning Space
Like scientists, children and adults are often motivated to explain the world around them, including why people behave in particular ways, why objects have some properties rather than others, and why events unfold as they do. Moreover, people have strong and systematic intuitions about what makes something a good (or beautiful) explanation. Why are we so driven to explain? And what accounts for our explanatory preferences? In this talk presented by Lombrozo, she presents evidence that both children and adults prefer explanations that are simple and have broad scope, consistent with many accounts of explanation from philosophy of science. The good news is that a preference for simple and broad explanations can sometimes improve learning and support effective inferences. The bad news is that under some conditions, these preferences can systematically lead children and adults astray.
Thursday, Feb. 20, 12:00–12:50 p.m.
"A Database of Religious History"
Lau Founders Hall, Room A
The Center for the Humanities and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) present a series of four brief lectures on humanities disciplines, including history, religious studies, English, and philosophy. In keeping with OLLI programming, these talks are designed for community members aged 50 and older, but limited seating may be available for other guests.
Cosford Cinema
Showings this month include “Oscar Shorts-Animation,” “Oscar Shorts-Live Action,” “Oscar Shorts-Documentary,” “Liberty in a Soup,” “Knives Out,” “La Belle Vie,” “The Curious Cinema of Agnes Varda,” “Varda by Agnes,” “La Pointe Courte,” “Joker,” “My Father’s Land” and “The Lighthouse.”
Visit http://www.cosfordcinema.com/ for showtimes and tickets.
