NELSON MANDELA: HONORING THE LEGACY

This report summarizes the activities and events that comprised the Nelson Mandela:
Honoring the Legacy Initiative of the Offices of International Programs, Multicultural
Affairs and Public Engagement of the Rhode Island School of Design during the
2008/2009 academic year. The summary includes a description of the initiative’s events
and exhibits and an acknowledgement of the key partnerships among staff, faculty and
students that contributed to the success of this year-long, multidisciplinary initiative.
This project was conceived as an endeavor to honor Nelson Mandela on the occasion of
his 90th birthday. The initiative was particularly successful in realizing its objectives and
learning outcomes by bringing the RISD community together in multiple ways around a
central theme and related ideas.

Nelson Mandela: Honoring the Legacy is Rhode Island School of Design's year-long
acknowledgement of the Life and Spirit of Nelson Mandela. The initiative is created in
response to his 90th birthday, and aims to recognize Nelson Mandela as one of the
world's living treasures with the world-at-large as a beneficiary of his lifelong work.
This year-long focus is intended to provide intersections for the many facets of the
RISD community to understand Mandela's work, contextualize the values maintained
throughout his legacy, and understand how those values relate to global, contemporary
social justice issues. Through curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular vantage
points, the following themes will be explored: Freedom, Reconciliation, Collaboration,
Human Rights, Dignity, Integrity, Tradition, and Diversity. Nelson Mandela: Honoring
the Legacy is produced by the Offices of International Programs, Multicultural Affairs,
and Public Engagement in collaboration with other RISD departments and offices.

Goal: To develop a structure, a way, an endorsement that invites the campus to

mobilize around an idea or thought.

Objective: To bring the campus together as a community by providing multiple ways of

thinking about and examining ideas through dialogue, academic disciplines,
collaboration, social gatherings, etc.
Learning Outcomes:
1. Increased knowledge surrounding Nelson Mandela and his unique contribution to the
cause of global social justice.
2. Enhanced ability to articulate the themes and values explored and see how they
might relate to today’s complex global challenges.
3. Heightened sensitivity to the way in which the struggle for social justice manifests
within various communities.

Community Benefits:
At the end of the year-long initiative, RISD will have realized a collaboration across
constituencies that achieves something greater than what could have been realized by
any of the departments of offices individually. This initiative puts history and
contemporary social context into alignment with artistic thought and production.

PARTNERS
Official Partners
RISD Office of International Programs
RISD Office of Multicultural Affairs
RISD Office of Public Engagement

Sponsors
RISD Caters
RISD Department of English
Office of Residence Life
RISD Cultural Collective (student cultural organizations)

Collaborators
Hansy Better, Assistant Professor, Architecture
Leora Maltz - Leca, Assistant Professor, History of Art and Visual Culture
Winifred Lambrecht, Senior Lecturer, History of Art & Visual Culture
Jennifer Prewitt-Freilino, Associate Professor, History Philosophy + Social Sciences
Sami Nerenberg (ID ’07), Adjunct Professor, Department of Industrial Design
Academic Affairs Office / Office of the Provost
Division of Student Affairs
Division of Foundation Studies
Office of Human Resources
RISD Library
RISD Film Society
RISD Alliance of Latin American Students
RISD Yellow House Gallery
John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities, Brown University
Contributors
Carolyn Campos, Director Health Education, Center for Hispanic Policy & Advocacy
(CHiSPA)
Rabbi Andrew Klein, Temple Habonim, Barrington, RI
Lebogang Mashile, South African Artist
Adam Mastoon, Photographer
Olga Noguera, RI Dept. of Human Services (Retired)
Yoruba Richen, Filmmaker
Paul Stopforth, Artist
Khwezi Mkhize, Scholar
Aleta Bok Johnson, Psychotherapist, Brown University
Dennis Langley, President / CEO, Urban League of RI
Patricia Barbeito, Associate Professor, Department of English

COURSES
STEREOTYPES AND PREJUDICE (HPSS-S720, Fall’08) Jennifer Prewlitt Frelino
This course explored social psychological research on stereotypes and prejudice. The
class began by defining what these concepts are and why these processes exist, and
then addressed the social and cognitive mechanisms associated with stereotypes and
prejudice. In addition, they explored the experiences of the stereotyped, especially
those who are members of widely socially stigmatized groups, and also discuss
discrimination at both an interpersonal and institutional level.

DESIGN FOR SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP: (ID Fall’08) Sami Nerenberg

This course cultivated social entrepreneurial designers by investigating the power of
products, systems and services to create positive social and environmental change both
internationally and domestically.

DRAWING MARATHON (NMSE-1509, Wintersession’09) Gwen Strahle

25 students participated in this year’s six-week Drawing Marathon, which starts with
two intensive weeks, drawing 12 hours a day, 5 days a week. South African artist Paul
Stopforth came to class as a visiting artist on January 12th. He took the students
through a series of drawing exercises, with various materials, including clay. He spent
the morning and afternoon working with us, and showed slides of his work at the end
of the afternoon.

AFRICAN ARTS AND CULTURE: (HPSS-C519, Spring’09) Winnie Lambrecht

The course offered an introduction to the arts of several sub-Saharan African
communities, exploring the creative process and the context of specific African
traditions as well as the impact of the African diaspora on the arts of other
communities, particularly in the Caribbean.
WRITING AGAINST THE GRAIN: (ENGL-E332 Spring ‘09) Khwezi Mkhezi
This course focused on narratives about black people's experiences in South Africa in
the face of a stringent apartheid history, following a historical timeline that dates back
to the immediate pre-apartheid experiences of black people, to the more recent post-
apartheid writings. Using these texts, the course explored five key issues, which include
the inscription of black South African cultural history, black migrant labor and urban life,
the politics of black consciousness, memory, violence and healing in post-apartheid
South Africa and the lastly, the contemporary gendered writing on race and class.

In addition to these courses, the following classes also interacted with the Nelson
Mandela Initiative through the Tricks of the Eye exhibition in the spring of 2009:

COMPETITION, COLLABORATION, AND COLLECTIVE GRAD-106G, Christopher

Ho, FROM STUDIO TO SITUATION GRAD-102G, Peter Hocking,
SOCIAL GEOGRAPHIES GRAD-109G, Marie Cieri, and USE OF SPACE: PLACE OF
CAMPUS GRAD-114G, Peter Hocking and Charlie Cannon.

ACADEMIC
Socially Conscious Design Lecture: Sami Nerenberg (ID Faculty) January 20, 2009

Paul Stopforth Lecture: Hosted by Leora Maltz-Leca, Assistant Professor, History of

Art and Visual Culture, April 15, 2009

Chinese Culture Learning Session: Guest Speaker, John Eng-Wong

Faculty/Staff session on Chinese culture, student, and educational contexts.
March 17, 2009

PROJECTS
Free Food 4 Thought
Free Food 4 Thought is designed to promote dialogue on various diversity topics. With
the variety of cultures, lifestyles and personalities at RISD, learning from another
through discussion helps us better understand the ideas of and opinions of each other
as well as how our backgrounds inform our perspectives. The offices of Multicultural
Affairs and International Programs are dedicated to providing a forum for current and
controversial topics to encourage members of the RISD community to contextualize and
value different perspectives.
Members of the RISD Community convened monthly to share in discussion on a
predetermined topic. In exchange for opinions, we provide a free meal during the
discussion. Each dinner guest was given a limited opportunity to share his/her thoughts
and views on the topic. Special guests having research or advanced work in the topic
at hand were invited for each dinner. S/he provided historical and/or statistical context
for the group discussion. Each dinner was limited to 20 members on a first come – first
served reservation. Food for the dinners was donated and cooked as contribution from
Dining & Catering.

Month/ Context Topic

October: Latin American Week
Freedom 10/13
November: First Nation Week
Reconciliation 11/3
December: Spiritual Focus
Collaboration 12/2
Immigration vs. safe boarders: Do we
need a wall to keep the balance?
Is US ready for a Black president?
Should the Christian aspects of Christmas be
emphasized or de-emphasized?

January: Civil / Human Right week King’s Dream of a non-violent revolution: a

Human Dignity 1/13 reality or nightmare?
February: African Diaspora week Is celebrity enchantment with Africa
Integrity 2/23 contemporary colonialization?
March: Asian Focus Week Are Asians the model minority?
Tradition 3/9
April: Queer Week Can queer culture and religion co-exist? How?
Diversity 4/23

The Impact of One

A campus-wide opportunity to recognize a member of the RISD community for the
positive impact they have had on individual students, staff and/or faculty. Sponsored by
the Division of Student Affairs to recognize and celebrate not just individuals, but the
sense of community we have here at RISD. The people who are recognized receive a
button and an explanation of why they got the button. The cards were on view at the
RISD store from April 20 to 25. After April 25, the cards were sent to those the cards
were made for.

EXHIBITIONS
Emancipated Memories: Uncovering the Hidden Faces of Slavery
February 5 – April 5, 2009, John Nicholas Brown Center, Brown University
Solo exhibition of the work of New England artist Cora Marshall, whose mixed media
artwork draws from the history and legacy of slavery. Her portraits of slave women,
men, and children combine archival documents, in the form of sale and runaway
advertisements, to make connections to the past and honor the memory of lives in
pursuit of freedom.

Tricks of the Eye: History and Memory in a Shifting Social Landscape

March 5 – April 3, Office of Public Engagement, CIT 2nd Floor.
This exhibition highlighted the ways that local and national artists respond to the
shifting landscapes that backdrop and underline our society’s actions and intentions.
Viewed together, the documentation of these at projects fostered a vibrant learning
environment for the RISD and Providence communities to develop an expanded horizon
of what it means to make socially- and publicly-engaged artwork.

Artists and projects in the exhibition included:

* 220 Glimpses of Utopia (Los Angeles Poverty Department, Los Angeles CA)
* Arctic Listening Post (Jane D. Marsching, Boston, MA)
* Armadillo FEMA Trailer Project (Jae Rhim Lee, MIT, Cambridge, MA)
* Blue Hammer and ReMEMBERING WILDE (Leon Johnson, Portland, ME)
* Celebrate Peoples’ History Poster Project (Josh MacPhee, New York City, NY)
* Just Fish (Pam Hall, St. John’s, Newfoundland)
* Knitting Nation (Liz Collins, Providence, RI)
* Navigating the Space between Home & Exile (Sheryl Mendez, NYC and Iraq)
* The NY Times Special Edition (Steve Lambert, Andy Bichlbaum, Because We Want It,
and hundreds of volunteers, New York City, NY)
* Meyers Bitter Survey (The National Bitter Melon Council, Boston, MA)
* Voices and Visions (Holly Ewald, Warwick, RI)

Tricks of the Eye incorporated documentation of past and current projects that invited
multiple methods of engagement from the viewer. Documentation strategies included
web presentations, printed material, models, as well as ephemera from the original
artwork. Complementing the exhibition, RISD | Public Engagement programmed a
series of discussions throughout the month of March around emergent and
interconnected themes, featuring presentations by exhibition artists, informal panels,
and class visits.

EVENTS
Ayisha Knight January 21, 2009 Deaf spoken word artist who, through interpreters
and sign language, uses storytelling and poetry to give insight to her unique view of the
world. Part of Civil / Human Right week

African Heritage Celebration @ Portfolio Café, February 26, 2009

In honor of the African Diaspora enveloping many different cultures as well as
countries, the Portfolio Cafe served an assortment of eats inspired by the numerous
traditions of and within Moroccan, Algerian, Egyptian, Tunisian, Nigerian, and South
African cuisine.

FILMS
Goodbye Bafana, Directed by Bille August (2007)
Screened September 19, 2008 in cooperation with the RISD Film Society.
Goodbye Bafana is a 2007 drama film about the relationship between Nelson Mandela
and James Gregory, his censor officer and prison guard.
Post-film discussion facilitated by Jennifer Prewlitt-Frelino.

“Promised Land” Produced and Directed by Yoruba Richen, (2008), 75 minutes.

Screened November 18, 2008
Promised Land invites viewers to take an inside look at the critical story of land reform
and racial reconciliation in the new South Africa. The film explores how the country is
rebuilding itself after years of living under the racist, violent system of apartheid.
Beginning in 1913, Blacks in South Africa were forbidden from owning land. They were
forcefully removed from their land and re-settled into so called 'homelands' which were
located in the most undesirable areas in the country. Over the course of ninety years,
an estimated 6 million blacks were disposed of their land. Promised Land follows the
story of the Mekgareng, an impoverished tribe removed from their land 40 years ago.
In 1998, they petitioned the new democratically elected government to reclaim the
land, which is now highly valuable and currently owned by white farmers and
developers. And they are fighting the Mekgareng to keep possession of the land.
Promised Land also follows the story of the first white farm expropriation in the country.
In 2006, the South African government ignited a firestorm when for the first time in the
country's history; it forced a white farmer to sell his farm in order to give it back to the
descendants of the black owners who were removed from it in the 1940's. Through
these two stories, viewers will see why, as many inside South Africa call it, the land
issue is a "ticking time bomb" that has potential to explode and destroy the fragile racial
compact that post-apartheid South Africa was built upon.

Motherland Cuba Korea, Directed by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson, 41 minutes (2006)

Screened on October 15, 2008 in collaboration with RISD Alliance of Latin American
students as part of Latin American Heritage Month How do we decide where is home?
For millions of immigrants, loyalties are divided between the land of their birth and the
country in which they choose to live. Feeling increasingly isolated in her adopted
homeland of the U.S., accomplished documentarian Dai Sil Kim-Gibson travels to Cuba
to discover stories from a relatively unknown group of in the Asian diaspora. There she
meets Martha, a woman of Korean descent, who after the Revolution began identifying
herself as Cuban, not Korean. Kim-Gibson then travels to Miami to meet Martha's
émigré sister and her extended, multicultural family. The filmmaker asks probing
questions to both the Cuban and U.S. branches of the family about the issues of
economic and social justice in socialism and capitalism, and about issues of identity.
With extended interviews and photographs from the personal archives of her subjects,
Kim-Gibson explores the complex ways in which we determine our ethnic, national, and
cultural loyalties. The stories of both women and their families weave a complex web
that searches for an understanding of 'Motherland' in a globalized society.

“Have You Seen Drum Recently? The Black Fifties in South Africa” Produced
by Claudia Schadeberg, Directed by Jurgen Schadeberg, 77 minutes.
Screened April 8 This film is a unique social documentary capturing the kaleidoscope of
black South African life in the fifties and the impact of apartheid on their lives. In 1948
General Smuts’ government in South Africa was defeated and the Apartheid
government came in. This was a mere 68 ears after the discovery of gold in the
Transvaal and the beginnings of Johannesburg, Egoli, the famous city of gold. Using
photographs drawn from the DRUM archives the film includes Nelson Mandela sparring
in the boxing ring, Oliver Tambo as a brilliant lawyer, the irrepressible Trevor
Huddleston demonstrating against the destruction of Sophiatown, Chief Luthuli, Nobel
Prize sinner and President of the African National Congress, and the Queen of African
song, Miriam Makeba. The film vibrates with the beat of original fifties music…big
band, jazz, swing, kwela, penny whistle. Rare archival footage brings to life the dance,
the vitality, the spirit and the shebeen philosophizing of the period. Those who lived
through the fifties reminisce about their hopes and fears, the humor, the tragedies and
the idiosyncrasies of an era that has uncomfortable parallels with life in South Africa
today.

“Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North” Produced/Directed by Katrina
Browne (2006) Screened February 22nd
In Traces of the Trade, Producer/Director Katrina Browne tells the story of her
forefathers, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. Given the myth that the
South is solely responsible for slavery, viewers will be surprised to learn that Browne’s
ancestors were Northerners. The film follows Browne and nine fellow family members
on a remarkable journey which brings them face-to-face with the history and legacy of
New England’s hidden enterprise.

“No Past to Speak Of” Produced and Directed by Jeremy Gans (2006)
Lecture and Screening Wednesday April 29, 2009 as part of Con(tra)ception Week
This film explores the horrific reality of infant rape in South Africa and investigates the
story of a five-month-old baby girl who was brutally raped in a Johannesburg slum.
Ten days after the incident little Vyanna was brought into the home of Claudia Ford, an
African-American academic who immigrated to South Africa in 1994 and who eventually
adopted Vyanna. The documentary follows Claudia as she embarks upon her campaign
to end the culture of shame and silence, which pervades all aspects of South African
society. No Past To Speak Of is also one of the rare films to investigate and explain the
reasons why infant rape occurs in South Africa more than anywhere else in the world.
Through interviews with leading South African academics, researchers, activists and
social commentators, the documentary critically examines the myth that sex with a
virgin can cure a man of HIV/AIDS and the role the media has played in disseminating
it. The film also looks at South Africa's violent history, pervasive gender inequality, and
extreme disparity between the rich and the poor as possible underlying explanations for
these unimaginable crimes. Post-film discussion facilitated by Claudia Ford.

Constantine Giannaris Film Series

Screenings on Tuesday, April 21 and Wednesday, April 22, as part of Queer Week,
produced by Patricia Barbetto, co-sponsored by Office of Student Life and the English
and Film/Animation/Video Departments and the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Two
nights of films by Greek filmmaker Constantine Giannaris. Giannaris is the most
acclaimed and well-known filmmaker of his generation in Greece. Set against the
backdrop of the modern city, and characterized by their use of documentary modes of
filmmaking and non-professional actors, his films focus on the relationship between
desire and diaspora, conceptions of manhood and nationalism. More recently, his
feature films have also been recognized for their sensitive and often controversial
explorations of emigration, nationalism and the mass media in contemporary Greece.

"Hostage" (2004), Giannaris's most controversial feature film based on the 1999
hijacking of a public bus by an Albanian immigrant in northern Greece, which was
widely covered by the media at the time. Giannaris revisits and fictionalizes this well-
known event in the film.

"Caught Looking" (35 mins) and "Trojans," (35 mins) both from the early 90’s and
winners of the Teddy award at the Berlin Film Festival. They will be followed by a
screening of Giannaris's most recent work, a documentary titled "Gender Pop" (2009;
40 mins), which explores the issues of gender and sexuality in European performance
arts.