Jan. 13, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Maya L. Andlig
Student Life and Leadership
(805) 756-5839
Performance Artist Brings ‘Maps of City and Body’ to Cal Poly Jan. 19
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Acclaimed performance artist Denise Uyehara
will bring
“Big Head" and "Maps of City and Body" and
other works to Cal Poly
Wednesday, Jan. 19, at 7 p.m. in a free show in the east wing of
Chumash
Auditorium in the University Union.
The event is part of WITT (We’re In This Together) Week,
Jan. 18-21. on
campus. Uyehara is an interdisciplinary performance artist, writer
and
playwright whose work was described as a “coup d’ theatre”
by the Los
Angeles Times. She has described her overarching theme as “just
being
able to make sense of who we are.” Uyehara’s performances
incorporate
movement, narrative and clay animation, as well as other visual
elements.
Her performance at Cal Poly will include themes taken from her
works
including “Big Head,” a theater piece that tackles the
politics of
driving SUVs, the socialist roots of the Pledge of Allegiance, and
suggests parallels between Japanese internment camps during World
War II
and the treatment of Arab-Americans, Muslims and Southeast
Asian-Americans post 9/11.
“Maps of City and Body” is her recently published book,
challenges ideas
such as body, memory, and identity on an individual and deeply personal
level as well as migrations across borders on a global level.
Uyehara is a member of “Poets and Writers: Writer on Site”
at the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art and the Beyond Baroque Literary Center.
She
has taught at UCLA and UC Irvine.
The Jan. 19 event is sponsored by Cal Poly’s Community CENTER
and Pride
Alliance: LGBT Center, both programs of Student Life and Leadership.
It
is free and open to the community. For more information on the event
contact Maya Andlig at 756-5839.
For more on Denise Uyehara visit www.deniseuyehara.com.
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