Can the global economic crisis inspire a dance? Can the effects of globalization be captured in a poem? This Saturday night, challenges confronting the global community will be taken out of the lecture hall and expressed artistically. The second annual "Issue as Muse: A Night of Inspiration," sponsored by the International Relations (IR) Program, has once again challenged students to create performances inspired by global issues of their own choosing.
"Issue as Muse" got its start last year when students saw an opportunity to bring two, often separate parts of campus together. From the beginning, the event has been largely student driven.
"There are a number of students in the IR program who see the obvious intersection between the humanities and arts and they wanted to find a way to bring two communities together that haven't always collaborated," Kirk Lang, assistant director of the International Relations Program, said. "What they thought would be compelling is to take different issues that are current and relevant and resonated with students and create a performance that reflected those issues."
According to Lang, "Issue as Muse" 2008 was "an enormous success," attracting hundreds of students. "What happened last year has created a legacy ... it generated a lot of excitement and this year's will be the same," Lang said. He expects the event to continue next year.
"I think it's important to note that global issues inspire students to respond in all kinds of ways," Lang said. "It often moves them to art. I think the other piece of this is they are able to reach another part of the community that perhaps doesn't study IR and yet this is a way to introduce students to global issues."
"Issue as Muse: A Night of Inspiration" will be performed this Saturday at 8 p.m. in Cohen Auditorium. Doors will open at 7:30 p.m. and the performances are expected to last until 9:30 p.m. Admission is free. Student groups including Spirit of Color, B.E.A.T.S., Spoken Word and Tamasha will contribute. Each performance, be it poetry, acting, song, dance, percussion or miming, will be preceded by a short description explaining which issue the group used as inspiration.
