afterMAPH

Beginning on June 16th and running through August 23, the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College downtown Chicago will be showing its newest exhibit entitled, Beyond the Backyard. This exhibit offers up the works of contemporary photographers and their different conceptions of the modern backyard. These pictures include both yard scenes of small town and urban settings, re-envisioning the traditional conception of the American backyard and looking at some of its deeper, ideological and cultural significances. This show calls in to question how one understands and thinks of the backyard and compares these ideas with popular media conceptions, analyzing how these two align, or don’t align.

Special MAPH kudos for this event go to MCoP collections research fellow and MAPH Alum Karsten Lund (’07) who has written the essay introducing and describing the collection (much more succinctly and poignantly than I have done here), as well as made many of the crucial decisions concerning the exhibit’s layout and design.

The show is open to the public beginning June 16th and there will be an opening reception for the exhibit at the MCoP on Thursday, June 26 from 5-7pm.

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Dear MAPH Alumni,

This Friday, April 25 is the last day to receive your early registration discount for the MAPH Reunion Dinner on Friday, June 6. Our reunion of MAPH alumni, preceptors, faculty and staff will take place from 7-10 pm at Chicago’s Landmark Grill and Lounge, located at 1633 North Halsted. I hope to see you all as we come together to raise a glass to MAPH!

Register now at http://alumniweekend.uchicago.edu/ to receive a $10 discount on each of your tickets (normally $20.) Anyone who wishes to register at the door may do so, but each ticket will be $30 rather than $20 (cash or check.) If you have any questions, please contact Heather Upshaw in the Humanities Division at hupshaw@uchicago.edu or 773.834.2502.

I look forward to seeing you all on June 6!

Best wishes,

Patrick Reichard, AM ‘02″

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Hey MAPH Alums!

The MAPH Reunion is approaching and as part of the reunion committee, it is my great pleasure to invite you to join me and your fellow MAPHers, preceptors, faculty and friends for an evening of celebration as the University hosts its annual Alumni Weekend. Last year we has the most successful Reunion of any program campus-wide! So, I hope you will mark your calendars as we gather together again to celebrate all that we have accomplished. Our private MAPH Reunion will take place on Friday, June 6 at Landmark Grill and Lounge, located at 1633 North Halsted. Tickets are $20, with a discount of $10 if you register before April 25. A formal invitation is forthcoming. For more information, visit http://alumniweekend.uchicago.edu/ or call Heather Upshaw at (773) 834-2502.

Hope that all is well and I hope to see you in June!

Linda

Reunion Committee
Hallie Gordon (AM ‘05)
Patrick Reichard, Chair (AM ‘02)
Linda Smith (AM ’07)
Kamran Swanson (AM ’06)
Miranda Swanson (AM ’01)

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MAPH Alum Joel Witmer (’07) is up and at ‘em again with his newest blog The Dark Room, a blog that discusses and reviews movies and television shows. You may remember Joel’s past fame with his Ohio sports based blog, The Disappointment Zone, and its famed appearance in the Wall Street Journal Online.

This time around, Joel has taken his other love, that of the audio visual world, and transformed it into insightful commentary, opinions, riffs, and reviews of movies and TV shows of all genres. He also lists movies he’s seen this year (alphabetically and hierarchically, of course) as well as his current NetFlix queue, just so you can keep abreast of his movie watching, note his credibility as a movie goer, as well as strike up an online conversation with him.

As with his sports blog, Joel’s commentary is well thought out and carefully presented with just the right amount of film elitism and average movie watcher humor, making it enjoyable to read often difficult to disagree with him*.

*author’s note: no matter how elegant his prose or how convincing his analysis is, I shall never agree with Joel about Ohio State.

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In preparation for the upcoming Midwest Graduate Music Consortium conference, THIS Wednesday, February 13, there will be a workshop on the papers of MAPHers Alex Wilson (’07) and Jim Steichen (’07).
Alex will be presenting his paper, “I Guess that this must be the Place: Culture, Structure, and Naive Melodies in an ‘Indie’ Record Shop,” and Jim will be presenting on “J.S Bach’s St Matthew Passion and the Semiotics of Sacred and Secular Performance Occasion.”

Come support MAPH Alums and attend this workshop at the University of Chicago in Goodspeed Hall, Room 205, at 4:30 pm.
Persons with a disability who believe they may need assistance in attending this event, please contact Michael Figueroa at 904-614-1464.

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The Smart Museum’s exhibition Adaptation opened today, and it includes a new work by ARTV 24103, a collective that includes current MAPHers Laura Heldt and Natasha Long. The work grew out of a practicum taught by Catherine Sullivan — Natasha writes about the project over on the Adaptation blog-cum-catalogue.

The other works in Adaptation — by Guy Ben-Ner, Arturo Herrera, Catherine Sullivan, and Eve Sussman & The Rufus Corporation — re-envision classic literature, painting, film, ballet, and even e-mail for new video installations. You can check out clips of all the works on the online catalogue. Or, better yet, brave the snow tonight and come out for free food, refreshments, and art at the opening reception and panel discussion, from 5:30-7:30 pm.

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MAPH alums Tom Bailey and Brendan Kredell’s documentary film, No Halfsteppin’,
will air on WTTW-11 for its first broadcast on Thursday, January 31 (10:30pm CST), and on Sunday, February 3 (12midnight, CST [note that this is technically Monday, February 4]).
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Two University of Chicago Alums team up for a “darkly fascinating,” “ambitious”* theatre piece:

Caffeine Theatre presents:
Like the Moon Behind the Clouds
by Donald Gecewicz (AB ‘76)
directed by Jennifer Shook (MAPH ‘05)

And this week, Caffeine brings you two special events with these U of C artists:

Wednesday, January 30: A free reading of poetry and Donald Gecewicz’s translation of Carla Vasio’s inspiring Italian memoir of her trip to Japan, where her heart “opened like an eggshell”– at the BookCellar in Lincoln Square. 7:00 pm. See http://www.bookcellarinc.com/ for more information.

Thursday, January 31: Theatre Thursday dinner package includes a pre-fixe dinner at Bella Bacino’s Italian Bistro and Pizzeria, a ticket to the 7:30pm performance of Like the Moon Behind the Clouds, and a post-show conversation with the playwright and director. $25. Tickets at 312-742-TIXS (8497). Studio Theater in the Chicago Cultural Center 77 E. Randolph St.

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MAPH Alum Shaindel Beers (’00) has recently had her poem, “First Love” published on A Prairie Home Companion Web site, an online version of Garrison Keller’s National Public Radio show.

Documenting this great accomplishment and publishing a copy of “First Love,” Beers was interviewed in the Eastern Oregonian in which she talks about getting her poem published as well as her life as a teacher and poet.

Congratulations Shaindel!

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We here at MAPH would like to thank all of the alums who came out (despite the cold) and made the MAPH Alum Happy Hour a very successful and enjoyable event! Old friends met and discussed over tasty finger foods (the friend mushrooms really were incredible) and frothy pints (you didn’t even have to dig through a bucket of ice for it–although there will always be that prized moment of finding the last “good” beer, even if you develop frostbite in the process…).

We hope you all had fun and we look forward to seeing you at future events. Keep your eyes open for an announcement when we all thaw out this spring.
Send us a post and tell us your tales of rekindled friendships and rehashed philosophical debates. Any pictures? Send those too!

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