Federmayer Eva Fulbright Blogja

The story of this "tomb" mounted in the yard of a neighbor's house, close to my house.  
http://www.myspace.com/illiniwek

"Chief Illiniwek" will no longer perform in conjunction with the Marching Illlini at UIUC football and basketball events, thus designating the end of a long university tradition embedded in athletic and marching band events. An identity crises for many associated with the U?

Chief Illiniwek, a fantasy Indian chief representing the university "mascot" (from 1926 until 2007 he was always personified by a white student in full Indian regalia, his/her war dance having precious little to do with any specific American Indian tradition) was deemed a demeaning racial masquerade by the tribal council of the Peoria tribe of Indians (the immediate descendents of the Illiniwek Indians in Oklahoma), and a long line of other organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Education Association, Amnesty International, MLA, Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, National Congress of American Indians, the National Indian Education Asociation, and the American Psychological Association.

The US Dept of Education in 1995 found that the Chief did not violate Native Am students' civil rights.
 
The State of Illinois also approved of it, enabling the U to make the Chief the official symbol of the U.

As opposed to their position, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) banned UIUC from hosting NCAA championship events on the Urbana-Champaign campus.

Eventually, at the beginning of 2007, UIUC resolved to retire the Chief; in consequence of it, the U became immediately elligible to host post-season NCAA championship events.

As a result of student activism, the Native American House was founded in 2002, and a Committee of Native American Programs was formed in 2003. Indicative of the urgency and relevance of issues relating to the debate, the NAH homepage has a Mascot News tab on its homepage.
http://www.nah.uiuc.edu/

Official News Release of the University:
http://www.uillinois.edu/chief/ChiefRelease2-16-07.pdf

The position of the Native American House at UIUC:
http://www.nah.uiuc.edu/mascot-news.htm

"We understand that many people feel attached to the tradition of "chief illiniwek," but we live in a different era than when the 'chief' was initiated.  

The practice of racial masquerade now belongs to the past. To continue racial masquerade is to perpetuate misinformation and a stereotype of Indian people. Racial stereotypes go against the goals of a great university by miseducating the university community. Stereotypes often feel hurtful to the people whose culture they misrepresent.

American Indian peoples have spoken out for many years about the harmful effects of the University of Illinois’s mascot.  The Native American House and American Indian Studies Program are pleased that future generations will not be subjected to the caricature and to the performance of 'chief illiniwek,' which we see as a caricature and misrepresentation of actual Indian people."

The American Psychological Association called for the immediate retirement of Indian sports mascots as they promote inaccurate images, stereotypes and negatively affect the self-esteem of young Indians
http://www.apa.org/releases/AmIndRes101805.html

http://www.honorthechief.org/events.html

The News-Gazette (which published a book available at university book stores on the Chief Illiniwek tradition):
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2006/11/11/chiefs_gather_for_80th_anniversary_of_ui_symbol

Elyzabeth Cook-Lynn, Crow Creek Sioux poet, novelist and scholar on Indian Studies and postcoloniality.




























Language and Hip-Hop Culture in a Globalized World--workshop hosted by the UIUC Dept of Linguistics





















David Berger coaching the UI Jazz Band prior to their concert with the CU Symphonic Orchestra featuring Edward Duke Ellington's pieces





















Sarah White, union activist, talking about organizing Delta Pride Codfish workers


















Prof James D. Anderson elucidating the racial implications of the 14th Amendment

The conversation with Jabari Asim about his recently published book and the N word was the 3rd event in a series relating to NWC: The Race Show at KPAC. It is only now that I have become aware of the politics of the event, thanks to a party I attended. Here is a short overview of my research on the topic.

The Context:

The NWC /N*gger, W*tba*ck Ch*nk (3 racist slurs: Nigger, Wetback, Chink for Black, Latin American, Chinese Am) by Speak Theater Arts’ African American, Latin American, Chinese American actors was supposed to be an educational ’comedy’ performed at KPAC on Sept 19 and 20, as one of the events of UIUC’s Chancellor’s ’Inclusive Illinois: One Campus Many Voices Initiative.’ Website: http://www.inclusiveillinois.uiuc.edu/

Rather than sparking a dialog, which was the alleged purpose of the play, the performance elicited angry responses from people on campus who were obviously of a different mind about the nature of educational enhancement about ’race.’ Due to the IASA conference, unfortunately I missed the play, but here are some eye-opening contributions to the ensuing resentment.

NWC at KPAC:
http://www.krannertcenter.com/performances/details.asp?elementID=21979

Speak Theater Arts homepage: http://www.speaktheaterarts.com/

Response to NWC in Griot (Literary Magazine of the African American Culture Center), October 2007, issue 47, p. 8:
http://www.odos.uiuc.edu/aacp/Vol47Issue1.pdf

The Public i (a project of the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center), pp 5-6:
”NWC: The Race Play Controversy”: comments by faculty, students, members of the community at http://publici.ucimc.org/oct07.pdf

*** Response of the Asian American Studies Program at UIUC, neither endorsing nor tacitly approving of the performance yet expressing resentment about the disproportionate publicity and support given to this production by Krannert and University. They also endorse the unfolding debate and hope the ensuing controversy will be transformed into teaching moments.

*** Director of the African American Studies and Research Program charges NWC with shortsightedness and reductionism (after an overdose of racial slurs, the conclusion of the play is that after all there is only one race), stating that racialized studies programs and cultural studies hadn’t been engaged before a commitment by the University and KPAC was made to bring this ’comedy’ to campus. Along this line he blames decision makers with white liberal arrogance.

*** Assistant Professor of American Indian Studies at UIUC also critiques KPAC programming decisions that point beyond bringing NWC to Krannert (the main venue of Champaign County’s opinion-shaping theater complex):

"1) the lingering residue of historical white privilege, 2) the intergenerational post-traumatic stress of unhealed trauma caused by heterosexist, misogynist, white-inspired and perpetrated forms of violence and colonialism, 3) the neo-liberal structures through which power and privileges are distributed today and into unforseeable future."

http://www.aasp.uiuc.edu/ON%20SPEAK%20THEATER%20ARTS%20PRODUCTION.pdf

Comedy icon Bill Cosby addressing the plight of black Americans and responding to Michael Eric Dyson's Is Bill Cosby Right?

http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/svr/torn/home.rxml
  Tornadoes violently rotating columns of air

A tornado is defined as a violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and pendent from a cumulonimbus cloud.

Cumulonimbus Clouds reaching high into the atmosphere

The Marching  Illini is the nation's premier marching band. More on the bands here:
http://www.bands.uiuc.edu/: "University of Illinois Bands is proud to be the world's largest college band program, offering University of Illinois students the highest quality ensemble experiences in eleven ensembles. These ensembles include the UI Wind Symphony, two symphonic bands, three concert bands, a British Brass Band, Clarinet choir, the UI Basketball Band, the Orange & Blues, and the world famous 350-member Marching Illini. Over 850 students participate each semester in these outstanding ensembles."

As I saw them rehearsing on the quod close to the Main Library, I figured bands are a great means of developing community spirit and cooperation within and without the university.

See also the Sousa Archives on campus--a great place, also owning an Edison phonograph and cylinders. Albert Austin Harding, who guided the bands for forty-three years to their position of eminence as the University's first official Director of Bands, was also good friend to John Philip Sousa, who bequeathed his superb collection of musical instruments and scores to UIUC.

Highschool Marching Bands from across the State of Illinois will compete for top honors in all categories of performance and general effect on Saturday October 20, 2007. This event features the very best in ensemble performance, adjudication, and competition.

It would be most teasing to study Am and Hu cemetery culture (to understand the living through the dead)
























































































































































Morbid combination?

Chautauqua: korábban fesztivál, művelődési lehetőség a mezőgazdasági munkából élő, városi kultúrához nehezen hozzájutó farmeroknak, amely már az 1880-90-es években nagy népszerűségnek örvendett. Az Urbana Parkkerület 100 éves évfordulóját is Chautaugua-val ünnepelte a minap.





http://www.urbanaparks.org/special/Chautauqua.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chautauqua
http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/traveling-culture/essay.htm
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/chautauqua/

http://www.renewable-energy.uiuc.edu/about/bios/gross.php
http://www.uiuc.edu/minutewith/georgegross.html

"Global Energy Trends: The Supply/Demand, the Ttechnology and the Policy of Dimensions"









USA energy demand:
Petroleum: 40.1%
Natural gas: 22.6%
Coal: 22.9%
Nuclear: 8.1%
Renewable: 6.1%
-- in 2004: solar: 1%, wind 2%
Misalignment of supply and demand, leading to increasing import dependence and energy security
Criticism of US energy policies: low level of research in energy, esp. renewable energy resources; not done anything coherent in terms of energy laws.
Embraces biomass, nuclear power, biofuels, geothermal production (expensive), renewable energy resources (solar is expensive at current level of technology)
No panacea for current energy crises, only a vast variety of alternative resources applied together