Mountains that Take Wing! Film Screening on 5/18

In an exciting intersection of different cultures, two women, Angela Davis and Yuri Kochiyama, share their experiences as scholars, activists, and political prisoners in contentious 20th century America. Their powerful messages of justice and equality hold a relevance and magnetism that cannot be ignored. In honor of Asian-American Heritage Month, 5710 presents a film screening of Mountains that Take Wing!

Mountains that Take Wing: Film Screening
5710 S. Woodlawn
May 18th, 2011
6:00pm




"Telling the story of twentieth-century social change as a chronicle of affection, of correspondence in postcards and letters, of mutual admiration and activist friendship, of two embraces between two comrades, Mountains That Take Wing reminds us that the wild wonder of liberation struggle is not only ours for the taking but already, literally, in our own hands. It is a film that educates with tenderness and passion." — Erica R. Edwards, Professor, UC Riverside

Mountains that Take Wing Trailer

Artspeaks: Oskar Eutis and David Hwang on 5/16

The University of Chicago's ArtSpeaks series offers intimate and engaging opportunities to dialogue with creative artists who offer extraordinary innovation and vision to the Arts community.

The Smart Museum and the International House present:

Artspeaks: Oskar Eustis and David Hwang
Assembly Hall, International House
Monday, May 16th, 2011
7:30pm

Below is some background information on these two amazing artists, which you can find here.
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"Mr. Hwang's imagination [is] one of the most striking to emerge in the American theater in this decade" —Frank Rich, The New York Times

Writer/producer David Henry Hwang and Oskar Eustis, artistic director of the Public Theater in New York, engage in a conversation about their craft, including the creative development of Hwang's upcoming production of Chinglish at the Goodman Theatre.

Career Preparation Workshop- 5/18

Developing A Successful Career Without Losing Your Identity

Wednesday, May 18^th Noon to 1pm at 5710 S. Woodlawn Ave

Are you preparing for a new job or internship this summer? Women and people of color often report feeling that in order for them to be successful in their careers they have to become someone different – it doesn’t have to be this way. It is very possible to maintain your identity and sense of self and still achieve your professional goals. Being able to maintain your identity influences how happy you are personally and how successful you will be professionally. Who you are, is closely tied to what you love to do and what you love do to is where you will find your passion. Come learn more at this lunchtime workshop facilitated by Alumna Jinnie English, CEO of Chicago High Achievers, a personal and professional development firm. For more information or to RSVP, please contact Robin Graham at rgraham1@uchicago.edu.

"D'FaQTo Life": D'Lo Performs May 4th

May is Asian-American Heritage Month and in order to celebrate the diversity of the Asian-American community, OMSA, Panasia, the Office of LGBTQ Affairs, and the Center for Gender Studies are proud to cosponsor an engaging performance by D'Lo, a queer Tamil Sri "L.A.nkan"-American, political theater artist/writer, director, comedian and music producer. D'Lo combines politics, comedy, and spoken word in a lively performance with commentaries on their experience as an Asian-American.

D’Lo has performed and/or facilitated performance and writing workshops extensively (US, Canada, UK, Germany, Sri Lanka and India), having recently held workshops in LA with SATRANG and as a teaching artist with Teada Productions Theater Company. D’Lo’s work has been published in various anthologies and academic journals and holds a BA from UCLA in Ethnomusicology and is a graduate of New York’s School of Audio Engineering (SAE).

Here is a clip of a spoken word performance that D'Lo did for MTV Desi:



We hope you can join us in kicking off the Asian American Heritage Celebration! The D'Lo performance will be on May 4th at 6:00pm at 5710 Community Lounge. Hope to see you there!

Join OMSA for Men and Women of Color Conversations

OMSA will be hosting the Men and Women of Color Dinner Conversation on Monday, April 18 at 6:00 pm at 5710. Please join us for an enlightening discussion on a variety of topics. The event will be facilitated by Christopher Smyre and Jaira Harrington. If you have any questions please email Rosa Yadira-Ortiz at ryo@uchicago.edu.

Dispelling Pre-Med Myths, The Real Deal: Secrets to Pre Health Success at U of C

If there's one thing that the University of Chicago prides itself on, it's myths. Many of us believe that if you step on the seal in the Reynolds Club, you won't graduate in four years. Some say that a UChicago professor provided the inspiration for the character Indiana Jones. And but of course, there's that trumpeting slogan that UChicago is the place "where fun comes to die." Now though whether or not you'll actually see Fun gasping for air in the middle of the Quad is still debated amongst the UChicago community, the rigorous work-load at the university doesn't really help abate the myth, especially if you're Pre-Med.

But as always, OMSA has your back. (Because that's what we do)

Dispelling Pre-Med Myths, The Real Deal: Secrets to Pre-Health Success at U of C
Wednesday, February 16th
12pm-1pm
5710 S. Woodlawn Avenue

An informal discussion that can give you insight on what it really takes to be pre-med at UChicago. And even better, we're providing lunch for you!

In the meantime, here are a few Pre-Med resources that you might want to consider if you haven't already.

Student National Medical Association - Minority Association of Pre-Med Students (SNMA-MAPS Uchicago)
The Student National Medical Association is the nation’s oldest and largest organization focused on the needs and concerns of medical students of color. Membership includes nearly 6,000 medical students, pre-medical students, residents, and physicians. The SNMA boasts over 35 years of committed service to communities and continues to advocate for improved health care services and education to meet the needs of minority and under-served populations. SNMA is dedicated both to ensuring culturally sensitive medical education and services, as well as increasing the number of African-American, Latino, and other students-of-color entering and completing medical school. SNMA chapters are for medical students and serve as hosts to the SNMA–MAPS chapters for undergraduate pre-medical students.

Chicago Careers in Health Professions (CCIHP)
CIHP provides students with the resources and support to develop a customized portfolio of knowledge, skills, and experiences required for advanced study in allopathic (MD) and osteopathic (DO) medicine, public health (MPH), dental (DDS) and podiatric (DPM) practice, veterinary medicine (DVM), pharmacy (Pharm. D), and health services research (PhD). CCIHP aims to empower students to achieve a high level of academic, professional, and personal success.

The Pre-Medical Student Association at Uchicago
The Pre-Medical Student Association provides academic, extracurricular, social, and support resources to pre-medical students at the University of Chicago.

Fun doesn't have to die. Grab the defibrillator. Clear!

-Aaron Talley
-Student Intern, Class of 2013

Building Hours: Friday, February 4

5710 South Woodlawn will have shortened hours today (February 4). The building will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

When entering the building, please use the east entrance (facing Woodlawn). All other entrances are currently snowed in. Thank you.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Once you are here, please help yourself to hot drinks, which will be available all day.

Should you have any questions, please contact OMSA at 773-834-4672 or the 5710 Building at 773-702-5710.

All OMSA staff are available as usual today. If there is a staff member you wish to speak to, please ask to be transferred when you call.

Weather Updates: 5710 Closure and University Class Cancelation for February 3

5710 will be closed all day tomorrow, February 3. Additionally, tomorrow's University classes and events are canceled.

5710 will re-open Friday, February 4 at 9 AM. Please check the OMSA Web site for the latest information on 5710 and OMSA.

• Please note that all University classes and events are canceled for Thursday, February 4.
  
• For the latest University updates, go to the University weather updates Web page.
  
• Please note that a wind chill advisory is in effect until noon Thursday. Wind chill is expected to be -20 degrees or more.
  

Weather Updates: 5710 Closure and University Class Cancelation

5710 is closed all day today, February 2. Additionally, today's University classes are canceled. Please stay indoors!

5710 will re-open tomorrow, February 3 at 9 AM. Please check the OMSA Web site for the latest information on 5710 and OMSA.

• Please note that all University classes are canceled today. Travel by car and by foot are currently unsafe. Please avoid all travel if possible.
  
• For the latest University updates, go to the University weather updates Web page.
  

Chicago Multicultural Connection Social Outing: Bowling!

Need a break from midterms and the snow? Join the Chicago Multicultural Connection (CMC) and OMSA for a bowling social outing on February 7th from 5:00-7:00 PM at the Seven Ten lounge! Join us for a night of food, fun, and bowling. There will also be prizes for top scorers.

$5 includes bowling, shoes, food, and beverages. Please email Robin Graham at rgraham1@uchicago.edu in order to RSVP.

Seven Ten lounge is located at 1055 East 55th Street.

Pouring Tea: Black Gay Men of the South Tell Their Tales

On Tuesday, February 1st, 2011, there will be a dramatic reading by E. Patrick Johnson. Pouring Tea: Black Gay Men of the South Tell Their Tales, is a stirring oral history stemming from E. Patrick Johnson's latest book, Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South - An Oral History and an adapted play which toured last Spring.

E. Patrick Johnson, a scholar and artist, is the chair of the Department of Performance Studies, and Professor in the Department of African-American Studies at Northwestern University. He is the author of Appropriating Blackness: Performance and the Politics of Authenticity and Black Queer Studies: A Critical Anthology .

Faculty Roundtable with Professor Agnes Lugo-Ortiz

OMSA invites graduate and professional students of color to a casual conversation with Professor Agnes Lugo-Ortiz on Tuesday, January 25 from 4:30-5:30 pm. The Faculty Roundtable is a chance to get to know faculty of color outside the classroom. It meets in the cozy setting of the Amandla Lounge at 5710 South Woodlawn.

Professor Lugo-Ortiz is a professor in the department of Romance Languages and Literature. Particularly, she is a specialist in nineteenth-century Latin American literature, and in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Caribbean cultural history. Her work focuses on questions concerning the relationships between cultural production and the formation of modern socio-political identities. Since 1994 she has been on the advisory board of the Recovering US Hispanic Literary Heritage Project. She is also the coordinator of the Humanities Division's Project Towards a New Americas Studies. Her current book-length project is titled: "Riddles of Modern Identity: Biography and Visual Portraiture in Slaveholding Cuba (1760-1886)."

Join us for an evening of fascinating conversation with Professor Lugo-Ortiz!

Finding Good Mentors: State Rep. Will Burns discusses careers in politics

State Representative Will Burns will be speaking about exploring careers in politics on Tuesday, January 18 at 5710 S. Woodlawn.

Will Burns is currently serving his first term as 26^th District State Representative. Currently, Burns is running for Alderman in the 4th Ward which incorporates areas of Oakland, Kenwood, and parts of Hyde Park and Bronzeville.

Prior to serving as State Representative, he served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the Illinois Senate President. In that role, Burns developed legislation for the Senate Democratic Caucus on issues ranging from criminal justice, consumer protection, education, minority business development, and ethics reform. Before working for the Senate President, Burns was the Vice President of Program and Field Offices for the Chicago Urban League. Burns has also served in a number of political and governmental capacities including: Deputy Campaign Manager for Obama for Congress 2000, Campaign Coordinator for the Democratic Party of Illinois, senior advisor and legislative analyst in the Office of the Illinois Senate Minority Leader, and as a community outreach coordinator for then State Senator Barack Obama.

In 2001, Burns was named an American Marshall Memorial Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.  Burns attended the University of Chicago where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees. He lives in North Kenwood with his wife Robin N. Black and their daughter Athena.

OMSA Graduate and Professional School Application Workshop Part 1: Ease Some Stress Out of Your Life

A 1966 Time Magazine article explored the "graduate school squeeze," a colorful illustration of the sudden necessity for students to pursue graduate studies in order to remain competitive members in an American Society. The impetus resulted from some problems that today's students don't necessarily have to face: an insurgence of baby boomers flooding into undergraduate schools, the "threat" of Selective Service, and an increase in vocational expectations in lieu of shaping students ready to compete in a globalized economy--but there is one common denominator that always seems to transcend time, and that is that unholy entity-- stress.

Decades ago, applying to Graduate School was just as daunting:

• "My fate depends on a couple of people sitting in an office 2,000 miles away," says a Yale senior. Vanderbilt Senior Robert Thiel worked three days on his application to Yale, including a five-page essay and translation of a long English paragraph into German and French, got a one-sentence rejection. He spent five hours on his Stanford application, got a two-paragraph form rejection."
  
• "I really don't feel prepared to do anything with this liberal arts education," says one Yale senior who has applied at law schools. "You've just got to go to graduate school." Another contends that "the pressure is parental—and it almost killed me." He finally said "To hell with it" and joined the Peace Corps. "
  
• "Harvard also took the applicant who pleaded in the margin: "Help me!"...He dropped out after one term."

You don't have to cry for help, or join the Peace Corps (unless you really want to) OMSA's got you covered.

Graduate School and Professional School Application Workshop

5710 S. Woodlawn Ave. January 20th, 2011
5:00pm - 7:00pm

Let's help the article written about Graduate Students 50 years from now be a little less dismal. Shall we?

-Aaron Talley
-Class of 2013, 5710 Student Intern

Navajo Boy and Yellow Dirt: Uranium Contamination in Navajo Nation

On Wednesday, November 10, the University of Chicago Program on the Global Environment, the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture, the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs and the Environmental Law Society will host the viewing of “The Return of Navajo Boy.” In this documentary, director Jeff Spitz examines the remnants of environmental hazards, such as uranium contamination, in Navajo land as a result of the atomic age. The movie chronicles the tale of Elsie Begay, a Navajo grandmother. Here is a trailer from the film:



The story of Elsie Begay was also told in Judy Pasternak’s recent book, "Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed.” Judy Pasternak discusses the concept of “yellow dirt” in the following:

Beyond Waiting for Superman: Panel Discussion

Beyond Waiting for Superman: How Do We Overcome Inequities in our Urban Schools?




Beyond Waiting for Superman
Tuesday, November 9th at 6:00pm
5710 S. Woodlawn Chicago, IL 60637
Community Lounge

The challenge of providing excellent education for students in urban communities is not new. As this Time magazine article states: "Education history is littered with big promises, national commissions and task forces, summits, and surprisingly little change." However, the recent paradigm shift towards a global economy has called even more attention to the educational gap that exists between American students and many of their international counterparts. Complicating the issue even more are the disparities that have always existed between American students in urban environments and students in suburban communities. This multi-layered issue of American education has spurred the documentary Waiting for Superman , which is a pretty interesting commentary on the educational challenges facing the United States, and highlights many of the disparities that exist between suburban and urban schools.

Waiting for Superman Trailer


In an indirect response to the film, and a greater response to the current challenges of education The Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, Teach for America and The Urban Teacher Education Program are hosting Beyond Waiting for Superman: How do we overcome inequities in our urban schools?

This panel discussion will feature current educational experts such as Tim King, Founder and President of Urban Prep Academies a highly successful system of charter schools for African American men, Dr. Timothy Knowles, the John Dewey Director of the University of Chicago's Urban Education Institute (UEI) a research institute at the University of Chicago dedicated to providing the framework to allow Chicago public school systems to be improved, and Elliot Ransom, Performance Manager at the Chicago Public School Office of New Schools.

Come join us as we discuss how to solve the educational inequities plaguing public schools! Refreshments will be served!

Faculty of Color Panel Profiles: Meet The Professors!

On Monday, OMSA and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture will host professors Ramon A. Gutierrez, Raul Coronado, Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, Julie Saville, Matthew Briones, and Mario Small. They will engage in a conversation about the experience of scholars of color and share their journeys to their present positions at the University of Chicago. They will also discuss topics including obstacles faced by scholars of color, isolation affecting scholars of color, stereotyping of research conducted by scholars of color, and sources of personal motivation.

Ramon A. Gutiérrez

Preston & Sterling Morton Distinguished Service Professor in United States History and the College; Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture

Gutiérrez, one of the nation’s leading Latino scholars, has received numerous academic awards, including a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship (“genius” grant), the John Hope Franklin Prize from the American Studies Association and the Frederick Jackson Turner Prize from the Organization of American Historians.

He is a specialist in Mexican-American history, Indian-White relations in the Americas, social and economic history of the Southwest, colonial Latin America and Mexican immigration. In addition to two monographs and numerous articles, he has edited, co-edited or co-authored 10 books.

Asian American Heritage Celebration - Words and Rhythms: Def Poetry Jam Artist Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai

Next week marks the start of the official Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The University of Chicago’s Asian American Heritage Celebration started mid-April and will continue through the month of May.
See below for one of the three Asian American Heritage Celebration calendars.

May was chosen as the national Asian Pacific American Heritage Month because May mark two important anniversaries: the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants on May 7th (1843), and the completion of the transcontinental railroad, worked on by many Chinese laborers on May 10th (1969). Congress have recognized celebrations of Asian Pacific American Heritage since 1977!

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is celebrated in many different ways! The Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, and Smithsonian Museum put on special exhibitions in honor of APAHM. Many people attend these exhibitions or other formal celebrations, and many others celebrate independently of official APAHM events. The Federal Asian Pacific American Council chooses a theme each year for APAHM. This year’s theme is “Lighting the Past, Present and Future.”

In the month of May, the OMSA blog will feature notable Asian Americans and will highlight events at the University of Chicago and the Chicagoland area.




This Thursday, April 29, at 8pm, Def Poetry Jam Artist Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai will be performing in 5710's Community Lounge!

This event is co-sponsored by SPIN and SASA and is part of our Asian American Heritage Celebration. Following Tsai's performance, SASA will be hosting a Bhangra Party! You will not want to miss this night of Words and Rhythms.

8:00pm, Thursday, April 29
Community Lounge, 5710 S. Woodlawn
For more information please contact Rosa at ryo@uchicago.edu

Hog Butcher to the World: Urbs in Horto

Hog Butcher to the World: Urbs in Horto

Monday, May 10th, 6-8pm
5710 Woodlawn Avenue
Community Lounge

A virtual tour of edible south-side Chicago An entertaining, courteous and experienced tour guide will orient your journey through some of the many gastronomic wonders and haunts of past, present and potential south side neighborhoods. The virtual, edible south side tour is 30 minutes in length. The tour will depart from the University of Chicago's 5710 South Woodlawn.

Love Won't Let Me Be Silent: An Evening with Terry Angel Mason

This Wednesday, April 28, at 6pm, the Office of LGBTQ Student Life along with Affinity Community Services, Teen Living Programs, and UCAN present Crossroads: "Love Won't Let Me Be Silent: An Evening with Terry Angel Mason."

Terry Angel Mason is a Civil Rights activist and Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of Love Won't Let Me Be Silent. Angel, as he prefers to be called, writes music and poetry, and admirers have said he "redefines the traditional idea of the love poem."

Please join us for a fantastic evening with Terry Angel Mason.

6:00pm, Wednesday, April 28
5710 S. Woodlawn, Community Lounge
Please contact Rosa at ryo@uchicago.edu for more information.