Arts Events for Duke Reunions Week
It will be a week like no other at Duke…get ready to choose your-own virtual adventure and reconnect with the university you love. Kick off your week with old and new friends from classes ending in 0, 1, 5 and 6 at our online Karsh Alumni and Visitors Center hub and get ready for a whole week jam-packed with events.
Highlights include opportunities to see how Duke has changed through virtual tours of new spaces from dorms to the Duke Farm, to hear from student panelists about what Duke is like now—and to even become a student again by taking one of our weekend-exclusive educational courses. Plus: Don’t miss all of the traditional Reunions activities you’ve come to love—class parties, affinity group gatherings and plenty of opportunities to reconnect with friends and classmates who you may not have seen in years.
We can’t wait to spend the week with you!
Friday, April 9
Duke Independent Film Festival
Founded in December of 2014, the Duke Independent Film Festival is Duke University’s first and only campus-wide film festival. DIFF accepts short film submissions from any undergraduate or graduate student at Duke University, and the film festival is an annual event. The purpose of DIFF is to seek and foster the best filmmakers and storytellers on campus, providing an outlet for great films to be presented. In addition to hosting the annual film festival, DIFF hosts a variety of other film-related events on campus throughout the academic year.
Student films premier Friday, April 9, and Saturday, April 10 →
Saturday, April 10
Duke Independent Film Festival
Founded in December of 2014, the Duke Independent Film Festival is Duke University’s first and only campus-wide film festival. DIFF accepts short film submissions from any undergraduate or graduate student at Duke University, and the film festival is an annual event. The purpose of DIFF is to seek and foster the best filmmakers and storytellers on campus, providing an outlet for great films to be presented. In addition to hosting the annual film festival, DIFF hosts a variety of other film-related events on campus throughout the academic year.
Student films premier Friday, April 9, and Saturday, April 10 →
Monday, April 12
DukeCreate: Dance Cardio Workshop
11am-12pm
In this workshop learn some basic dance moves that are simple, uplifting, and safe to do in your home or dorm room. A Spring playlist strings together these moves in a guaranteed workout for your heart and your soul. Join us to ignite your creativity, celebrate the end of the semester, and boost your physical and mental health!
DukeCreate: Tai Chi & Photography Workshop
4pm-5:30pm
Photography and mindfulness have a deep and enduring relationship. In photography, we are asked to be fully present, to call upon all of the senses and to respond with a single image. In Taijiquan (Tai Chi) we engage with several invigorating practices to relax, listen, and improve our awareness of self and surroundings. This 1.5 hour long workshop brings both Tai Chi and photography together and teaches us how to enrich our ability to surrender to, be fully awake in, and to capture the essence of the moment. We begin with Chi Gong exercises to bring us closer to defining ourselves and relaxing into stillness, from which we can listen, look, and act with increased precision and clarity. We take our cameras, with a new awareness, into our environment and culminate with a group share and discussion.
DukeCreate: Make Your Own Plushie Workshop
6pm-7pm
Make a new companion by sewing your very own plushie! Learn some basic hand sewing and embroidery techniques that will allow you to design and create a stuffed creature out of fabric. This class will be fun and relaxing. All levels are welcome.
Tuesday, April 13
Duke Dance Program Spring Dance Series: Preparing Grounds: Portals and Portability
The lynching of Black bodies was a ritual gathering. ..trees as witnesses of these acts of terror…in several African diaspora spiritual traditions, “practitioners recognize forests, rivers, and oceans as natural resources embodying spiritual subjects” (Concha-Holmes, 2012)…what might we imagine as held memories by these spiritual subjects? how do we create points of access, or portals to engage in acts of remembrance and recovery? we are preparing grounds to reclaim, re-consecrate, re-articulate, restore, remember and reimagine liminal spaces as accesses to restoration…points of contact between the world of what is seen and unseen worlds.
Members of the Duke African Repertory Ensemble are joined by Indigo Yard Gals.
DEMAN Live & Innovation Co-Lab Present “From Christie’s to SNL: The ABCs of NFTs”
8:30–9:30pm
Join us for a conversation with NY-based Duke alumnae Nicole Sales ‘12 of Christie’s and multidisciplinary artist Carrie Able ’04 about their careers, current market trends and creative process at the convergence of art and tech, including the explosion of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) in conversation with Michael Faber ’05 of Duke Innovation Co-Lab.
Event will be recorded & posted.
Wednesday, April 14
Duke Dance Program Spring Dance Series: Preparing Grounds: Portals and Portability
The lynching of Black bodies was a ritual gathering. ..trees as witnesses of these acts of terror…in several African diaspora spiritual traditions, “practitioners recognize forests, rivers, and oceans as natural resources embodying spiritual subjects” (Concha-Holmes, 2012)…what might we imagine as held memories by these spiritual subjects? how do we create points of access, or portals to engage in acts of remembrance and recovery? we are preparing grounds to reclaim, re-consecrate, re-articulate, restore, remember and reimagine liminal spaces as accesses to restoration…points of contact between the world of what is seen and unseen worlds.
Members of the Duke African Repertory Ensemble are joined by Indigo Yard Gals.
Graphic Pull: An Interactive, 360 Virtual Tour
11am-12pm
Join Molly Boarati, Associate Curator at the Nasher Museum, for an interactive virtual tour of Graphic Pull: Contemporary Prints from the Collection. Molly will discuss numerous printmaking techniques in the exhibition, which features works dating from the 1970s to today. Molly will escort visitors virtually through six galleries, zoom in on works of art and share short video clips of two artists whose works are in the exhibition.
Preservation, Restitution, & the Idea of “Cultural Heritage”
11:30am–1:00pm
Please join the Manuscript Migration Lab at the Franklin Humanities Institute for a conversation about cultural heritage and restitution featuring Felwine Sarr and Astrid Swenson. Both speakers are experts on the ethical, epistemological, and historical contours of the category “cultural heritage,” as this concept has worked globally to shore up colonialism, imperialism, and the modern nation-state.
Gabi Ngcobo (10th Berlin Biennale & South Africa Cape 07 Biennale Curator) at 20-22 The Ongoing Biennial
1pm
Organized by Pedro Lasch and the FHI Social Practice Lab with support from the Franklin Humanities I World Arts Initiative at Duke University, this Conversation Cycle is part of a larger program entitled ’20-22 The Ongoing Biennial’. In person visits with some of our guests will also be presented at a later stage in collaboration with the the AAHVS Department and the Nasher Museum of Art.
DukeCreate: The Mindful Path to Creative Insight
6pm-7:30pm
How can mindfulness enhance the creative process? This workshop will teach you how to explore your inner and outer experience and translate your discoveries into writing and/or visual art. You’ll be guided in short bursts of mindfulness practice, lasting about 10 minutes each, to help you tap into your experience in different ways and draw inspiration from the present moment.
DEMAN Live, Hear at Duke & duARTS Presents Pitch to Podcast feat. Pushkin Industries
8pm
Join Pushkin Industries‘ Jon Schnaars ‘05, VP, Business Development and Brittani Brown, Associate Producer for a conversation about their careers in podcast, media, business, and tech. Schnaars and Brown will take us behind the scenes and share both the creative process and business side of making a podcast, as well as answer your questions. NYC-based Pushkin Industries is an audio production company co-founded by Jacob Weisberg and Malcolm Gladwell in 2018.
Event will be recorded & posted.
More Mindfulness Workshops
DukeCreate, a workshops series for the Duke community, is collaborating with Student Wellness to offer more opportunities to support well-being through creativity.
Thursday, April 15
Duke Dance Program Spring Dance Series: Preparing Grounds: Portals and Portability
The lynching of Black bodies was a ritual gathering. ..trees as witnesses of these acts of terror…in several African diaspora spiritual traditions, “practitioners recognize forests, rivers, and oceans as natural resources embodying spiritual subjects” (Concha-Holmes, 2012)…what might we imagine as held memories by these spiritual subjects? how do we create points of access, or portals to engage in acts of remembrance and recovery? we are preparing grounds to reclaim, re-consecrate, re-articulate, restore, remember and reimagine liminal spaces as accesses to restoration…points of contact between the world of what is seen and unseen worlds.
Members of the Duke African Repertory Ensemble are joined by Indigo Yard Gals.
DEMAN Live & Duke MBA MES Club: A Conversation with SB Projects’ Scott Manson ‘03
5:30pm
Join Scott Manson ’03, COO of Scooter Braun’s SB Projects, for a conversation about his career in entertainment, his law school experience, and his work at SB Projects.
Alumni Spotlight, Academy Award Edition: Jing Niu (MFA | EDA ’14)
Niu is a film and music video director based in Los Angeles. Her work addresses motifs of freedom, mythology and the Asian diaspora in the United States. She worked as an assistant editor and post-production coordinator on A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once. Duke Arts and Forever Duke recently caught up with Niu to learn about her work. Read our Q&A below!
Piano Students Group Recital
7pm
Piano students perform an end-of-year group recital in the first of a two-night presentation.
Theater Studies Spring Mainstage production of “Medea”
7:30pm
This is a border zone with Corinth a thriving place–but poverty and loss beyond its walls. Medea is an immigrant who destroyed both her way home and her family for the man she loves, Jason. Now she suffers a great injustice by his hand and faces deportation alongside her children. She decides to take matters into her own hands and forces Jason to suffer as she does. This spring mainstage is also a distinction project from two of our graduating seniors María Zurita Ontiveros and Ash Jeffers.
Jazz Vespers
7:30-8:30pm
This Jazz Vespers online service combines the form of the traditional evening vespers service with the musical improvisation of jazz. Professor John V. Brown, Duke’s vice provost for the arts, and his Little Big Band provide musical leadership, while Chapel ministers offer prayers and meditations on themes of hope, joy, and resurrection.
Friday, April 16
Duke Dance Program Spring Dance Series: Preparing Grounds: Portals and Portability
The lynching of Black bodies was a ritual gathering. ..trees as witnesses of these acts of terror…in several African diaspora spiritual traditions, “practitioners recognize forests, rivers, and oceans as natural resources embodying spiritual subjects” (Concha-Holmes, 2012)…what might we imagine as held memories by these spiritual subjects? how do we create points of access, or portals to engage in acts of remembrance and recovery? we are preparing grounds to reclaim, re-consecrate, re-articulate, restore, remember and reimagine liminal spaces as accesses to restoration…points of contact between the world of what is seen and unseen worlds.
Members of the Duke African Repertory Ensemble are joined by Indigo Yard Gals.
In Conversation: Tift Merritt & Allison Russell
12pm
Hungry River is a performance collaboration between Tift Merritt, Allison Russell (Our Native Daughters, Birds of Chicago) that explores the emotional history of formerly segregated mental asylums in North Carolina and the prophetic importance of the people who lived their lives there. Through song and monologue, ceremony and storytelling, this community history helps us understand not only the asylum’s past but also how that past informs the ways we view race relations, poverty, criminalized margins, and the stigma of mental illness today.
A Project in (Self) Reflection
A video presentation of Cordelia Hogan’s (Dance ’21) capstone project.
DukeArts Student Showcase
Duke’s theaters, galleries, and other arts venues are typically busiest in April! This year, we bring the buzz, artwork, and stages online. Join us for the premiere of this produced special that highlights the artistic accomplishments of undergraduate students in our academic arts departments this spring.
Saturday, April 17
Theater Studies Spring Mainstage production of “Medea”
7:30pm
This is a border zone with Corinth a thriving place–but poverty and loss beyond its walls. Medea is an immigrant who destroyed both her way home and her family for the man she loves, Jason. Now she suffers a great injustice by his hand and faces deportation alongside her children. She decides to take matters into her own hands and forces Jason to suffer as she does. This spring mainstage is also a distinction project from two of our graduating seniors María Zurita Ontiveros and Ash Jeffers.
Ciompi Quartet
8pm
The Ciompi offer the world premiere of Duke composer John Supko’s quartet, “soleil noir,” originally scheduled for April 2020. Jokubaviciute joins the Ciompi for César Franck’s Piano Quintet in F Minor, a late-romantic masterpiece defined by its cyclic structure and harmonies.
Sunday, April 18
Theater Studies Spring Mainstage production of “Medea”
2pm
This is a border zone with Corinth a thriving place–but poverty and loss beyond its walls. Medea is an immigrant who destroyed both her way home and her family for the man she loves, Jason. Now she suffers a great injustice by his hand and faces deportation alongside her children. She decides to take matters into her own hands and forces Jason to suffer as she does. This spring mainstage is also a distinction project from two of our graduating seniors María Zurita Ontiveros and Ash Jeffers.
All Week
Duke Dance Program Spring Dance Series: Creative Gifts
Students from this spring’s Interdisciplinary Performance Project (service learning) will co-create and publish an e-gallery of video archived performances, sound/media compositions, fiction/poetry, and visual artifacts in response to weekly creative care gatherings and storytelling sessions with community partners from Dementia Inclusive Durham.
Music, sound, video, and media composition: Brittany J. Green; applied theater and improvisation: Amy Sawyers-Williams; music, rhythm, and movement: Teli Shabu