Directed by Stephen Loveridge
Friday March 1st, 6:30pm
MIT Bartos Theatre
Drawn from a never-before-seen cache of personal footage spanning decades, Stephen Loveridge creates an intimate portrait of the Sri Lankan artist and musician known as M.I.A.
Film followed by Q&A with Aysha Upchurch from Harvard University
*pizza at 6:30pm, film at 7
Aysha Upchurch, the Dancing Diplomat, is a dancer, choreographer, instructor and education consultant who is committed to social inclusion, artistry development, and transformative education. She was commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing arts to create Am I On?, an award-winning evening-length Hip Hop work that explored the space between youth and adult voices, standardized testing, and school shootings. The work exemplified her commitment to use Hip Hop dance to entertain, educate, and empower. She is sought nationally and internationally as a performer and facilitator because of her focus at the intersection of performance, youth advocacy, and social justice. Aysha holds an M.A. in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University and an Ed.M from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has been on faculty at George Mason University, Howard Community College, and Salem State University. She is currently a professor at Harvard where she is piloting HipHopEX - a lab experience to explore the power of Hip Hop in education.