CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS
The Buffalo/Niagara 2009 UDC Conference is shaping up as one of the most exciting yet, with approximately 40 panels and four plenary addresses, and a focus on successful stories of media activism, praxis, and radical pedagogy. Our four plenary speakers, Danny Schechter, Lisa Vives, Steve Kurtz, and Dallas Smythe award winner Peter Phillips, are all described below. Local organizers have enlisted the support of organizations such as Righteous Babe Records (a free Ani! CD for all paid registrants), Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, ArtVoice (Buffalo’s alt weekly), Squeaky Wheel-Buffalo Media Resources, the American Indian Media and Policy Initiative, the Burchfield-Penny Art Center, The Castellani Art Museum, the Western New York Peace Center, the Syracuse Cultural Workers and Termite TV (a complete list and links is available at the conference web site).
On the Radical Pedagogy front, the conference is hosting papers and presentations from social and economic justice programs and educators at Niagara University, Queens University, Muhlenberg College, Wells College, Buffalo State College, the University at Buffalo and the locked out faculty of the now defunct Antioch College, who have formed the Nonstop Institute. Other panel speakers include such notables as Geoffrey Millard, Chair of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
On the praxis front, in addition to our plenary speakers, we will be hosting over two dozen accomplished alternative media practitioners as well as local media activism organizations. Public Access pioneer DeeDee Hallack and formerly Buffalo-Based filmmaker Brian Springer, now with the Nonstop Institute, and the Media Education Foundation will be screening their latest works. Select conference sessions will be recorded for webcast by ThinkTwice Radio and the Buffalo State College Communication Department.
On the fun front, the conference will be physically housed at the State University of New York’s only comprehensive urban campus, Buffalo State College, at the junction of Buffalo’s Museum District, Elmwood Village and Grant Street neighborhoods, adjacent to Frederick Law Olmsted’s Delaware Park and his Buffalo Parkway system. Elmwood Avenue provides ample dining and drinking opportunities just a few short blocks from campus-based conference housing. Participants can also check out Buffalo’s thriving music scene and learn firsthand why this small city is consistently rated at one of the nation’s top arts destinations. Come for the conference and quit your job and stay -- Others have.
The Syracuse Cultural Workers will be on hand with rad-bling t-shirts, bumperstickers and assorted cognitive incitation wares. The UDC host committee will be selling organic cotton commemorative conference t-shirts designed by the illustrator M. Clabeaux, author of My Life in Purgatory. Buffalo State College is currently erecting an installation around the conference facility with an ersatz FEMA camp motif and earthquake similators. The opening reception will be out on the town, just one block away from the conference's retro dorm housing. We'll be topping the conference off with a trip to the Fals and a dinner at Niagara University. It will be a very Buffalo weekend. Welcome!
PLENARIES
Danny Schechter is former Emmy winning producer for ABC's 20/20 and the then upstart CNN network, he has gone on to become a prolific investigative reporter, author, filmmaker and one of the nation's most prominent media critics. His recent films include "Weapons of Mass Distraction" (2004) and "In Debt We Trust" (2006). Schechter's recent books include "Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal," "Embedded: Weapons of Mass Deception: How the Media Failed to Cover the Iraq War" (2008), "When News Lies" (2006), "The Death of the Media and the Fight to Save Democracy" (2005) and "Media Wars: News At A Time of Terror" (2003) . Schechter, a longtime friend and supporter of the UDC, will also be available for a book signing event after his talk.
Lisa Vives, is the Executive Director of Global Information Network (‘Global’), the North American affiliate of Inter Press Service (IPS) which is the world’s largest non-profit independent/alternative news agency. Global, also a non-profit operation, is the largest distributor of Developing World/Southern Hemisphere news services in the U.S. and has evolved a network of up to 300 minority newsweeklies. Ms. Vives will speak on the topic of “Sustaining Independent/Alternative Media.”
Steve Kurtz is tactical media artist and co-founder of Critical Arts Ensemble (CAE). CAE’s projects focus on the intersection of art, technology, political activism and critical theory. The collective’s work has been featured in The Whitney (NY), The New Museum (NY), The ICA (London), The Corcoran Museum (DC), The MCA (Chicago), Schirn Kunsthalle (Frankfurt), Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and The London Museum of Natural History. CAE has also collectively authored six books. From 2004 through 2008, Kurtz was the victim of a George W. Bush era Justice Department politically motivated prosecution for his work exposing the dangers of Genetically Modified Organisms. Though eventually declared baseless (“insufficient on its face”) in Federal Court, the relentless persecution of Kurtz and his codefendant, Dr. Robert Ferrell, at the hands of an overzealous federal prosecutor, became an international humans rights story portrayed in the film, “Strange Culture.”
Dallas Smythe Award - Peter Phillips. The UDC is honoring Peter Phillips this year with our Dallas Smythe Award, in honor of his life time contributions to the critical study of the media and his actions supporting democratic communications. Phillips, a longtime media activist and Sonoma State University Professor of Sociology and Media Research, has served as Director of Project Censored since 1996. Phillips has served as editor for Project Censored's annual yearbook, examining the 25 most important censored or underreported stories each year. He also compiled the "Project Censored Guide to Independent Media" and co-edited "Impeach the President: The Case Against Bush and Cheney. Phillips will be giving a plenary address on Saturday morning.