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November
Activities
SILICON
VALLEY
November
has been a very busy month here at Urban Peacock. In the midst of
serving our design clientele in the high tech sector, we also have
had several film screenings throughout the US.
The
Dallas South Asian Film Festival (running through Nov. 28th) just
presented a series of shorts by emerging filmmakers from across
the country. These films provided a feast of varied insights into
the layered identities that comprise the south asian soul.
Nebraska
Residency The 10 day Artist Diversity Residency Program at UNL
was a whirlwind of sharing with incredibly receptive and thoughtful
students, faculty and area communities. The east/west book 'Passages',
made as part of my thesis in 1987 at RISD, was the hands down favorite.
It seemed to truly pass the test of traversing boundaries that are
placed on people's perceptions of identity. It was heartwarming
to watch how students, many who have lived all their lives in Nebraska,
were able to easily absorb the concepts depicted in these pre-Photoshop
visual montages.
'Passages', K's
Press Release , Daily
Nebraskan Interview
The
Nov. 14th Public event was exhilarating. In addition to the 4 short
films, this evening was the premiere reading of my 6 page poem about
my grandmother 'The Horseman has Come' written upon her passing
in late 1999. To my pleasant surprise, this poem was received with
a wave of heart warming applause. It was the first time I could
read the poem without tears.
In
regards to the films, the results were varied. 'Birth of a Butterfly'
was a favorite of the Film, Sociology & Psychology students.
'Distant Souls' seemed to touch an emotional chord within the hearts
of most of the young women. 'Namaste Papaji' was a poignant favorite
of the Indian Communities and the Film Students, and 'To Serve One's
Country' left audiences in thought. A young military student came
to me after the screening to tell me this was her favorite film.
So, in some way, each piece of art presented on this night, touched
people in a unique and thoughtful way.
Overall
the lectures and workshops, the sharing of art, films, poetry and
ink drawings has made for an incredibly rich experience. Nebraska
was beautiful and very hospitable, reminding me of upstate NY in
many ways.
The
classes varied from Sociology, Film, Psychology and Contemporary
Women's Issues to Managerial Economics, Entrepreneurship and Graphic
Design where I spoke more about my 15 years of professional design
expertise and the nature of design processes, collaborative team
dynamics and the importance of interdisciplinary knowledge of processes
& scheduling in the high tech and corporate arena during product
development.
The
underlining theme throughout the talks was the importance of diverse
perspectives in life and how the more we know about each other,
the more we learn about ourselves and how ultimately, such explorations
can assist us in unveiling our thoughtful and conscientious individuality
in life.
A
few hours before getting onto a plane back to the Bay Area, I was
interviewed
by the Daily Nebraskan.
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Since
2000, when we started our online presence, the nature of our content
has evolved in some wonderful ways. We are now in the process of
updating our User Interface Design system to account for the growth
and also to add more resources that would be of interest to our
Peacock Community. The new design shall continue to evolve throughout
2003.
Since
the community aspect of this site is a pet project, time is often
the deciding factor in how often we are able to update our content.
Sometimes we update the site everyday, other times it may be a week
in-between, so check back often to catch the latest. We have creative
and thoughtful individuals from across the globe that visit us regularly.
In our own small way we are building our dream of a virtual United
Nations, defining ourselves through the universal nature of creativity.
If
you have an event that you feel should be included and is not, please
email us (kavita@urbanpeacock.com)
or
just drop us a line to let us know what you think of the site and
any suggestions. We welcome your insights in building this Peacock
community. Thanks for visiting. We hope you've enjoyed your visit.
Best
wishes, Kavita, Editor-in-Chief, Nov. 22. 2002
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