Community, BGSU join forces in ‘Identity Project’

BOWLING GREEN, O.—“The Identity Project” at BGSU is in full swing. Several events are planned over the next two weeks that are free and open to the public.

“The Identity Project” is a semester-long community and university collaboration to present events that explore the relationship between self-disclosure and identity formation, as well as the tension between personal privacy and safety.

A symposium on “Investigating Identity” will be held between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Friday (Nov. 7) on the third floor of the Bowen-Thompson Student Union. Eighteen separate panels, talks, videos and a performance will deal with a wide variety of topics, including confidentiality, tattoos, female athletic identity, Wood County history, Craigslist, health, food and BGSU student organizations.

The BGSU Humanities Troupe will present “The Othello Problem” at 12:30 p.m., following a noon brown-bag lunch with coffee and dessert provided.  For details of the program, visit bgsu.edu/identity, or pick up a brochure from BGSU’s Jerome Library or, in downtown Bowling Green, Ginny’s Inspired Fashions, Grounds for Thought or the Wood County District Public Library.

Area residents may obtain free one-day parking passes for the event at Ginny’s or Grounds for Thought.

On Nov. 10, the School of Art will present an “ARTalk“ by Labino-Black Visiting Artist Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze in conjunction with the exhibit “Telling Truths/Speaking Secrets,” which features works by Amanze and Noël Palomo-Lovinski, an associate professor of fashion design at Kent State University. Amanze is a Brooklyn, N.Y., artist born in Nigeria and raised in Great Britain. Her works, “Hybrids, Aliens and Ghosts,” involve drawings and works on paper inspired by her journey from Nigeria to Great Britain to Brooklyn.

Amanze’s talk will be held at 6 p.m. in the Wolfe Center for the Arts’ Donnell Theater, followed by a reception for the artist in the Dorothy Uber Bryan Gallery lobby in the Fine Arts Center.

At 8 p.m. that same evening in the Bryan Gallery lobby, the Bowling Green High School Drama Club will present  ‘Traffic Jam,” an original short play that depicts the vulnerability of teens associated with human trafficking.  The event will include an introduction to Wood County as a location of high trafficking and a follow-up discussion.

“Telling Truths/Speaking Secrets,” curated by Jacqueline Nathan, director of the Fine Arts Center Galleries, will be on view through Nov. 19 at the Bryan Gallery. Admission is free. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 6-9 p.m. Thursdays, and 1-4 p.m. Sundays.

In honor of Veterans Day, the 2014 film “Collecting Sgt. Dan” will be shown at 7 p.m. Nov. 12 at BGSU’s Gish Film Theater in Hanna Hall.  Perry Township’s Marine Sgt. Daniel J. Patron was killed on Aug. 6, 2011, in Sangin, Afghanistan, while attempting to defuse a roadside bomb.

Director Matthew Patron’s film earned the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s Major Norman Hatch Award for best feature documentary. The work reflects the filmmaker’s search for his own identity following the traumatic loss of his brother. The screening will be followed by a brief interview with the filmmaker and an opportunity for discussion with the audience, hosted by Dr. Brett Holden, an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Film.

Finally, on Nov. 20, “Identity in Custody,” an art display from inmates at the Wood County Justice Center, will open at the Wood County District Public Library and remain on view through Nov. 30.  The exhibit will travel to the Pemberville Public Library and the Weston Public library in December.

Sponsors of “The Identity Project” include the BGSU Art Galleries, Counseling Center, Office of the Provost, Student Affairs, Department of English, University Libraries, School of Cultural and Critical Studies, Wellness Connection, Department of Theatre and Film and Women’s Center, along with the Wood County District Public Library and the Clazel Theatre.