Creative Arts Initiative

Comunidades Visibles (Visible Communities): The Materiality of Migration brings together artworks by six first- or second-generation immigrant Latinx artists. In conjunction with this exhibition, which will be at the Albright-Knox Northland from Feb. 12-May 16, 2021, the Creative Arts Initiative will be partnering with the AKG to host a series of films selected by the artists.

DreamTown is a documentary about the precarious dream of a young Afro-Ecuadorian soccer player, Anibal Chala, as he strives to make it to the professional leagues, and eventually sees his dreams become reality. This coming-of-age story follows Anibal over the span of six years, from the youth minor leagues until he secures a place on Ecuador’s First Division team, ranking among the country’s top 10 players at the young age of 17.

In Pais de Blancos, Modou Camara, a Senegalese immigrant in Argentina, lives his routine in Buenos Aires, while missing Senegal. After his ritual bath, his work filming a Murit festival, going out at night with his comrades, taking care of the children of a friend, and discussions with his girlfriend, Modou reflects on immigration and the intercontinental problems of the current system. Following the film screening, join Curatorial Assistant Dr. Andrea Alvarez and filmmaker Pavel Tavarez for a conversation about Pais de Blancos.

The Infiltrators is a docu-thriller that tells the true story of young immigrants who are detained by Border Patrol and thrown into a shadowy for-profit detention center—on purpose. Marco and Viri are members of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance, a group of radical DREAMers who are on a mission to stop unjust deportations. And the best place to stop deportations, they believe, is in detention. However, when Marco and Viri attempt a daring reverse ‘prison break,’ things don’t go according to plan. By weaving together documentary footage of the real infiltrators with re-enactments of the events inside the detention center, The Infiltrators tells an incredible and thrilling true story in a genre-defying new cinematic language.

Maggie Lee's Mommy is a documentary about the relationship between a mother and daughter before and after death, the shared struggle for love and independence, and a young artist's coming-of-age. Maggie Lee is a Taiwanese American artist based in New York. Since she was a teen she has made zines, shot photos for magazines, and made movies, her diaristic documentation referencing and responding to ideologies of alternative culture. Mommy is her first film.

In Los Angeles in 1992, after a brief car chase, police pulled over unarmed Rodney King from his car and brutally beat him. The incident was captured by a photographer living nearby and his was released to the news media, unleashing an unparalleled series of marches, protests, and rioting. In news footage and photographs from that time, the critically acclaimed film LA 92, from Academy Award winners Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin, tells the story of King’s arrest, beating, and trial, and the subsequent events that shook the city of Los Angeles to its core.

In Talk to Her, after a chance encounter at a theater, two men, Benigno and Marco, meet at a private clinic where Benigno works. Lydia, Marco's girlfriend and a bullfighter by profession, has been gored and is in a coma. It so happens that Benigno is looking after another woman in a coma, Alicia, a young ballet student. The lives of the four characters will flow in all directions, past, present and future, dragging all of them towards an unsuspected destiny.

Five Songs for Fillmore Avenue is the world-premiere of a new site-specific performance that combines theatre, cinema, and live music. 

We have been closely monitoring how current health and travel issues are evolving with regard to the Coronavirus (COVID-19). After consultation with University at Buffalo leadership and a great deal of deliberation, our proactive feeling is that the best thing we can do for our community is to limit non-essential large gatherings. As such, the UB Humanities Institute is postponing An Evening with Nick Cave (March 27) and Performance, Publics, Possibilty (a one-day symposium scheduled for March 28), with the hope of rescheduling in Spring 2021.

We have been closely monitoring how current health and travel issues are evolving with regard to the Coronavirus (COVID-19). After consultation with University at Buffalo leadership and a great deal of deliberation, our proactive feeling is that the best thing we can do for our community is to limit non-essential large gatherings. As such, the UB Humanities Institute is postponing An Evening with Nick Cave (March 27) and Performance, Publics, Possibilty (a one-day symposium scheduled for March 28), with the hope of rescheduling in Spring 2021.

During the Spring 2021 portion of their CAI residency, the world-renowned Arditti Quartet will be performing, teaching, giving workshops focused upon Buffalo and Western New York composers. They will be performing at several locations around Buffalo.