NOW THIS IS GRASSROOTS!!

The Student's @DelValle4Mayor video just made it into the Huffington Post!!

Rahm Emanuel Hit On School Policy By High Schoolers For Del Valle

A group of Chicago high school students has decided to take Rahm Emanuel to task for his education policy.

Cristina Henriquez, Gerardo Aguilar, and Alexandra Alvarez appear in a YouTube video, uploaded Sunday, entitled "Invest in Our Public Schools." The spot attacks Emanuel for his praise of the city's charter schools, and backs rival candidate Miguel del Valle for supporting neighborhood schools.

"I go to Roger C. Sullivan High School," says Henriquez. "This is not one of the schools Rahm Emanuel cares about."

The students, who wrote the script for the video, according to its description on YouTube, also point out what they describe as a factual inaccuracy in Emanuel's portrayal of the city's charters. "When you take out North Side, and you take out Walter Payton, the seven best-performing high schools are all charters."

"Someone didn't do their homework," the video says, listing the seven top schools as reported by the Chicago Tribune. None of them is a charter school.

The video says it has no connection to any candidate, and judging by the del Valle camp's reaction, they seem to be telling the truth. Spokeswoman Joanna Klonsky didn't know much about the video's origins, except to say that "we didn't orchestrate it."

Watch the students take on Rahm:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afonAiiMTm8]

Invest in Chicago Public School Students

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afonAiiMTm8]On January 30, 2011 Chicago Public school students and graduates (from Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood) got together to film a grass-roots/guerilla campaign ad to "tell it like it is," and support the best candidate to improve our neighborhood public schools.The footage used is filmed outside of Roger C. Sullivan High School and from WGN's January 27th mayoral debate. The stars and script writers of this ad are Sullivan HS students (in order of appearance) Cristina Henriquez, Gerardo Aguilar, and Alexandra Alvarez.On February 22, 2011 vote to improve our neighborhood schools - Miguel del Valle!http://www.delvalleformayor.comThis ad was not paid for or endorsed by any candidate or candidate's committee. Labor & love donated.Source of top seven high schools: Chicago Tribune

deal with it.

I am Midwestern girl, born and bred.Yes, I know there is a New York Art World.And yes, I am aware that people make cultural identity work on the West Coast.But I am rooted here.With the world at my fingertips.

Darja Bajagić

Darja sent me a beautiful email on YouTube earlier this week. Needless to say, I was quite taken by her.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuZtuDZjvQE][youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hY2_e-HWYI][vimeo=http://vimeo.com/3465404][vimeo=http://vimeo.com/3064268]

Check out her website and YouTube

Berlin's Eruv at the 2009 Conney Conference on Jewish Art

I will be presenting Berlin's Eruv at the 2009 Conney Conference: Performing Histories, Inscribing Jewishness at University of Wisconsin Madison.Berlin’s Eruv is a conceptual project that addresses the assumed non-presence of Jews in Germany. Berlin does not actually have an eruv. There is however, an active Jewish community, one that is frequently overshadowed by the city's prominent monuments and memorials commemorating Jewish life (death). Berlin's Eruv weaves together voices from Berlin's Jewish community in an attempt to construct a metaphorical eruv representative of a living Jewish Community. Just as the eruv exists in the minds of the people who abide by it, Berlin’s Eruv manifests itself through the conversations surrounding the idea of the piece.*****I will be showing Berlin's Eruv at 2009 MFA Thesis Exhibition, opening May 8th at the Kemper Art Museum.

together we hope

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcwPoFPdeVM]The polling lines were LONG in STL, I waited over 4 hrs to vote!  But it was well worth it, I have never been more proud to be an american and to take part in such an important moment in history.The night of the elections, Carianne and I initiated our project together we hope with the help of our friend Becky Potts.  We passed out red tyvek tags and asked people to write down their hopes for the future. We tried to encourage them to go beyond "I hope Obama wins" or I hope McCain wins".People wrote things ranging from "I hope I get good grades" to "I hope that we end the war in Iraq and do not go to war win Iran."Check out this website we created where you can submit your hopes online. We will make a tag for each hope submitted...