Events Calendar

Join us for a special Exhibition Spotlight (virtual) in which we examine the latest installation at the Old Capitol Museum with special guests. Shadow and Light: Honoring Iraqi Academics features photography and narratives from a variety of artists who created in contemplation of Iraqi academics slain. We are all part of this important project. Whether you've seen it, intend to, or are simply curious, we invite you to learn more and hear firsthand from project leaders, artists, and academics about their participation in this project. 

This program is free and will be held virtually during the lunch hour. Participants must REGISTER HERE to receive a link.

Learn more about our program guests:

Beau Beausoleil  

Beau Beausoleil is a poet and activist based in San Francisco. He is the founder of Shadow and Light, which honors Iraqi academics who were targeted and assassinated between 2003-2012. Shadow and Light is part of a larger book arts project, Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here, founded in 2007 by Beausoleil as a response to the March 5, 2007 car-bombing of al-Mutanabbi Street (the street of the booksellers) in Baghdad. 

Tamsin Smith
 
Tamsin Smith is the inaugural Curator-in-Residence for Arion Press, a historic publisher pairing great artists with great literature to create beautiful books by hand. In addition to having four collections of poetry and a novel published, she is known for her pioneering work in the social impact sector. She was founding president of (RED), one of the most innovative and effective cause marketing efforts in history, and has acted as brand architect for various mission-driven companies in the circular economy and sustainability sectors. Smith is also a painter, exhibiting with the Divers Gallery. She frequently writes art reviews and has contributed to several exhibition catalogs. Smith holds an MA from The Fletcher School at Tufts University and a BA from Kenyon College, where she graduated summa cum laude with highest honors in English for her thesis on Vladimir Nabokov. She is a Henry Crown Fellow at The Aspen Institute. 

Rochelle Davis

Rochelle Davis is the Sultanate of Oman Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. Her research focuses on refugees, war, and conflict, particularly in Palestine, Syria, and Iraq. She is fluent in written and spoken Arabic and English. She is currently writing a book on the role of culture in the U.S. military occupation of Iraq. She was a senior researcher on a joint Georgetown University and the International Organization for Migration project conducting a mixed-methods panel survey over five years of more than 3,000 Iraqi households displaced by ISIS/ISIL/Da’esh to understand displaced people’s access to durable solutions. Her publications include Palestinian Village Histories: Geographies of the Displaced, (Stanford University Press, 2012); "Culture as a Weapon System" in Middle East Report (MERIP). 255, July 2010; and "What do you miss most? Syrian refugees respond." (Jadaliyya.com, 12 December 2013) co-authored with Abbie Taylor.