Organizer: SUNY/CUNY Southeast Asia Consortium and NYSEAN
Type/Location: In person / New York, NY
Description:
Join the SUNY/CUNY Southeast Asia Consortium and NYSEAN for an exhibition and showcase which will explore the contested legacy of human rights in increasingly uncertain times.
This exhibition and showcase coincides with CCNY’s Third 2024 Critical Perspectives on Human Rights Conference, April 17-19, 2024, which aims to explore the contested legacy of human rights in increasingly uncertain times.
RESBAK (RESpond and Break the Silence Against the Killings) is an interdisciplinary alliance of artists, media practitioners, and cultural workers. The primary goal of RESBAK is to advance social awareness with regards to the killings brought forth by the Duterte administration’s “war on drugs.” “Resbak” is also a slang term for gathering reinforcements to get even with someone who did something wrong. Through various art forms and platforms, RESBAK seeks to give voice to and empower the most vulnerable sectors targeted by the state-endorsed killings.
Economic inequality, racism, sexism, and multiple refugee crises have engendered and exacerbated the rise of political extremism. Addressing such issues, as well as many others, the Critical Perspectives on Human Rights Conference aims to explore the contested legacy of human rights in increasingly uncertain times. It seeks to foster dialogue and scholarship from a wide range of perspectives. Some conference presenters are scholars and activists who continue to view the human rights project as a moral and ethical challenge to power; others see it as an enabler of political and economic domination.
The Critical Perspectives on Human Rights Conference participants seek to reassess the origins, foundations, and contemporary forms of human rights discourse, ideas, and practice today, seventy-five years on. The Critical Perspectives on Human Rights Conference is part of a larger initiative at The City College of New York, CUNY, shared between the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies, the Division of Humanities and the Arts, and the President’s Office dedicated to human rights studies, public programming, and scholarship.
Resbak! Arts and Resistance to the Drug Killings is an art exhibition focusing on the realities of the drug killings in the Philippines under the Duterte administration. Featuring the work of RESBAK (RESpond and Break the Silence Against the Killings), a global, Philippines-based alliance of artists and cultural workers, the exhibition presents photography, visual art, and multimedia that confront the consequences and aftermath of Duterte's “war on drugs,” particularly its impact on poor and marginalized communities. This exhibition serves as both a tribute to the victims and a call for justice, encouraging viewers to consider the human cost of political actions.
AKSYON: Films for Change - Short Film Showcase is 14 short films featured in the list range from karaoke videos (or “HindeOKes”), stop-motion animation and documentaries. These were made using the most spartan means possible in the span of the two years since RESBAK was officially launched in a borrowed garage space of filmmaker friends in Metro Manila. The films have been shown in Universities, urban poor communities, bars and street protests.
FROM MANILA TO THE WORLD: Global Dialogue on Human Rights Through Art - RESBAK will be contributing to a panel discussion that explores the role of artists in human rights and social movements, featuring insights from grassroots organizers in Metro Manila, Philippines, and the Filipino diaspora in the US and Germany. The panel will provide an overview of the current political context surrounding the "war on drugs" and will trace RESBAK's engagement since 2016. The group's involvement, encompassing roles as artists, community workers, and social workers, will be highlighted within a broader network of mutual aid groups for survivors, as well as its participation in the internationalist organizing of activists.
The activists involved will offer distinct perspectives: delving into the artmaking process, they will illustrate how RESBAK creates spaces of sociality through concrete examples such as zines, exhibitions, and performances. Another focus will be on security concerns and the repression faced by cultural-political organizers in the Philippines, placing these challenges within the broader historical context of killings and red-tagging as methods of intimidation. The panel will also explore the positionality of artist-organizers and the potential for global solidarity and broader coalitions, particularly in the realms of abolition, harm reduction, and transformative justice.
AKSYON: Films for Change - Alunsina Screening - In Alunsina, Director Kiri Dalena explores the potentials and limits of engagement within a community facing trauma. Working closely with human rights organizations, she finds herself documenting the struggles of children and families in an urban s ettlement severely affected by the government’s war on drugs.
Registration:
To register, click here.