The Big Ideas: Identity Shifts

Who are you? This question has a whole different meaning in the opening years of the 21st Century. Race, gender, nationality–once concrete identifiers, are now, to some degree, open to interpretation and we've greeted these shifts with both celebration and dismay. The rise of religious extremism, the conflict between cultural identity and national borders, the rejection by many of traditional gender roles and labels, has plunged the world into a clash between embracing strict boundaries or celebrating fluidity and complexity. So we ask, "Who am I and where do I belong?" Is it more liberating to destroy definitions or embrace them? By disrupting the status quo and exploring deeply their sense of self, the artists in this series ask us to rethink how we know who we are, and what we think we can be.

Exhibitions

The Way That We Rhyme: Women, Art & Politics

Tracing Roads through Central Asia

Performance

Urban Bush Women/Compagnie Jant-Bi Creative Exchange


Identity Shifts Bay Area Response


Ilkhom Theatre

Marc Bamuthi Joseph

Film/Video

Red State Cinema: Rural Auteurs

What's the Big Idea Day

Sat, May 10, noon–8 pm - FREE all-day for everyone. YBCA invites people to learn more about contemporary art with an open house festival of exciting events & exhibitions that highlight the last Big Idea of the season—Identity Shifts.

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