Vân-Ánh Võ’s Blood Moon Orchestra (BMO) is a genre-bending musical collective that defies the bounds of Vietnamese traditional music. All master musicians, members of BMO have an innate ability to blend very different sounds together, creating surprisingly new and fresh musical dialogues.  

Emmy Award-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist Vân-Ánh Võ has collaborated with Kronos Quartet, Yo-Yo Ma and presented her music frequently at The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. 

This program is made possible by a grant from the Freeman Foundation

Scholars have long known the importance of the DIA to the study of Islamic Art in North America. The DIA employed one of the first dedicated curators of Islamic art in the country, Mehmet Aga-Oglu, and mounted its first exhibition of Islamic art in 1930 with loans from all the major dealers of the time. The formation of the DIA collections in Islamic art is a more complicated story, taking place through many stages.

In this lecture, Dr. Margaret S. Graves, Associate Professor of Islamic Art at Indiana University, will explore the important collections of ceramics from the Islamic world held in the Institute today.

It will also examine the skilled craftsmanship that saw some pieces of ceramic art remade and reinvented for the market as they traveled to the new world of the twentieth-century United States.

Margaret S. Graves is Associate Professor of Islamic Art in the Department of Art History at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is currently in residence at the Clark Art Institute as a 2022-23 research fellow, writing a book called Invisible Hands: Islamic Ceramics on the Colonial Art Market.

Presented by the DIA’s Teen Art Council, teenagers ages 13-19 are invited to join the Teen Council in exploring the art of printmaking. Including a private tour of the special exhibition Printmaking in the Twenty-First Century with Clare Rogan, Curator of Prints and Drawings, Department of Prints, Drawings and Photographs.

All supplies will be provided to create your own print to take home. Participation includes a free pizza dinner!  

Capacity is limited to 30 teens. 

Sponsored by The Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation

Image: "The Condition of Womanhood," 2019 — Chitra Ganesh

Michael Menchaca (they/them) is an interdisciplinary Xicanx artist using print and new media to generate anti-colonial, anti-racist, and anti-capitalist visions of the world. In the talk, “The Artist is Human: A.I. Won’t Break My Soul,” Menchaca will discuss the A.I. industry, text-to-image generators like Image GPT and large language models like ChatGPT and the cultural implications. 

This talk is organized in conjunction with the exhibition Printmaking in the Twenty-First Century. Support for the talk comes from the DIA’s Friends of Prints, Drawings and Photographs. 

The talk is free and open to the public. 

Image: Michael Menchaca, Castizo no. 2, 2019, from the suite, La Raza Cósmica 20XX, 2019, screen print. Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, Friends of PDP Photographic Fund in honor of Lindsey Buhl, 2021.249.2. 

Learn about the history and contemporary applications of Risograph, alongside a printmaking demonstration with Detroit artist Rachel Delmotte. Participants will experiment with analog mark-making techniques to create their own riso print to take home.

Materials and supplies are provided, and all levels of experience are welcome.

USA/2022—directed by Harold Crooks and Judd Tully | 93 min.

The Melt Goes On Forever chronicles the singular career of the elusive African-American art star David Hammons, from Watts rebellion era ’60s L.A. to global art world prominence today. Hammons’ category-defying practice–rooted in a deep critique of American society and the elite art world–is in the words of one art critic “an invitation to confront the fissures between races” as the artist seeks to go beyond the dominant culture and his own to a new one for the 21st century.

Featuring eminent artists, curators and critics, a rich trove of archival footage, animation, and an evocative soundscape, The Melt is a striking portrait of a celebrated African-American art star whose elusive, rule-breaking practice offers an essential commentary on race in America.

Black History Month programs are generously supported by the Arn and Nancy Tellem Foundation.

Kenneth Thompkins is the Principal Trombonist of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

This Structurally Sound concert is a co-production between the DIA and Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings and features Ken Thompkins in combination with music, art and poetry.

The concert will feature new compositions by Jeff Scott and Maurice Draughn and poetry by Kalimah Johnson. This will be an immersive experience not to be missed.

Black History Month programs are generously supported by the Arn and Nancy Tellem Foundation.

USA/2022—directed by  Johanna Hamilton and Yoruba Richen | 96 min.

Join us for a screening of The Rebellious Life Of Mrs. Rosa Parks, followed by a special conversation moderated by the film’s executive producer Soledad O’Brien, and joined by Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s Secretary of State, Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers, the film’s directors Yoruba Richen and Johanna Hamilton, Dr. Jeanne Theoharis and Lonnie McCauley, Rosa Parks’ grandnephew.

The Rebellious Life Of Mrs. Rosa Parks corrects the record on Parks’ often-overlooked accomplishments and the erasure of her radical politics. In short, what we are taught in school about Rosa Parks is a mere fraction of the full story about who she truly was.

This special evening is co-presented by SO’B Productions, American Federation of Teachers, The League, Freep Film Festival and Friends of Detroit Film Theatre.

“Perhaps foremost, Mrs. Rosa Parks highlights the selflessness of its subject and seeks to provide a detailed portrait of a woman who, through the vagaries of history, was frequently reduced to a symbol." –Brian Lowry, CNN.com

Black History Month programs are generously supported by the Arn and Nancy Tellem Foundation.

Norway/2018—directed by Mats Grorud | 74 min.

Based on interviews with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, The Tower follows Wardi, an eleven-year-old Palestinian girl, who lives with her whole family in the refugee camp where she was born. Her beloved great-grandfather Sidi was one of the first people to settle in the camp after being chased from his home back in 1948.

The day Sidi gives her the key to his old house back in Galilee, she fears he may have lost hope of someday going home. As she searches for Sidi’s lost hope around the camp, she collects her family’s testimonies, from one generation to the next.

Mixing stop-motion animation and 2D techniques, The Tower portrays the Middle Eastern crisis in a manner that all generations can understand. For ages 14 and up.

USA/1970—directed by Richard Kaplan | 185 min.

Constructed from a wealth of archival footage, the Oscar® nominated King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery To Memphis is a monumental documentary that follows Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from 1955 to 1968, in his rise from regional activist to world-renowned leader of the Civil Rights movement.

Rare footage of Dr. King's speeches, protests, and arrests are interspersed with scenes of high-profile supporters and opponents of the cause. Restored to full-length by the Library of Congress, the complete version of King is a cinematic national treasure that gives viewers an appreciation of the personal challenges he endured and the cultural legacy he left behind. 

“Perhaps the most important documentary ever made.” -The Philadelphia Bulletin

The Detroit Film Theatre is supported by your tri-county millage investment.