Bearing Witness

May 11, 2021 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm EDT

| Free

Bearing Witness

Stories in Solidarity with our Uyghur Siblings

As the holy month of Ramadan draws to a close, we will learn about the current day genocide of the Uyghur people in China through the lens and memories of artist Lisa Ross, joined by Kamalturk Yalqun, the General Secretary and Chairman of the Youth Committee for Campaign for Uyghurs.

Lisa Ross

Artist and educator, Lisa Ross, lives and works in the Bronx, NY. Ross’s work revolves around the liminal spaces in which faith, culture and abstraction meet. Large immersive photographs and videos explore the skin of the land, revealing the texture of culture and intimacy. Over time, the political realities inextricably bound to place, emerge. Ross’s first monograph, Living Shrines of Uyghur China, (2013) received reviews in The NY Review of Books, The LA Review of Books and London Review of Books. Ross has had numerous exhibitions, including the Rubin Museum of Art, NY; Fotografiska Museum, Stockholm; Brunei gallery, London; Harvard University; Rencontres d’Arles Festival, France; Gulf PhotoPlus, Dubai and Tianshui Bienale, China.  As Artist-in-Residence at The Watermill Center, Ross created a multi-media collaborative performance titled RISE, which premiered at The Seattle Asian Art Museum. Ross received reviews in the New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Artforum, Wall Street Journal and many other print and online journals. Ross received an MFA from Columbia University and BA from Sarah Lawrence College.

Kamalturk Yalqun

Kamalturk’s Father, Yalqun Rozi, is a famous Uyghur scholar and literary critic. Yalqun Rozi was the chief editor of the Uyghur literature textbooks for middle school and elementary schools. He was sentenced for 15 years in 2018, two years after his arrest, for the “ideological problems” in the textbooks. After his father’s arrest, Kamalturk became an activist in pursuit of his father’s release. The rapid deterioration and destruction of the basic human rights in East Turkestan and the imprisonment of millions of Uyghurs into concentration camps after his father’s imprisonment widened Kamalturk’s pursuits from the freedom for his father to freedom for the millions of Uyghurs languishing in the concentration camps.

Kamalturk ceaselessly attended protests, gave speeches at rallies and conferences to address the Uyghur human rights crisis. On February 8th at Grand Rapids, Kamalturk gave a speech in a rally against the visiting of Chinese ambassador Cui Tiankai. On March 31st, Kamalturk attended a Seminar on held by Ahmadiyya Muslim Community to address the perils of Uyghur Muslims in China. Kamalturk met with numerous Senators and Congressmen in person to address the Uyghur human rights crisis and the unjust treatment of his father.

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