"We is the one two become": The Art of Collaboration and Community

Recorded Thursday, May 28th

Online Artist Talk w/ Diane Christian and Bruce Jackson

Diane Christian and Bruce Jackson have been creatively collaborating for nearly 50 years. Together they have co-authored four books and produced six documentary films. They are both SUNY distinguished professors at University at Buffalo and have impacted the lives of thousands of students. In addition to their photography, film, and writing projects, they have hosted community film screenings, annual community salons, and have cultivated lifelong relationships through correspondence with many of the prisoners they met in Texas and Arkansas. Together they have gone beyond the personal to embrace the art of collaboration and community. Enjoy this dynamic conversation as they explore the intersection of art, life, activism, and community.

Diane Christian is a poet, documentary filmmaker,  and SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor at University at Buffalo. Christian started her teaching career while a member of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Rochester, a Roman Catholic religious congregation. She has both produced and written about documentary filmmaking. Pulling on resources from her past, Christian directed and appeared in the documentary, Out of Order, (1984), a National Endowment for the Humanities-funded documentary about former nuns. She has authored and/or co-authored 7 books including two volumes of poetry and many published articles. Diane has written and lectured on violence, art, religion and William Blake. Her newest book of poetry, Occasion Poems, was published by Blazevox Books in 2019.  

Bruce Jackson is currently SUNY Distinguished Professor and James Agee Professor of American Culture at University at Buffalo. He is author or editor of 40 books and his photographs have been widely exhibited. In 2017, New York’s celebrated experimental theater company, The Wooster Group, premiered a play based on his recordings of Afro-American folklore in Texas prisons, The B-Side. New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley named it one of the year’s ten best New York theatrical presentations. In 2018, Aperture Magazine published a profile on his prison photography, by Brian Wallis, “Bruce Jackson: On The Inside.”