“Born in the Zocalo: Art and Protest in Oaxaca, Mexico” will be the topic of a panel discussion at 4:30 p.m. in Bowl 016, at the Woodrow Wilson School on Thursday, February 9, 2012.  The discussion is being held in conjunction with the art exhibit titled, “ASARO: Art and Activism in Oaxaca, Mexico,” featured in the Bernstein Gallery in the lower level of Robertson Hall.  A public reception will be held in the gallery following the talk.

The exhibit features protest prints from a collective of Mexican artists during the 2006 anti-government uprising in Oaxaca, a state located in southwestern Mexico.  A conflict emerged in May of 2006 with federal police attacking non-violent protesters involved in a strike by the local teachers’ trade union.  The uprising has resulted in the creation of ASARO – the Assembly of Revolutionary Artists of Oaxaca, founded to support the APPO (Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca) movement.

The discussion will feature Douglas Massey, the Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, and Kevin McCloskey, professor of communication design, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.  Stanley Katz, professor of public and international affairs and director of the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies at the Woodrow Wilson School, will serve as moderator for the event.

The event is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, with special thanks to Karin Trainer and the Princeton University Library for the loan of artwork.

The talk will be archived for later viewing on the Woodrow Wilson School’s Web media site – http://wws.princeton.edu/webmedia.