POETICS BECOME LAW
A screening and conversation with
attorney Lynne Stewart & artist Paul Chan
Thursday, December 15, 2005, 7PM
The New School, Wollman Hall,
66 West 12th Street, 4th floor
New York City
Admission: $8, free for students with valid ID
download PDF flyer
On February 10, 2005, Lynne Stewart was convicted of providing material support for a terrorist conspiracy. She is the first lawyer to be convicted of aiding terrorism in the United States. Stewart faces thirty years of prison and will be sentenced on December 22, 2005.
Artist Paul Chan, who has collaborated with a number of activist groups, has been working on a video with Lynne Stewart. The video focuses on the relationship between the language of poetry and the language of the law. Stewart speaks both languages, and employs poetry as a "knotting point" to connect ideas of beauty and justice for juries and judges alike. The video takes Stewart’s understanding of poetry and the law as a departure point to explore the possibilities of a poetics capable of articulating the pressures of terror and justice.
Chan will screen a work-in-progress of the video and a short selection of past work. He will then be joined by Stewart to talk about poetics and the law as well as the status of her case.
PARTICIPANTS
Paul Chan's installation and video work have been featured at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. He was included in The 54th Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, the 2005 Lyon Biennale in France, and the 2005 Guangzhou Triennial in China. In 2004 Chan collaborated with the collective Friends of William Blake to produce The People's Guide to the Republican National Convention, a free foldout map detailing everything a protester needed to get in or out of the way during the RNC in New York.
Lynne Stewart has been a defense attorney practicing criminal law for 27 years. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Lynne was a teacher and librarian in the New York City School system. In her legal work she has confronted matters of police brutality, black liberation, secret evidence, bias crime, terrorism, and apartheid. She was listed as one of New York’s 10 Best Criminal Defense Attorneys by New York Daily News on March 12, 1995. Stewart was the only woman on the list.
THIS EVENT IS SPONSORED BY
The Vera List Center for Art and Politics
The New School
66 West 12th Street, #903
New York, NY 10011
212.229.2436
The New School, Wollman Hall,
66 West 12th Street, 4th floor
New York City
Admission: $8, free for students with valid ID
download PDF flyer
On February 10, 2005, Lynne Stewart was convicted of providing material support for a terrorist conspiracy. She is the first lawyer to be convicted of aiding terrorism in the United States. Stewart faces thirty years of prison and will be sentenced on December 22, 2005.
Artist Paul Chan, who has collaborated with a number of activist groups, has been working on a video with Lynne Stewart. The video focuses on the relationship between the language of poetry and the language of the law. Stewart speaks both languages, and employs poetry as a "knotting point" to connect ideas of beauty and justice for juries and judges alike. The video takes Stewart’s understanding of poetry and the law as a departure point to explore the possibilities of a poetics capable of articulating the pressures of terror and justice.
Chan will screen a work-in-progress of the video and a short selection of past work. He will then be joined by Stewart to talk about poetics and the law as well as the status of her case.


PARTICIPANTS
Paul Chan's installation and video work have been featured at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. He was included in The 54th Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, the 2005 Lyon Biennale in France, and the 2005 Guangzhou Triennial in China. In 2004 Chan collaborated with the collective Friends of William Blake to produce The People's Guide to the Republican National Convention, a free foldout map detailing everything a protester needed to get in or out of the way during the RNC in New York.
Lynne Stewart has been a defense attorney practicing criminal law for 27 years. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Lynne was a teacher and librarian in the New York City School system. In her legal work she has confronted matters of police brutality, black liberation, secret evidence, bias crime, terrorism, and apartheid. She was listed as one of New York’s 10 Best Criminal Defense Attorneys by New York Daily News on March 12, 1995. Stewart was the only woman on the list.
THIS EVENT IS SPONSORED BY
The Vera List Center for Art and Politics
The New School
66 West 12th Street, #903
New York, NY 10011
212.229.2436