Human Rights and "Uncivil Wars": Panel Discussion with David Weissbrodt, Caroline Palmer, and Leslie Van Duzer
This discussion with two attorneys (David Weissbrodt and Caroline Palmer) and one performer (Leslie van Duzer) takes as its starting point the performance of "Uncivil Wars," by David Gordon and his Pick Up Company, which will be shown at the Walker Art Center March 12-14. Participants discuss the ways in which human rights and bias are portrayed in the performance and Palmer and Weissbrodt lead a discussion of specific ways in which human rights law has evolved over the past eight years. "Uncivil Wars" is based on the play "Round Heads and Pointed Heads" by Bertolt Brecht (with a score by Hanns Eisler). The play originally premiered in Copenhagen in 1936. It posits a world where people are arbitrarily divided into two categories (the round heads and the pointed heads of the title) and explores the ways in which discrimination and bias arise in conditions where there are arbitrary distinctions within a population. Gordon's rendition of the piece is very much concerned with contemporary relevance.
David Weissbrodt is Regents Professor and Fredrikson & Byron Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota's Law School. He established the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center and helped establish the University of Minnesota Human Rights Library online. Leslie Van Duzer is a Professor in the School of Architecture. Caroline Palmer writes about dance and the performing arts for City Pages and has been a staff attorney at the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault since 2008.