Artspeaks to present indie-folk band David Wax Museum, filmmaker Ari Folman

The University of Chicago’s Artspeaks 2012 series will welcome the David Wax Museum for an intimate night of song and conversation on Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m. at Mandel Hall.

The Boston-based band features a unique fusion of Mexo-American folk music, which combines Latin rhythms, call-and-response hollering, and donkey jawbone rattling and storytelling. The Mandel Hall stage will be lowered to audience level for one night only, putting the entire audience and the band on one shared level.

Between musical sets, Raúl Coronado, assistant professor in English, will engage the band in conversation around topics attuned to the historical specificities of the United States-Mexico border.

The 2012 Artspeaks season will conclude with an evening discussion with award-winning Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman on April 23 at 7:30 p.m. at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts.

Folman will share a glimpse into the teeming cinematic imagination that brought moviegoers Waltz with Bashir, the animated feature documentary that won the 2009 Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film. His latest project, The Congress, freely adapts Stanislaw Lem’s 1971 sci-fi novel The Futurological Congress and stars Robin Wright Penn and Jon Hamm.

Now in its eighth season, the Artspeaks series engages internationally renowned artists from varying disciplines in creative conversations with the University of Chicago and community. Combining public presentations and workshops, the Artspeaks programs have previously included visits from notable figures such as Dame A.S. Byatt, Uri Caine, Atom Egoyan, Oskar Eustis, Leon Fleisher, David Henry Hwang, Bill T. Jones, Mark Morris, Peter Sellars, Anna Deavere Smith, Kara Walker and John Zorn. 

Tickets are $10 general admission, $5 students with valid ID. Subscription prices for two events are priced at $15 general admission, $8 for students with valid ID. For more information, call the box office at 773-302-8080 or visit artspeaks.uchicago.edu.