Join the conversation between festival artists, University of Houston scholars, and creative thinkers for a lively exploration of topics - artistic and worldly - at the forefront of this year's festival. This is not an age when art can hide under the sheets, and that is especially true in this year’s festival as many of the artists take on real world situations that have serious impacts on people's lives. The artists' approaches vary radically, and their compelling artistry is often found in the convention-breaking ways they address the issues—political, societal, cultural, often a mix of all three—at the forefront of the times.

The works shown in the festival are compelling statements that reach beyond an artistic community and demand a conversation with individuals from diverse backgrounds and interests. Asylum and refuge, the end of a way of living, cultural erasure, and the urban environment as an artistic mirage that hides oppression and great inequality—these are a few of themes that artists are directly taking on, and which will be opened up for conversation between the artists, scholars, and the audience.

Each conversation features short presentations by the panelists, followed by a moderated discussion and audience Q&A.