title: Monday Missive – October 20, 2014
Of Poetry and Flight — The opening of the art exhibit titled “Icarus: An Exploration of the Human Urge to Fly” and the Center City Literary Festival both took place this past weekend at UNC Charlotte Center City. I had the pleasure of viewing the exhibit, which is in the Projective Eye Gallery. The exhibit includes an image of the Wright brothers’ famous plane as well as many other examples of visual art in nearly every medium one could imagine. The exhibit also includes a poem by Chris Davis titled “Phaeton,” which deals with flight. Seeing Chris’s poem in the same gallery with an image of the Wright brothers’ plane got me thinking about the connections between the Wright brothers and poetry.
Most Americans know something about the key role the Wright brothers played in launching America into the era of mechanized flight, but the Wright brothers also played a pivotal role in launching the career of Paul Laurence Dunbar, one of the nation’
s foremost African American poets. Orville Wright and Paul Laurence Dunbar were classmates at Ohio Central High School in Dayton, and they often studied together. Orville started a printing business while still in high school, and he was the first person to print Dunbar’s poems. He also printed a weekly newspaper Dunbar wrote and edited for six weeks. When Orville and Wilbur Wright started manufacturing bicycles, they gave one of their first bicycles to Dunbar. That bicycle still exists and is on exhibit at the Dunbar House. Orville Wright helped Dunbar find a publisher for his first collection of poetry, Oak and Ivy, in 1893. Over the years, the Wright brothers took every opportunity to promote their friend’s poetry. Dunbar died at the age of 33 in 1906, two years after the Wright brothers’ legendary first flight. The connection between the Wright brothers and Dunbar lives on, however, at Wright State University in Dayton. The library at this university is called the Dunbar Library in honor of Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Kudos— As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of our department. Here is the latest news:
JuliAnna Ávila’s co-edited book titled Critical Digital Literacies as Social Praxis: Intersections and Challenges has been awarded the 2014 Edward B. Fry Book Award by the Literacy Research Association.
Sonya Brockman presented a paper at the Sixteenth Century Conference in New Orleans this weekend titled “‘My falcon now is sharp’: Shakespeare, Falconry, and Femininity, or You Can’t Tame a Haggard.”
Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here are some dates to keep in mind:
October 24 — The English Department meeting will take place in the Conference Room from 11:00-12:15.
October 24 — Undergraduate Committee has scheduled a brown bag meeting on online teaching for October 24 from 12:30 until 2:00PM in the conference room. The focus of this brown-bag will be online teaching.
October 24 — The EGSA’s Professional Day will take place in the Conference Room from 2:00-4:30. A reception at the Wine Vault will begin at 5:00.
Quirky Quiz Question — In addition to writing poetry, Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote several novels. His last and most important novel came out in 1902 and is one of the first works of African American literature set in Harlem. What is the title of this novel?
Last week’s answer – The Ice Age