Monthly Archives: October 2014

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

Columbus Day — I remember learning about Christopher Columbus in fourth grade. He was presented to us as a great hero who discovered the New World and helped introduce civilization to the Indians. Some years later, I learned more about the devastating impact that Columbus and his fellow European explorers had on Native Americans, so I understand why Columbus Day is such a problematic holiday. There is now a movement to discontinue celebrating Columbus Day and replace it with an Indigenous People’s Day or Native Americans Day. I support the movement to set aside a day to recognize and celebrate Native Americans, but I think that Columbus Day also provides an opportunity to reflect on the significance of the immigration process on the history of America.

I am a descendant of immigrants from Poland (on my father’s side) and Sweden (on my mother’s side) who came to the United States via Ellis Island in the early 20th century, so when I think of the immigration process I automatically bring up associations with Ellis Island. In 1954, Ellis Island closed, and it is now an historic site, but that does not mean that immigration has come to an end. Immigrants continue to arrive in the United States, many from Latin America, and they continue to shape our culture and language.

Ellis Island

Two recently published books by English faculty members provide keen insights into the current immigration process in terms of both culture and language. Maya Socolovsky’s Troubling Nationhood in U.S. Latina Literature: Exploration of Place and Belonging (Rutgers University press, 2013) explores how a number of contemporary Latina writers from Mexican American, Puerto Rican and Cuban American backgrounds respond to the concept of nationhood in their writings. As Maya argues in her book, these writers are redrawing the cultural map of the United States so that it reflects a broader, more Pan-American vision of the United States. Elizabeth Miller’s The Language of Adult Immigrants: Agency in the Making (Multilingual Matters, 2014) examines the connection between power dynamics and second-language acquisition in the lives of recent immigrants. As Liz makes clear in her book, these recent immigrants see the learning of English as being associated with the political and social dimensions of their lives.

Christopher Columbus never settled in America, but he played a role in one of the most significant population shifts in human history. On this Columbus Day, I think it makes sense to take a “big picture” view of the impact of immigration in the history of America. I am very pleased that several of our colleagues are already contributing to our understanding of this important aspect the American experience.

Student Engagement — The upcoming Center City Literary Festival takes place this Friday and Saturday, and I am happy to report that all four of the English Department’s student organizations have stepped forward to help. Students from the English Learning Community, Sigma Tau Delta, the English Graduate Student Association, and the Children’s Literature Graduate Organization have volunteered their time to help with this festival. I feel fortunate that we have such engaged students associated with the English Department. For more information about the festival, see attached flyer.

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:

Laura Eason, an English major, has been named to CLAS-ACT, which is an undergraduate student advisory council for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Sarah Minslow presented a paper titled “Offering a Place to Stay: Academic Advisors at the Center for First Generation College Students’ Experiences” at the NACADA (National Academic Advisor Association) conference in Minneapolis. She co-wrote the paper with Pamela Richardson-Nowak.

Alan Rauch recently gave a paper titled “The Urban Squirrel” as part of the session “Humans and Other Animals” (which he chaired) at the 28th Annual meeting of the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts in Dallas.

Aaron Toscano recently presented a paper titled “Video Games and Aggressive Word-Play: Media Sensationalism on the Effects of Playing Violent Video Games” at the Popular Culture Association of the South/American Culture Association of the South Conference in New Orleans.

Quirky Quiz Question — Christopher Columbus is credited with introducing horses to North America during his second voyage to America, which took place in 1493. In reality, however, horses evolved in North America, and they populated much of the continent during the Pleistocene Epoch. Some of them moved to Eurasia when there was a land bridge between the two contents. Horses eventually went extinct in North America, but they thrived in Eurasia. What caused this land bridge to appear and then disappear?

Last week’s answer: The Jewish Daily Forward

Cue the Music — The upcoming Center City Literary Festival will celebrate the literary arts, but it will also celebrate many other forms of artistic expression, including music. The festival will run for two days (October 17 and 18), and musical performances will be featured on both days. The musical dimension of this festival sets it apart from most literary festivals in the country.

The adult-focused part of the festival will take place on Friday, Oct. 17, from 6 to 9:30 p.m. UNC Charlotte professor and Music Department chair James A. Grymes will be reading from his new book, Violins of Hope: Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind’s Darkest Hour. A stirring testament to the strength of the human spirit and the power of music, Violins of Hope tells the remarkable stories of violins played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust, and of the Israeli violinmaker dedicated to bringing these inspirational instruments back to life. The New York Post calls Violins of Hope a “must-read book” and composer John Williams describes it as “a work of research and scholarship that forms one of the most moving chronicles in the history of Western music.” The presentation will include performances of Yiddish folksongs from the Holocaust by Idunn Lohne, a violin performance major at UNC Charlotte.

In addition to Grymes, other writers who will participate include poet Christopher Davis, mystery novelist Mark de Castrique, essayist Sandra Govan, and poet Grace Ocasio. Several of the participants are contributors to the just-released book, 27 Views of Charlotte: The Queen City in Prose and Poetry. They will read from their contributions to this collection, and all of the participants will be available for book signing.

The evening will conclude with a presentation about Charlotte’s history as a recording center for country music in the 1930s. After this presentation, the folk music group the Kollard Kings will perform examples of the old-time string band songs from Charlotte’s heyday as a recording center. Performing with the Kollard Kings are banjo picker Tom Estes, past president of Charlotte Folk Society and an authority on Southern music traditions, and fiddlin’ Tom Hanchett, staff historian at Levine Museum of the New South.

The children’s part of the the festival will take place on Saturday, Oct. 18, from 11:00 a.m to 3:00 p.m. The festival will feature literature, music, art, and theatre, and will provide children with hands-on activities. Featured artists include Caldecott Medal winning children’s author Gail Haley and her writing partner, Alice Phoebe Naylor; illustrator Matthew Myers and digital artist Heather Freeman. Many of the art-related activities also will tie into the opening of an art exhibit entitled “Icarus: A Study of the Urge to Fly” at UNC Charlotte Center City. In addition, Beth Murray from the UNC Charlotte Department of Theatre will coordinate performances based on picture books.

The children’s part of the festival will conclude with a family-friendly performance by UNC Charlotte’s Chamber Orchestra. Focused on the intersections of literature and music, it will include The Comedians by Dmitry Kabalevsky, originally intended as incidental music for a children’s play by Soviet Jewish writer Mark Daniel titled The Inventor and the Comedians about Johannes Gutenberg and a band of itinerant buffoons. The play has been lost, but the music survives. For the festival, the music will be set to a new narration of a Russian fairy tale, “The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship” by distinguished writer and conductor Jonathan Andrew Govias.

Staff Engagement — The English Department is fortunate to have such strong staff members. In addition to performing their official duties so well, all of the staff members are fully engaged in the department’s teaching and service activities. For example, Angie has taken on a major role in helping me organize the Center City Literary Festival. Her enthusiasm and organizational skills have been an immense help to me throughout the process of planning this event. Another person in our department who plans community events is Jeffrey Leak. In his role as the Director for the Center for the Study of the New South, Jeffrey has organized numerous events, including an event about “soul food” last week. I’ve noticed that Jennie has attended almost all of these events. Her willingness to participate in these events, even after having worked all day in the office, is a sign of her ongoing community engagement. As some of you know, Monica has been working closely with Lil Brannon with administering the grants that fund our Writing Project. In addition to performing these administrative functions, Monica has been attending Writing Project events and participating in their workshops. By being so engaged in the life of the English Department, Angie, Jennie and Monica help strengthen our department.

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:

Lil Brannon recently learned that UNC Charlotte Writing Project has been awarded $30,000 of National Science Foundation funds as a result of a proposal she wrote and submitted.

Aaron Gwyn’s Wynne’s War received a positive write-up from The Los Angeles Review of Books. Here is the link: http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/afghanistan-stage-without-play#

Daniel Shealy is featured in a promotional video recently produced by Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House. Here is the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/632439913/orchard-house/posts/996173

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here are some dates to keep in mind:

October 6-7 — Fall break—no classes.

October 10 — The deadline to post mid-term unsatisfactory grades is noon on Friday, October 10th, and you must complete the process even if you have no unsatisfactory grades to report. Grades due by noon.

Quirky Quiz Question — Yiddish folksongs will be performed in conjunction with James Grymes’s reading from his Violins of Hope during the upcoming Center City Literary Festival. In the early decades of the 20th century, Yiddish language and culture played a major role in New York City. Does anybody know the name of the famous Yiddish newspaper that began publication in New York City in 1897?

Last week’s answer – Bob Dylan