All Announcements

Rae Armantrout poem in Washington Post

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Poet’s Choice: “Money Talks” by Rae Armantrout

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/shortstack/2010/02/poets_choice_money_talks_by_ra.html

Poet’s Choice: “Money Talks” by Rae Armantrout

I wrote “Money Talks” in the fall of 2008 when we were hearing that the banks that had grown “too big to fail” were about to fail unless our representatives voted to give them huge subsidies. The poem really got started when I was thumbing through Vogue magazine and saw that “bondage and safari looks” were being touted that season. I thought those were some pretty interesting get-ups for the wealthy to wear as the middle class is driven towards bankruptcy. I began to imagine a personified Money sporting such styles. If you were a CEO, it might have been a good time to go on safari. Safari outfits are usually made of camouflage cloth. You might want to escape from view. On the other hand, bondage themed clothing might suggest that Money was a helpless victim, unable to help itself (or us). This vision of Money’s ensembles concludes the first section. When I’d written the first part, the poem still didn’t feel quite finished to me, so I let it sit for awhile. Then, not too much later, I was driving in Oakland, and I saw a billboard advertising a casino. I believe it showed an image of a roulette wheel. The only words on the billboard were the casino’s name and the command, “Shut up and play!” I imagined my personified Money saying this when it was tired of lying low and being coy. Stop complaining, Money says, and get back in the endless game. You may lose your house, but the House always wins.

Money Talks

1.

Money is talking
to itself again

in this season’s
bondage
and safari look,

its closeout camouflage.

Hit the refresh button
and this is what you get,

money pretending
that its hands are tied.

2.

On a billboard by the 880,

money admonishes,
“Shut up and play.”

Martha Hill reviewed in Dance Teacher magazine

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Martha Hill and the Making of American Dance, by Janet Mansfield Soares,  was reviewed in the February issue of Dance Teacher magazine.

“In a nutshell: A lively portrait of Martha Hill’s formative role in modern dance in the United States. Martha Hill’s story as a catalyst in the development of American contemporary dance is often overshadowed by the likes of Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey. But author Janet Mansfield Soares does justice to the often unsung heroine by shedding light on her struggles and dedication to turning the artform into a serious area of study.”

­­–Dance Teacher, February 2010

Announcing Support from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving

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Wesleyan University Press received a $50,000 grant from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, to support publication of five books in 2010, as part of a new series.

The grant includes fuding for four distinct types of poetry book, including second books and translations, and for a book in any genre by a Connecticut author. Together the books will be known as the “The Driftless Series.” Driftless books for 2010 will include: Exposition Park by Roberto Tejada, Rococo and Other Worlds by Afzal Ahmed Syed, translated by Musharraf Farooqi, Elegguas by Kamau Brathwaite, A Spicing of Birds: Poems for Birders by Emily Dickinson, selected and introduced by Josephine Miles Schuman and Joanna Bailey Hodgman and Balasaraswati: Her Art and Life by Douglas M. Knight, Jr.

The Driftless Series is funded by the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving

Upcoming events with Dan DeLuca/”The Old Leather Man”

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Upcoming events with Dan DeLuca, author of The Old Leather Man

January 30th, 10AM
Avon Free Public Library
281 Country Club Road
Avon, CT
860-673-9712
www.avonctlibrary.info
February 21st, 4-6PM
Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
258 Main Street
Ridgefield, CT
203-438-4519
$10 Non-members (free for members)
www.aldrichart.org
May 18th, 6PM
New Milford Public Library
24 Main St.
New Milford, CT 06776
phone: 860-355-1191
www.biblio.org/newmilford/
Booksales provided by Book Nook

January 30th, 10AM
Avon Free Public Library
281 Country Club Road
Avon, CT
860-673-9712
www.avonctlibrary.info

February 21st, 4-6PM
Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
258 Main Street
Ridgefield, CT
203-438-4519
$10 Non-members (free for members)
www.aldrichart.org

March 17th, 8PM
Wallingford Historical Society
180 South Main St.
Wallingford, CT
203-294-1996

May 18th, 6PM
New Milford Public Library
24 Main St.
New Milford, CT 06776
phone: 860-355-1191
www.biblio.org/newmilford/
Booksales provided by Book Nook

Upcoming events with Jill Hunting/”Finding Pete: Rediscovering the Brother I Lost in Vietnam

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Upcoming events with Jill Hunting, author of Finding Pete: Rediscovering the Brother I Lost in Vietnam.

February 23rd, 6-7:30PM
University Press Books
“Conversations with Authors”
2430 Bancroft Way
Berkeley, CA
510-548-0585
upb@universitypressbooks.com
http://universitypressbooks.com/

March 9th, Time TBA
Pegasus Books Downtown Store
2349 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA
510-649-1320
http://pegasus.indiebound.com/

March 12th, 7:30PM
The Avid Reader
617 Second St.
Davis, CA 95616
530-758-4040
www.avidreaderbooks.com

April 13th, 7PM
Copperfield’s Books
138 N. Main St.
Sebastopol, CA
707 823-2618
sebastopol@copperfieldsbooks.com
http://www.copperfieldsbooks.com/

Martha Hill reviewed in Back Stage

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Martha Hill and the Making of American Dance, by Janet Mansfield Soares, was reviewed in Back Stage magzine.

“One of the finest dance biographies I have ever read, Soares’ work represents the perfect blend of colorful and pertinent factual details and larger contextualizing ideas. I was amazed at how quickly I whizzed through the lengthy volume and how much I learned about a topic with which I was already very familiar. If you know little about Hill and modern dance, this book will introduce you to fascinating information. If you know quite a bit about the subject, it will captivate you even more.” -Lisa Jo Sagolla, Back Stage

Upcoming Talks by Jeffrey B. Perry / “A Hubert Harrison Reader”

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Upcoming Talks by Jeffrey B. Perry, editor of “A Hubert Harrison Reader”

January 27, 2010
Wednesday, 6:00 p.m., Jeffrey B. Perry will offer a slide presentation/​talk on “Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918” for AFSCME District Council 37, 125 Barclay St., New York. Contact person Ken Nash.
http://www.dc37.net/news/calendar/calendar.html

January 29, 2010
Friday, 1:00 PM, Jeffrey B. Perry will speak on “The Importance of Hubert Harrison (1883-1927): ‘The Voice of Harlem Radicalism’ and Intellectual/​Activist ‘Ahead of His Time'” at the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy, HSSB 4041, University of California — Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara, California. Contact person Nelson Lichtenstein.
http://www.history.ucsb.edu/projects/labor/

February 3, 2010
Wednesday, 12 noon, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University, 104 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138. Contact persons Vera Ingrid Grant and Professors Francis Abiola Irele, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr..
http://dubois.fas.harvard.edu/events/jeffrey-b-perry

February 5, 2010
Friday, 10:00 a.m. — 11:30 a.m., Teaneck Public Library, 840 Teaneck Rd., Teaneck, NJ 02138. Contact person Carol Anderson.
http://www.localendar.com/elsie?DAM=PublishedEvent&event_id=1105&calendar_id=277719&more_info=N&export_date=Feb%2005,%202010

February, 10, 2010
Wednesday, 6 P.M., Maplewood Public Library, 51 Baker St., Maplewood, NJ, 07040. Contact person Timur Davis.
http://maplewoodlibraryprograms.blogspot.com/2010/01/special-black-history-month-lectures.html

February 11, 2010
Thursday, 1:300 PM, Jeffrey B. Perry discusses “Hubert Harrison:’The Voice of Harlem Radicalism’ and Theodore W. Allen, author of ‘The Invention of the White Race'” with host Trevor Jones, at the Bronx Public Library, Grand Concourse Branch, NYPL 155 E. 173rd St., Bronx, NY.

February 12, 2010
Friday, 7:00 p.m., Talk and Slide Presentation on Hubert Harrison. Hosted by Central Unitarian Church, 156 Forest Ave., Paramus, NJ. Contact Sally Gellert.
http://www.cucparamus.org/

February 16, 2010
Tuesday, 4:00 p.m., “Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918,” at the College Library, St. Thomas Aquinas College, Sparkill, NY. Hosted by Professor Stacy K. Sewell and Friends of the Library.

February 16, 2010 tentative
Tuesday, 7 pm at Sarah Lawrence College Black Power Studies Symposium Panel: Groundwork: Patrick Jones, Father Groppi and the Milwaukee Black Power; Peter Levy, Gloria Richardson and the Cambridge Movement; Jeffrey B. Perry, Hubert Harrison; Minka Minkalani, African Blood Brotherhood. Host Komozi Woodard.
http://www.slc.edu/news-events/events/symposium/index.html

February 18, 2010
Thursday, 7:00 PM, “A Talk on Hubert Harrison,” Event hosted by The Lawrenceville Black Alumni Association and the Lawrenceville Club of New York at The Penn Club of New York, 30 West 44th St., New York, NY, 10036. Contact persons John E. Gore, Courtney Hodock, and Steve Cushmore
http://www2.lawrenceville.org/podium/default.aspx?t=122423

February 23, 2010
Tuesday, 2:15 P.M. — 3:30 PM, Brooklyn College Black History Month presentation on “Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918”. Co-sponsored by Africana Studies, The ERIS Program, The Center for Diversity and The Wolfe Institute. Room 150, Woody Tanger Auditorium, Library, First Floor, Brooklyn College, 2900 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn, NY. Contact person Joe Wilson.

February 27, 2010
Saturday, 5:00 – 8:00 PM, Talk/​Slide Presentation on Hubert Harrison. Hosted by Racial and Ethnic Concerns Group of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta, 1911 Cliff Valley Way NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30329. Contact persons Lynne Anderson and David Slavin.
http://secure.accessacs.com/access/viewcalendar.aspx?sn=zvyL6WI4N7iXBBnHKNhj5Q==&eid=oFhCtnibx6vCjTsHtfSb8g==

February 28, 2010
Sunday, 1:00 PM, Talk/​Slide Presentation on Hubert Harrison. Hosted by Atlanta Freethought Society, 4775 North Church Lane, SE, Smyrna, Georgia, 30080. Contact persons Steve Yothment and Judy Thompson.

April 10, 2010
Saturday, 1:00 to 4:00 PM. Slide Presentation/​Talk on Hubert Harrison at Rockland Community College, Spring Valley Extension Center, NY. Contact people and sponsoring organizations Jamila Shabazz Brathwaite, Dr. Edmund W. Gordon, Dr. Stella Marrs, Marc Pessin, Rockland County Human Rights Commission, and Cejjes Institute.