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“Director Within” launch tonight, 7PM, in Burbank, CA!

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Don’t miss the book launch celebration for Rose Eichenbaum’s the The Director Within! Rose will be sharing photos, stories, and words of wisdom concerning her latest book. A discussion will follow. The event will take place on November 13th, in the Entertainment Media Building Room E100 at Woodbury University from 7-9pm.

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“What a treat to read these interviews with so many directors I have known and to learn more about them, their courage, individuality, compassion, vision, insight, and wisdom, and to hear the shared theme of love for the media and love as a theme in their lives and their work.”  —Jeremy Kagan, film and television director

Award-winning photojournalist, Rose Eichenbaum is dedicated to the investigation and documentation of art making and human expression through performance. Her stunning books The Dancer Within and The Actor Within paired photographic portraits with thoughtful conversations that look at the creative process, and how this process is different for each individual.

For her new book, The Director Within, Rose Eichenbaum sat down with thirty-five modern day storytellers—directors of theater, film, and television. Eichenbaum’s subjects speak with revealing clarity about the challenges and rewards of their work, the role and life of the director, and the ways theatrical and cinematic storytelling impact our culture and our lives. These conversational interviews with some of the biggest names in entertainment are accompanied by lively photographic portraits that convey the character and personalities of her subjects.

This beautiful, informative, and entertaining book is an essential resource for film and theatre buffs, would-be-directors, and anyone who wants to learn more about the creative minds behind our most-beloved movies and shows.

Rose Eichenbaum’s work has appeared in national magazines and has been the subject of numerous exhibitions, including a national tour hosted by the Smithsonian Institution. A respected educator, Eichenbaum is a professor at Woodbury University in the School of Media, Culture and Design and directs the dance photography workshop at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. She also teaches at the Los Angeles Center of Photography.

 

For more information about the book please visit the bookpage.

 

 

#tbt: An Alice Notley poem

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In honor of #UPWeek, AAUP’s Blog Tour continues, with the theme of Throwback Thursday. Other participating presses are Harvard University Press, MIT Press, Temple University Press, University of Toronto Press, and University of Washington Press.

Today’s Throwback Thursday selection is “Flowers of the Foothills & Mountain Valleys” from Alice Notley’s 2006 collection Grave of Light: New and Selected Poems, 1970-2005. She was recently the focus of a three-day symposium, ALETTE IN OAKLAND, hosted by the Bay Area Public School. The cover of her book Grave of Light is a reproduction of a beautiful collage created by Notley.

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FLOWERS OF THE FOOTHILLS & MOUNTAIN VALLEYS

Compassion is pungent
& sharply aromatic. Small
yellow heads in late summer.
Love & hatred are
delicate & fragrant.
Around a yellow disc.
Glory is found along the shores
intoning “I change but in death.”
Sincerity has delicate &
feathery leaves. Dignity is
fragrant & looks like a little
brown nail. The leaves
of hidden worth are deeply cut;
a 19th-century American
artist & inventor. Sir
Thomas Campion blooms in July
pinkly with notched petals. The
clearest of gins taste of
bluish protection, lovely
Mary & little Jesus found
refuge, in Egypt, in gin.
Hid from sight in
the bark of the cinnamon tree
a light flashes on & off,
dazzles, whistles. Remembrance
is the most fragrant, love is
the most dark pink, courage
is grey-green growing wild.

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ALICE NOTLEY is the author of many collections of poems, including Songs and Stories of the Ghouls and Pulitzer Prize-finalist Mysteries of Small Houses. She is the recipient of the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Poetry, the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the San Francisco Poetry Center Book Award.

#UPWeek: AAUP’s Third Annual Blog Tour continues

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It is University Press Week…a time to celebrate all the wonderful work published by scholarly presses! In the spirit of partnership that pervades the university press community, thirty-two presses will unite for the AAUP’s third annual blog tour. This tour will highlight the value of collaboration among the scholarly community. Individual presses will blog on a different theme each day. Today’s theme is “Your University Press in Pictures.” The following presses are participating. Click on the available links to enjoy a variety of content exploring the history of publishing, including historic images as well as a look at how the handling of images has changed with the introduction of new technologies. 

University Press of Florida 

Fordham University Press 

Indiana University Press 

Johns Hopkins University Press 

Stanford University Press 

Tomorrow’s theme will be University Presses in Popular Culture.

Gerald Vizenor to visit National WWI Museum

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Tomorrow, November 12th, Gerald Vizenor will visit the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.  As part of Park University’s Ethnic in Voices Poetry Series, in an interview segment that will air on KCUR’s New Letters on the Air, host Angela Elam will discuss Vizenor’s latest book of poetry, Favor of Crows, as well as Blue Ravens, his fact-based historical portrayal of Native American Soldiers in World War I.  

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Today, the service of Native Americans in WWII is quite well documented, thanks to the work of many Native community members, scholars, and historians. Service of Natives in WWI has not been as well documented.

In 1917, as the United States entered WWI, most Native Americans were not U.S. citizens. Some Natives were granted citizenship based on their military service. Others were offered citizenship with the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. It was enacted, in part, to recognize the service of thousands of Indians in WWI. Citizenship had been offered to Oklahoma Natives in 1890 and 1901.

It is estimated that more than 12,000 American Indians served in World War I. More than 44,000 American Indians served during WWII. Military officials acknowledge that Native Americans have the highest record of service per capita of any ethnic group. Native Americans were sent into highly dangerous situations, such as sweeping for land mines, at a higher rate than their non-Native counterparts. Native Americans were not placed in segregated units, as African-American soldiers were. The U.S. Government hoped that integration would assist the process of assimilating Native Americans into the United States.

To learn more about Native American military service, visit the National Museum of the American Indian’s resource page, “Native Words, Native Warriors.” You can also view the PBS documentary The Way of the Warrior.

#UPWeek: AAUP’s Third Annual Blog Tour

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UPWlores

It is University Press Week…a time to celebrate all the wonderful work published by scholarly presses! In the spirit of partnership that pervades the university press community, thirty-two presses will unite for the AAUP’s third annual blog tour. This tour will highlight the value of collaboration among the scholarly community. Individual presses will blog on a different theme each day. Today’s theme is “Collaboration.” The following presses are participating. Click on the available links to learn about some of the collaborative efforts initiated by our colleagues at other presses and institutions.

University of California Press

University of Chicago Press

University Press of Colorado

Duke University Press

University of Georgia Press

Project MUSE/Johns Hopkins University Press

McGill-Queen’s University Press

Texas A&M University Press

University of Virginia Press

Yale University Press

Tomorrow’s theme is “Your University Press in Pictures.” Wesleyan University Press is participating on Thursday, November 13th, as part of “Throwback Thursday.” Read more about AAUP, University Presses, and University Press Week here.

#tbt: David Ignatow, “Business”

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This week’s Throwback Thursday selection is David Ignatow’s “Business” from Against the Evidence: Selected Poems, 1934-1994 (1995).

 

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Business

There is no money in breathing.
What a shame I can’t peddle my breath
for something else—like what?
I wish I knew but surely
besides keeping me alive
breathing doesn’t give enough
of a return.

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DAVID IGNATOW (1914-1997) was the author of fifteen volumes of poetry and three prose collections. Born in Brooklyn, he lived most of his life in the New York metropolitan area, working as editor of American Poetry Review and Beloit Poetry Journal, and also as poetry editor of The Nation. Ignatow received both the Shelley Memorial Award (1966) and the Frost Medal (1992). He also received the Bollingen Prize, two Guggenheim fellowships, and countless other awards.

Happy Halloween, Happy Samhain & Happy Birthday, Annie Finch

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Happy Halloween and Samhain (an ancient Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season)—and happy birthday to one of Wesleyan’s celebrated poets, Annie Finch. Finch was born on October 31st, 1956. She is a Wiccan, and her latest book is Spells, published by Wesleyan on April 2, 2013. Spells, which brings Finch’s most striking old poems together with new and previously unpublished work, brings readers to “experience poetry not just in the mind, but in the body.”

 

Annie Finch/Spells

 

Her other books include poetry collections Eve (1997) and Calendars (2003), and the long poems The Encyclopedia of Scotland (1982) and Among the Goddesses: An Epic Libretto in Seven Dreams (2009), as well as several critical works. Her work has been published in journals including Yale Review, Harvard Review, Partisan Review, and Paris Review, and anthologized in collections like The Penguin Book of Twentieth-Century American Poetry and The Penguin Book of the Sonnet. She is the winner of the Sarasvati Award for Poetry and the Robert Fitzgerald Award, and is currently at work on a memoir, American Witch.

Finch has read and performed her work across the U.S. and in Canada, Europe, and Africa. She is a featured columnist for The Huffington Post, writing on poetry, feminism, and paganism. She teaches in the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast writing program, and as a visiting poet across the country. In the coming year she will head to Arizona to participate in the Tucson Festival of Books, as well as to teach a workshop at the University of Arizona Poetry Center.

Finch has also appeared on the airwaves in KRCB’s WordTemple, which showcases the most interesting work and stories in the world of literature. In November 2013, Finch appeared on the program with fellow Wesleyan author Kazim Ali to discuss their books, Spells and Sky Ward. In March 2014, Finch appeared alongside the influential feminist poet Carolyn Kizer, who passed away on October 9th. In April, an essay of Finch’s about her relationship with Kizer was read on-air. That essay, “Visiting Carolyn Kizer,” can also be found online at the Poetry Foundation.

 

In honor of Samhain, please enjoy two poems from Spells—“Samhain” and “Spider Woman.”

Samhain

(October 31)

In the season leaves should love,
since it gives them leave to move
through the wind, towards the ground
they were watching while they hung,
legend says there is a seam
stitching darkness like a name.

Now when dying grasses veil
earth from the sky in one last pale
wave, as autumn dies to bring
winter back, and then the spring,
we who die ourselves can peel
back another kind of veil

that hangs among us like thick smoke.
Tonight at last I feel it shake.
I feel the nights stretching away
thousands long behind the days
till they reach the darkness where
all of me is ancestor.

I move my hand and feel a touch
move with me, and when I brush
my own mind across another,
I am with my mother’s mother.
Sure as footsteps in my waiting
self, I find her, and she brings

arms that carry answers for me,
intimate, a waiting bounty.
“Carry me.” She leaves this trail
through a shudder of the veil,
and leaves, like amber where she stays,
a gift for her perpetual gaze.

 

Spider Woman

Your thoughts in a web have covered the sky.
A thread from the northwest is carrying beads from the rain,
a thread from the southwest is carrying beads from the rain,
a thread from the southeast carries bright beads,
a thread from the northeast is bringing the beads
of the rain that has filled up the sky.
Spider, you have woven a chain
stretching with rain over the sky.

#tbt: Robert Bly, “The Clear Air of October”

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This week’s Throwback Thursday selection—for the last Thursday of October—is “The Clear Air of October,” from Robert Bly’s 1962 collection Silence in the Snowy Fields (also available in a special-edition minibook).

 

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The Clear Air of October

I can see outside the gold wings without birds
Flying around, and the wells of cold water
Without walls standing eighty feet up in the air,
I can feel the crickets’ singing carrying them into the sky.

I know these cold shadows are falling for hundreds of miles,
Crossing lawns in tiny towns, and the doors of Catholic churches;
I know the horse of darkness is riding fast to the east,
Carrying a thin man with no coat.

And I know the sun is sinking down great stairs,
Like an executioner with a great blade walking into a cellar,
And the gold animals, the lions, and the zebras, and the pheasants,
Are waiting at the head of the stairs with robbers’ eyes.

 

ROBERT BLY, poet, translator, editor, lives on a farm near Madison, Minnesota, in the region where he was born. He has been dedicated to poetry even before his student years at Harvard. His second book, The Light Around the Body, won the 1968 National Book Award for poetry. Among several translations is Times Alone: Selected Poems of Antonio Machado (Wesleyan 1983).

“Engaging Bodies” wins Selma Jeanne Cohen Prize in Dance Aesthetics

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We are pleased to announce that Ann Cooper Albright’s book Engaging Bodies: The Politics and Poetics of Corporeality, has been selected as the winner of the Selma Jeanne Cohen Prize in Dance Aesthetics.

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The prize honors Selma Jeanne Cohen‘s work in dance theory, dance history, and dance aesthetics, and is funded by a bequest from her estate. The winner will be publicly announced during the national meeting of the ASA on October 29 to November 1, 2014 in San Antonio, Texas.

The American Society for Aesthetics was founded in 1942 to promote study, research, discussion, and publication in aesthetics. “Aesthetics,” in this connection, is understood to include all studies of the arts and related types of experience from a philosophic, scientific, or other theoretical standpoint, including those of psychology, sociology, anthropology, cultural history, art criticism, and education. “The arts” include the visual arts, literature, music, and theater arts.

The ASA publishes the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism and The ASA Newsletter.

Rose Eichenbaum—photographer, author and educator

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Rose Eichenbaum is one of today’s most respected photojournalists in the field of dance. Her books, Masters of Movement, The Dancer Within, The Actor Within, and now, The Director Within, have paired photographic portraits of artists with thoughtful conversations about their creative processes. A teacher for more than 25 years, Eichenbaum is also a sought-out inspirational and motivational speaker, with a story that will get people thinking about the complex relationship of art making and human expression. Check out Rose’s latest book, The Director Within: Storytellers of Stage and Screen. It hits stores today, and will make a great holiday gift for the film or theater lover on your list.

 

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The child of Holocaust survivors, Eichenbaum has always felt that being born was “a small miracle.” And since then, she has always felt the drive to leave a mark on the world. Though she has a master’s degree in dance from UCLA, her own professional dance career was concluded when she had three children. “However,” she says, “picking up a camera to photograph my children proved a revelation. I discovered that I loved image making and that through the medium of photography I could still dance.”

In addition to her work as a teacher, Eichenbaum has built a successful career as a dance photographer. She’s behind more than two dozen magazine covers and countless articles in nationally acclaimed publications like Dance Magazine, Pointe, Dance Teacher, Dance Spirit, and others. She is also the official photographer for the State Street Ballet of Santa Barbara. This work, in turn, drew her to photojournalism—an interest which has birthed her four acclaimed books on the luminaries of choreography, dance, acting, and directing.

 

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Her work addresses the power of the human spirit, expressed through these various art forms. All the people she’s interviewed, she says, are “driven individuals who want to be seen, heard, and express themselves—” much like herself. With her probing questions and disarming manner, Eichenbaum is a skilled interviewer, and her powerful photographs reveal the essence of each artist she speaks to. Eichenbaum captures the essential character of her subjects while shining a light on the art that defines them, creating invaluable touchstones for anyone interested in performance art as expression.