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Mr. Tom Drury
This talk, inspired a bit perhaps by Bob Dylan's having been awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, will explore the connections between literature and music. Specifically, I will mostly be looking at the form, appearing in Western classical music, that goes by various names such as lied, chanson, melodie, píseň, art song, or simply song. Almost all examples of such songs in the repertoire are settings to music, usually for one singer and piano, of preexisting poetry. Sometimes a group of poems, which may or may not tell a story, will all be set to music to create a song cycle. Drama, including plays, operas, and musical theater, will be touched on. I will discuss repertoire in the German, French, and Czech languages as well as English, covering a time period from approximately 1700 to the present, and I will include an in-depth look at the creative process of my own recent composition, based on work of the American poet Sara Teasdale, which will be premiered in March.
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Alisa Holen
This lecture will explore the handmade object. One of the questions to be covered will be why makers, including myself, still have the desire and passion to make handmade objects given the considerable time and effort involved. In addition, I will explore what ultimately gives these handmade objects their value, both intrinsic and extrinsic. And finally, why do people continue to desire handmade objects even long after they have ceased to be necessary in our modern society. |
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Dr. Anne Statham, Professor of Sociology
Anne Statham, Samantha Churrch (USI Psychology graduate and current MSW student), and Teresa Reinders (former student and current faculty member at University Wisconsin-Parkside) present results from a qualitative analysis of email messages from groups advocating for the safety net received by Anne Statham beginning in the late 1990s. As Wisconsin was piloting a precursor (W2) to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program that replaced the Assistance to Families with Children (AFDC) program, Statham led an effort funded by the Mott Foundation to collect data from women in Wisconsin who were being impacted, to document their experiences, with a participatory research project co-led by Women’s Studies faculty on various University of Wisconsin campuses and women in local poverty communities. |
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Mrs. Erin Gibson
Two Asian elephants lived nearly their entire lives at Mesker Park Zoo. Evansville celebrated Kay’s arrival in 1929 with a huge parade, but in 1954 she fatally injured her longtime keeper, zoo director Bob McGraw, and was traded for a younger, gentler elephant named Bunny. In 1999, Evansville became a city divided when the zoo proposed retiring her to a sanctuary. Erin Gibson’s film, still in production, reveals a new perspective on local history and the universal lessons we have learned about elephants in captivity. She pieces together the stories of Kay and Bunny through photos and videos, newspaper passages, and interviews with the people who know the most about these two elephants. |
