Month: April 2012

By Rob O’Donnell
Staff Writer

Since typically we seem to focus on the meaning of text, we seldom recognize the beauty in the sound of a poem.

Adrian Castro, a well-known poet from Miami, visited the University Tuesday, April 10 to give a special performance in Bucknell Hall sponsored by the Stadler Center for Poetry.

Castro’s poems range in substance and influence from African to Caribbean tradition, and the sound of the poetry reflects that.

At some parts he sang individually in a captivating voice, and at others he even incorporated the audience into the performance by having them sing back. It was remarkable to hear such distinct poetry performed.

That was what separated this reading from others that I have attended; it was truly a performance. If I had just been reading the poem from a book, I would have missed so much. I would have missed the sound of the poetry, which is the true driving force behind his work. He places a strong emphasis on rhythm, and it almost turns into a melody at some parts.

Even though I was there for the reading, I still feel like I missed a lot of the poems’ meanings. He used a lot of different languages throughout, oftentimes using a refrain in the West African or Caribbean tradition, and he used a lot of Spanish words, none of which I could understand. But what I lacked in meaning and clarity, I gained in beauty of voice and sound.

I am incredibly grateful to the Stadler Center for Poetry for bringing him to the University, as the performance of the reading was fantastic. I believe that this may have been the last reading for the year, but I highly encourage everyone to take advantage of events like this in the future.

Interview by Jen Lassen
Arts & Life Editor

Q: Can you describe your exhibit that is currently being featured in our Downtown Gallery? What was your inspiration behind creating this exhibit?

A: “The exhibit there is called ‘Another Day in Paradise’ and it’s a collection of some older work I have and some newer pieces. A lot of my work revolves around Americana in everyday life. This group of work looks at any place in the United States–the edge of town, strip malls, a supposedly quiet neighborhood–that ends up being houses from horror films. It’s a combination of those put together that gives an overview of American life. All of my work is inspired by landscape, by culture, sometimes by films and also by my travels.”

Q: How long have you been a professional artist? What motivated you to pursue becoming an artist?

A: “I graduated from the University of New Mexico in 1996. I had wanted to be an artist for a long time; at first I had thought it would be photography, but then I started doing sculpture and video. It’s just something that I love, and so I kept after it. You know, You do it because you love it; otherwise, it’s so much time and effort. It just is something that I would do regardless. My father painted when he was younger. He’d either done woodworking or something with his hands his whole life. So I think that influenced me, and when I was young my parents saw that I really enjoyed art. I liked drawing and painting, so they encouraged me.”

Q: Your other exhibits and works have been/are currently being featured all across the nation and globe. Has showcasing your exhibits in various places, and traveling in general, had any influence on your work?

A: “I’ve done quite a bit of traveling, and whenever I travel, while I’m there I’ll take photographs and video and just explore the area. Then, that will probably end up in a future piece. I did two residencies in China and made work while there; I traveled around and made work of what I saw, and that was pretty amazing.”

Q: What other projects are you currently working on?

A: “My film, ‘Nothing,’ premieres at the San Francisco International Film Festival in about a week, so I’m really excited about that. My instillation ‘Women on the Run’ is travelling right now, and that’s an instillation that I keep adding onto and innovating so it’s fresh and interesting. That will eventually travel to the West Coast. Another project that I’m working on is a group of sculptures for show at a museum in Oslo, Norway. They are based around Latin authors. Each sculpture is based on a story or novel.”

Q: What called you to Lewisburg to showcase your exhibit in our Downtown Gallery?

A: “I was picked for it. I was contacted by Richard Rinehart and he saw my work years ago at San Francisco Cameraworks. I guess he liked my worked and thought of me to come here! It’s great to come here. The thing about my art career is that I end up going to places that I probably wouldn’t ever even know about.”

Q: What advice can you give to artists striving to make their work original?

A: “When I was going to the university for my undergrad, I was getting in these classes with critiques. I eventually realized that another student telling me what I should put in my work … they didn’t know any better than I did. Art is so subjective. I think it’s really important to be open to criticism from people that you respect, but if it doesn’t make sense to you, let it go; don’t hold onto it. Try to have your own vision and follow it, and don’t let other people sway you.”

By Anna May
Arts & Life Layout Editor

Peace activist Kathy Kelly has traveled to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. She works with organizations such as the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers in order to stop the spread of violence and to create peace.

On April 10, Kelly came to the University to speak about her first-hand experience with brutality and American violence abroad.

Kelly opened her talk by saying that she had an ordinary childhood. She referred to herself as a “pious” child, referencing how as an eight-year-old she would kneel on her knuckles on the tile floor as a form of self-inflicted penance.

Kelly revealed three specific incidents that she had with American soldiers in which they showed her their compassionate side. The first was when she travelled to a missile silo in Missouri and planted corn in order to make a point that the government was doing more to protect these weapons than they were to protect the inner city kids that were struggling survive their teen years. A soldier driving by handcuffed her and held her at gunpoint. Then while waiting for others to arrive, the soldier put down his weapon and asked her if she wanted a drink of water. Kelly said she still remembers the feeling of water dribbling down her chin. This act of kindness stuck with her to this day.

The second event took place when she was unable to leave Baghdad in 2003 due to a series of bombings. At the time, Saddam Hussein was missing and there was no official government in place to maintain power because of the U.S. invasion. Since no one was in power, looters were running rampant and Kelly and her host family feared they would be next. One day, she was looking outside and saw an army tank roll up.

“Fate is a funny thing. I was one relived pacifist when the marines came before the looters,” Kelly said.

The marines asked if she was okay, and she talked with them about the book that one of the marines was reading about war and peace.

The final event she discussed was how she was arrested for peacefully protesting outside of a military training school. She was brought into the police station and her hands and feet were tied while a man twice her size knelt on top of her, cutting off her air supply. When she got up, she was brought over to get her mug shot and the soldier who was taking the picture brushed the hair out of her face and assured her he would get her out of the handcuffs soon.

She also spoke of her time spent in Afghanistan and the horrifying side of war that she experienced there with the drones that watch over Afghanistan trying to track down members of the Taliban. She had an experience where the sons of the family she was staying with came home from their university to celebrate Ramadan and were killed by American troops who thought they were Taliban soldiers. Mistakes like this are common in Afghanistan as well as raids on innocent households.

Many Americans are misinformed about the war. Americans get their information from news programs, which show the war in good light making it seem as though the Afghans would be grateful for our involvement. In reality, the violent actions of American soldiers are creating hostility and leading more people to join the Taliban forces, Kelly said. 

Through her work with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, Kelly is trying to reduce violence in Afghanistan. She called the audience to action, challenging her listeners by saying that it is up to all of us to end the cycle. We need to have the courage to form groups and make a change so that our country does not repeat the mistakes of our past.

By Heather Hennigan
Contributing Writer

On Wednesday, April 18, the final installation of the University’s Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings series will be staged. The performance, entitled “Sally Hemings: A Montage,” will take place in the Terrace Room of the Elaine Langone Center at 7:30 p.m., and features faculty and staff members Shara McCallum, John Hunter, Ghislaine McDayter, Shallary Duncan, Nisan Trotter and Mark Hutchinson. The montage was created by professor of English Carmen Gillespie and professor emeritus Robert Gainer and merges various creative explorations of the Hemings/Jefferson narrative including: Sandra Seaton’s play “Sally,”  Madison Hemings’s “Memoirs,” Mendi and Keith Obadike’s soundscape and film “American Cypher: A Stereo Helix for Sally Hemings,” photographer Carrie Mae Weems’s “Jefferson Suite” and Garrett Fisher’s opera “Sally Hemings Wakes.” Gainer directs the performance.

“When I began to investigate the artistic explorations of the Hemings and Jefferson story, I was astonished by the wide range of expressions that I found. I thought that it might be interesting for us to engage the story interdisciplinarily by interspersing these various interpretations. The combination of artistic interpretations reflects the reality of the mystery of Sally Hemings herself. She is literally unknowable and, therefore, can only be understood through multiple and divergent points of view,” Gillespie said.

“Although brought on board to serve primarily as stage director, I was also asked to collaborate with [Carmen] to devise and dramaturgically create a montage of different artists’ responses–fiction, non-fiction, sound and visual–to the Sally Hemings narrative. The writing and devising of this performance piece has evolved collaboratively throughout the semester, adding to the excitement of discovery that accompanies such an exploratory group process. What I most value in working with Carmen is that her mode of inquiry into subjects and themes about which she is most passionate is not limited to one mode of exploration or expression. She always guides her students and community to confront our society’s complex historical and cultural narratives through encounters with multiple artistic voices and varied critical and scholarly viewpoints,” Gainer said.

Stadler Center for Poetry director McCallum, who plays the role of Sally in this performance, has not performed on stage since her high school years. “I’ve truly enjoyed this opportunity to reconnect with that aspect of myself. I have been aided enormously in this endeavor under the superb direction of Bob Gainer and through the incredible vision for this production that has been the product of Bob and Carmen Gillespie’s imagination and hard work. I think [this experience] has brought up new ways for me to think about all the vexing issues about race in the U.S. and its relationship to history, culture and biology–issues that are inescapable for many of us, but certainly for me. As a black woman who is taken for white by most people, my connection to Sally’s perspective is obviously strengthened by the fact that I’ve lived an analogous experience of race. Less obviously, there’s also the fact that I’m a mother–as she was–and can understand her choices from that perspective as well,” McCallum said.

“One of the aspects of the production that was also intriguing to me was the aspect of creative exploration of the topic by faculty and staff who do not primarily consider themselves artists. This production is a joint endeavor of the Griot Institute and the Presidential Arts Initiative and, as such, endeavors to explore artistry and creativity for everyone. The class we sponsored last semester, Extreme Creativity, allowed students who are arts and non-arts majors to examine the arts and their engagements with creativity. The Arts Initiative seeks in part to involve the entirety of the Bucknell community in the arts and ‘Sally Hemings: A Montage,’ with the exception of Mark Hutchinson, involves faculty and staff who are not professional performers and allows them to access creative aspects of themselves in ways that mirror the experiences of the students in the Extreme Creativity class. I hope that it will be exciting for students to have the opportunity to see their professors and staff members engaged in taking chances and expanding their creative horizons in unexpected and challenging ways,” Gillespie said.

“The Sally Hemings/Thomas Jefferson narrative is an essential and under-explored American origin story. Investigation of the story allows us to confront collectively the issues of race, class and gender that are as central to our realities–to who we are as a country–as is our most fundamental ideal, the proposition that we are endowed with inalienable rights. The Hemings/Jefferson story conflates these contradictions and forces us to deal simultaneously with the truth of our histories in an inclusive and honest way that will enable us to proceed with integrity, and, perhaps, have a better opportunity to actualize our foundational ideals,” Gillespie said.