KT Lowe

KT Lowe

CCS Poetry Slam 2018

CCS Poetry Slam 2018

April is National Poetry Month so IU East hosted a poetry slam featuring the creative work of 34 students in grades 5-8 at Community Christian School in Richmond. IU East library staff KT Lowe led three workshops in April, culminating with the students’ poetry performances at the IU East Campus Library. The poems ranged in subject from dance and running to video games and comic strips. Lowe, who is a published poet, with work published in Wayne Literary Review, Red Fez and other journals, first had students experience some poems written by a variety of authors both famous and unfamiliar, from preteen slam poets to established…. basketball players. After reading and talking about the poems, then students would cover basic … Continued
It’s National Poetry Month? Nonsense!

It’s National Poetry Month? Nonsense!

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves,      And the mome raths outgrabe. “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll   While many of us associate poetry with big words, flowery images and rhyme, there has always been a nonsense streak as well. The above poem, possibly Lewis Carroll’s most famous poem, is one of the best known examples of nonsense poetry. Yet nonsense poems, and Carroll’s in particular, often carry significant political undertones. For example, in Carroll’s “The Hunting of the Snark”, he tackles vivisection and the role of anthrocentrist activities in scientific pursuit. Jabberwocky itself may be a commentary on the notion of “meaning” – that is, according to … Continued
A Modern Prometheus

A Modern Prometheus

On January 15, 1818, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley published her first book. Subtitled “A Modern Prometheus,” this book began as part of a storytelling contest among herself, her then-boyfriend Percy Bysshe Shelley, their host Lord Byron and Byron’s physician, John Polidori. In Geneva, Switzerland, on a particularly dreary summer night, the four precocious thinkers and authors began to compose ghost stories. Percy Shelley wrote about an incident from his childhood. Rumor has it that Byron’s work was about a vampire. But the other two people in this group, neither of them accomplished authors in 1816, launched the modern horror tale with their works: John Polidori’s The Vampyre, and Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein. At the IU East Campus library, we are putting … Continued
Upcoming Discussion: Politics of Monuments and Memory After Charlottesville

Upcoming Discussion: Politics of Monuments and Memory After Charlottesville

Professors Kristoffer Rees, Chera LaForge and E. Scott Lee will lead a roundtable discussion on Confederate monuments on Thursday, February 22nd at Morrisson-Reeves Library. The event starts at 6:30 PM and is free and open to the public. Dr. Rees earned his Ph. D in Political Science and Central Eurasian Studies, while Dr. LaForge’s research focuses on the understanding of historical figures in contemporary political contexts and Dr. Lee’s interests hone in on collaborative decision and policy making, especially for intractable public problems Dr. Rees, whose academic research normally focuses on the former Soviet Union, saw distinct connections between the use of memorials in both the US and in Central Asia. These parallels led him to put together this program. … Continued
The magic of Roald Dahl

The magic of Roald Dahl

Cardiff (Wales) born author Roald Dahl, is considered one of the most beloved authors of the last century. With characters such as Matilda Wormwood, the Grand High Witch, the BFG and Willy Wonka, Dahl’s work has captured the inner desires, fears and identities of children of all ages since the early 1960’s. Even though he died in 1990, his books remain immensely popular – roughly ten million copies of his books are sold each year. Roald Dahl did not begin life as a writer, nor did it seem a likely career for him. When he graduated from secondary school, he became an employee of Shell Oil and was stationed in Kenya. But shortly after World War II broke out, he … Continued