Let’s Communicate
Fall 2006


On November 10, Isabel Bacon accompanied our Foreign Language Fulbright TA’s,

Gabriela Atan and Pilar Sanchis to the Southeast Coop. where they presented a workshop to the Foreign Language teachers of the area.  With Ms. Sanchis the participants were involved in research based strategies of foreign language instruction that could help students with their state tests.  The audience also visited Argentina with Ms. Atan, via modern technology, and got to sip yerba mate tea like a real “gaucho.”

Isabel has also been collaborating with Dr. Marla Ramirez of our School of Education in a series of workshops for English as Second Language Teachers of the area offered with a grant Dr. Ramirez received for the year 2006-07.     

 

Selected exhibits that Scott Lykens has participated in since spring 2006:

 

Affaire d'Arte, Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach, Florida.  Earthy Treasure,

Pewabic Pottery, Detroit Michigan Mastery in Clay 2006, The Clay Studio,

Philadelphia Pennsylvania.  New Work, Louisiana College, Pineville Louisiana.  

Empty Bowls, Pewabic Pottery, Detroit Michigan.  Introducing Scott Lykens, Solo

Show, University of Arkansas Monticello, LTC Gallery.  La Mesa II, Sante Fe

Clay at Portland Oregon NCECA 2006-05-11.  For the House and Garden, Pewabic

Pottery, Detroit Michigan.  25 square inches, River Oaks Square Arts Center,

Alexandria, Louisiana.  4th annual Empty Bowls, AFBN, Robinson Center Exhibition

Hall. Little Rock Arkansas.  Art Educator Exhibition, Guachoya Center for the

Arts, Lake Village, Arkansas.  Tea Time; The Art of the Teapot, Kalamazoo

Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Michigan.  Mad Hatter’s Second Tea Party, Armory

Arts Center, West Palm Beach, Florida.  New Work, Solo Show, Stretch Gallery,

Pineville North Carolina.  Earthy Treasure, Pewabic Pottery, Detroit Michigan

 

Exhibits that Scott curated or co-curated for UAM. 

 

Regional K-12 Art Exhibition, Spencer Gallery, February 2006. Introducing: Scott Lykens, LTC Gallery, December 2005 – January 2006Teapot Invitational, LTC Gallery, February 2006Duet: Aaron Calvert & Summer Burch, LTC Gallery, April 2006UAM First Annual National Juried Cup Show, LTC Gallery, April – May, 2006. Jason Hackett: Re-Inspired, LTC Gallery, June – August 2006. Selected Works from the Spencer Collection, Spencer Gallery, March – April, June – August, December 2006. Drawing and Prints of American Regionalism, LTC & Spencer Gallery, September 2006.  Terry Williams: Wildlife Artist, LTC, October 2006.  Fifty Years of the American Landscape, LTC & Spencer Gallery, November 2006.  “The Exchange” a Site-Specific Installation by Kim Wilson, LTC Gallery, November 2005.  Selected Works from the Spencer Collection, Spencer Gallery, October  - December 2005.  500 Years of Printmaking, Spencer Gallery, September 2005.  Pulp Fiction: The work of Ted Barnes and Preston Gilchrist, LTC Gallery, November 2005

 

Mars Hall (Gary Marshall) was invited to perform his poetry and songs at the Pace Performance Festival, held in New Orleans, October 20 and 21st.  The theme was “Identity, Performance, and Community.  Other schools invited to perform were: Ithaca College, Xavier University, Georgia Southern University, Louisiana State University, University of South Florida, Kutztown University, University of North Texas, and Capital University.

 

Red Hawk (Bob Moore) has a poem, "Frail Little Engine of Sorrows" in the Winter issue of Shenandoah.

 

This semester Diane Payne has had the following works published:

Fiction:
“Just Walk” http://www.ez6.sageofcon.com/ss/dpwalk.htm
“Retrievers”  http://fac.hsu.edu/beggsm/ALF/2006/payne.htm
“Simple”   http://www.971menu.com/2006/9/payne_diane_simple.html
“Wildflowers”  http://www.ascentaspirations.ca/Wildflowers.htm
“Unplanned”           http://peccarymagazine.5u.com/1unplanned2.html
“Jackie-O” http://www.arabesquespress.org/journal/diane-payne-jackie-o-short-story-3035710

Poetry:
Acrobatic Memory  and “In The Beginning I was a Tree” in Mon u ment Anthology,  Blueprints Review  Summer 06 http://www.blueprintreview.de/monubios.htm

“Before the Phone Goes Dead” forthcoming in Language and Culture Review, December 06

”Just a Word”  http://www.southernhum.com/diane-payne/


Creative non-fiction:
“On Track,” “Bobby Sherman,” and “Techno Shopping” in Tales of the South Anthology, December 06

 

Amazon Shorts is marketing Diane’s fiction story titled "Deep Trance" and Fiction International accepted her creative nonfiction titled "Synaptic Journey".

 

Allen Redmon has an article currently under review entitled "The “Unfinished Business” of Kill Bill: Cinematic Discourse In and Out of the Dark," in which he discusses the ways that Tarantino attempts to initiate critical discussion over the violence in his film.

Allen is also working on a paper for the National ACA/PCA conference in Boston this coming April entitled “Elementary My Dear Watson”: Identification and Competition in the Detective Films of the 1930’s and early 1940’s," in which he discusses and accounts for the differences between the detective of the 30's and the detective of the 40's.

 

Tom Richard was recently in a two man show at Louisiana College in Pineville and has pieces in “An Ornamental Affair” at Blue Moon Gallery in December.  He also has recently been selected to show work at the Baton Rouge Gallery Center for Contemporary Art in Baton Rouge, La.  The first week in December he will travel to Little Rock to judge the Thea Foundation Arts Scholarship Program.

 

This past summer Kent Skinner was named conductor of the Arkansas Choral Society.  With this group, and members of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, he will conduct a performance of Handel’ Messiah on December 7, 2006 at 7:30 PM in the Bible Church of Little Rock, located at 19111 Cantrell Road.

Kent will sing with and conduct the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra on December 2, 2006 in Greeley, CO.

He will also perform as a member of the Chamber Singers, a professional choir based in Colorado, in a performance of Beethoven’ Mass in C, on January 13, 2007, in Greeley, CO.

 

Ron Sitton freelanced during the summer with articles about independent gubernatorial candidate Rod Bryan (http://home.comcast.net/~sitron45/pf/bryan.html), the Argenta Coffee Company (http://home.comcast.net/~sitron45/pf/coffee.html) and The Arts Scene in North Little Rock (http://home.comcast.net/~sitron45/pf/scene.html). He also took an active role in turning southerner.net into a blog, in addition to maintaining the morgue for The Southerner magazine online and the Southern Compendium of links.

Just prior to the semester, Sitton stepped into the Academic Appeals Committee seat vacated by Bob Pryor.

Sitton took Michael Ford, editor-in-chief of The Voice, to St. Louis in October for the annual Associated Collegiate Press/College Media Advisers National College Media convention. Ford and other Voice staffers convinced Sitton of the necessity of having a profile on facebook and myspace to keep up with the communication tools incoming and current students have at their disposal.

During the election season, Sitton helped the Journalism Club bring Rod Bryan and Green Party candidate Jim Lendall to campus for a debate, then helped the Journalism Club bring governor-elect Mike Beebe to campus prior to election weekend.

Sitton also helped Gary Marshall and Buren "Buck" DeFee start the Wandering Weevil Wheels bicycle program, and currently runs the Web site for the group (http://www.uamont.edu/organizations/WeevilWheels/). For a little fun, Sitton played harmonica and sang during this fall's "Mocha Madness" on Halloween.

 

Mark Spencer has a short novel, The Good Life, being published online in Admit Two in January and March 2007.  His recent short-story publications are “Last Day” in Istanbul Literature Review, “Repo” in Blood Lotus and Tattoo Highway, “The Death of Elvis,”  “Why Big Foot Is a Recluse” and “The Gentleman with the Dog” in Bewildering Stories, and “A Letter from Your Best Former Lover” in Defenestration

Mark was the guest speaker for the August meeting of the El Dorado Writers Club. 

Mark, along with Gary Marshall and Diane Payne, read at the Art Center in Lake Village in April.

 

Kate Stewart served on a panel at the Tallahatchie RiverFest on September 22.  She and the other panelists discussed William Faulkner’s relationship to his birth place, New Albany, Mississippi, and other points of interest in Northeast Mississippi.

On November 7, she presented a book review of Matthew Pearl’s The Dante Club for the Shepherd Center.

Kate attended the meeting of the Board of Trustees at Erskine College on October 26 and 27.  At the meeting, she presided over the Academic/Enrollment Committee, participated in the meetings of the Executive Committee, and made a presentation to the full board.

 

Kay Walter served on the French search committee which assisted in the hiring of a new French professor. 

Kay read part of her short story, “A Heady Tale” at Mocha Madness.

She presented a paper about Robert Browning at the annual conference of the Arkansas Philological Association at the Arlington in Hot Springs.

She has made frequent visits to four area high school classrooms as a PATHWISE mentor for English teachers.

On November 30 Kay will be a guest lecturer at Rison High School where she will talk with students about Robert Browning.

On December 4 she will be a guest lecturer on Thomas Gray in an on-campus British literature class.

 

Linda Webster served as a member of the program and local arrangements committees for the 2006 Oral History Association Annual meeting held in Little Rock from October 26-29.  She chaired several panels for OHA including one designed by AETN to showcase the WWII Arkansas Veterans Oral History Project. 

She was one of five (5) authors who completed a revised edition of the Competent Speaker, the National Communication Association (NCA) official assessment document for public speaking which was presented officially to the organization at the annual meeting in San Antonio on November 17.  The in-house public speaking text is now at the publishers and will be available for use in all UAM public speaking classes for the spring, 2007 semester.  All royalties and other incomes generated by the text will be used to fund scholarships for speech majors.

 

Mark Wegley's essay "'A deception in real life': The Role of Popular Culture in H. P. Lovecraft's Canonicity" has been accepted for presentation as part of a special panel on Horror Literature to be held at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Associations on February 14-17, 2007.  The panel will discuss the growing trend of genre fiction crossing into the literary mainstream with a focus on the future identity of horror literature and its authorship.

 

Events:

 

T     UAM Marching Band will participate in the Monticello Christmas parade on November 28 at 6:00 p.m.

 

T      Fall choral concert to be held December 5, 7:30 p.m. at the Wood Avenue Presbyterian Church

 

T      Christmas band concert will be December 7, 7 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center Auditorium

 

T      December 8 – last day of classes;   FINALS:  Dec. 11 - 15

 

T      SAH Potluck will be held December 13, 12 noon until……in the Writing Center

 

T      Debbie Lynn Findley exhibit will be on display in the Taylor Library Art Gallery beginning December 11