**        Mark Spencer conducted a creative-writing workshop for ten students at Rison High School and talked with six English classes at Lakeside High School about the expectations professors have for college students taking freshman composition.  Mark has published new fiction in Amarillo Bay, Admit Two, and Steel City Review, and he has work forthcoming in Storyglossia, Avatar Review, and Bewildering Stories.

**        Gary Meggs’ Christian song "Jesus Loves Me" has been published by Praise Street Publications and released on Lamon Records. It is #71 on the Christian national top 100.  

Gary’s song "He's # 1" was also published by Praise Street and is charted at #63.

**        Kate Stewart brought greetings on behalf of the Board of Trustees at the inauguration of Randle T. Ruble as the 14^th president of Erskine College and Seminary on April 10; she also participated in a dinner that evening in celebration of the successful completion of Erskine’s capital campaign. 

She presented a program on the Jamestown colony for the local chapter of the DAR on April 7.

Kate attended the Alpha Chi national convention in San Antonio, March 15-17.  The Arkansas Zeta chapter presented a workshop, prepared by Amanda Haught, on campus visibility. 

Kate Stewart delivered an address entitled “…But They Look So Good on Paper” at the Who’s Who banquet on April 26.

**        Ron Sitton attended the National Conference for Media Reform in Memphis, Tenn.

He showed "An Inconvenient Truth," provided by the National Wildlife Federation and hosted by the Journalism Club and The Weevil Film Society.

Ron’s article "Media Reform Conference Blasts Corporate Press" appeared in the February 2007 issue of the Little Rock Free Press.

He helped paint bicycles for the Wandering Weevil Wheels.

Ron’s article "Suckin' Gas? Biofuels Industry Plans to Alter Consumption Patterns" made the cover story for the March 2007 issue of the Little Rock Free Press, while two other articles also appeared: "Saucey Happens with Lingerie Made Out of the Free Press," an article about the Art Scene's Friday Night Art Party, and "Sports Hall of Fame Inducts 11," an article about the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Ron brought Larry Fugate, editor of the Pine Bluff Commercial, to speak with the Intro to Journalism and News Editing classes about the journalism field and ethics.  He also brought Zach Wright, communications director for Gov. Mike Beebe, to speak with the Public Relations class about crisis communications.

Ron attended the Arkansas College Media Association's awards banquet at the Clinton Presidential Library with staff members of The Voice and The Foliate Oak. The Voice claimed third in the state in Overall Web Design and second in the state in editorial writing.

Ron played harmonica at Mocha Madness on April 26.

**        The Debate Team ended a successful season earning a record 150 awards (previous record set in 1992 of 109).  They also won season-long championship in novice and varsity International Public Debate

Chris Halley and Brian Rauls have been named to the IPDA governing board.  The governing board is group of 7 coaches and students who serve as a policy making body for IPDA

Joel Brown has been awarded the 2007 Arkansas State Communication Association undergraduate speech major of the year.

**        Diane Payne has had the following acceptances: “Shedding Hair” forthcoming in Voices of Breast Cancer Anthology; “Frozen Dreams” forthcoming in Chicken Soup for Beach Lover’s Soul, May 07; “Synaptic Journey” forthcoming in Fiction International, Winter 07; “The River Trip” forthcoming in Tea Party Magazine, Summer 07; "Fortunate" forthcoming in Burst, Summer 07; “The One”  in Samzida, February 07;   “Foreign Concept” in Voice For Change, February, 07; and A New Kind of Music, Brilliant Books, 2007.

The Foliate Oak literary magazine received several awards at the Arkansas College Media Association Conference on April 20 in Little Rock:

First Place in Nonfiction for Angie Friedel's "Sunday Drivers.”
First Place in Fiction for Michael Mirolla's "The Sand Flea"
First Place in Poetry for Holly Perrault's "Marriage to a Poet."  
Second Place in Magazine General Excellence.

All these writings can be found in our online magazine and in our new issue - Best of Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, 2007.

**        Linda Webster has been appointed to the governing board of the Daughters of Charity Services of Arkansas, which provides medical assistance to the poor living in the Delta.  

She has completed two (2) additional scripts for production: one has already been filmed and the second one will be shot in Little Rock at the end of April.  Little Rock Scripture Study (LRSS) is an international, English-language program for Bible study published in partnership with Liturgical Press in Minnesota.  Individual books of the Bible are studied in depth by small, faith-sharing groups under the leadership of a trained facilitator.  One of the required program aids is a DVD featuring 20 minute recorded “wrap-up” lectures covering several chapters of any given Book under study that are written and performed for filming by theologians.  Each wrap-up lecture is approximately 3,000 words of exegesis for the lay reader.  I’ve done portions of John and Revelation plus a third script about comparing various Biblical media.  All three are “in the can.”  The Gospel According to John and the Johannine Letters is currently available through LittleRockScripture.org   The other two are currently in post-production.  All scripts go through a rigorous editorial process, including oversight by a board of professional theologians, then the filming is done in Little Rock by a team of contract professionals.

Along with Dr. Juan Serna (physics) and Dr. Steve Trana (music), Linda traveled to Jonesboro over spring break to premier Dr. Trana’s four-movement “So Suite,” written for violin, clarinet, and piano.  

She taught a 2-day leadership institute in Little Rock at the end of March.  

Linda is creating slide shows with audio lecture tracks for all online courses in speech which have been made available to off-campus instructors using the UAM public speaking text.

**        This semester Kay Walter has made frequent visits to area high school classrooms as a PATHWISE mentor for English teaching interns.

She has been invited to guest lecture in classes at Hamburg High School, McGehee High School, Monticello High School, and Rison High School, where she has taught classes in English and French.

Kay took interested members of the Theatre Club to a Ballet Magnificat presentation of the story of Ruth in Little Rock.

Over spring break, Kay accompanied two UAM students to Great Britain on their first trip abroad.  She took them to visit sites of historic, literary, and architectural interest in England, Scotland, and Wales.  She decorated a bulletin board in the MCB to display highlights of this trip including photos at the graves of William Wordsworth and William Shakespeare.

In a Lake Village elementary classroom, she filmed a presentation one of her students made about the trip to Great Britain.

Kay has been working with the conference chair of the Arkansas Philological Association at SAU to update the mailing list in preparation for next year’s conference. 

In May she will spend a week in Honduras teaching first grades in a bilingual school and sharing information about UAM with college-age students.

**        Allen Redmon presented a paper entitled “Elementary My Dear Watson: Identification and Competition in the Detective Films of the 1930’s and 1940’s” at the national American Culture/Popular Culture Association meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, April 4-7.  

He will present a paper entitled “Repression and Revelation: Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Day of Wrath (1943) and Levitical Law” at the International Meeting of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion meeting in Amsterdam, July 4-7.

Allen has submitted two articles for review:  “Tale as Old as Time”?: (Re) Defining the Disney Princess Narrative According to Discursive Aim at the Journal of Film and Television and  The “Unfinished Business” of Kill Bill: Cinematic Discourse In and Out of the Dark at the Journal of Religion and Film.

Allen continues to work on a book-length study entitled At the End of the Crime: the Evolution of the Detective Film Genre in America.

**        Gary Marshall’s Oral Interpretation students will perform poetry, prose, and drama for classes at Monticello and Drew Central High Schools.  Students performing are Zach Baumgarten, Brandon Bolden, Joel Brown, John Cruse, Sheena Garrard, Chris Halley, Ben Higginbotham, Quinton Jones, Mary Knight, Shenai Limbrick, Jennifer Loveless, Elliot Mangham, Brian Rauls, Asjley Williamson, Chad Young, and Cody Young.  

He worked with 8th grade Waldron English students to produce environmental poetry for each month of the 2007—2008 school calendar.  These students read their work at Waldron’s Earth Day celebration, providing a poetic moment while butterflies were being released.

Mars will be giving a creativity workshop at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute’s Arts in the Air Family Art Festival on May 5^th.

**        Tom Richard’s painting, Chapter 39: “The Cartesian Masculinization of Thought” Susan Bardo and WWE, was accepted into The 33rd Annual Juried Competition, sponsored by CenturyTel at the Masur Museum of Art, Monroe.  Marilyn Kushner, curator and educator, viewed the slide entries and accepted eighty-five works from sixty artists for exhibition, which will be displayed March 12 – April 28, 2007 at the Masur Museum of Art in Monroe, LA.

He will be exhibiting 10 new drawings during May at the Blue Moon Gallery in Hot Springs.

Three paintings from Tom Richard’s Volume(s) Series will be in a group show in June entitled “Kenophobia” at the Baton Rouge Gallery Center for Contemporary Art in Baton Rouge, LA.

Tom will be in a Three Person Show in July at the Baton Rouge Gallery Center for Contemporary Art in Baton Rouge, LA.

Tom recently met with Anne S. Gochenour, curator of the Arkansas Arts Center and planned his solo exhibition for May 23 – July 20, 2008: Tom Richard: Cereal Inquiries; Sam Strauss, Sr. Gallery Arkansas Arts Center.

He attended the College Art Association Conference in New York City, February 14 - 17, 2007.  

Jill Moore’s senior exhibition was held April 5 through 13 in the Spencer Gallery of the Fine Arts Center on the UAM campus.  Her numerous oil paintings all utilize either the subject of faces or of flowers.  The portraits are of family members but are from documentary photographs taken at a time when the sitters are approaching adulthood.  The flower paintings fracture the surface into multiples, which allow for transition of color effects to be evident.  “I really like to compliment colors, thick textured paint, and visible brushstrokes with crisp lines.  The flower series shows the same design repeated over the surface in different color schemes. I repeat them over and over so I can explore these different color schemes and use a lot of paint,” states Jill Moore about her work.
 

Martha Rico and Hannah Williamson’s senior exhibition will be held April 16 through May 11 in the Spencer Gallery of the Fine Arts Center on the UAM campus.  A public reception will be held Friday, April 27 from 4:30 to 5:30.  Martha’s artwork, which uses classical processes of glazing oil paint, focuses on figures and the way they move though space and also on close up studies of flowers.  The process of painting is borrowed from renaissance and romantic characteristics.  Hannah’s paintings are executed in a pop art manner and follow the influences of Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann, and Jasper Johns.  Her work focuses on America and its emphasis on advertising and commercialism, not to mention its obsession with junk food. 

**        Les Pack has had four compositions for concert band published this year.  They are: Prelude and Fanfare – Lester Pack, Commissioned by the Four States Bandmasters Association, Published by Twin Towers Music Publications; Fanfare for Concert Band – Lester Pack, Published by Twin Towers Music Publications; Respect is a Two Way Street – Lester Pack, Commissioned by Dumas High School, Published by Twin Towers Music Publications; Soaring Eagles – Lester Pack, Commissioned by Crossett High School, Published by Twin Towers Music Publications.  You can browse or buy at: http://www.twintowersmusic.com  

**        Scott Lykens has been accepted into the following National Exhibitions:  2nd Annual UAM National Juried Cup Show, University of Arkansas Monticello, Monticello, Arkansas, Juror - Matt Long; Strictly Functional Pottery National, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Juror - Malcolm Davis; Dinnertime, Patina Store Gallery, Winston Salem, North Carolina; Empty Bowls, Pewabic Pottery, Detroit, Michigan; Empty Bowls, Arkansas Food Bank Network, Little Rock, Arkansas; Mug Auction, Carbondale Clay Center, Carbondale, Colorado;  For the House and Garden, Pewabic Pottery, Detroit, Michigan; Plates and Platters: Salon Style, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; La Mesa III, Sante Fe Clay at Louisville, Kentucky NCECA 2007;  Subversive Surface, Blossom Music Center, Hudson, Ohio; Cup  Dowstudio Gallery, Deer Isle, Maine;  Contained, LTC Gallery, University of Arkansas Monticello, Monticello, Arkansas.

Scott presented at NCECA, the national professional conference within his specific field, and published several pod casts related to the conference.

He also curated “Contained,” a national invitational, and organized the 2nd Annual National Juried UAM Cup Show. 

He organized 3 visiting scholars to come and present demonstrations and lectures at UAM in addition to being a juror for the AYAA and the YAAA, which are state and regional arts organizations that focus on youth art and pick scholarship opportunities for student artists.

Currently Scott is securing contracts for next year’s 3-D exhibitions and has published the prospectus for the 3rd Annual National Juried UAM Cup Show. 

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