Biscuits and Mirrors
6/22/2006
Nine of our students and professor Janice Monti just returned from The Racial and Musical Legacy of Memphis and the Mississippi Delta, a sociological multicultural ethnographic study trip through Mississippi and Tennessee. Among their many highlights was an appearance on the legendary King Biscuit Time radio show with "Sunshine" Sonny Payne. According to their website, "The King Biscuit Time radio show was founded in 1941 with the first ever live broadcast of blues music and the daily programming of Sonny Boy Williamson, Pinetop Perkins, Robert Lockwood Jr. and other blues legends throughout the delta. The program is still broadcast each weekday on KFFA in Helena, Arkansas. With more than 14,000 broadcasts, King Biscuit Time has had an influence on several generations of blues, rock, and pop trend setters." You can hear our students in the studio (plus a lot of great music) when you select the June 15, 2006 program after clicking here. According to professor Monti, "One of our students, Tramaine Martin, got to do a live commercial for the Delta Cultural Center (which hosts the show). Other highlights this year include an original guitar solo by another of our students, Tyson Schutz, performed on the front porch of legendary bluesman, Mississippi John Hurt." Very cool. Here are the students with Sonny Payne.
One of our recent graduates, Tracy Schmidt, is doing an internship for Time Magazine online. She's just turned 22 and last week had her first Time article published! Living in Washington she's doing exciting things like meeting with Labor Secretary Elaine Chao for a story, and working with journalists Matt Cooper and Joe Klein (author of Primary Colors). Also very cool.
And at the moment a group of Dominican students is in Florence for six weeks, where they can study photography (here are some our previous students' images) in a course called The Florentine Mirror, which "addresses the function of journey as a pretext for inspiring creative works and heightened self-awareness. The student engages Florence directly, seeing the city as a mirror to one's own questions about place and time. Expeditions to Piazzele Michelangelo, the Eustrucan ruins of nearby Fiesole, the living graveyard that is Santa Croce church, become part of the student's everyday perceptions. Museum visits further study gesture and narrative, as well as the depiction of time and the role of the human in relation to place. Students keep a collage sketchbook accounting their weekly experiences. This multi-level, on-site course allows the student to use the Florentine setting as a resource for photographic projects and personal inquiry beyond the conventional vacation picture." Our students can also study Italian language, renaissance art, and courses on Florence's unique history, politics, and religion. Reports from our two faculty directors, Tonia Triggiano and Javier Carmona, say the students are having an amazing time.
Meanwhile photos from our first SOAR group have been posted, the second group left yesterday, and the third arrives tomorrow. Busy and good times.
Nine of our students and professor Janice Monti just returned from The Racial and Musical Legacy of Memphis and the Mississippi Delta, a sociological multicultural ethnographic study trip through Mississippi and Tennessee. Among their many highlights was an appearance on the legendary King Biscuit Time radio show with "Sunshine" Sonny Payne. According to their website, "The King Biscuit Time radio show was founded in 1941 with the first ever live broadcast of blues music and the daily programming of Sonny Boy Williamson, Pinetop Perkins, Robert Lockwood Jr. and other blues legends throughout the delta. The program is still broadcast each weekday on KFFA in Helena, Arkansas. With more than 14,000 broadcasts, King Biscuit Time has had an influence on several generations of blues, rock, and pop trend setters." You can hear our students in the studio (plus a lot of great music) when you select the June 15, 2006 program after clicking here. According to professor Monti, "One of our students, Tramaine Martin, got to do a live commercial for the Delta Cultural Center (which hosts the show). Other highlights this year include an original guitar solo by another of our students, Tyson Schutz, performed on the front porch of legendary bluesman, Mississippi John Hurt." Very cool. Here are the students with Sonny Payne.
One of our recent graduates, Tracy Schmidt, is doing an internship for Time Magazine online. She's just turned 22 and last week had her first Time article published! Living in Washington she's doing exciting things like meeting with Labor Secretary Elaine Chao for a story, and working with journalists Matt Cooper and Joe Klein (author of Primary Colors). Also very cool.
And at the moment a group of Dominican students is in Florence for six weeks, where they can study photography (here are some our previous students' images) in a course called The Florentine Mirror, which "addresses the function of journey as a pretext for inspiring creative works and heightened self-awareness. The student engages Florence directly, seeing the city as a mirror to one's own questions about place and time. Expeditions to Piazzele Michelangelo, the Eustrucan ruins of nearby Fiesole, the living graveyard that is Santa Croce church, become part of the student's everyday perceptions. Museum visits further study gesture and narrative, as well as the depiction of time and the role of the human in relation to place. Students keep a collage sketchbook accounting their weekly experiences. This multi-level, on-site course allows the student to use the Florentine setting as a resource for photographic projects and personal inquiry beyond the conventional vacation picture." Our students can also study Italian language, renaissance art, and courses on Florence's unique history, politics, and religion. Reports from our two faculty directors, Tonia Triggiano and Javier Carmona, say the students are having an amazing time.
Meanwhile photos from our first SOAR group have been posted, the second group left yesterday, and the third arrives tomorrow. Busy and good times.
