Poem of the Day: Maya Angelou’s “Phenomenal Woman”
From Laura Sinaga’s review of Gayle Wald’s Shout, Sister, Shout! The Untold Story of Rock-and-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe in today’s NYT Book Review: In the 1940s, when big bands were hiring pretty girls with sweet voices to bob over their beats, Tharpe fronted Lucky Millinder’s raucous swing outfit with gutsy force. In the late…
Wild Geese You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world…
Professor Alexa Alice Joubin on Shakespeare Around the World (Part 1): Four continents. Three oceans. Two hemispheres. One summer. Lots of tasteless pretzels and “chicken or beef?” moments (otherwise known as in-flight meals) in between. Shakespearean chatter between Scott Newstok and Alexa Alice Joubin via text messages. Alexa spoke on Hamlet and Ophelia…
Professor Chu describes “Narratives of Return: Transpacific Returns in Asian American Literature” at Renmin University On Wednesday, December 26, I gave a talk for English language and literature students and scholars at Renmin University in Beijing. The university, also known as People’s University of China, was founded in 1950 as the first national university…
Dear English Department students, Welcome back, and a special welcome to first-year and newly declared English majors just joining us for the first time! It feels exciting (and a bit intimidating) to contemplate gathering again in our classrooms for the first time since the pandemic erupted. As we’ve prepared to re-open our suite on the…
What does Cuba mean to you? To be entirely candid with you, my only experience with Cuba is its delicious cuisine. However, Cuba has always fascinated me with its rich cultural and political history. Last night’s reading with author and journalist, Mayra Montero only solidified that interest. As H.G. Carrillo emphasized in his warm introduction…