CHICAGO,IL. (June 24, 2009) – This June marked the release of New City’s eagerly anticipated annual Lit 50 List of “Who really books in Chicago,” and the Columbia presence was loud and clear once again. From a Department Chair faculty, poetry alums and a grad student, the Columbia literary community claimed seven spots, representing a spectrum of creative disciplines in a city that truly loves its lit.
#14 – Randy Albers
The Chair of the Fiction Writing Department was recognized for his work as the guiding force behind the power-house known as the Story Week Festival of Writers, which just celebrated its thirteenth year in May.
#37 – Gina Frangello
Frangello, who teaches the Fiction Seminar class in the Fiction Department, is the Executive Editor of Other Voices’ Books. She is also the author of the novel My Sister’s Continent, and the forthcoming compilation of short stories, Slut Lullabies, due in 2010. Visit her at www.ginafrangello.com and www.dzancbooks.org/OVBooks
#40 – Brandi Homan
A 2007 Poetry MFA alum, Homan serves as Editor-in-Chief of local feminist poetry press Switchback Books. She is the author of two full-length books of poetry, Hard Reds, and Bobcat Country, forthcoming in 2010, as well as a chapbook, Two Kinds of Arson. Visit her at www.brandihoman.com and www.switchbackbooks.com
#41 – Ellen Wadey
Wadey, who teaches in the English Department, is the Executive Director of the long-running Guild Complex, which hosts writing workshops and sponsored readings throughout the city. Learn more at www.guildcomplex.org
#42 – Bill “The Butcher” Hillman
Hillman, an MFA candidate in the Fiction Writing Department, is the founder and emcee of the ever-growing Windy City Story Slam. The Slam hosts several high-energy readings across the city throughout the year. Each slam boasts a theme, the most recent being “The War and Peace Show,” which featured internationally acclaimed writer Irvine Welsh. Learn more about the slam at www.windycitystoryslam.com
#44 – Jonathan Messinger
Messinger, who teaches a class on small-press publishing in the Fiction Writing Department, is one of the founders of the local indie publishing company Featherproof Books. He is also the books editor for Time Out Chicago, and author of Hiding Out. Learn more at www.featherproof.com
#46 – Kristy Bowen
A 2007 Poetry MFA alum, Kristy founded dancing girl press and studio in 2004, which publishes chapbooks by women poets. To date, the press has published more than fifty titles. She is also the publisher of the online lit zine wicked alice, and the author of three books of poetry; the fever almanac, in the bird museum, and the forthcoming girl show. Visit her at www.dancinggirlpress.com
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CHICAGO, IL (June 22, 2009) – The Center for Black Music Research (CBMR) will welcome research fellows Dr. Helen Brown and jazz bassist and composer Marcus Shelby this summer. Both are recipients of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC) Short-Term Fellowships in African American Studies.
For two months, Dr. Brown and Mr. Shelby will work on research for projects which will explore the lives and work of influential African Americans. The opportunity to host these two distinguished fellows recognizes the CBMR and Columbia as a national research destination and respected resource for both artists and academicians.
Helen Brown, Ph.D., whose project is entitled “Margaret Allison Bonds and Langston Hughes: Musical Textural Relationships in the Arts and Songs,” will research the “art songs” of pioneering composer and Chicagoan, Margaret Allison Bonds. Ms. Bonds wrote her songs during the 1950s to poetry by Langston Hughes. This research is part of a larger book project on Margaret Allison Bonds. Dr. Brown will use collections at the CBMR as well as the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection at the Woodson Branch of the Chicago Public Library for her research. Dr. Brown holds a Ph.D. in Music Theory from Ohio State University. She is the Associate Professor in the Department of Performing and Visual Arts at Purdue University.
Marcus Shelby, whose project is entitled “MLK (Oratorio for Jazz Orchestra),” will research the Chicago experiences of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as part of a jazz oratorio he is composing that interprets the life of the civil rights leader. Mr. Shelby will use collections at the CBMR, the Harold Washington Branch of the Chicago Public Library, and the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection at the Woodson Branch of The Chicago Public Library during his fellowship term. Mr. Shelby is a jazz bassist and composer based in Oakland, California. He was the bandleader of Columbia Records and GRP Impulse! Recording Artists Black/Note. Currently, Mr. Shelby is the Artistic Director and leader of The Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, The Marcus Shelby Septet and the Marcus Shelby Trio. Mr. Shelby holds an instructor position at the Berkeley Young Musician Program, San Francisco State University, and the Stanford Jazz Workshop. He recently released an ensemble composition based on the life of Harriet Tubman
This year marks the inception of the BMRC’s Fellows Program, which is made possible by the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Fellowships were awarded to scholars and artists who have exhibited excellence in their discipline(s), have a significant body of work characterized by originality, and who have demonstrated a need to conduct research in the archives and collections of BMRC members.
The Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College Chicago was founded in 1983 and is the only organization of its kind. The CBMR documents and preserves information and materials related to the black music experience throughout the world. Through its Library and Archives, publications, conferences, performances, and other public programming, the CBMR promotes and advances scholarly knowledge and thought about black music and the black musical experience, and about their relationship to higher education and to society at-large.
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CHICAGO, IL. (June 14, 2009) – June 6 and 7, the Printers Row Lit Fest marked its 25th year of literary bliss, and Columbia was there front and center. Like every year since its inception, the Lit Fest took over the South Loop’s historic Printers Row, closing down streets to make way for more than 250 authors, tents and tables full of books, publishers and local colleges and universities – all there to celebrate the written word.
The festival featured literary luminaries in readings and panel discussions, including Neil Gaiman, Elmore Leonard, Dave Eggers, Stuart Dybek, and from Columbia, acclaimed cartoonist Ivan Brunetti and the Pushcart Prize winning Nami Mun.
The Columbia Arts and Entertainment tent, set up at the Fest entrance at Harrison and Dearborn, boasted two days of readings and music from faculty, staff, alumni, and students. Books by faculty and alumni were for sale, along with beautiful, glossy photography books from The Center for American Places. Shop Columbia claimed their own table, selling objects of art, jewelry, tote bags, and much more, all designed and produced by students.
Readings at the Columbia tent attracted many festival-goers, entertaining them with a range of authentic voices and perspectives. Writers of fiction, nonfiction, plays, and poetry took the microphone during the course of the afternoon, with live bands playing jazz, alternative rock, and acoustic guitar closing out the day.
In all, it was a successful event that sent droves of Chicagoans home with bagfuls of summer reading, and a relatively rain-free celebration of a quarter-century of an iconic Midwestern Lit Fest.
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