Welcome, Year of the Snake!

The campus and St. Joseph communities gathered on Monday, February 11 to celebrate the Chinese New Year, saying "farewell" to the year of the Dragon and welcoming in the year of the Snake.

Visiting Professor Juan Wang from Xidian University enlisted the help of her students and friends from the international community to run the event.

The crowd of adults and children, while sipping Chinese tea and munching wonderful dumplings, enjoyed traditional Chinese music played by Dr. Junping Yang and Mr. Chris Wang.

The room in Blum Hall was decorated with posters and streamers. We enjoyed the Lantern Festival Parade (Shehuo Parade) before heading outside to release lanterns in the the cool evening air.

Festival attendees were given the opportunity to learn about Chinese zodiac animals, and traditional tea service. Other activities included folk-art paper-cutting and instruction in drawing Chinese characters.

Prairie Lands Writing Project Receives More Grant Money

According to National Writing Project Executive Director Sharon J. Washington, Prairie Lands Writing Project has been awarded $105,000 of federal funds for the site’s 2013  National Writing Project College-Ready Writers Program (CRWP) Study and Planning Grant proposal.

This Study and Planning Grant award provides local Writing Project sites and partner districts time and resources to plan for learning about teaching analytic, informational, and argumentative writing and to analyze each district’s specific strengths and challenges with teaching writing. During this planning phase, local Writing Project sites and partner districts will co-design professional and leadership development programs for at least 80 percent of the district’s English Language Arts teachers in grades 7-10 for a minimum of 90 hours over the two years of professional development from 2013-2015.  

Prairie Lands will be working with Breckenridge R-I School District, Hamilton R-II School District, Braymer C-4 School District, Osborn R-0 School District, Trenton R-IX School District, and Winston R-VI School District.

 

Congratulations to Tom Pankiewicz and Jane Frick for their work on the grant application!

First Thursday Open Mic Reading

Dana Andrews reads about dogs, journalism, and cars

Our First Thursday Open Mic Reading (formerly known as "That Poetry Reading Series" until we realized just how informative and poetic "First Thursday Open Mic Poetry Reading" would be) was held, well, this past Thursday, not coincidentally the first one in the month of February. Thanks to Mary Dockery for running the show and for reading her poems.

EFLJ majors Katie and Eric shared their work, listened, and drank strong coffee

A healthy crowd (measured by size rather than actual physical fitness) gathered to read and listen to poems, novel excerpts, spoken word, stories, non-fiction, and at one point a Hy-Vee receipt from last January. It was getting late and standards had dropped a bit. But even that got applause as those gathered were just happy to be there and just supportive by nature.
 

EFLJ alumni Jeremy and Stephanie can't believe what they're hearing.

And you should be happy to be at our next open mic reading. When? Well, the answer to that is in the name of the series. The new name. The old name is not helpful.

We hope to see you on March 7 from 6-8 PM at Foster's Martini Bar in downtown Historic Old Saint Joseph. Bring something to read, or just listen!

That Poetry Reading Series Continues

The second edition of the 2013 That Poetry Reading Series is coming up!
Open mic at Foster's Martini Bar (726 Felix Street, Saint Joseph)
February 7 at 6pm. 

We want to hear your work!
Bring your poetry, prose, or other creative work. Five minutes of fame. Real fame. Literary fame. Not that lousy, cheap fifteen minutes Warhol promised you. This is the real deal. Step up. Be a person of letters.

If this reading leaves the ground and you're not in it, you'll regret it. Maybe not that day, and maybe not the next day but soon and for the rest of your life. Think about that.