Her legacy is being honored with a portrait in the National Portrait Gallery’s Poetic Likeness exhibition.  Author Dana Greene will talk about Denise Levertov’s life (1923-1997) and sign books on October 24 (Levertov’s 89th birthday) at 12:00 noon, 2nd Floor, North Wing, in front of Denise Levertov portrait.  It is free to the public.

The book has received positive early reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and The Washington Times.

Her critically acclaimed book in our Contemporary Film Directors series was published earlier this year.

“A thoughtful, scholarly study of one of America’s most underrated filmmakers.”–Leonard Maltin

“A sympathetic, in-depth, and entirely jargon-free look at Kaufman’s work.”–DGA Quarterly

“A shrewd and very readable study.”–Filmmaker

“Superb.”–Hollywood Reporter

“A study so closely tuned to his work and so neatly supplemented with his own insights from interviews and e-mails that it reads like a biography of an oeuvre.”–The New Yorker online

Michael S. Harper
“Canon Maker: Poet, Editor, Teacher, Mentor, Scholar”
Wednesday – Friday, March 13-15, 2013

The English Department at The University of Missouri – Columbia in conjunction with Cave Canem Foundation invites scholars, poets, and jazz musicians to participate in a three-day academic symposium that celebrates and
explores the multi-faceted contributions of Michael S. Harper. The symposium will begin on Wednesday, March 13 and conclude on Friday, March 15, 2013 with a musical tribute and jazz poetry reading.

Michael Harper, Professor of English at Brown University since 1970, is the
author of 15 books of poetry, the most recent of which is Use Trouble (University
of Illinois Press, 2009). His Dear John, Dear Coltrane and Images of Kin were
nominated for the National Book Award. He edited The Collected Poems of
Sterling A. Brown, selected for the National Poetry Series in 1979, and Every
Shut Eye Ain’t Asleep. With Anthony Walton, he co-edited The Vintage Book of
African American Poetry and is co-editor of Chant of Saints, an anthology of
African-American Art, Writing and Scholarship.

He was the first Poet Laureate of the State of Rhode Island and has received
many honors, including the 2008 Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of
America, a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation and a National
Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Award. In 1990 he received the Robert
Hayden Poetry Award from the United Negro College Fund. He has been
honored with honorary doctorates in Letters from Trinity College (Hartford, CT),
Coe College (Cedar Rapids, IA), Notre Dame College (Manchester, NH), Kenyon
College (Gambier, OH), and Rhode Island College (Providence, RI). Washington
& Jefferson College (Washington, PA). He was elected to the American Academy
of Arts & Sciences in 1995.

For more than 42 years, Michael S. Harper has not only created a body of work
that has changed the way that African-American poetry is viewed, there are four
generations of published novelists, poets, playwrights, and professors who credit
his teaching, mentorship and scholarship for their beginning.

This symposium promises to be a stimulating set of conversations and
performances celebrating the work and vision of Harper (just days before his 75th
birthday on March 18.)

We invite one-page abstracts for individual papers and panels. Students are also
invited to submit abstracts for consideration. Abstract and proposals should be
submitted via email to mahdk7@mail.missouri.edu (please put Michael Harper
Symposium and your last name in the subject line) and should be in either
Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, or Rich Text format, 12 pt, Times Roman. Abstracts
and proposals should include the following:

A cover page that contains the following information for abstracts and panels:

1. Author’s name
2. Title of Submission
3. Institutional affiliation
4. Contact information (email, phone number, mailing address)

Send abstracts for papers and panels by November 16, 2012. Notification of
acceptance will be made by January 28, 2013.

We are also seeking regional and local jazz artists to perform on the final night of
the conference. Performers should send a link to one live performance video and
bio to Glenn North at gnorth@kcjazz.org by December 7, 2012.

We will be at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) meeting from September 26-30, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We will have authors signing books all afternoon Friday, September 28 at our booths, #19 & 20.

1:00–2:00  Jacqueline McLeod, Daughter of the Empire State: The Life of Judge Jane Bolin

2:00–3:00  Julie Gallagher, Black Women and Politics in New York City

3:00–4:00  Felix Armfield, Eugene Kinckle Jones: The National Urban League and Black Social Work, 1910-1940

4:00–5:00  Darlene Clark Hine and John McCluskey Jr., eds., The Black Chicago Renaissance

Stop by and say, “Hello!”

And as we mentioned earlier in this blog, we will be at the International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass Week, which runs from September 24-30, 2012, in Nashville, Tennessee. Celebrate Josh Graves’ 85th Birthday with Fred Bartenstein, editor of Bluegrass Bluesman, Thursday, September at 1:00 pm, University of Illinois Press Booth, #223.

Living with Lynching: African American Lynching Plays, Performance, and Citizenship, 1890–1930,  demonstrates that popular lynching plays were mechanisms through which African American communities survived actual and photographic mob violence.

Koritha Mitchell is an associate professor of English at The Ohio State University, and is an active blogger and public speaker. Her most recent post details her lecture and book signing at the Atlanta Cyclorama & Civil War Museum.

The concert will feature the Baroque Artists of Champaign Urbana, conducted by Chester Alwes; The Prairie Ensemble, conducted by Kevin Kelly; and Prairie Voices, conducted by University of Illinois Press Editor-in-Chief Laurie Matheson.

In Bound for America (2003), Nicholas Temperley’s first book for UIP, he documents the lives, careers, and music of three British composers who emigrated from England in mid-career and became leaders in the musical life of Federal-era America. Music and the Wesleys (2010), co-edited with Stephen Banfield, examines more than 150 years of music-making tradition in England to provide new insights into the Wesley family and the fundamental importance of music in the development of Methodism.

More information on Nicholas Temperley and the concert can be found here.

A portrait of poet Denise Levertov (1923-1997) will be included in the exhibit.

In September 2012 the University of Illinois Press will publish the biography Denise Levertov: A Poet’s Life by Dana Greene, Dean Emerita of Oxford College of Emory University.

Dr. Greene has been invited to speak at the National Portrait Gallery, in conjunction with the Poetic Likeness exhibition, at 12:00 noon on October 24, 2012, Denise Levertov’s 89th birthday.

Canada’s Maclean’s magazine is one of the latest publications to laud Squeeze This!:

“An academic resource, a detailed history, and a quirky travelogue. . . . [Time] to roll out the barrel and uncork the champagne: with this book, the lowly squeezebox has begun to get its cultural due.”

August 16, 2012 – 7:00 p.m.
Accordion Apocalypse
255 10th St., San Francisco, CA 94103
Reading and concert (No cover)
Emceed by Luz Gaxiola* with music by The Mad Maggies and Sheri Mignano

*Luz Gaxiola plays with Circus Finelli, a San Francisco based clown ensemble she co-founded in 2005. Luz combines comedy, circus antics, and accordion to create dynamic interactive performances. She plays songs from all over the world, from Russian folk-songs to Mexican norteno standards.

August 17, 2012 – 6:00 p.m.
Smythe’s Accordion Center
416 25th Street, Oakland, CA  94612
Concert and book signing (No cover)
Emceed by Renee de la Prade, music by Andre Thierry and Rob Reich**

**Rob Reich performs a diverse repertoire of solo accordion music, including original music, French waltzes, Ragtime numbers, and Jazz standards.  Since 2010, Reich has been a member of the acclaimed ensemble Tin Hat.  He also plays in the acclaimed Bay Area jazz groups Nice Guy Trio and Gaucho, and works as composer and musical director for Circus Bella.   More info at www.robreich.com.

August 18-19
Cotati Accordion Festival
La Plaza Park
Cotati, CA
Book signing

*****

Publication of Squeeze This! is supported by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation