W. S. Merwin, distinguished poet, translator and environmental activist, will read from a selection of his works on May 1. He will also announce the winners of the Selden Whitcomb Poetry Prize, a contest that he judged.
Merwin’s reading will be supplemented by a premiere performance of two songs composed by John Rommereim, associate professor of music and chair of the Department of Music at Grinnell.
Merwin has strong anti-imperialist and pacifist beliefs and is a prominent environmental activist. In his writing, he focuses on the ways in which land and language overlap and interact with one another.
In 1970, Merwin won a Pulitzer Prize for The Carrier of the Ladder, a book of poems, and has since written several books about the natural world. His most recent book, Migrations: Selected Poems, was released on April 15, 2005.
The reading and musical performance will be performed in Sebring-Lewis Hall in the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday.
—Caitlin Carmody
Bethany Rankin ‘08, treasurer of Concerned Black Students (CBS), hopes that this Sunday’s talent show will help foster unity among campus groups and provide a forum in which students can express themselves in different ways.
“We want people to come out and enjoy themselves and we really want to unite people,” she said.
While the talent show is only being sponsored by CBS, any student is welcome to participate.
“We want to show people that your color or race doesn’t matter,—[the talent show] is just you doing something to show to the school,” Mana Ofosu-appiah, CBS activities coordinator, said.
There is a diverse group of acts including poetry, singing, dancing, playing instruments and comedy skits. CBS organizers emphasize that the goal of the talent show is to bring people together to express themselves in a unique way for the campus community.
“Grinnell is such a stressful place, and it’s good to have relief, being able to express yourself in other ways and allow other people to see different ways of expressing yourself,” Rankin said.
Though Ofosu-appiah said the main goal is to “have fun and see what your friends can do,” CBS members hope that participants and the audience get more out of the talent show.
“No group on this campus should be exclusive. We’re trying to show that diversity isn’t a simple black and white thing, that you can’t base [diversity] on how many black students and white students there are,” Ofosu-appiah said. “Even within racial and ethnic groups, there is so much diversity.”
The talent show will be held in the Harris Center Concert Hall at 7 p.m. on Sunday.
—Caitlin Carmody
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