Also reading will be Campbell McGrath, the author of ten books of poetry, including Spring Comes to Chicago, Florida Poems, Seven Notebooks, and most recently In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys (Ecco Press, 2012).

The reading will take place at the The Walters Art Museum, 600 N Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21201, at 2 p.m. on March 10.  It is free to the public.

Much of the book was written during Gwiazda’s residency at the James Merrill House in Stonington, Connecticut in the fall of 2008. Some poems first appeared in Linebreak, Mudlark, Past Simple, Revolutionesque, Vallum, and other journals. In the interview, Gwiazda talks about literary influence, the concept of empire, “the right to illusion,” contemporary US poets, Brecht, poetry and politics, poetry and pedagogy and exophonic writing.

The book is published by Pond Road Press, which publishes poetry books and chapbooks that include author interviews.

Having just returned from a trip to Finland, Norway and Sweden, Schaller writes that in Scandinavia “a person’s income is far less dependent upon his or her parents’ income than it is here in the United States. In contrast to the U.S., Scandinavian countries are less class-anchored and more egalitarian and feature higher rates of political participation — all features that we aspire to have here in America but which have vanished in recent decades.”

Schaller connects this finding to conservative policy decisions, such as “shift[ing] the tax burden from wealth (inheritance and capital gains) to work (payroll, income taxes).” For details, read his full commentary in the Baltimore Sun.

In “It’s About More Than Food,” Ronch writes that although “different regulatory considerations might play into the dining decisions at differing levels of care in a continuing care retirement community…[w]hat’s important is the fact that dining is deeply tied to pleasure, identity and sense of community, and therefore the service being provided is not simply to deliver food. To make a point of segregating people because of their physical or mental condition is to threaten their sense of dignity and identity as a valued member of a community.”

The program is mainly focused on Provine’s research into laughter and his book.  The crew spent about a week in Baltimore and UMBC, shooting material in Provine’s lab, one of my lectures, the Commons, and the American Visionary Arts Museum that had an exhibit featuring his work. Matt Groening of The Simpsons, Patch Adams, and others were collaborators in the AVAM show. 

See the German language film here.

This is Provine’s seventh contribution to the series, and his essay is entitled “TANSTAAFL” (“There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”). It focuses on the fact that everything has its price, a concept relevant to everyday life as well as all sciences. The idea of TANSTAAFL borrows from Robert Heinlein’s science fiction classic, “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.”

Contributors to the book include Daniel Kahneman, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Martin Seligman, Martin Rees, Robert Sapolsky, Steve Pinker, Jaron Lanier, V. S. Ramachandran, Lisa Randall, Brian Eno, J.Crain Venter, David Brooks, and others.  All of the essays can be read here.

Maryland State Delegate John Olszewski

Olszewski, 29, a second-term Baltimore County Democrat, says he wanted to be sure the bill enables religious institutions who do not want to participate in same-sex marriage ceremonies to refrain from doing so, and that he is confident the measure “goes above and beyond” to “protect religious institutions.” He concluded, “To go another day denying full rights to all Marylanders would be a disgrace.”

Prior to enrolling in UMBC’s Ph.D. program in public policy, Olszewski was a social studies and special education teacher for seven years. See Olszewski’s website for his full statement on the marriage legislation.

Synopsis: Jen Harris is a basketball player at Penn State University. Coach Rene Portland makes the rule “no drugs, no drinking, no lesbians.” Training Rules takes the disturbing facts of the Harris vs. Portland case and personalizes their impact by telling Jennifer’s story as well as those of six other women who were victimized through the years. Together they unveil a litany of betrayal, abuse, humiliation and bigotry. (62 minutes)

Showtimes:

• Monday (2/27): 10:00, 11:00, 12:00 (please note the shortened schedule on this day to accommodate for Korenman Lecture events)
• Tuesday (2/28): 10:00, 11:30, 1:00, 2:30, 3:30, 4:30
• Wednesday (2/29): 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00
• Thursday (3/01): 10:00, 11:30, 1:00, 2:30, 3:30, 4:30
• Friday (3/02): 11:00 followed by film discussion

The film discussion will be held Friday, March 2, at noon, facilitated by Nicole Cousin-Gossett.

For more information, contact the Women’s Center at ext. 5-2714.

I regret to inform the campus that Robert K. Webb died on February 14. Born in 1922, Bob Webb was long the preeminent American scholar of British history, with a glittering array of Guggenheim, NEH, and other fellowships and distinctions. He came to UMBC in 1975, from being editor of the American Historical Review, the nation’s most important journal of history, and before that he had been Professor of History at Columbia University.

Giving his energy, leadership, and commitment, not just his name and stature, to UMBC, he helped shape not only the History Department but also the University. He was chair of the History Department for much of the period from the mid-1970s until his retirement in 1992, served a year as UMBC’s Acting Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (now Provost), and was named UMBC’s first Presidential Research Professor. He remained connected to the Department after his retirement, partly through the R.K. Webb Lecture. His obituary in the Washington Post can be found here.

In a Humanities Forum lecture entitled “Passage on the Underground Railroad and the Black Experience within American History,” Marc will explore how these images fit into the context of his previous and ongoing bodies of work that focus on locating the black experience within American history.

Stephen Marc is a professor of art in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. A member of the Olympus Visionary Program, he has published The Black Trans-Atlantic Experience and Urban Notions.

Passage on the Underground Railroad is an interpretive program in the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. This lecture is presented in conjunction with the Library Gallery exhibit of Marc’s work.

The lecture will take place on Wednesday, March 7 at 4 p.m. in the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery.  It is the annual Daphne Harrison Lecture.