Join us for "Kings of Pastry"

On Friday, December 16, 7 p.m., The Gnu’s Room will screen “Kings of Pastry” a documentary from PBS’s POV Series. The screening is free and open to the public.

When Chris Hegedus and D A Pennebaker, award-winning filmmakers of The War Room, Startup.com and Don't Look Back, turn their sights on the competition for the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, the country’s Nobel Prize for pastry, you’re in for a treat. In Kings of Pastry, 16 chefs, including Jacquy Pfeiffer, co-founder of Chicago’s French Pastry School, whip up the most gorgeous, delectable, gravity-defying concoctions and edge-of-your-seat drama as they deliver their spun-sugar desserts to the display table. The inevitable disasters and successes prove both poignant and hilarious. (90 minutes)

The Gnu’s Room, in partnership with the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the Auburn University College of Liberal Arts, will screen POV films throughout the year. PBS’s POV (Point of View) is television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films.

Public Symposium on Immigration and Migration in Alabama to be Held in January

Auburn University College of Liberal Arts announces a public symposium on immigration and migration in Alabama. Isabel Wilkerson and Carmen Agra Deedy headline a roster of presenters who will provide historical context for the people who came to, left, and moved within Alabama over the last two hundred years.

The two-day public symposium, “Becoming Alabama: Immigration and Migration in a Deep SouthState," will take place on January 20-21 at the Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center. It will feature scholars and professionals exploring immigration and migration from Spanish exploration to the 1813 Creek War through the present.

Symposium director, Dr. Mary Helen Brown, Breeden Eminent Scholar for the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities at Auburn, notes, “Alabama is a complicated place, and we can learn much by looking at the state through the lens of history and thinking about the future.”

The symposium is a “Becoming Alabama” event. Designed to commemorate major Alabama anniversaries of the Creek War/War of 1812, the Civil War and Emancipation and the Civil Rights era, “Becoming Alabama” is a statewide initiative begun by the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Isabel Wilkerson will give a presentation based upon her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration. Carmen Agra Deedy, the award-winning writer of children's literature, will present on her experiences of growing up Cuban in Decatur, Georgia.

Prominent scholars of history and political science from Auburn University, as well as other institutions, will also present on topics ranging from Spanish Exploration to how Alabama's immigrant population, including Germans, Koreans, Southeast Asians, and Hispanics, among others, have shaped art, politics, education and culture in the state.

Brown, an associate professor in the Auburn University Department of Communication & Journalism, adds, "We are excited about the quality and variety of speakers coming to this conference.”

A genealogy workshop will kick off the conference  from 1 – 5 p.m. on Thursday, January 19^th. Presenters will introduce family research and focus on using the census for both African American and Native American genealogies.  The workshop is co-sponsored by OLLI at Auburn, and may be registered for separately.  Visit our website for more information.

“Becoming Alabama: Immigration and Migration in a Deep South State” is supported by a generous grant from the Alabama Humanities Foundation, the state office of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is co-sponsored by the AlabamaDepartment of Archives and History, the Auburn University College of LiberalArts, History Department, and Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts& Humanities, as well as the Office of the Vice President for InternationalPrograms and the Office of Access and Community Initiatives. The East Alabama Memory Project, a program of the East Alabama Arts Association, is also serving as a sponsor.

Registration for the conference is $50. Registration for meals, which will feature keynote speakers, is separate. Students may register at a discounted rate. For a schedule and a list of presenters, visit our website or call 334-844-4946.

Singer-Songwriters at The Gnu’s Room Dec. 1

Singer-songwriter Kathryn Scheldt and co-writer Frye Gaillard will perform at The Gnu’s Room at 7 p.m. on Thursday December 1.

Scheldt’s new CD, One Good Reason, has just been released by Lamon Records of Nashville. Produced by Mike Severs, “One Good Reason” features some powerfully expressive original songs and was recorded at Nashville’s finest studios and with a star-studded band.

Described as “an authentic voice from the Alabama Gulf coast and an expert songwriter,” Kathryn is an active performer, appearing in such legendary southern venues as the Bluebird Café in Nashville, TN, Eddie's Attic in Decatur, GA, and Thacker Mountain Radio in Oxford, MS, to name a few. Before beginning her recording career, she studied guitar under Grammy winner David Russell and is the author of two songbooks from Mel Bay Publications.

Frye Gaillard is best known as an award-winning writer of nonfiction, including Watermelon Wine: Remembering the Golden Years of Country Music and With Music and Justice for All. Both include essays on such music greats as Hank Williams, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, as well as insightful explorations of the Grand Ole Opry and the influences of southern country music.

Over the last two years, he and Scheldt have collaborated on song-writing, joining his gift for words and storytelling with her smokey contralto and exceptional musical abilities.

The performance is co-sponsored by The Gnu’s Room and the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the Auburn University College of Liberal Arts. It is open to everyone interested. There is no charge, but donations at the door for the artists are welcome. 

Join us for "If a Tree Falls"

On Thursday, November 17, 7 p.m., The Gnu’s Room will screen “If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front” a documentary from PBS’s POV Series. The screening is free and open to the public.

If a Tree Falls explores two of America’s most pressing issues — environmentalism and terrorism — by lifting the veil on a radical environmental group the FBI calls America’s “number one domestic terrorism threat.” Daniel McGowan, a former member of the Earth Liberation Front, faces life in prison for two multimillion-dollar arsons against Oregon timber companies. What turned this working-class kid from Queens into an eco-warrior? Marshall Curry provides a nuanced and provocative account that is part coming-of-age story, part cautionary tale and part cops-and-robbers thriller. A co-production of ITVS. Winner of Best Documentary Editing Award, 2011 Sundance Film Festival. (90 minutes)

Sharon Roberts, Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Ralph "Shug" Jordan Professor of Writing, will lead a discussion following the film.

The Gnu’s Room, in partnership with the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the Auburn University College of Liberal Arts, will screen POV films throughout the year. PBS’s POV (Point of View) is television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films.

Political Science Professor to Discuss New Book

Kathleen Hale, professor in the Department of Political Science, will discuss her new book, How Information matters: Networks and Public Policy, on Monday, November 7 at 3:00 pm in the Special Collections & Archives Department of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library.

How Information Matters examines the ways a network of state and local governments and nonprofit organizations can enhance the capacity for successful policy change by public administrators. Hale examines drug courts, programs that typify the highly networked, collaborative environment of public administrators today. In a study that spans more than two decades, Hale shows ways organizations within the network act to champion, challenge, and support policy innovations over time. How Information Matters offers valuable insight into successful ways for collaboration and capacity building.

Johnny Cash at The Gnu's Room

On Thursday, October 20, 7 p.m., The Gnu’s Room will screen “Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music” a documentary PBS’s POV Series. The screening is free and open to the public.

In this classic 1969 documentary, the Man in Black is captured at his peak, the first of many in a looming roller-coaster career. Fresh on the heels of his Folsom Prison album, Cash reveals the dark intensity and raw talent that made him a country music star and cultural icon. Director Robert Elfstrom got closer than any other filmmaker to Cash, who is seen performing with his new bride June Carter Cash, in a rare duet with Bob Dylan, and behind the scenes with friends, family and aspiring young musicians.

Jim Ryan, professor in the Department of English, will lead a discussion following the film.

The Gnu’s Room, in partnership with the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the AU College of Liberal Arts, will screen POV films throughout the year. PBS’s POV (Point of View) is television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films.

Coffee and pastries will be available for purchase. 

Civil War Lecture Series at Tuskegee University

On October 17, 18 and 19, a special public lecture series will take place at the Carver Museum in Tuskegee. Co-sponsored by the National Park Service, Carver Museum, Tuskegee University and Auburn University, each lecture will begin at 2 p.m.

This year commemorates the 150^th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. A time of enormous turmoil in the nation, the period remains a compelling topic for historians and researchers. Three noted speakers will address aspects of the war that shine a new light on the experiences and events of the period.

On Monday, October 17, Dr. Jennifer Trevino will give a talk entitled “Struggles and Hardships - Dedication and Commitment: Alabama Women's Experiences During the Civil War.” Trevino, who has a Ph.D. in history from Auburn University and teaches history at Troy University Montgomery, draws on writings by women who documented the Civil War, from secession through emancipation, through their own experiences.

On Tuesday, October 18, Dr. Turkiya Lowe will discuss the “United States Colored Troops and the Underground Railroad.” Dr. Lowe serves as Southeast Region Program Manager for the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program, assisting communities, local and state governments, and Federal agencies with preserving, documenting, and interpreting sites, facilities, and programs associated with Underground Railroad history. The focus of her talk will be the USCTs who were also freedom seekers along the Underground Railroad.

On Wednesday, October 19, Jeffery Seymour will discuss the Civil War Navy in a talk entitled “Civil Navy at 150: Still Playing Second Fiddle.” Seymour is a curator at the National Civil War Naval Museum at Port Columbus, Columbus, Georgia.

Printmaker Conrad Ross to Discuss New Book

Please join us on Wednesday, October 12 at 3:00 pm for a book talk by Conrad Ross, author of Perceptual Drawing, A Handbook for the Practitioner. The program will be held in the Special Collections and Archives Department of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library.

Conrad Ross is Professor Emeritus of Art. From 1963 to 1997, Ross taught drawing, printmaking, and painting at Auburn University. Perceptual Drawing presents a practicum of 10 plus drawings, which lead the reader in a detailed explanation of various perceptual concepts considering line and tone. Perceptual Drawing is a study of seeing and drawing what-is-seen. Using geometric forms in various setups, it is an attempt to understand, in a comprehensive manner, those perceptual concepts useful to the practitioner.