Pizza and Poetry Night Tomorrow!

The first in a series of Pizza and Poetry Nights, “Poetry for Fun” will take place on Tuesday, September 20 at 6:30 PM in Haley 3183-85.   “Poetry for Fun” invites poets and poetry lovers to come and read their best stuff, whether original poetry or old favorites by other writers.

Fun is the theme for the evening, including poems that are about fun and poems that are fun. 

Sign up for a (maximum) ten-minute slot by emailing Tom O’Shea (osheatm@auburn.edu) or BreAnn Baxter (kbb0007@auburn.edu). Listeners are more than welcome too: if you like to hear poetry read or recited, please come.

For updates about this and future events, like AU Poetry Series on Facebook or follow @aupoetryseries on Twitter.

POV's Sweetgrass at The Gnu's Room

On Friday, September 16, 7 p.m., The Gnu’s Room will screen “Sweetgrass,” a new film from PBS’s POV Series. The screening is free and open to the public.

“Sweetgrass” presents a riveting and poetic portrait of the American West just as one of its traditional ways of life dies out. Shot amidst the grandeur of Montana’s Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, the film follows the last modern-day cowboys to lead their flocks of sheep up into the breathtaking and often dangerous mountains for summer pasture.

Keith Cummins, professor in the College of Agriculture’s Department of Animals Sciences, will lead a discussion following the film. "Its not a life we live in the South. It makes me think of Goat Ears, one of my first ewes, of the big sky, of fresh air, and home.  I recommend it," says Cummins.

PBS’s POV (Point of View) is television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films. Each year, it premieres more than a dozen bold, innovative programs on PBS. Known for their intimacy, their unforgettable storytelling and their timeliness, POV documentaries put a human face on contemporary social issues.

Coffee and pastries will be available for purchase. For more information, visit www.thegnusroom.com or www.auburn.edu/cah. 

Wayne Flynt to Discuss New Memoir

Please join us on Tuesday, September 13 at 3:00 pm for a book talk by Wayne Flynt, author of Keeping the Faith: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives. This historical memoir by the widely recognized scholar chronicles the inner workings of his academic career at Samford and Auburn Universities, as well as his many contributions to the general history of Alabama. The program will be held in the Special Collections and Archives Department of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library.

Wayne Flynt is a Distinguished University Professor of History at Auburn University and author or coauthor of eleven books, including Alabama in the Twentieth Century; Alabama Baptists: Southern Baptists in the Heart of Dixie; Poor But Proud: Alabama's Poor Whites; Alabama: The History of a Deep South State; and Taking Christianity to China: Alabama Missionaries in the Middle Kingdom, 1850-1950. He has been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including the Lillian Smith Book Award, the Clarence Cason Award in Nonfiction Writing, the James F. Sulzby Book Award, and the Alabama Library Association Award for nonfiction.

In addition to the book talk, a special program, "An Intimate Evening with Wayne Flynt," will be held that evening at 7:00 pm at The Gnu's Room. 

This lecture is co-sponsored by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts, Auburn University Libraries, and the Auburn University Bookstore. For more information on the program, contact the Center at 334.844.4946 or visit ww.auburn.edu/cah.

Celebration of A FORD IN THE RIVER by Charles S. Rose

Please join us for a celebration of the publication of A Ford in the River by Charles S. Rose on Thursday, September 8 at 7:00 pm at The Gnu’s Room, 414 South Gay Street, Auburn. The celebration will feature readings by John Williams and Marian Carcache, who together wrote the foreword to A Ford in the River.

A Ford in the River by the late Charles Rose, a beloved teacher, friend, and writer, includes stories that first appeared in The Sewanee Review, The Georgia Review, The Southern Review, Southern Humanities Review, Willow Springs, Crazyhorse, The Chattahoochee Review, Alabama Literary Review, Blackbird, and Shenandoah, among others. A Ford in the River was released this August by NewSouth Books.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and The Gnu’s Room. For more information on the program and the series, contact the Center at 334.844.4946 or visit www.auburn.edu/cah.

SUPER Emerging Scholars

SUPER Emerging Scholars, a set on Flickr.

This week, high-school students from across the state will converge on Auburn to participate in the Alabama Humanities Foundation’s SUPER Emerging Scholars (SES) program. Dr. Kevin Roozen, associate professor in the Department of English, will lead the weeklong residential workshop for upper-level high-school students.

The SES institute will target students’ writing, reading and critical thinking abilities by investigating the rhetoric of public discussions addressing the purposes and functions of education. Through activities, lectures and field trips, SES participants will immerse themselves in conversations about learning and schooling, as well as their roles in building society and citizens. As they hone their skills by analyzing a variety of historical and contemporary texts, participants will write their own philosophy of learning, outlining their own understanding of what learning entails and the functions it can serve them now and in the future.

“I am particularly excited to host the first SES program to be held at Auburn University, and I am looking forward to it being a huge success,” says Roozen. “The guest scholars and I have worked hard to create an experience that will involve the students in the exciting intellectual work that can occur when scholarship addresses the public's pressing issues and concerns.”

The SES institute at Auburn University is the result of a partnership between the Alabama Humanities Foundation, Auburn University Outreach Office and the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts.

For more information about the SUPER Emerging Scholars program, visit the Alabama Humanities Foundation website at www.ahf.net.

Come join the discussion!

Over the last year, the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities has partnered with the Gnu’s Room, a local bookstore and coffee shop, to host music, film and literary events for the public. It has been a rich and rewarding experience to work closely with a community partner as dedicated as the Gnu’s Room.

This summer, the Center and the Gnu’s Room have formalized their partnership and committed to long-term collaboration. A logo representing their collaboration is in the works, and you will see it on future notices of joint programs.

According to Jay Lamar, director of the Center, this is “exactly the kind of work the Center was founded to do. As the center for engagement for the College of Liberal Arts, the Center’s mission is to create opportunities for dialogue and learning, link to the community and model how much more can been done collaboratively than alone. We are very excited and so pleased to be in partnership with the Gnu’s Room.”

This fall, the Gnu’s Room will become a nonprofit organization, supporting literacy, reading, publishing, the arts and community.

“The Gnu’s Room has always been about community,” notes owner Tina Tatum. “Becoming a nonprofit will help us make an even greater contribution by bringing more people and resources together to benefit our community.”

On Thursday, July 21, the Gnu’s Room will host a community listening session at 7:30 p.m. at the Boykin Community Center (400 Boykin Street, Auburn). Like a town hall meeting, the session will focus on ideas, hopes and dreams for the future of the Auburn-Opelika and Lee County area with plenty of time to share and discuss. Please feel free to download the flyer and spread the word to your friends and neighbors.

For more information

Contact The Gnu's Room at (334) 821-5550 or thegnusroom@gmail.com.

Book Talk by Allen Tullos, author of ALABAMA GETAWAY

Allen Tullos, author of the just released Alabama Getaway: The Political Imaginary and the Heart of Dixie, will give a reading and sign books on March 8^th, 7 p.m., at the Gnu’s Room, 414 South Gay Street.

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, the program is free and open to everyone.

Alabama Getaway, explores recent state history in terms of government, politics and popular imagery. Noted writer and former New York Times editor Howell Raines says, “This is a masterful book.”

“We are delighted to partner with The Gnu’s Room to host Dr. Tullos,” notes Jay Lamar, director of the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center. “Allen’s book is also one of the most important and rich studies of the state I know, and he is an excellent speaker. I think his work will appeal to anyone who has ever wondered what makes Alabama the fascinating, sometimes frustrating and often beloved place it is.”

Dr. Jeff Jakeman, founding editor of the online Encyclopedia of Alabama and professor of history at Auburn, will introduce Tullos. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.

Tullos, professor of American Studies at Emory University and co-founder and editor of the Internet journal Southern Spaces, is also author of Long Journey Home: Folklife in the South.

For more information visit www.auburn.edu/cah or www.thegnusroom.com.