Antiochian Coretta Scott King ’51 to be Inducted into National Women’s Hall of Fame

YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio – March 9, 2010 – Antiochian Coretta Scott King is one of eleven women to be inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame for making valuable and enduring contributions to our nation. King and the ten other women will be formally inducted on September 30 and October 1 in Seneca Falls, the birthplace of the American Women’s Rights Movement.

The National Women’s Hall of Fame is the nation’s oldest membership organization recognizing the achievements of great American women. Inductees are selected every two years based on their lasting contributions to society through the arts, athletics, business, education, government, humanities, philanthropy and science. From a group of over 200 completed nominations, a national panel of judges conducted a rigorous scoring process and selected eleven women for Induction.

One of the most celebrated champions of human and civil rights, Coretta Scott King, in partnership with her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., ignited democracy movements worldwide. For more than forty years, she traveled extensively as a messenger of peace, justice and social action. Notably, in 1974, she formed and co-chaired the National Committee for Full Employment, formed the Coalition of Conscience (1983), and co-convened the Soviet-American Women’s Summit (1990). In 1969, she became the founding president, chair and chief executive officer of The King Center, the first institution built in memory of an African American leader. As a lifelong advocate for non-violence and coalition building, King’s legacy will continue to serve as an example for years to come.

King enrolled at Antioch College in 1945 as part of the college’s Interracial Education Scholarship program, which had recruited her sister, Edythe, two years earlier. Though she left the College in 1949, she remained connected to her alma mater, returning in 1965 when her husband delivered the commencement address, and again in 1967 to receive the baccalaureate degree that she should have received in 1951. She delivered the commencement address in 1982 and in 2004 accepted the Horace Mann Award from the Alumni Association for her determination to promote nonviolent social change. In 2005, she honored the College by allowing it to use her name on a Center for Cultural and Intellectual and Freedom. The Coretta Scott King Center opened on March 27, 2007.

The National Women’s Hall of Fame 2011 Inductees include the late jazz vocalist Billie Holiday; Lilly Ledbetter, who lobbied for equal pay for men and women (her efforts proved successful when President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law in 2009); and University of Miami President Donna Shalala, among others.

“From an early suffragist to a Civil Rights pioneer; from a university president to trailblazers in health and science; each of these women have demonstrated fortitude, perseverance, intelligence and hope," said Christine Moulton, Executive Director of the National Women’s Hall of Fame. "Their experiences provide both an example for each of us to emulate and a challenge for each of to embrace. What began in Seneca Falls comes full circle this October, when this phenomenal group of Inductees convenes in the birthplace of women’s rights.”

The National Women’s Hall of Fame, founded in 1969, has inducted 236 women since its inception. This year’s Inductees will join a notable group that includes Susan B. Anthony, Dr. Dorothy Height, Maya Lin, Sandra Day O’Connor, and Rosa Parks.

More information on the Hall of Fame is available at greatwomen.org.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Gariot P. Louima ?
Director of Communications
Office: 937-319-6131
Mobile: 937-581-8201
glouima@antiochcollege.org

Cincinnati writers to read at this week’s Antioch Fireside

The fourth in a series of fireside readings at Antioch College features three young creative writers pursuing their PhDs at the University of Cincinnati — Rachel Steiger-Meister, Katherine Zlabek and Michelle Burke.

They will read on Sunday, March 6, at 2 p.m. at the Coretta Scott King Center on the Antioch campus.

Rachel Steiger-Meister recently moved from Yellow Springs, where her parents Mark Meister and Carla Steiger still reside. She is the recipient of awards for excellence in scholarship and creative writing from Brown and Wright State Universities and has read her fiction at literary events in Boston, Providence and Pittsburgh.

Steiger-Meister received an MA in Literature from Wright State University in 2010 and a BA in Gender Studies from Brown University, where she completed a creative thesis called, “Queer Fairy Tales,” a re-telling of fairy tales and folk tales for queer women readers. Steiger-Meister last month presented a critical literary paper at the 18th annual Lesbian Lives Conference in Brighton, England and is seeking her PhD in both creative writing and comparative literature from the University of Cincinnati.

Katherine Zlabek recently received her MFA from Western Michigan University. While there, she won the Frostic Fiction Award, judged by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, as well as an honorable mention for her poetry in a contest judged by David Dodd Lee. Her work has previously appeared in The Madison Review, JMWW, Oxford Magazine, SAGA, The Rectangle and the anthology World Lives, Prairie Living. Zlabek is currently working on two collections of short stories while pursuing her PhD at the University of  Cincinnati. She plans on reading a story titled, “Let The Rivers Clap Their Hands.”

Michelle Y. Burke is a scholar and poet currently pursuing her doctorate in English literature. Her poems have appeared in Spoon River Poetry Review, Hotel Amerika, Lake Effect, the New Orleans Review, and Yemassee. Her chapbook, Horse Loquela, was published by the Alabama School of Fine Arts (2008).

Antioch admits first students

James Russell first heard of Antioch College several years ago when, as a young man living in Texas, he read Colleges That Change Lives, in which author and education writer Loren Pope wrote of Antioch, “There is no college or university that makes a more profound difference in a young person’s life, or that creates more effective adults.”

Though Russell was unable at the time to attend Antioch, he still fantasized doing so, and kept close tabs on Antioch news.

So it was “devastating” when the college was closed and his hopes of someday being an Antiochian were dashed, Russell wrote in an e-mail this week. At that point, he moved to Yellow Springs to become a part of the Nonstop community, then later moved back to Texas, where he’s currently a freelance blogger and writer who works as an intern for the progressive news site Truthout. He plans soon to move to Chicago, where he will serve as communications co-ordinator for the peace group Voices for Creative Nonviolence.

And next year, Russell’s dream will become reality. He recently learned that he is one of the first students accepted into the revived Antioch College.

“I want to go to Antioch to support and sustain an institution that gave me so much through the past few years. I want to go to Antioch, too, to finally realize my only dream of the past few years, to be an Antiochian,” he wrote. “I want to go to Antioch, then, for what the college represents: not just the vital three C’s, that is co-op, classroom and community, but also the kind of person it creates.”

Russell is among the first four young people — two from Texas and two from Ohio — to be accepted by the college during its early admissions process, according to Special Assistant to the President for Enrollment Kristen Pett in a recent interview. The college received 17 early admissions applications, and accepted four, or 22 percent, Pett said. The college recently notified those chosen of their admission.

While not identifying the new students by name, Pett stated that the initial group is “strong, intellectually inquisitive and from a range of educational backgrounds.” They are also diverse in race, gender and background, she said.

Antioch plans to have 25 students in its first class next fall, college leaders have stated. The remaining 21 students will be selected during the regular admissions process, which has a March 1 deadline for applications. During March, Pett, President Mark Roosevelt and other members of the admissions staff will make final decisions, and prospective students will be notified by April 1. Students then have until May 1 to let the college know of their decision.

“Applications are coming in at a steady pace,” Pett said recently. She declined to give the exact numbers of applicants, as the process is ongoing. However, she said she feels excited by the quality of student that the new college is attracting. Applications are coming in from “all over,” she said, with about 20 percent of applicants from out of state, including especially strong representation from New York and California.

“We continue to attract some of the most talented and community-minded [high school] graduates,” Pett said.

The college’s initial 25 students will be attending college tuition-free during their four years, partly because these students will be taking a risk by attending a college that is so far not accredited. (Gaining accreditation is a multi-year process, with the catch-22 that before becoming accredited the college must first graduate a class of students, who will receive retroactive credits if the college becomes accredited.) Antioch College is making progress in moving forward in that process, accreditation consultant Len Clark stated at a recent college board pro tem meeting.

In recent weeks, Antioch leaders announced the establishment of Horace Mann Fellowships, which all members of the first class will receive. The fellowships will include additional opportunities for the first group of students, including mentoring by college alumni and the opportunity for grant money to cover college room and board costs, according to Pett.

In general, according to Communications Director Gariot Louima, it’s an exciting time to be at the college.

“We’ve been working toward something for many months,” he said. “Now it seems tangible.”

Antioch alumni volunteers are also working to help ready the campus for its first class next fall, according to Volunteer Coordinator Julian Sharp this week.

“Volunteers are playing a key role in a variety of ways in readying the campus for students,” he said.

A core group of both local and out-of-town alumni, who call themselves VAMP, or Volunteers for Antioch Maintenance Projects, have committed one week a month for work projects, beginning in January with creating a workshop in the former Maples building. This month they have been working in the McGregor building on campus, which will serve as the main academic building next fall, Sharp said, housing classes and academic offices. The first group of students will live in the Birch dormitory on Corry Street.

All six Antioch College tenure-track faculty positions have been advertised, according to Louima, who said the college has received about 200 applications for its position in philosophy, and a lower number for the other positions, which include literature, art (sculpture and drawing), anthropology, chemistry and Spanish. The college also recently began advertising for the new position of dean of community life. Advertisements have been placed in standard venues for higher education positions, including the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Education Web sites.

No finalists for the tenure-track positions have been chosen yet, according to Louima, who said that finalists will be interviewed on campus through March and April.

College president Mark Roosevelt and Italian dinner 3/19, seeking chapter organizers, Springer doc 3/17

Mark Roosevelt Meet & Greet

The Antioch College Chicago Alumni Chapter
Presents a meet & greet with new college president Mark Roosevelt
And highlights from Kelly Connolly’s alumni video interviews

Saturday, March 19, 2-4:30 p.m.
Roosevelt Library
1101 W. Taylor St., Chicago
2nd Floor Meeting Room

Taylor Street exit on 90/94, UIC/Racine stops on Blue Line
Small parking lot in back, metered street parking

Dinner after at Tufano’s Restaurant, 5 p.m.
1043 W. Vernon Park Place
3 blocks north of the library

Please rsvp (yes only)
Specify whether you’re attending the meeting, dinner, or both.

Seeking New Chapter Organizers

Three of the four Chicago chapter organizers will step down this year and we are seeking new organizers to step up. The chapter will choose new organizers at a meeting on 5/14, details to be determined. If you’d like to nominate someone, including yourself, feel free to post to this list, or email current organizers:

Kelly Connolly
Jim Hobart
Ed M. Koziarski
Robin Sheerer

Brian Springer’s The Disappointment: Or, The Force of Credulity 3/17

Brian Springer, a friend of Antioch and Nonstop, cocreator of The Antioch Papers and partner of Antioch and Nonstop media arts professor Chris Hill, screens his documentary The Disappointment: Or, The Force of Credulity, about his search for buried treasure on his family’s Missouri farm, including 16th century Spanish gold, Civil War silver, and the diary of anarchist Kate Austin. Springer and Hill will both be there.

Thursday 3/17 at 6 p.m.
Gene Siskel Film Center
164 N. State St.

“Springer interweaves the stories surrounding these treasures with those of his family to spin a tale of spirit possession, Napalm, Indian massacres, early American opera, fanatical obsessions, 200 tons of dirt, and the way mothers try to protect their families from wounds that never heal.”

Noted Author Manuel Martinez Closes Fireside Readings


Morgan Fellows Anne Bohlen and Jean Gregorek are sponsoring a series of eight readings with established and emerging authors. Sales of books at the first reading on Feb. 6 will support Haitian Earthquake Relief.

 

YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio – March 10, 2011 – Noted author Manuel Martinez will read from his critically acclaimed recent fiction in the final event of Antioch College’s Fireside Readings at 2 p.m., Sunday, March 20, in the Coretta Scott King Center.

Martinez teaches contemporary U.S. and Chicano literature at the Ohio State University, and has authored one book of literary criticism, Countering the Counterculture: Rereading Postwar American Dissent, and three novels: Crossing (1998), Drift (2003) and Day of the Dead (2009). His work has also appeared in the anthologies Hecho en Tejas and Latinos in Lotusland.

Morgan Fellows Anne Bohlen and Jean Gregorek sponsored this series of readings by established and emerging multi-ethnic writers. These relaxed readings are held by the fireplace at the Center on Sunday afternoons through March.

The eight featured creative writers – fiction writers, poets and memoirists – offer a variety of voices and fresh perspectives on life in contemporary North America. Two of the authors are on the forefront of the vibrant new school of Haitian writing in English, exploring both Haitian and Haitian immigrant experience, while two authors work within the expansive and rapidly-growing tradition of Latino literature in the United States. All of the visiting writers are relatively young – three of the creative writers are currently graduate students at the University of Cincinnati, while two have just completed MFA's.

The series began with the celebrated Haitian novelist and literary critic Dr. Myriam Chancy, who will read recent fiction. Her novels will be available for sale at the event, and the proceeds from Chancy's book sales will be donated to Haitian Earthquake Relief.

List of Events:

Sunday, February 6 – Myriam Chancy
2 p.m., The Coretta Scott King Center, Antioch College
Haitian-Canadian writer Myriam Chancy reads from her recent novels: The Loneliness of Angels (2010), The Scorpion’s Claw (2005), and Spirit of Haiti (2003). Also an influential feminist literary critic (Framing Silence: Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women; Searching for Safe Spaces: Afro-Caribbean Women Writers in Exile), Professor Chancy teaches Caribbean literature, African Diaspora studies, and creative writing at the University of Cincinnati. Her books will be available for purchase with proceeds donated to Haitian Earthquake Relief.

Sunday, February 20 – Rafael Torch
2 p.m., The Coretta Scott King Center, Antioch College
Writer, high school teacher, and Antioch alumnus Rafael Torch (‘02) will read from his creative nonfiction. Torch's work has been published in the Antioch Review, the Indiana Review, and the North American Review, among other places, and his MA thesis from the University of Chicago, "The Garcia Boy: A Memoir," received numerous awards, including the Catherine Ham Memorial Award for Excellence in graduate work.

Sunday, February 27 – Gariot Louima and T.J. Jarrett
2 p.m., The Coretta Scott King Center, Antioch College
Louima, a fiction writer, former journalist and director of communications at Antioch College, will read recent short fiction; T.J. Jarrett will read poetry. Louima's stories have appeared in The Caribbean Writer and Carte Blanche, and are forthcoming in the anthology The Haiti I Knew, The Haiti I Know, The Haiti I Want to Know. He was a finalist for the Glimmer Train Short Story Award for New Writers. Jarrett is a writer and poet whose recent work has been published or is forthcoming in the African American Review, the Boston Review, Calaloo, Linebreak, and Third Coast. Her manuscript, "The Moon Looks Down and Laughs," was a finalist for the Tampa Review Poetry Prize.

Sunday March 6 – Rachel Steiger-Meister, Kathy Zlabek and Michelle Burke
2 p.m., The Coretta Scott King Center, Antioch College
Steiger-Meister, Zlabek, and Burke are young creative writers and doctoral candidates at the University of Cincinnati. Rachel Steiger-Meister, a native of Yellow Springs, is the recipient of awards for excellence in scholarship and creative writing from Brown and Wright State Universities. Steiger-Meister has read her fiction at literary events in Boston, Providence, and Pittsburgh. Katherine Zlabek's poetry and short stories have appeared in The Madison Review, The Oxford Magazine, SAGA, and the anthology World Lives, Prairie Living (2005). Zlabek received the Frostic Fiction Award at Western Michigan University. Michelle Y. Burke is a scholar and poet currently pursuing her doctorate in English Literature. Her poems have appeared in Spoon River Poetry Review, Hotel Amerika, Lake Effect, the New Orleans Review, and Yemassee. Her chapbook, Horse Loquela, was published by the Alabama School of Fine Arts (2008).

Sunday, March 20 – Manuel Martinez
2 p.m., The Coretta Scott King Center, Antioch College
Manuel Martinez will read from his critically acclaimed recent fiction. Professor Martinez teaches contemporary U.S. and Chicano literature at the Ohio State University, and has authored one book of literary criticism, Countering the Counterculture: Rereading Postwar American Dissent, and three novels: Crossing (1998), Drift (2003) and Day of the Dead (2009). His work has also appeared in the anthologies Hecho en Tejas and Latinos in Lotusland.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Gariot P. Louima ?
Director of Communications
Office: 937-319-6131
Mobile: 937-581-8201
glouima@antiochcollege.org

This week’s Fireside features Antioch’s own Louima and T.J. Jarrett

 

TJ Jarrett

 

The third in a series of Antioch College Fireside readings will feature two African American writers, Gariot Louima and T.J. Jarrett, reading short fiction and poetry on Sunday, Feb. 27. The event begins at 2 p.m. at the Corretta Scott King Center on the college campus.

Louima, director of communications at the college, is a fiction writer and former journalist. His stories have appeared in The Caribbean Writer and Carte Blanche, and are forthcoming in the anthology The Haiti I Knew, The Haiti I Know, The Haiti I Want to Know. He was a finalist for the Glimmer Train Short Story Award for New Writers.

T.J. Jarrett is a writer and poet whose recent work has been published or is forthcoming in the African American Review, the Boston Review, Calaloo, Linebreak, and Third Coast. Her manuscript, “The Moon Looks Down and Laughs,” was a finalist for the Tampa Review Poetry Prize.

When the Sun Nears the Earth in the West

by T. J. Jarrett

we chase it.  The ghosts follow, followed then?by the dark.  It has come to my attention that it is possible,

due to recent technological advances, to live only?in sun.  You could fuel mid-air if you like; you could simply

quit the earth.  Someone could do that.  That someone?could be you.  You could read this and nod, yes, yes.  Take me to a

place without darkness. It would be unwriterly for me to do so.?Worse— Irresponsible.  Uncharitable.  Let me tell you how

to withstand the dark: The dark will go on only as long?as you let it.  You must forgive the dark.  It never takes you

into account.  Forgive the earth that bears the dark?on its back.  Forgive then, the ghosts you carry.  Touch them

on the cheek tenderly, each one, and send them on ahead?of you.  Forgive the stars their disinterested twinkling.  Forgive the

air and trees.  You will experience weightlessness.  Forgive?the gravity that holds you.  Behold the spinning earth.  Choose.