Campus Currents

December 6, 2021

U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo

NEA Big Read Keynote Event with Joy Harjo

Don't miss the keynote event associated with our NEA Big Read: An American Sunrise at Framingham State. U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo will speak to the FSU community on Wednesday, Dec. 8, at 4:30 p.m.

If you are interested in learning more about her award winning book of poetry, An American Sunrise, a final book discussion will be hosted by Whittemore Library today at 1:30 p.m.

Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Harjo draws on First Nation storytelling and histories, as well as feminist and social justice poetic traditions, and frequently incorporates indigenous myths, symbols, and values into her writing. Her poetry inhabits landscapes—the Southwest, Southeast, but also Alaska and Hawaii—and centers around the need for remembrance and transcendence. A critically-acclaimed poet, Harjo’s many honors include the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, the Josephine Miles Poetry Award, the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets, the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America, and the American Indian Distinguished Achievement in the Arts Award. She has received fellowships from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rasmuson Foundation, and the Witter Bynner Foundation. In 2017 she was awarded the Ruth Lilly Prize in Poetry.

Register Now for Campus Professional Development Days

10th Annual Campus Professional Development Days

“Take 10 To Connect”

The Campus Professional Development Steering Committee is pleased to announce that the 10th Annual Campus Professional Development Days will be held on Thursday, January 6th and Friday, January 7th, 2022.
The deadline to register for Professional Development Days is December 17th:

https://2022fsucampusprofessionalde.sched.com

Upcoming McAuliffe Center Family Events

Take advantage of these great family events offered virtually by the Christa McAuliffe Center for Integrated Science Learning.

Family Event: Destination Moon
Virtual Event
Date: Monday, December 27, 2021
Time: 10:00AM - 11:00AM

Family Event: Mars Sample Return
Virtual Event
Date: Monday, December 27, 2021
Time: 3:30PM - 4:30PM

Family Event: Destination Moon
Virtual Event
Date: Tuesday, December 28, 2021
Time: 11:00AM - 12:00PM

Family Event: Mars Sample Return
Virtual Event
Date: Tuesday, December 28, 2021
Time: 3:00PM - 4:00PM

Family Event: Exoplanets
Virtual Event
Date: Wednesday, December 29, 2021
Time: 7:00PM - 8:00PM

Food and Nutrition: Mix & Bake Events

Events take place on Friday via Zoom and start at 4 p.m.

December 10
Mini Gingerbread Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling

You can register for an event by clicking on the embedded links above. Zoom links and ingredient lists will be sent out the week of each event. For questions contact cwickham@framingham.edu.

See you all in the kitchen soon!

Straka and McDonald Share Latest Artwork

Donald Halsing - Publications Intern

Ceramics professor Keri Straka said the pearl-like beads running along her sculpture “Pierce” are the heads of pins pushed through nylon fabric into polyfill stuffing. She said the pins in her sculpture are inspired by childhood memories of her mother.

“My mom is a seamstress, and I have very fond memories of being young and taking pins in and out of the pin cushion that she had that was always by her side,” said Straka during the Mazmanian Gallery reception Nov. 16.

While the pin heads are small in comparison to her sculptures, Straka said the sculptures themselves are big representations of small structures found in nature. “I think that that's exciting territory to be wandering around in as a visual artist.”

Straka grew up in Bellingham, Washington. She remembered “moments of quiet discovery” as a child peering into tide pools along Bellingham Bay.

She said the tiny creatures that lived in the tide pools would “shrink back into little crevices” if she moved around and made noise. “If I sat very still, the life that's inside of it would come back out.”

Straka said her sculpture “Internal Blooming” reminds her of “something you could find in a tide pool.”

Most of the sculpture is made of hard porcelain and stoneware, but some pieces on the top are “encased” by soft nylon fabric. Straka said she intended to contrast rigid materials with “something that looks like if you were to touch it, you feel a little bit of yield or give.”

Straka said when she studied biology, she noticed the patterns, colors, and textures from tidal pools are also similar to structures inside the human body, “at different scales, of course.”

Her sculpture “Soft Cell Division,” hanging in the gallery’s center, portrays cell division inside living things “that we aren't able to see from the outside.” She said the sculpture’s stretching fabric represents a membrane, such as an embryonic sack or egg sack.

Polyfill-stuffed fabric shapes are sewn to the fabric and spill out onto the floor. Straka said, “The shapes are really fascinating when cells are multiplying and dividing, bursting open, shape shifting, and changing form.” They can represent positive growth, such as a fetus, or negative growth, like a tumor.

“I've never had this much soft material in an exhibition before,” she said.

Straka said she feels “wonderful” to have an opportunity to share sculptures she is passionate about with her colleagues and students.

Alongside Straka’s sculptures, painting and drawing professor Tim McDonald’s drawings are displayed.

He said inspiration to draw “stacks of stuff” began when he was stacking brushstrokes on top of each other in an abstract painting. McDonald added a spiral shape with a shadow underneath to simulate three-dimensional space.

“I started seeing something beginning to happen,” he added.

McDonald said he was drawing stacked rectangles at his kitchen table when he realized they could represent the “stuff” people leave behind. The abstract stacks reminded him of roadside shrines commemorating victims of violence, prehistoric Irish Dolmen megaliths, and Tibetan Stupas housing religious relics.

He sketched each small drawing hung on the gallery walls “in one shot” while thinking about humankind’s relationships with “our stuff” and the natural world.

McDonald said his 10-foot-long “ancient future/song of the swamp,” which fills the gallery’s back wall, took a couple weeks - starting from the left and working across the sheet to the right.

He also discussed more stories about his drawings during the Linda Vaden-Goad Authors and Artists series Zoom presentation Oct. 26.

Straka’s and McDonald’s exhibitions will be on display until Dec. 10.

Stargazing Event

The McAuliffe Center is holding a "stop by" Stargazing event for FSU students, faculty, and staff on Monday, December 13 from 5:00pm-7:00pm in O'Connor Lot by Maynard Road.

Stargazing: See the Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn like you've never seen them before!
Monday, December 13 from 5:00pm - 7:00pm
O'Connor Lot (by Maynard Road)

Upcoming events

Women's Lacrosse vs Fitchburg State

Saturday, March 30, 2024

12:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Maple Street Field

Organized by: Athletics

Baseball vs Albertus Magnus

Monday, April 1, 2024

3:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Bowditch Field Athletic & Cultural Complex

Organized by: Athletics

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