Writerly Quote of the Day

"Life can't ever really defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer's lover until death -- fascinating, cruel, lavish, warm, cold, treacherous, constant."

--Edna Ferber

Kristoff Offers Trip Opportunity for College Students and Schoolteachers

March 11, 2007 Op-Ed Columnist
New York Times
Win a Trip, and See a Different World
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Cast your eyes above and meet Hidaya Abatemam, whom I met last month in a remote area of southern Ethiopia. She is 6 years old and weighs 17 pounds.

Hidaya was starved nearly to death and may well have suffered permanent mental impairment, helping to trap her — and her own children, if she lives that long — in another generation of poverty.

Yet maybe the more interesting question is not why Hidaya is starving but why the world continues to allow 30,000 children like her to die each day of poverty.

Ultimately what is killing girls like her isn’t precisely malnutrition or malaria, but indifference. And that, in turn, arises from our insularity, our inexperience in traveling and living in poor countries, so that we have difficulty empathizing with people like Hidaya.

I often hear comments from readers like: “It’s tragic over there, but we’ve got our own problems that we have to solve first.” Nobody who has held the hand of a starving African child could be that dismissive.

That lack of firsthand experience abroad also helps explain why we are so awful at foreign policy: we just don’t “get” how our actions will be perceived abroad, so time and again — in Vietnam, China, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Latin America — we end up clumsily empowering our enemies.

Part of the problem is that American universities do an execrable job preparing students for global citizenship. A majority of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day, but the vast majority of American students graduate without ever gaining any insight into how that global majority lives.

According to a Roper/National Geographic poll, 38 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 consider speaking another language to be “not too important.” Sixty-three percent of those young Americans can’t find Iraq on a map of the Middle East. And 89 percent don’t correspond regularly with anyone outside the U.S.

A survey cited by the Modern Language Association found that only 9 percent of American college students enroll in a foreign language class.

Let’s face it: We’re provincial.

That’s one reason that I always exhort college students to take a “gap year” and roam the world, or at least to take a summer or semester abroad — and spend it not in Paris or London, but traveling through Chinese or African villages. Universities should give course credit for such experiences — and offer extra credit for students who catch intestinal worms.

So I’m now putting my company’s money where my mouth is. On Tuesday, in partnership with MySpace.com, The New York Times and I will announce a second annual “win a trip” contest to choose a university student to travel with me on a reporting trip to Africa. And this year, in addition to a student, I’ll choose a schoolteacher — from a middle school or high school — to accompany me as well. We'll probably travel together to Rwanda, Burundi and Congo.

Last year I chose a young woman from Mississippi, Casey Parks, and we traveled together through central Africa. Casey and I saw malnourished children just like Hidaya, and visited burned-out villages in areas of the Central African Republic that had been caught up in the furies of the spreading Darfur genocide. Pygmy trackers led us through the jungle to see gorillas and elephants, and we managed to be held up at gunpoint by bandits.

In Cameroon, we interviewed a doctor about maternal mortality — and then found a woman named Prudence, a mother of three, dying in the next room. A dead fetus was decomposing inside her, setting off a raging infection, but the doctor didn’t care about her. And so she died. You can know intellectually that half a million women die in pregnancy each year, but it’s still shattering to see a woman die so unnecessarily in front of you.

If you win the trip, you won’t be practicing tourism, but journalism. You’ll blog and prepare videos for the New York Times and MySpace Web sites. I’m betting that you’ll be able to connect with young readers and viewers — and galvanize them to care about these issues — in a way that I can’t.

So please spread the word about the contest. Rules and applications will be posted Tuesday [March 13] at www.nytimes.com/winatrip and at www.myspace.com/kristofontheground.

And for those who apply but don’t win, go anyway on your own. You’ll learn more than you ever would from an equivalent period in the classroom. And you’ll gain not only the occasional intestinal parasite but also an understanding of why we should fight to save children like Hidaya.

To read the original article online at the New York Times, visit
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/opinion/11kristof.html

Jane Fonda to Speak at YWCA in South Bend

Jane Fonda to speak at YWCA luncheon

Tickets available in advance

Tribune Staff Report

SOUTH BEND - Actress Jane Fonda, an activist in environmental and human rights, will be the keynote speaker at the YWCA of St. Joseph County’s “Tribute to Women” luncheon this year.

The event will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 3 in Century Center - the same day her latest film, “Georgia Rule,” is scheduled to debut.

Fonda gained attention for defiance of the Vietnam War while she was in the midst of a successful movie career. She won Oscars and an Emmy award. Her films include “The China Syndrome,” “Nine to Five” and “On Golden Pond.”

Turning 70 this year, Fonda has directed her energy to the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention. In 2000, she traveled to Nigeria and produced a film in collaboration with the International Women’s Health Coalition, titled “Generation 2000: Changing Girls’ Realities.”

Among other efforts, she founded Greenstone, a women’s talk radio network that is owned by women.

Tickets to the luncheon cost $50 in advance. To order, call Katy Beach at (574) 233-9491, ext. 316.

South Bend Tribune Story

Studio Arts Center Gallery Openings

Opening Reception for
Studio Arts Center's

Gallery 805
Ruth Andrews- current works in her ongoing series of comic book based drawings
Beau Bilenki - Mixed media: 2D and 3D pieces In the Woods series

Studio 807
Robert Williams - Faces & Places paintings and sculptures

Studio 815
Annual exhibit by the members of the
Northern Indiana Pastel Society

Thursday, March 8
7 pm to 9 pm

The evening will also feature
University of Notre Dame Students in
Performance Art: History, Theory, Practice
Human Art Work
Still lives representing the students' recent research into identity as performance.
Information about the personae the students have been periodically assuming in public will be available at the exhibit.

For more information:
www.studioartscenter.org

Studio Arts Center
805/807/815 Lincoln Way West
South Bend, IN 46616
574/288-0160

Brains Behind Talent

Check out the link below that takes you to a short video detailing the brain science behind talent. In this case, the discussion focuses on athletic talent. I am convinced (with no scientific evidence, but nontheless) that it applies to other kinds of learning.

Neuroscientist Doug Fields explains how neural membranes function in developing athletic skills:

http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=4a86810a4af95d30fc40c55377f7fe6cdea9167d

(I tried to embed this video but couldn't figure out how to lift it from the Times.)

Ted Kooser visits Dowagiac, Michigan

I recently learned that Ted Kooser, former Poet Laureate of the United States, will visit the The Dogwood Festival in Dowagiac, Michigan on May 11th, 2007. The event will take place at 7:30 pm, leaving plenty of time to take in a late dinner and/or drinks at the Wood Fire trattoria in downtown Dowagiac.

Kooser joins an impressive list of past lecturers at the festival, including the likes of Michael Cunningham, Margarat Atwood, Russel Banks, Tim O'Brien, Amy Tan, Norman Mailer, and Kurt Vonnegut.

I heard Kooser read from his work a few years ago and was impressed both by the spare beauty of his work and his low-key, dignified reading style. You will have plenty of time to read some of his poems before the event. I most most familiar with Delights and Shadows and can recommend it.

Tickets are required and cost between $20 and $60. For more information visit The Dogwood Festival website at http://www.dogwoodfinearts.org/.

Here is one of my favorite poems by Kooser:

Tattoo

What once was meant to be a statement—
a dripping dagger held in the fist
of a shuddering heart—is now just a bruise
on a bony old shoulder, the spot
where vanity once punched him hard
and the ache lingered on. He looks like
someone you had to reckon with,
strong as a stallion, fast and ornery,
but on this chilly morning, as he walks
between the tables at a yard sale
with the sleeves of his tight black T-shirt
rolled up to show us who he was,
he is only another old man, picking up
broken tools and putting them back,
his heart gone soft and blue with stories.

Gypsy Wedding Music

Something to warm you up this February:

A gypsy wedding celebration where the groom has to down a few gallons of palinka (homemade liquor) at the end. (They sing in Hungarian.)

Dave Eggers and "What is the What"

Thursday night L. and I attended the culminating event in Notre Dame’s 40^th annual literary festival. The featured author was Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, his memoir (see link below for an extensive list of all his publications). Eggers recently completed a new project that chronicles the life of Valentino Achak Deng, who emigrated with the wave of “Lost Boys” from Sudan.

Eggers was warmly introduced and began his lecture with a flurry of microphone adjustments and a shuffle of papers. After briefly reading from his new work, titled What is the What, and introducing us to his fictional version of Valentino, he introduced us to the real Valentino. If it had been previously announced that both the author and his subject would lecture, I hadn’t been aware of it. It would prove to be a powerful presentation. I went into the lecture mildly curious about Eggers. I emerged with an awakened consciousness (and a commitment to buy his new book).

Several years ago Eggers was invited to meet Valentino, who had decided that his goal was to write a book about his experiences. In the beginning it wasn’t clear if Eggers would help Valentino compose his own memoir or perhaps serve as his scribe. In the end, something brand new was formed. Eggers listened to Valentino’s story—his 800-mile trek with a flock of children from Sudan to Kenya, Valentino’s childhood confrontation with death and violence, the constant concern about the fate of his family left behind in a burning village. Eggers listened, time passed, and their friendship deepened. Eventually trust moved the two men beyond the stark tragedy and allowed them to uncover the profound humanity and tenderness that Valentino experienced despite the inexorable reality of violence that colored his coming-of-age.

Eggers listened and made a crucial realization: he couldn’t write Valentino’s story in the third person. He needed to tell the truth about Valentino. And to tell the truth, he needed to use the tool of fiction. So, after gaining Valentino’s consent, he wrote Valentino’s memoir as fiction, telling his story using a first person narrator. He became Valentino. The readers, in turn, are invited to become Valentino. By living through the terror and injustice of Southern Sudan, we can move beyond an intellectual discussion of totalitarian states and genocides. We bypass the head entirely. We live like Valentino, all heart. Eggers doesn’t go maudlin on us. Valentino’s heart is his organ of survival and decision-making. Think blood, hot and quick in fear, or thin from hunger. Think of a little boy whose heart pumped day after day despite being attacked on all fronts.

It was a powerful presentation. I was already impressed by Eggers writing and his social justice work. I think I am a little bit in love with him too—you will know what I mean if you hear him speak.

And the best news—this really gets my social justice, English teacher blood flowing—all the proceeds from the book go to Valentino’s foundation. He plans to rebuild his village in Sudan and provide college scholarships for other Sudanese immigrants.

Consider this is a strong recommendation to buy a book that I have not yet read.

The Valentino Achak Deng Foundation
849 Valencia St.
San Francisco, CA 94110

For more information, visit valentinoachackdeng.com

Dave Eggers' Biography and List of Books

Writerly Quote of the Day

"Storytelling reveals meaning
without committing the error of defining it."

--Hannah Arendt

Read Some of My Stuff at Gather.com

I just happened to have a 70,000 word manuscript haunting my every free moment. So I entered a novel competition thing, kind of an American Idol for authors at Gather.com as mentioned in Write Now: American Idol for Authors. (I blush.) When you need to revise, you can either clean the toilet or splash your literary innards online. The toilet already sparkles. So. Go see my first chapter. You can read other manuscripts. Vote for me. Or not.

Warning: they messed up my formatting. I have little vignettes within the chapter with titles, but the titles are not in bold (as they should be); and my numbered list appears sans numbers. Oh well. The whole manuscript is still very in-the-rough. Now the world can see it.

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976903485

You can read the submission by clicking on the above link. If you want to rate my submission, you have to join Gather.com (free and easy).

UPDATE: The link to my chapter is dead. The contest posts each entry for two weeks of voting and my two weeks have passed!