May 5,1988
THE LANCE
pages
Poets to Read At Weymouth Center -Education Update WitH ‘Brian ‘Rodgers
Weymouth Center for the Arts in
Southern Pines will serve as host for read
ings by the winners of Poets & Writers’
1988 Writers Exchange Competition on
Saturday, May 7.
Poets Chana Bloch and Craig
Taylor will read their poetry at 10:30 a.m.
and will be special guests for a picnic lunch
on the lawn at 12 noon during the North
Carolina Poetry Society’s Spring Awards
Day. (For lunch reservations, send $6 to
NCPS Treasurer Bob Collins, 1511 Market
St., Wilmington, N.C. 28402.)
The Exchange is a nationwide
program designated to introduce emerging
writers to literary communities outside
their home states. Winners meet with a
variety of publishers, editors and noted
authors and are provided with an opportu
nity to share their work through public
readings. Judges for the California
competition were celebrated poets Ron
Bayes of Laurinburg, N.C. and Amiri
BarakaofNewYorkCity. Thepoetswillbe
accompanied on their visit by Writers
Exchange Director Frazier Russell of
Poets & Writers in New York and hosted
by Marsha Warren, executive director of
the North Carolina Writers’ Network.
Everything from barbecue to a
visit to the North Carolina Museum of Art
will be included when the California poets
tour the Research Triangle on Friday, May
6. They will meet with representatives
from small presses, literary magazines and
the Duke Writers Conference. After the
Southern Pines reading on Saturday, they
will travel to Laurinburg to visit St. An
drews Press atSL Andrews College and to
participate in an informal reading there.
Another highlight of the weekend
will be a gala reception honoring the
Californians from 4 to 6 p.m. on Sunday,
May SatRaleigh’s Artspace. Writers and
literary enthusiasts from all over the state
will converge at the renovated former Ford
Motor Company building on Davie Street
in downtonw Raleigh for “Ghablis &
Canapes.” Visual artists who occupy the
studio and gallery areas of Artspace will be
on hand to display their works. Jazz will
be provided by the Jim Crew Trio.
Winning poet Chana Bloch of
Berkeley is Chairman of the English
Deparunent at Mills College. Her book of
poems, “The Secrets of the Tribe,” was
published by The Sheep Meadow Press in
^981. She has published two translations
of Hebrew poetry as well as translaUon
from the Yiddish of the stories of Isaac
Bashevis Singer and poems by Jacob
Glatstein and Abraham Sutzkever. Her
critical study, “Spelling the Word:
George Herbert and the Bible,” as
published by the University of California
Press in 1985. Dr. Bloch’s poetry awards
include the 1974 Discovery Award of the
92nd Street Y Community Center and the
1987 Pushcart Prize.
Craig Tyalor lives in Bonsall, a
community between Los Angeles and San
Diego, and serves as co-leader of the
Writing Workshop at the Social Public Art
Resource Center in Venice, Ca. He re
ceived the 1986 Editors’ Poetry Award
from “Columbia: A Magazine of Poetry
and Prose” and the 1986 Celia B. Wagner
Award from the Poetry Society of
America. His poems have been published
in Kansas Quarterly,” “Beyond Baroque
Magazine” and others. For the past five
months, Taylor has held writing residen
cies at the Ragdale Foundation in Illinois
and the Dorset Colony House in Vemont.
This sumer he will be resident poet at the
Djerassi Foundation in Woodside, Ca.
The California poets will spend
three days. May 6 to 8, in North Carolina
and then will continue their exchange with
a three-day visit to New York City. Ron
Bayes, founding editor of St._ Andrews
Press, will introduce the Weymouth read
ing. North Carolina winners of the Ex
change, Mike Chitwood, poet, of Chapel
Hill and David Weaver, fiction writer,
of Durham wil be recognized during the
program. Their exchange visits to
California and New York will be made this
Fall 1988.
Poets and Writers is a national
literary ser\'ice organization which pub
lishes a bimonthly magazine and operates
the nation’s only Information Center for
writers. Poets & Writers also distributes
over $200,000 each year to poets and
fiction writers who give public readings.
Funding for the Writers Exchange
has been made possible by grants from the
Jerome Foundation, theLJ. and Mary C.
Skaggs Foundation, the Banyan Tree
Foundation, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
the Axe-Houghton Foimdation and dona
tions from individuals. Poets & Writes is
particularly grateful to Neltje for a major
gift which established an endowment for
this program.
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Over the last four years, 1 have
seen some positive changes in our Educa
tion program. There have been strengths
andweaknessesinourprogram. Ithasbeen
like anything else, not all bad or good. I
like some of the changes they are making in
our program, but know that it will take some
time to work out the bugs. I was lucky
enough to be on the Teacher Education
Subcommittee where I got a chance to hear
about some of the changes that might be
coming in our program. I can’t say that I
have always understood or agreed with
what has transpired in our program, but do
feel that the people involved felt that what
they were doing was in our best interest.
Student teaching was a lot of work, but
turned out to be a great experience. I will
leave St. Andrews to enter a profession that
I intend to be successful at and will enjoy a
great deal. So this is Au Revoir and please
make your tax deductible contributions to
yours truly - Brian Rodgers!
P.S. It has been my pleasure to
write my column of the Lance this year.
I’m not sure if anyone ever got anything
from reading my articles or even if anyone
read them. But, I know that I enjoyed
writing them because they gave me an
outlet to share what I felt about the
profession of teaching. As a farewell, 1
would like to thank the members of the
faculty that made my preparation for enter
ing the world of teaching possible. To Dr.
Steele and Dr. Dunleavy; there were no
fatalities from the student teaching experi
ence, thanks and good luck in the future. I
would especially like to thank Dr. O.E.
Smith for everything he has done for me as
an advisor, professor, and most impor
tantly, a good friend. To the teacher educa
tion students; persevere and do the best you
can! To the Lance staff: you were great
to work with!
Mobley To Compete in
ParaOlympics
Deborah Kelly
“Athlete; a person trained in
exercises, games or contests
requiring physical strength and speed.” St.
Andrews freshman, Tammi Mobley fits
this definition with the addition of one
important difference. She has cerebral
palsy. That disability doesn’t stopherfrom
achieving goals that every athlete dreams
about.
Eighteen year-x)ld Tammi will be
participating in the Para-Olympics in
Seoul, Korea in October. The gauges are
sponsored by the United States Organiza
tion for the Disabled. She will be compet
ing in the 100-200-400-800 meterraces and
the slalom, type of obstacle course with
cones and ramps.
“For us (disabled persons), this is
the Olympics. Amateur athletes from all
overtheworldcome to compete. The only
difference is they’re disabl^," she said.
She emphasizes the point that
this is not the Special Olympics which is
for the mentally rather than the physically
handicapped.
For the first time Tammi is old
enough to compete in the Para-Olympics.
She has been involved with athletics since
she was seven or eight. “I was a very closed
child. When I realized that I could achieve
and be good at sports, it brought me out,”
she said.
When she reached high school in
her hometown, Decatur, Ga.,
she decided to become a serious athlete by
participating in regional meets. In these
meets she proved to be a contender in bigger
and better contests.
In August ’87 she was invited to
compete at Hofstra University in New
York. Here she placed firstin the200-,400-
, and 800- meter races, second in the 100
meterraceandsecondin the slalom. At that
time she was ranked fastest in her division,
Class 4. This ranking made her eligible to
compete in the games in Korea. “My big
gest inspiration? My hometown coaches,
Kim Grass and
Lela Shoates. They dedicate so much time
and want me to do well. That means twice
as much to me,” she said.
Tammi looks forward to compet
ing against world class athletes in Korea,
but says this will be her first and probably
her last Olympics. “Now that I’m in
college, I can’t dedicate myself like I did
in high school. Competing interferes with
my education,” she said with a note of
regret
Susannah Woodson, Tammi’s
close friend, summed up the hard work and
determination that got the athlete to where
she is today. “She’s spunky and has a lot
of fight. When people tell her she can’t do
things, she goes ahead and proves them
wrong.”