Meredith Herald
Volume XV, Issue 12
We attract bright, talented, ambitious students. Naturally we’re a women’s college. Novemt>er 18,1998
On the
inside:
Lewis Nordan reads his fiction
□ Campus
grieves the loss
of Dr. Sidney
Martin.
Page 2
□
Abroad dead
line approach
ing. Get the
scoop now.
Page 4
□ Meredith
needs to kick the
cigarette litter
habit.
Page 5
□ “Year of the
Dance” expands
through Dance-
Works ‘98.
Page 8
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Email:
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□ The prize>winning
author meets students,
holds a casual reading.
LESUE MAXWELL
Police Reporter
Thanks to the Mary Lynch
Johnson professorship in Eng
lish, Meredith College was, for
the second time in two months,
blessed with an award-winning
author. Louis “Buddy” Nor
dan, a Southern writer from Itta
Bena. Mississippi, visited
Meredith on Sunday and Mon
day.
Nordan’s visit was made
possible with the assistance of
writer-in-residehce Suzanne
Newton. Sunday night, Nordan
had dinner and conversation
with Newton’s Writing Fiction
class and some English faculty,
including Suzanne Britt and
Jean Jackson. At this dinner,
he provided entertainment and
advice for a group of aspiring
writers by telling them, “Pray
to whatever god you believe in
that you will be a good and
honest writer.”
Monday at 10 a.m., some
students and English faculty
met for an informal reading
with Nordan in the Chapel
Commons room.
Monday evening at 7:30
p.m., students, faculty, and
community members congre
gated in Kresge Auditorium for
a reading. First, Newton spoke
briefly, and sophomore Ayana
Rhodes introduced the guest of
honor.
Nordan read a chapter from
his recently finished novel,
which he has tentatively titled
Don ■/ Cry for Me. Itia Bena.
This book, which will not be
released for another year, is
what Nordan called an “autobi
ographical novel.”
After the reading, Nordan
answered several questions.
During the reception follow
ing, Quail Ridge Books .sold
some of Nordan’s books, and
he was available to autograph
them.
Nordan’s book.s include sev
eral collections of short stories
including The All-Girl Football
Team and Welcome to the
Arrow-Catcher Fair. These
stories lake place in the town
of Arrow-Catcher. Mississip
pi. with Sugar Mecklin and
his family and friends as the
main characters.
He has also written several
novels, including Wolf Whis
tle and Music of the Swamp,
which won the Mississippi
Arts and Letters Institute
prize in 1992. In addition, he
is the recipient of the South
ern Book Critics Circle
Award and the Mississippi
Author’s Award for Fiction.
■ Nordan received his Ph.D
in Shakespeare from Auburn
University, but he did not
begin writing until he was 35.
At that time. Nordan and
his family moved to Arkansas
to allow Nordan to attend the
writing program at the Uni
versity of Arkansas.
For the past sixteen years.
Nordan has lived in Pitts
burgh. PA with his wife. He
teaches classes at the Univer
sity of Pittsburgh, tours
around the US giving read
ings, and, of course, writes.
White Iris Ball a hit without a hitch
□ Liquid Pleasure
provides live music for
the semi-formal.
Christina Holder
Staff Repofler
The streets of downtown
Raleigh were packed with
Meredith students‘^nd dates all
dressed up with some place to
go on Friday, Nov, 13. The
White Iris Ball was held at the
Raleigh Convention Center
from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Tickets for the event were on
sale the week of the Ball, Nov.
9-13. and could be purchased
at various times throughout the
day in Belk Dining Hall for
$30 a couple.
The Meredith Entertainment
Association. MEA. sponsored
the event and was responsible
for reserving the ballroom for
the night, fmding the music
entertainment and supplying
the decorations and refresh
ments.
Students were also offered
the opportunity to purchase a
commemorative White Iris
Ball T-shirt with a logo reading
"the band played all the songs
we knew, and we danced the
whole night away.” According
ly, the band Liquid Pleasure
played well-rounded sets of
music the entire night, from
Beach to 80’s to Oldies to Top
40 music.
Liquid Pleasure provided
dance-goers with a night full of
opportunities to dance a variety
of dances. Students were shag
ging, swing dancing and doing
the Electric Slide.
‘The band was really good,”
said first-year Sarah Grivetti.
“They played a variety of
music and the got the crowd
involved.”
Each Meredith student was
permitted to bring any date of
her choice. Said first-year
Sarah Jane Cox, “I took a
friend I knew from home,
and I would definitely go
again.”
Upon entering, students
and their dates were given
gray and green souvenir cups
and a balloon arch under
which to have their smiles of
the night captured by a pro
fessional photographer.
Liquid Pleasure ended the
night at the Ball with a loud
rendition of “Shout" and a
final slow song. No one was
quite ready to leave: howev
er, shortly after 1 a.m. stu
dents and dates in tow were
filing out of the Convention
Center.
“I had a ball," said Cox,
quite appropriately.
The dance served as a
primer for the spring formal'
and introduced first-years to
another tradition.
Convocation
joins dance,
technology
JUUE Ker*
Staff Reporter
Recognising that the 1998-
99 academic year is designated
“The Year of Dance.” the
year’s fourth convocation cele
brated the dance program at
Meredith. The convocation,
held Monday, Nov. 12, was
entitled “On Line . . .Memory,
Media and Meredith." which
emphasized the pervasiveness
of technology in today's soci
ety.
Dr. Sherry Shapiro, director
of dance education, began
working on this project over a
year ago. Noted Shapiro at the
opening of the program, “I had
thoughts of bringing together
technology and a Zen approach
to being - that is one of rest and
tranquillity. In my attempt to
do this 1 failed. Or maybe
more accurately I realized that
to get to a Zen state of being
meant no movement - and of
course, creating a dance where
the intent would be to come to
no movement was certainly
problematic.”
The program united the nat
ural grace of the dancers with
the technological configura
tions of a multi-media presen
tation. As Shapiro stated,
“Both art and technology offer
to us new possibilities.”
The last segment of the pre
sentation tied the concepts
together. Featuring the Mered
ith Chorus, under the direction
of student conductor Jennifer
Angove. “Yizkor” represented
the cycle of life. "Yizkor,”
adapted from Morris Silver
man, means “Help us to
remember that we shall be the
past of countless others who
will come after us and that we
may live that we will transmit
to them our love and reverence
for all the we cherish."
The performance was spon
sored in part by the Dupont
Technology Initiative and Fac
ulty Development. The dancers
See DANCE page 5