The Girls on the Roof: A Poetry Performance
Mary Swander and the Eulenspiegel Puppet Company
Friday, 29 Jan 2010 at 7:00 pm – Ames Public Library, 515 Douglas Avenue
Iowa Poet Laureate Mary Swander teams up with the Eulenspiegel Puppet Company to perform a poem based on selections from Swander's latest book of poetry, The Girls on the Roof. The book-length narrative poem features the story of a mother and daughter stranded on the rooftop of Crazy Eddie's Cafe on the banks of the Mississippi River for three days during the flood of 1993. While stranded, they discover things about each other they would prefer never to have known. The performance features Swander reading poems while puppeteer Monica Leo bringx the scenes alive through the use of hand, rod, and shadow puppets. This production is for an adult audience. Part of the Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness, and the Creative Imagination.Mary Swander is Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State, where she teaches creative writing. also touring throughout the country her play Farmscape, a docudrama capturing the changing rural environment. Swander wrote the play in collaboration with her English 557 class in the fall of 2007. Swander is the cofounder of Agarts, a national group designed to explore the intersection of the arts and agriculture, and is developing a website, The Iowa Literary Community, where anyone with an Iowa connection can post poetry and other pieces of writing. Her many published works include a memoir, The Desert Pilgrim, four books of poetry and a book of literary interviews, Parsnips in the Snow.
View the complete schedule of symposium events:
Things Fall Apart: Finding Beauty in a Broken World
Cosponsored By:
- Ames Public Library
- Center for Excellence in the Arts & Humanities
- Creative Writers’ Milieu
- English
- Humanities Iowa
- MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment
- Committee on Lectures (funded by Student Government)
Stay for the entire event, including the brief question-and-answer session that follows the formal presentation. Most events run 75 minutes.
Sign-ins are after the event concludes. For lectures in the Memorial Union, go to the information desk in the Main Lounge. In other academic buildings, look for signage outside the auditorium.
Lecture Etiquette
- Stay for the entire lecture and the brief audience Q&A. If a student needs to leave early, he or she should sit near the back and exit discreetly.
- Do not bring food or uncovered drinks into the lecture.
- Check with Lectures staff before taking photographs or recording any portion of the event. There are often restrictions. Cell phones, tablets and laptops may be used to take notes or for class assignments.
- Keep questions or comments brief and concise to allow as many as possible.