SPRAWL Reading Series @ CalArts - September 2008

Tarot cards were edited to represent each reader in a classic Celtic Cross spread.

SPRAWL Reading Series @ CalArts - April 2008

Designed poster for on-campus reading, part of the CalArts Writing MFA program's SPRAWL reading series. This reading was planned in conjunction with Open Studios.

SPRAWL Reading Series @ CalArts - March 2008

Poster for April 2008 SPRAWL reading at CalArts. Photograph of CalArts during 2007 fires by Mauricio Lomelyn.

Another version of this poster was selected to represent the School of Critical Studies and MFA Writing program in a display case just outside the Cafe at CalArts.

GS Lit-Writing Senior Thesis Reading @ Columbia - 2007

In spite of the success of the 2006 reading, GS students were still not permitted to participate in the honors courses and therefore were still barred from the year-end readings. An alum at that point, I helped plan another reading.

When my contact at A&E/The History Channel received a PDF of the poster by email, she replied, "This is such a great event! I'd like to double our donation." I was so touched by how happy people were to help us celebrate the fine writing graduates of the School of General Studies.

That year, we booked a much larger room in the Lerner student center and had adequate seating for our large audience!

Due to several changes within the department -- allowing Columbia College (traditional-aged undergraduates) students to major in writing, modelling the program on the graduate MFA Writing program and integrating the undergraduate and graduate faculty -- ALL Columbia students majoring in Writing may now participate in department-sponsored readings!

GS Lit-Writing Senior Thesis Reading @ Columbia - 2006

In 2005, after hearing about a friend's thesis project for many months, I discovered she would not be able to participate in the department's year-end reading because she was a non-traditional student. Although students of the School of General Studies were then the only Columbia students eligible to major in Literature-Writing, they were not permitted to enroll in the honors classes, a prerequisite for participating in the school-sponsored readings.

The following year, I attempted to get the department to include GS students in their readings, but was reminded of the department's Grandfather Clause -- readers were drawn from the honors classes, which remained closed to majors/GS students in the department. I was told the reason GS students were excluded was because we "had no audience" and "no one will come." I found this notion absurd, as GS students in my writing classes had a wealth of life experience to write about. This kind of class inequity was commonplace, although most students came to GS to broaden their opportunities.

Fortunately, I was a member of student council and had friends on The Observer literary journal. Both organizations were happy to sponsor the event, but could not fund it. I applied for a Sainsbury Support grant (from Lord & Lady Sainsbury, now called a Gatsby Foundation grant) through the Columbia Arts Initiative. I was working at A&E and asked the Community Affairs department if funding was available. To my delight, both organizations offered grants to sponsor the event. The GSSC agreed to receive the funds and we got to work promoting the event.

The group poster. Readers autographed the posters, which were given as gifts to CU Arts and A&E.

Each writer had individual posters to draw their friends on campus and to email out to their email lists.
Lee's had a cupcake, because the reading was on his birthday.

Vintage Facebook online event page

Grant report to CU Arts and A&E/The History Channel

Screenshots of the program

Guest book pages. We had 50-60 attendees, 2-3 times the number at the department-sponsored reading. While the assumption had long been there was no audience for GS writers, we found that our audience, like GS, was composed of working adults, parents and others who simply needed advanced notice in order to attend.
Standing room only. Photo by Irena Wolner.