The University of Southern Indiana is hosting a free lecture at 7:30 p.m., September 25, in USI’s Carter Hall. The fall lecture will feature Iranian-born author Firoozeh Dumas speaking on the Marjane Satrapi memoir Persepolis, about growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.

An author, speaker, and entertainer, Dumas was born in Iran and grew up in Southern California. She is the author of the 2001 best-selling memoir, Funny in Farsi. She regularly speaks at conferences on subjects like immigration, family, and identity, all with a touch of her thought-provoking humor.

Persepolis was part of the University’s “Bonding Through Books” program and is used in several classes on campus.

USI students, faculty and staff, and the local community are invited to the free lecture. A question and answer session will follow. Dumas will host a book signing following the lecture and her books will be available at the USI Bookstore.

The lecture is sponsored by the USI Foundation, Student Development Programs, and the University Core Curriculum.

Source: USI.edu

On Thursday, September 20, the University of Evansville’s Department of Creative Writing will feature fiction writer and teacher George Singleton in its Coffee Hour series, which brings celebrated writers to campus for afternoon readings of their published works.

Each Coffee Hour begins at 4:00 p.m. in the Melvin Peterson Gallery at the corner of Lincoln and Weinbach avenues. Coffee and cookies will be served, and the authors will be available afterward for conversation and book signings. Coffee Hours are free and open to the public.

George Singleton is the author of five collections of short stories: These People Are Us, The Half-Mammals of Dixie, Why Dogs Chase Cars, Drowning in Gruel, and Stray Decorum. He has also published two novels, Novel and Work Shirts for Madmen, and a book of writing advice titled Pep Talks, Warnings, and Screeds. He has published more than 150 short stories in magazines and journals such as Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Zoetrope Georgia Review, Southern Review, Epoch, Oxford American, and Kenyon Review.

A past Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, Singleton has also received the Hillsdale Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He teaches fiction writing at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville, South Carolina.

For more information on the Coffee Hour series, please visit the Department of Creative Writing’s website.

Source: Evansville.edu

Jennifer Preston joins Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden after serving as the Marketing/Development Director for St. Anthony’s Hospice in Henderson, KY. Before joining St. Anthony’s Hospice, Ms. Preston was Description: Description: Jennifer Prestonemployed as the Public Relations/Fund Development Manager for the Vanderburgh Humane Society. She has worked as the Assistant Director for the Henderson Economic Development Council and Event Coordinator for the Downtown Henderson Project.

Ms. Preston along with seven other individuals developed the Community Foundation of Henderson. Through the Henderson Leadership Initiative Program, she served as the first President of the Community Foundation of Henderson.

She currently serves on the executive board of Shelter for Women and Children and as board member for Riverbend Arts Academy, Henderson Breakfast Lions Club, WNIN board, and Raymond B. Preston Foundation. Last year she was a presenter at the 3rd Annual Kentucky Summit on Philanthropy.

According to Zoo Director, Amos Morris, “We are thrilled to have a new and experienced Development Director on staff to help the Zoo move forward with its vision for the future. Ms. Preston will be responsible for fund development for the Zoo.”

Ms. Preston grew up enjoying the Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden and now shares that passion with her husband and four year old daughter. She is a graduate from University of Southern Indiana and resides in Henderson, Kentucky.

It’s not easy to look at Rick McCarty’s art work, currently on display on the second floor of the Liberal Arts Center. Deborah Burdick, McCarty’s friend and “art mentor,” says we should look anyway.

McCarty, who died August 23 at age 61, was a Mount Vernon, Indiana, native and a combat veteran of the Vietnam War. Tormented by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), he began to draw at age 48 in an attempt to heal his wounds through art. Burdick, a trained artist, met McCarty soon after he began to draw.

“Rick wanted people to know about Vietnam,” she said. “His art speaks so eloquently. You want to know what happened? Just look carefully at it and allow yourself to feel.”

McCarty’s work can be categorized within the genre of Outsider art – art created by people who have no formal art training and live on the fringes of society. Outsider art is often a means of self-expression featuring reoccurring motifs.

The USI display includes interpretive information identifying McCarty’s motifs.

In addition to local and national exhibitions, his work was viewed by 50,000 people who visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall display in Evansville in 1999 and has been used in schools.

His drawings are now preserved in the permanent collections of the National Veterans Art Museum in Chicago and the Connolly Library at LaSalle University in Philadelphia and are available to view in their online digital collections:

LaSalle University digital collection

National Veterans Art Museum digital collection

His self-published book, The Loss of Innocence, is an illustrated epic poem about a three-day fire fight in which McCarty lost several friends.

“It is an astounding piece of work,” wrote fellow Vietnam veteran and artist R. Louis Posner in a letter to McCarty. “My opinion is that it is a national treasure.”

A copy of The Loss of Innocence is in the University Archives.

McCarty’s work will be on display at USI through October 30.