Monday, February 5, 2001
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 3
Poets set to seize spotlight
Matt Fowler, local poet, reads "O River," a poem that he said reminded poets not to get a big head. The poetry reading was sponsored by the Tabletop Poets Society yesterday afternoon at Borders, 700 New Hampshire St. Fowler, along with the Kaw Poets Society, recently released a CD entitled Kaw Kaw Kaw As the Poets Fly from Lawrence, Kansas. Photo by Selena Inhara/KANSAN
By Sarah Smarsh writer@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Poetry is coming to life this week with three poetry readings scheduled around Lawrence.
Poetry fans will have a chance to watch an internationally renowned poet in action when Anne Waldman reads her work at the Spencer Rare Books Library on Tuesday. Amateur poets also will have a chance to share their work at open mic readings at local coffee houses.
Waldman, along with well-known poet Allen Ginsberg, founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa Institute in Boulder. Colo. In the 1960s, Waldman ran the St. Mark's Church Poetry Project in New York City. There she made a name for herself by giving exuberant, highly physical readings of her own work.
"She's immensely energetic," Irby said. "And her work is exciting and diverse."
Ken Irby, associate professor of English, said Waldman exemplified the world of poetry performance.
Matt Fowler, Lawrence resident, has been attending poetry "jams" for more than five years. He is a member of Kaw Poets Society, a group of 21 local poets that recently released a CD, Kaw Kaw Kaw as the Poets Fly from Lawrence, Kansas.
Fowler said poetry readings were a forum to express dramatic emotion and were more exciting than some might imagine.
"Some people have this image that poetry is dry and stuffy, but it doesn't have to be that way." Fowler said.
Mickey Argumedo, Lawrence sophomore and co-founder of Tabletop Poets Society, said poetry became more than words on paper when combined with live performance.
"It allows the poet to establish a personal connection with the audience," Argumedo said. "That helps generate a sense of community, which is good because it is a very personal art form."
Reading by Anne Waldman,
4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Spencer
Rare Books Library
Open mic, 9 p.m. Wednesday at Jazzhaus, 926 1/2
LIVE POETRY
Open mic, 8 p.m. Thursday at Aimee's Coffee House, 1025 Massachusetts
from the writer's body language and vocal interpretation.
Laura Odell, Lawrence sophmore, founded Tabletop Poets Society with Argumedo. Odell said people seeking a true poetry experience would benefit
"There are so many things you can't convey on paper," Odell said. "The best way to observe a piece of work is to actually see the poet."
Arumedo said poetry was an accessible medium of creativity for anyone, acclaimed or amateur.
"I view poetry as the purest form of personal expression," Argumedo said. "It's the only art form that can be done with a cocktail napkin."
Extension classes to be taught online
— Edited by Sydney Wallace
By Clay McCuistion
writer@kansan.com
Kansas senior staff writer
The University of Kansas Department of Continuing Education is extending its reach.
Two of the department's well-received "KU For Lawrence" courses will be made available online later this month. Masterpieces of World Literature: Reading Nobel Prize Winners and Learning the Kansas Landscape will be taught both in Lawrence and in cyberspace.
Although a small number of regular, for-credit courses had been taught online before, this was a first for the "KU For Lawrence" program, said Barbara Watkins, coordinator of curriculum and projects for the department.
"It's a way of extending the University," she said. "We hope to have more in the future."
Web sites will be set up for the two courses featuring presentations and audio recordings of class discussions, Watkins said. The classes will start the last week of February and continue for about a month.
The "KU For Lawrence" program began in the fall of 1999 and offers community members adapted versions of KU courses, taught by KU instructors. Although seven courses will be offered though the program this spring, the department chose to offer only two online.
The criteria were simple.
"We thought that these would perhaps be the most interesting to the widest audience," Watkins said. "So that's where we'd start."
Diane Fourry is the main instructor for the Nobel Prize course, which is also offered in a different form on campus as an interdisciplinary Western Civilization course, Nobel Laureates of World Literature.
Fourry said the online students could choose to take the course for one hour of graduate or undergraduate credit. Grades will be handled much as in a normal course, with assigned written work and telephone or online conferences with the instructor.
"We want to address the needs of people who live too far away to take the course here," she said.
Rex Buchanan, associate director of the Kansas Geological Survey
For more information on the "KU for Lawrence" online courses, go to www.kuce.org.
ON THE NET
"Learning the Kansas landscape
begins Thursday, Feb. 22.
"Masterpieces of World Literature Reading Nobel Prize Winners" begins Monday, Feb. 26.
supervises the Learning the Kansas Landscape course, which is not available for credit. He said he had designed the course to introduce Kansans to the history of their state's topography and development
"In a lot of respects, I kind of looked at it from what topics I wanted to hear about," Buchanan said. "They thought this was something that would have an awful lot of interest to folks around the state."
Watkins said she didn't yet know how popular the online courses would be, although the department would like to expand them in the future. The department is working with the Alumni Association to publicize the classes throughout the country.
Edited by Leita Schultes
Student groups could see cutbacks
By Brooke Hesler
But running out of money isn't a concern, Wiley said.
"If we do run out of money for
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Groups asking Student Senate for money may have to prepare themselves for some small cutbacks.
At the Senate meeting last week, Greg Wiley, Student Senate Executive Committee treasurer, told student senators that they might have to buckle down when it came to allocating money.
"Ultimately, I hope this will allow us to give money to more organizations," said Wiley, Westwood senior. "We don't want to give all our money to 10 different organizations and then not be able to give any money to five more that come along after."
Right now there is $26,309 in the Senate unallocated account, which contains money that is granted to student organizations. Senate already has allocated more than 60 percent of the original $66,661 in the account.
this semester, we could always pull it out of the reserve account," Wiley said.
At this time last year, the account had a $6,531 balance and Senate had only distributed 35 percent of money in the unallocated budget for the year.
Some of the bigger amounts allocated last semester include $5,230 to the Black Student Union, $5,105 to the Concrete Canoe Club and $3,255 to the Center for Community Outreach.
Despite cutbacks, Wiley said he did not think organizations asking for money should be worried.
This semester, the Pakistani Cultural Club will ask Senate for money. Saira Sufi, club treasurer and Topeka senior, said she wasn't
"We're going to look at it on a case-by-case basis," Wiley said. "We're not going to make a planket statement by saying. We're going to give you 75 percent of what you asked for."
Wiley said one reason Senate granted so much money last semester was that a large number of organizations needed money for special speakers and events.
worried about cuts.
"I'm pretty sure it'll go through fine," Sui said. "I think for a multicultural organization like this, it won't be a problem. We also have a great group of people working for us."
Lisa Braun, Finance Committee chairwoman, said she also thought the allocation process would remain the same.
"To be quite honest, we go into the year thinking we'll go over budget," Braun said. "We have the money to give to the organizations, not to keep, and we're going to continue to do that."
Braun, Deerfield senior, said she thought the Finance Committee did a good job last semester when it came to allocating money. She said she expected the same this semester.
"I don't think there was anything wrong with the way last semester went," Braun said. "And I think this semester everyone is a little more relaxed with what their jobs are and what questions to ask."
Edited by Doug Pacey
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