It was standing room only on Wednesday evening, March 2nd for a spirited reading by poet Philip Metres. Metres read from two recent books that illustrate the breadth of his interests--Pictures at an Exhibition: A St. Petersburg Album, drawing on his long experience as a translator and student of Russian culture; and Sand Opera, which incorporates text from official records and testimony about events at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the U.S. detainee site at Guantanamo Bay.
The crowd included MFA students, and undergrads from numerous disciplines, many of whom were attending their first poetry reading. A student from "Immigrant Voices of the Middle East," a sophomore literature course, described the reading as an experience "that left me with tons of thoughts going forward about the nature of humanity and how I wish to deal with my own creative expressions."
The next writers to speak for the Visiting Writers Series will do so as part of the New Leaves Conference that runs from March 21st until March 25th. Author Porochista Khakpour will speak on Monday, March 21st at 7:30 in the Johnson Center Room 321, and Author Leslie Jamison will speak on Tuesday, March 22nd at 7:30 in the Center for the Arts Grand Tier III.
March 07, 2016
