The Black History Month Committee is sponsoring a poetry reading by Affrilachian Poets as part of Black History Month. This year’s theme is Finding, Loving and Respecting Self. Poets Ricardo Nazario-Colon, Bianca Spriggs-Floyd and Keith Wilson will be reading Feb. 16, 2010, in the Arts Complex Theatre at the 11 a.m.
The Black History Month committee is also sponsoring a student poetry contest to be judged by the Affrilachian Poets, who will announce the winners Feb. 16, 2010. The student poetry contest is open to all current Macon State students. Poems should address some part of the theme: Finding, Loving and Respecting Self. Any poetic form is acceptable and the poem must be less than two single-spaced pages including the title.
Poems should be sent in the body of an e-mail (no attachments will be accepted) from a campus e-mail account to sharon.colley@maconstate.edu. No identification should be attached to the submission as judges will not see the names of authors until after the judging. All participants must comply with ELIGIBILITY FOR PARTICIPATION IN STUDENT LIFE ACTIVITIES POLICY, from Student Handbook.
The deadline for submissions, limit one per student, is Dec. 18. Winners will be notified through campus e-mail in late January. First prize is $100, with two runners-up getting $50 each. Prizes are provided by Redbone Chapbooks.
The Macon State College’s Women’s Studies Association is having a “Does Your Closet Scare You?” donation drive for the Crisis Line and Safe House and the Macon Rescue Mission.Bring us any of your unwanted clothing, bedding, household appliances, children’s toys or videos.Both agencies always need toiletries and personal items:toothbrushes, hairbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant, etc.If you’ve hit a sale and bought too much, we can always find a home for it.Please bring any donations to Dr. Monica Young-Zook,Room 141, 478-471-5735.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT IT Courses required in the CIT Program…..
(ITEC 2215 is the prerequisite class for all upper division IT classes)
ITEC 2215- Introduction to Information Technology
Credit: 3 hours
Description: This course uses short projects to introduce the student to the major information technologies of hardware, systems software, networking, web development, software and applications development, systems analysis, digital media, and database. Security and ethical issues as they affect the use of technologies are also discussed.
(ITEC 3235, 3236, and 4230 are required in the CIT Program)
ITEC 3235 – Human Computer Interaction
Credit: 3 hours Prerequisites: At least a “C” in ITEC 2215 Description: This course covers the scientific principles, HCI design methodology, and the user-interface technology that are used in the HCI implementation. Topics include human cognition, HCI theories, user observation, task analysis, prototyping, evaluation techniques, user interface modalities, graphical user interface components, and accessibility.
ITEC 3236 – Interactive Digital Media
Credit: 3 hours
Prerequisites: At least a “C” in ITEC 2215
Description: This course covers audio, graphic, and instructional video theory and creation. The student is taught how to develop the interactive product as a communication tool by incorporating various media, communication principles, user interfaces, and interactive designs. Principles and applications of color theory, spatial placement, product planning, testing, and implementation are also discussed.
ITEC 4230 – Graphic Imaging
Prerequisites: At least a “C” in ITEC 3236 Description: This course will examine industry techniques for providing an effective presentation of graphic images. The students will also survey tools that are used for production. Students will be provided with the necessary background to pursue a course of study in graphic design and digital media development. Completed projects can be used for desktop publishing projects, authoring, and web-based delivery applications.
(The following IT classes are electives; you will need 3 of these, or with permission of your CIT advisor, you may select others of interest to you at the 3000 or 4000 level, as long as you have met necessary prerequisites)
ITEC 4231 – Designing Content for Technology Applications
Prerequisites: At least a “C” in ITEC 2215 Description: This course provides a study of the principles of designing and developing informative content to communicate technical information for the Web and other environments for both technical and non-technical users. Topics include audience assessment, IT documentation design, and help application development.
ITEC 4232 – Desktop Publishing and Graphic Design
Prerequisites: At least a “C” in ITEC 3236 Description: This is a study of the processes and tools involved in designing for print media. This course covers design theory, image, text, and page preparation, and management of desktop publishing processes and tools. Topics may include design constraints and limitations, preparing graphics for print, and pre-press management.
ITEC 4236 – Digital Video and Streaming Video
Prerequisites or Corequisites: ITEC 4230 Description: The course will examine the processes of digital capture and non-linear editing techniques for both audio and video. Topics include encoding and packaging digital media for use in multiple applications including streaming.
ITEC 4238 – 2D Computer Animation
Prerequisites: At least a “C” in ITEC 3236 Description: This course will examine 2D computer animation techniques using a popular industry-standard tool such as Flash. Emphasis will be on developing animations for use in interactive environments and the Web. Other topics include storyboarding, deconstruction, and vector graphic design.
Critically acclaimed poets Sabrina Orah Mark and Michael Dumanis will read from and discuss their works at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 2, in the Macon State College Auditorium in the Learning Support Building off Ivey Drive. This event is free and open to the public. Call Dr. Amy Berke at (478) 471-5788 for more information.
Brooklyn native Sabrina Orah Mark now lives in Athens, GA, where she teaches at Agnes Scott College and the University of Georgia. Her first book of poetry, The Babies, has earned much acclaim and won the 2004 Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize. Mark’s work has also appeared in American Poet, The Canary, Conduit, The Indiana Review, and other journals. Mark currently is working on her second book, Tsim Tsum, which will be published by Saturnalia Books later this year.
Michael Dumanis, who was born in the Soviet Union and lived there until 1981 when his parents were granted political asylum in the U.S., now lives in Cleveland, Ohio. He teaches at Cleveland State University and serves as the director of the Cleveland State University Poetry Center. Dumanis’ first book, Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century, was co-written with fellow poet Cate Marvin. His second book, My Soviet Union: Poems, won the 2006 Juniper Prize for Poetry.
On April 3-4, 75 Students from 10 Georgia colleges will participate in “The Culture of Conflict,” Macon State’s first interdisciplinary, undergraduate conference. Conference papers and presentations include video, fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and scholarly research in literature, rhetoric, history, political science, sociology, economics, and philosophy. Macon State College is well represented at the conference, with 30 students presenting a total of 34 scholarly papers, creative works, and videos.
In addition to student presentations, which will take place in the Macon State Conference Center from 8:30 am – 4:15 pm on April 4th, the conference will feature two speakers:
Kelly Cherry will offer a poetry reading on Friday, April 3rd, at 7:00 pm in the Learning Support Auditorium. Professor Cherry is the author of seventeen books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction (essay, memoir, criticism), eight chapbooks, and two translations of classical drama. She has received the Hanes Award for Poetry from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, and her short fiction has been represented in Best American Short Stories, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, and The Pushcart Prize. Forthcoming in 2009 are Girl in a Library: On Women Writers and the Writing Life and The Retreats of Thought: Poems. She is Eudora Welty Professor Emerita of English and EvjueBascom Professor Emerita in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She currently serves as Master Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.
Cultural critic and historian Jelani Cobb, Associate Professor of History at Spelman College, will offer a keynote address on Saturday April 4th at 4:30 pm in the Convention Center Banquet Hall. Dr. Cobb has published widely on African American history, culture and politics. His publications include To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic and The Devil and Dave Chappelle and Other Essays. He also edited The Essential Harold Cruse: A Reader. Professor Cobb’s forthcoming books are In Our Lifetimes: Barack Obama and the New Black America and Antidote to Revolution: African American Anticommunism and the Struggle for Civil Rights, 1931-1957.
In addition to his academic career, Professor Cobb has made a name for himself as an essayist and commentator. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, Essence, Vibe, Emerge, The Progressive, The Washington City Paper, ONE Magazine, Ebony and online at TheRoot.com. Professor Cobb has also appeared on National Public Radio, CNN, Al-Jazeera, and CBS News. In 2008, Professor Cobb served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, representing Georgia’s 5th Congressional District.
All events are free and open to the public.
To learn more about the conference, see the official web site. A complete schedule of student presentations is also available here. For more information, contact Dr. Mary Wearn at 471-2989 or Dr. Jeffrey Burson at 471-5747.
The Culture of Conflict conference is sponsored by the Macon State Foundation, the School of Arts and Sciences, the English Studies Organization, and the History Students Organization.
I have posted photographs from this week’s Arts Festival: “Borderlines: Reading, Writing, Performing in American Spaces.” All four speakers were excellent — Lillian Allen, Tayari Jones, Carmen Agra Deedy, Lorna Goodison. Many thanks to Sharon Colley and Derrilyn Morrison for asking me to play a small part as photographer. Well done, Drs!
The Georgia Poetry Circuit will present poet, David St. John on Wednesday, January 28, 2009. The reading and Q&A will take place at 11 am in the H/SS Theatre. Books will be on sale. Samples of St. John’s work are available at Poets.org.
Heather Braun will host the book group’s discussion of William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair March 6 at 130 p.m. Directions will be forthcoming in an email. See you there!
The Humanities Department created an informal book group–a venue where we get together and talk about what we love–literature. Interested faculty suggested titles from Great Books, Classic Texts, or Pulitzer winners that we wish we had read but did not or that we read too quickly to savor because it was assigned or became a film before we read the print version. Titles with the most votes generated the year’s reading list. During 2008-2009 we will read The Kite Runner, Vanity Fair, and The Year of the Locust.
The Rules of Engagement ask only for an interest in the book, but completing the book is not a requirement for attending. There are no assigned leaders, no formal discussion structure, and no expectations for critical methodology. The book group provides an opportunity to gather informally and share our readings with each other. All are welcome!
