Where will you be at the end of the semester? Perhaps this an accurate portrait (give or take some hair/fur).
But it’s not over yet. If you’re a student, you got those finals and papers keeping vigil before the new year. If you’re not, you got those not-a-student end of year ordeals. Either way, we’re all stumbling over the finish line towards the next season of this race. Fortunately, I bring something to breathe life into you (and it’s not Christmas coming early).
Taeyin ChoGlueck, Luis Lopez-Maldonado, and Tania Sarfraz will read and perform their poetry and prose on Wednesday, December 7, 2016, at the Hospitality Room of Reckers on Notre Dame’s campus. The reading begins at 7:30 PM. It is free and open to the public.
Taeyin ChoGlueck is the co-founder of Stage for Change, a non-profit group that puts unheard voices that question identity, inclusion, and difference on the stage. Her most recent play, The Pink Pope, is a feminist satire featuring a female God dealing with a Purgatory full of misogynistic men who reject Her, and a split church led by women on earth. Recently, Taeyin has found herself writing about menopausal super heroes, virgin ghosts, and ajummas. In her spare time, she eats up Korean webtoons (that may or may not star menopausal super heroes, virgin ghosts, ajummas, and menopausal supervirgin ajumma ghosts). Did you miss The Pink Pope? Now’s your chance to make up for it.
Luis Lopez-Maldonado is a Xican@ poeta, choreographer and educator. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and Dance from the University of California Riverside. His poetry has been seen in The American Poetry Review, Cloudbank, The Packinghouse Review, Public Pool, and Spillway, among many others. He also earned a Master of Arts degree in Dance from Florida State University. He is a candidate for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing at Notre Dame, where he is poetry editorial assistant for the Notre Dame Review, and founder of the men’s writing workshop in the St. Joseph County Juvenile Justice Center. He is also co-founder and editor at The Brillantina Project and founder of Humans of The University of Notre Dame. Luis’s reading will focus on violence as performance, and explore the hybridity between poetry, choreography, and audience. His works will contain themes relating to the darkness in America we all know: the mass shootings, the racism, the sexism, the homophobism, and the hate, among others. Plan to be disturbed. Prepare to hear erotic, beautiful language. Get excited to experience the world premier of his new contemporary dance solo: Silence Is Violence.
Tania Sarfraz received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology from Brown University in 2014. She won the Weston Senior Prize for her short fiction collection, Betrayal & Other Stories. She recently acquired a sentient hotdog on a skateboard, but due to legal issues it remains to be seen if Tania will bring it to the reading. It is entirely possible it has been eaten already. Such is the life of a hotdog.
But forget about franks. Let us all gather to on December 7 to reflect upon 2016 and gaze towards the trials and possibilities that await us in 2017. Come hear the voices of bright minds to clear your own, or fill it with inspiration.
-Moon