Utica College (Film Society & Poets & Writers)

Description

The Ruth and Harry Jackson Lunch Hour Series at Utica College is the only organization in the Utica area that regularly presents day-time readings of accomplished poets, fiction writers, and dramatists in this community. Events are held in Utica College’s MacFarlane Auditorium in DePerno Hall at 12:30 on Wednesdays; they are coordinated by Dr. Diane Matza and Dr. Gary Leising. We began to present events in 1979 when we decided a regularly scheduled program, consistent in quality but also in time and location, would yield greater attendance by the local and college communities. We have a devoted audience of retirees who attend our reading series, in addition to working members of the community, and we have invited teachers in the area to bring their classes, which has been a great success. We have also enlisted the support of particular interest groups in our programming. We present four readings in the fall and four in the spring of each year. Our goal has been to provide quality and variety. In a given year we offer poetry, fiction, and drama readings by writers of particular promise. We create balanced series by inviting New York poets, regional writers, African-American, Asian-American, Italian-American, Jewish writers. Writers we have sponsored: Hayden Carruth, Tess Gallagher, Tobias Wolff, Ray Carver, Stephen Dobyns, Gwendolyn Brooks, Michael Burkart, Jean Valentine, Sabra Loomis, Thomas Friedmann, Stanley Sultan, Richard Tillinghast, Heather McHugh, Vanessa Ochs, Toni Cade Bambera, Jackie Warren-Moore, Rachel Guido deVries, Donald, Hall, Jane Kenyon, Celia Bland, Walter Mosley, Leslie Li…