Humanities Grants Go to English Department

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Posted on December 9, 2019

Marketing and Communications

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Faculty in the University of South Alabama English department have received two separate grants from the Alabama Humanities Foundation that will help sponsor events in 2020.

Funding received by the Stokes Center for Creative Writing will help bring internationally celebrated Haitian-American novelist, memoirist and story writer Edwidge Danticat to Mobile. The goals of the project are to create bonds between the local refugee community and the local community of readers, students and scholars; and to inspire the refugee community of Mobile to view literature as an important vehicle for understanding and sharing their experiences as immigrants to the United States. During her visit to Mobile, Danticat will meet with refugee families to share her story as an immigrant and will deliver a public reading at South with free transportation for local refugees. Another part of the project will pair graduate students with refugees to collaborate on narratives of displacement and immigration. Danticat’s reading will take place at the Student Center Ballroom on the University’s main campus at 5 p.m. on January 30, 2020.

Dr. Justin St. Clair, associate professor, received funding for a project that builds off his work on the decade-long Independent Music Collective concert series. To help preserve and promote American roots music, the project will produce 500 copies of a ten-track vinyl LP featuring live listening-room performances from the series. These records will be distributed at a public event at the University, which will feature musical performances, a presentation on the role of roots music in democratic exchange and audience participation. The event is planned for spring 2020.

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