Too early to call it morning, but I am up for the day. To prep for class, read Buber for Zali's seminar tonight, grade a little, talk to you. I feel quiet, though, this time of day and after my head ran on all night in my sleep. Conversations I am having, want to have, I dream. Wake feeling worn out, sleepless, but more clear on what I'm saying. --I mean I am talking to everyone about so many things at once. With students, with friends, in the classroom, on the phone, in my office, over coffee, in bars, into the night, again in the morning, with yogurt and walnuts and sometimes with Diet Mountain Dew (because I'm that kind of groggy). Some of it gorgeously complex and about books and about love; some about helplessness, trauma. Others. Some so mundane and repetitive: the stuff I can't get over. --Art. We danced on Saturday. We have readings and lectures this week. --And I am a student again of course. Of cameras, dialogue, theology. With at least three designated teachers. In the darkroom, at the seminar table, the priory. I keep thinking you must know what I mean, but you weren't kneeling on the stone floor while they chanted, while they were prostrate in long prayer and contemplation.
***
Today is my mommy's birthday. I miss my mommy. Happy birthday, mommy!
***
Hadn't thought of it before, "misery," from Latin miseria, from Latin miser, meaning "wretched"; the 51st Psalm, miserere, translating "have mercy," a prayer that says take pity on me. And this doesn't bother you? This incest? That misery ever begetting mercy leaves mercy to beget misery?
***
postcard: Knox College (or lookie what my friends are up to this week)
BOOK DISCUSSION SERIES BEGINS SEPTEMBER 18
The Knox College Library will present a series of book discussion groups starting at 7 p.m., Monday, September 18, in the Standish Room, Seymour Library. Advance registration is required at Ext. 7249. Natania Rosenfeld, English, will lead the events, starting on September 18 with a discussion of the novel "Lost in Translation," by Eva Hoffman. Future books and discussion dates are "Mr. Sammler's Planet" by Saul Bellow on October 2, "Out of Egypt" by Andre Aciman on October 23, "The Centaur in the Garden by Moacyr Scliar on October 30, and "Kaaterskill Falls" by Allegra Goodman on November 6. The discussion series is based on the theme "Between Two Worlds: Stories of Estrangement and Homecoming," and is supported by a grant from Let's Talk About It: Jewish Literature, a program sponsored by Nextbook and the American Library Association.
GUREVITCH TO GIVE TALK SEPT. 20
Anthropologist Zali Gurevitch, Glossberg Visiting Israeli Scholar at Knox College, will give a talk, "Robinson Crusoe in the Land of Israel," at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, September 20, in the Alumni Room, Old Main. Gurevitch is professor of anthropology at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has written extensively in the fields of identity, communication and human relations, and has published poetry and translations. His book, "On Place," will be published this year in Israel. Gurevitch earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees at Hebrew University, and has taught there since 1983. Gurevitch is teaching two classes at Knox this term, "Time and Place in Jewish and Israeli Thought" and "Anthropology of Dialogue." He has taught previously at Knox in 1995, 1997 and 2003. The Glossberg Visiting Israeli Scholar Program at Knox is supported by a gift from Knox College trustee Joseph Glossberg. Since its inception in 1995, the program has brought seven distinguished Israeli academics to teach and give public lectures at Knox.
CAXTON CLUB PRESENTS: HERMAN CARRILLO SEPT. 22
Caxton Club will host a reading by Herman Carrillo, the critically acclaimed author of “Loosing my Espanish,” on Friday, September 22 at 4 p.m. in the Alumni Room, Old Main. "Loosing My Espanish," is set in the Cuban-American community in Chicago. He was named a "Writer on the Verge" by the 2004 Chicago Book Expo, and has won numerous awards, including a Prose Writing Grant from the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, a Sage Fellowship, Newberry Library Research Grant, Glimmer Train Fiction Open First Prize, and Arthur Lynn Andrews Prize for Best Fiction. Carrillo earned master of arts and master of fine arts degrees at Cornell University. He has taught at Cornell and has served as visiting writer in residence at Knox. The reading is sponsored by the Caxton Club and the John and Elaine Fellowes Fund.
OFF KNOX OPEN-MIC IS SEPT. 22
On Friday, September 22, at 7 p.m. the first Off Knox open-mic night of the season will take place at Pookies Coffee Bar, 72 South Cherry Street. Participants are given three minutes to present poetry, fiction, essay writing, a dramatic skit, a song--or anything else you can do in three minutes. Former participants include students, faculty, and staff of Knox College, as well as students and instructors from Carl Sandburg College and Galesburg High School. Interested? Contact Al Keefe (akeefe@knox.edu) or Gina Franco to get on the September 22 list. After the first 10 performances, the floor is open to anyone in the cafe. Off Knox welcomes everyone in Galesburg and the surrounding communities.
***
