I think this was our most community-oriented Wake that kept
people talking outside the library! Hiram Larew in an email to the Wake
Steering Committee called this event historic and I agree.
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Joanna Howard |
To keep things manageable, the steering committee decided to
limit the program to three topics instead of five, which we had last year.
Here, the stars aligned because when we were told we had less time for the
public program, three programs made it much more possible to present a
meaningful program within a 90-minute period.
HIGHLIGHTS OF WAKE #4
—Among the three presentations was variety that included
recorded “The Poet and the Poem” readings of poems by lost leaders of our DC
lit community, projected photographs from the Letras Latino experience in DC,
and an interactive panel on translation that had a teaching element.
—Participants were good about keeping their allotted
timeframes and this allowed for audience to ask questions and make comments.
—Having an earnest moderator like Patrick Washington helped
glue the parts together and keep the action moving forward.
—The warm introduction by Gelman Librarian Chief Geneva
Henry set the tone for success. She said, “I know it’s spring when Splendid
Wake comes to Gelman.”
—The paper program booklet similar to last year’s was
exactly what we needed to follow along with the event schedule and understand
why we do these Wakes.
SPECIFICS ABOUT THE PANELS
—The Poet and the
Poem: Voices from the Past
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Grace Cavalieri |
—Letras Latinas: Latino/a Poetry in DC
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Dan Vera |
—Crossing Borders:
Literary Translation in DC
Barbara Goldberg
created this panel inviting Nancy Naomi Carlson, Roman Kostovski, and Ting Wang
to participate. All are members of DC-ALT,
a translation group that sponsors writing workshops for people who would like
to translate or who already are working in the field. What I particularly liked
about this panel is that Barbara and Nancy talked about their process for
translating. Roman spoke about his new publishing house for Eastern European
languages and how the DC area is such a rich resource given the embassies here
and the active literary circles and meet-up groups. Barbara also made an
important point about how Myra Sklarew (one of the founders of Splendid Wake)
had included a translation course in the requirements for the MFA degree she
developed at American University.
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Barbara Goldberg, Roman Kostovski, Nancy Naomi Carlson, Ting Wang |
Special shout outs
to Jennifer King for making the logistics of all this work so well and let’s
keep
fingers crossed that Steve Castro shot a viable video.
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Jennifer King |
To Joanne Howard for the Herculean job of creating the printed
program brochure and making sure everyone was in place for the live program.
To Sunil Freeman for sitting as the hard-working timekeeper.
To Ginger Ingalls for running the mike around the room
during the question and answer period.
To Jacqueline Jules and Jim Hayes for taking photographs.
LESSONS LEARNED
—Less is more. I like the idea of only presenting three
panels or subject areas for our next Splendid Wake. This creates excitement
among attending audience and panelists alike by not overwhelming.
—Moderator needs advanced briefing. It’s best to give our
program moderator time to understand what the program entails and if possible
have that person attend one of our steering committee meetings.
—Honored Dead & Here and Now. It’s important to have the lead presentation bring voices
of honored dead into the room. While both the Letras Latinas and Translation
panel had some element of addressing history, I think the greater portion of
our program must address the here and now. This is how we are going to build
community.
Karren L. Alenier