|
Pelegrin awarded ATLAS grant
 Southeastern English Instructor and nationally- recognized poet Alison Pelegrin has
received a $34,000 Awards to Louisiana Artists and Scholars grant to fund the completion
of her fifth poetry collection Feast Days. A sub-program of the Louisiana Board of Regents Support Fund’s Research and Development
Program, ATLAS is designed to provide support for major scholarly and artistic productions
with potential to have a broad impact on regional and/or national levels.
Poems from Pelegrin’s in-progress manuscript have appeared in top-tier journals,
such as Image: Art, Faith, Mystery, The Southern Review, Tin House, and The Cincinnati Review.
“The Louisiana Board of Regents has granted me the triple crown - validation
of my work, substantive financial support, and the precious resource of uninterrupted
time to probe the issues I am writing and thinking about,” she said. “Reviewers have
often noted the importance of Louisiana in my work, and for my beloved state to reward
me in this way is a great honor. I am so grateful. I still can’t believe it is real.”
Pelegrin said Feast Days celebrates Louisiana and its cycle of destruction and rebirth on spiritual, political,
racial, and environmental spectrums. Her work, she said, comes from a world of floods,
of cars washed away, of fish swimming in streets and shoes bobbing in closets.
“I grew up in the shadow of New Orleans, on the West Bank of the Mississippi
River, meaning that mansions and oak trees and seersucker society were just out of
reach thanks to the barriers of water and wealth,” she said. “The tension of an outsider’s
existence made my work spiritually rich, alive with the voice of lived experience.
Poetry has never been more essential in a region that struggles to survive ecological
and social catastrophes so often caricatured by outsiders with their drop-in scorn
dressed up to look like concern.”
Pelegrin hopes to attend a two- to four-week residency at a writer’s colony and
has plans to travel to more regional destinations, including Whitney Plantation, the
Civil Rights Museum in Montgomery, Ala., and the sites where Confederate statues once
stood.
Pelegrin is also the author of Waterlines, Hurricane Party, and Big Muddy River of Stars. In 2007, she was awarded a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment
for the Arts.
|
|
Southeastern to host prestigious youth leadership conference
For the first time in over 10 years, the Louisiana Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Seminar
is holding its program on a college campus in Louisiana, and they have chosen Southeastern
Louisiana University to host 130 high-achieving high school students on campus. The
conference will take place June 7 - 9 in Southeastern’s Student Union.
HOBY is a non-profit, 501 c3 organization operating in all 50 states and over
10 foreign countries and coordinated by local volunteers. The leadership seminar provides
top-performing high school sophomores from across the state with the opportunity to
develop leadership and critical thinking skills.
“Each year, approximately 10,000 high school sophomores from across the country
join one of HOBY’s 70 State Leadership Seminars to recognize their leadership talents
and apply them to become effective, ethical leaders in their home, school, workplace
and community,” said Director of Events and Conference Services Cally Berner. “We
are thrilled that HOBY has selected Southeastern as the site for the Louisiana seminar.”
The seminar hosts students handpicked by their guidance counselors from most
parishes in the state.
“The students are diverse with respect to geography, income, gender and race.
Many of our alumni go on to become leaders in business, government, entertainment,
law, and medicine,” said HOBY Board President Matthew Wallace. “Moving our seminar
to a college campus will allow many of our students to be exposed to a higher education
institution for the first time. In a time where Louisiana faces an increased ‘brain
drain,’ hosting the HOBY seminar at one of our state’s higher education institutions
provides a win-win for both the program and the future of our state.”
|
|
|
KSLU’S Rock School receives Communicator Award of Distinction
Southeastern’s public radio station KSLU has received a Communicator Award of Distinction
from the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts for its long running program “Rock
School.”
One of KSLU’s most popular programs, Rock School is hosted by Southeastern Communication
Professor Joe Burns, along with his wife Tammy Burns, and airs twice per week on 90.9
FM as well as 17 affiliate stations.
The show focuses on a new topic each week, playing music from and exploring the
facts of that theme. The show has produced over 500 episodes without repeating a topic
or airing a re-run.
The Communicator Award of Distinction was specifically awarded for an episode
of Rock School focusing on the book “Just a Shot Away: Peace, Love, and Tragedy with
the Rolling Stones at Altamont” by author Saul Austerlitz, the premiere episode in
the Rock School series “Joe’s Book Club.”
Rock School episodes, including “Altamont” and the entire Book Club series, are
archived and available on the Rock School website, kslu.org/rockschool, and through
the PRX Music Exchange at prx.org. For more information on Rock School, visit kslu.org
or tune in Thursdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m. to 90.9 FM KSLU.
KSLU offers a wide variety of programming, including music and live broadcasts
of sporting events, the award-winning and syndicated Rock School show, and the community
talk show “Point of View.” Named the No. 1 college radio station in the region
by the Southeast Journalism Conference, KSLU provides Southeastern students interested
in broadcasting with an intensive learning environment. Learn more about KSLU
at http://www.kslu.org/.
 AWARD OF DISTINCTION - One of KSLU’s most popular programs, Rock School, has received a Communicator Award of Distinction from the Academy of Interactive
and Visual Arts. The show is hosted by Southeastern Communication Professor Joe Burns,
left, along with his wife Tammy Burns, and airs twice per week on 90.9 FM as well
as 17 affiliate stations.
|
|
Southeastern’s Sustainability Center has been recognized by the Environmental Leadership
Program national organization for its pollution prevention and commitment to environmental
protection. Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Chuck Carr Brown,
who served on the selection committee, will present the award to Southeastern Physical
Plant Director Byron Patterson and Sustainability Manager Alejandro Martinez in Baton
Rouge at the ELP Awards ceremony.
SLU Police receives impaired driving, enforcement grant
