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UIS to host annual Verbal Arts Festival

March 29, 2005

SPRINGFIELD - The University of Illinois at Springfield’s 2005 Verbal Arts Festival, scheduled for April 6 through 9, will feature events ranging from readings of original works to an open mic night and readers’ theater. All events in this annual celebration of the arts are free and open to the public and will be held on the UIS campus.

Activities begin with a presentation by Jackie Jackson at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 6, in Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library. Jackson is an emerita professor of English at UIS and the author of numerous children’s books and books on creative writing including Turn Not Pale, Beloved Snail and The Endless Pavement.  She is perhaps best known for The Round Barn, the true story of three generations living at her family’s dairy farm outside Beloit, Wisconsin. Jackson will speak about her 30 years of writing and teaching.

Thursday, April 7, will celebrate the release of the 2005 Alchemist Review, the campus’ literary magazine featuring original fiction, poetry, and non-fiction by UIS students and alumni. Authors represented in the latest edition will read selections from their works at a reception beginning at 7 p.m. in the Housing Commons Building.

Friday, April 8, will feature “Poets, Poets, Poets,” an open mic night beginning at 7 p.m. in the Student Center, located in the Student Life Building. Guests are invited to read their original works, share favorite pieces by other poets, or simply sit back and listen. Refreshments will be available.

The festival will conclude with “Conversation Pieces: Politics, Sex, and Religion,” a readers’ theater of short plays and monologs by student playwrights, at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 9, in Brookens Auditorium.

Co-sponsors of this year’s festival are the UIS English program, Speakers’ Bureau, Inter-Club Council Board, and Advocates for Academics.

For more information, contact Maureen Skube, English program graduate assistant, at 206-7459 or by e-mail at uisgaenglish@uis.edu.