...TWO DAUGHTERS OF NEW ORLEANS—BOTH QUEENS COLLEGE PROFESSORS—REVISIT KATRINA IN POEMS, READINGS AND DISCUSSION ON SEPT. 27
--English Professor & Poet Nicole Cooley and Media Studies Professor Joy V. Fuqua Share Their Perspectives on the 2005 Tragedy and Life Now on the Gulf Coast--
WHAT:
In commemoration of the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, two Queens College professors will look at the storm’s aftermath in a President’s Roundtable presentation of Reflections on the Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Coast, 5 Years Later.
English professor Nicole Cooley, who grew up in New Orleans, and media studies professor Joy V. Fuqua, a decade-long New Orleans resident, have both written about Hurricane Katrina and its consequences. Cooley will read from her new book, Breach, a collection of poems about Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Coast and discuss her recent visits to New Orleans. Fuqua will discuss the tensions between vulnerability and resilience in Spike Lee's If God is Willing and the Creek Don't Rise (2010), his recent documentary about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
WHEN:
Monday, September 27, 2010 from 12:15 -1 :30pm
WHERE:
Queens College, Dining Hall, Q Side Lounge
65-30 Kissena Boulevard, Flushng, Queens
Directions: http://www.qc.cuny.edu/welcome/directions/Pages/default.aspx
Campus Map: http://www.qc.cuny.edu/welcome/directions/3d/Pages/Home.aspx
RSVP by Sept. 22 at (718) 997-3600 or email PresEvents.RSVP@qc.cuny.edu
For space reasons, seating priority will be given to those who respond.
*
Background:
Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, the nation witnessed images of a drowned city and its citizens dying in the oppressive heat; today, the Gulf Coast, surrounded by oil flows and suffocating wildlife, is once more in the news. Some of the questions the Reflections on the Water Presidential Roundtable participants will consider are, “In what ways do these two events complicate the ways of understanding what it means for a disaster to end?” “When do we know if a crisis is over?” “What are our indicators that suggest resilience or vulnerability?” Representing different disciplines and interests, the roundtable hopes to bring a renewed sense of critical examination to the function of such “anniversaries.”
“Hurricane Katrina devastated so much of the Gulf Coast and left 80% of the city of New Orleans underwater. It is crucial to remember what happened there,” says Cooley, who also directs the college’s MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation.
Fuqua’s current research examines the idea of home and belonging in relation to disaster. Her first book, Ill Effects: Prescribing Television in the Hospital and at Home, is forthcoming from Duke University Press.
