September 21st, 2023 Newsletter
“All dreams are within reach. All you have to do is keep moving towards them.” – Viola Davis – Actress-Producer
“The problem is not making up the steps, but deciding which ones to keep.” – Mikhail Baryshnikov – Dancer-Choreographer-Actor
“No matter what you’re going through, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.” – Demi Lovato – Singer-Actress-Author-Songwriter
ANNOUNCEMENTS
(notes provided by Lisa Crane)
According to the latest reports, we are in 3rd place with our football picks. Much credit goes to our football swami, Cary. This may be a record for our highest place this late in the season. The Newsletter historians should be able to confirm this detail in next week’s Newsletter.
Pricing has not changed much for our annual fruit sale. Assistant Chief Fruithead Tod moved to keep the price at $30; Scott seconded. The motion passed and there was much rejoicing.
Sept 24 – 12-3pm – Interact Car Wash Fundraiser Sunday at Prospect Bank
Oct 8 – 1-4pm – Gary Olsen Celebration of Life and Shelterbox USA fundraiser. We will need help to set up the tent prior to 1pm.
Oct 24 – World Polio Day event @ Museum of the Grand Prairie in Mahomet.
Oct 28 – Women’s basketball Illini fundraiser Cupcake walk 5K. Doubled their season ticket holders for this year.
Nov 9 – CU Sunrise Anniversary Party @ City View
SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES
Sept 30 – 3-11pm – Octoberfest downtown
Oct 3 – 5-6:30pm – Books to Prisoners
Oct 14 – 6am-noon – Rotary Booth @ Urbana Farmer’s Market
Nov 4 Interact Annual 5k Fundraiser
Nov 5 CU Special Recreation 5K Fundraiser
BUCKET BUCKS
SEPTEMBER – Books to Prisoners
OCTOBER – Polio Plus
SPEAKER
Tom introduced our speakers: Corey Landingham is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at UIUC. She teaches in the MFA program and has authored 3 books of poetry: Antidote, Love Letter to Who Owns the Heavens, and Reader I (which will be out April2024). She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University.
Corey discussed the quality of poetry, relating poetry to visual art, and that poetry can have a sense of mystery. It is often written to be relatable and accessible to others. The experiences of poetry can teach us to see language in a new way. She read excerpts from At the Fishhouses by Elizabeth Bishop
Christopher Kempf an Assistant Professor in the English Department at the University of Illinois. Chris teaches in the MFA program, and has published poetry collections What Through the Field be Lost and Late in the Empire of Men. He also published Craft Class, The Writing Workshop in American Culture. He is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University. His writing has appeared in Best American Poetry, Best American Essays and Best American Sports Writing. He gave a handout of various publications including a poem by Barry Quan, Doug Flutie’s 1984 Orange Bowl Hail Mary as Water into Fire.
He discussed poetry and structure indicating that the structure is more free verse now. Patterning and repetition tend to compensate for lack of rhyming and meter.
The audience had many questions (no doubt there were some current and future poets among the questioners, including noted wordsmith Edward Perry). Corey and Christopher mentioned that there is a Poetry website where you can create your own poetry. There is also a Poetry workshop at Champaign library as well in-person workshops at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago.
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| Sept 28th | Oct 5th | Oct 12th | Oct 19th | |
| Introductions | Larry Johnson | Phyllis Mischo | Scott Paceley | Robb Patton |
| Reflection | Jarrod Scheunemann | Jen Shelby | Mary Kay Smith | Cary Woolard |
| Greeters | Larry Johnson | Phyllis Mischo | Scott Paceley | Robb Patton |
| Jarrod Scheunemann | Jen Shelby | Mary Kay Smith | Cary Woolard | |
| Notetaker | Conforti | Perry | Hodson | Crane |
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UPCOMING SCHEDULE (with program committee members listed in parentheses)
September 28th – Jarrod Scheunemann will discuss his mission trip and park development project in Bilisht, Albania
October 5th – Club Assembly
October 12th – Brittany Millington, Director, Champaign Public Library (Thom)
October 19th – Dr. Nestor Ramirez will give a summary of his OLLI class on Polio
October 26th – John Clark, who will discuss Storybook, a program that allows inmates to maintain a connection to children by recording stories for their children (Mary)
November 2nd – Dr. Dan Simons, Professor, Psychology, UIUC, co-author of “The Invisible Gorilla” and “Nobody’s Fool”
November 9th – no morning meeting – Anniversary Dinner at CityView
November 16th – TBD
November 23rd – Turkey Day – no morning meeting
November 30th – TBD
December 7th – TBD
UPCOMING BIRTHDAYS
September 25 – Tod Satterthwaite