Voices of Urban Life Will Take Center Stage for the Taylor Symposium

The realities of urban life as reflected in the diverse voices of spoken and written word and innovative efforts to teach the craft of communicating through writing in the urban school environment are the focus of the 21st annual Joseph Taylor Symposium at IUPUI.

The 2010 Joseph T. Taylor Symposium, entitled “Voices in the City: Language, Literacy, and Urban Life,” will take place from 8 a.m. to 1:45 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010, at the IUPUI Campus Center, 420 University Blvd. The event is hosted by the IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI in conjunction with the Department of English.

Four-time national slam poetry winner Patricia Smith will be the keynote speaker for the symposium luncheon which begins at 11:45 a.m.

Smith’s book of poetry chronicling the human, emotional and physical toll exacted by Hurricane Katrina, “Blood Dazzler,” was one of NPR’s top 100 books of 2008. The poetry collection was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award. Smith is also the author of “Africans in America,” the companion book to the PBS special of the same name.

Smith will give a free reading from her works later that day at the Rufus and Louise Reiberg Creative Reading Series event at 7:30 p.m. in the IUPUI University Library auditorium.

According to event organizers, the symposium invites participants to listen to how writers from our city, in diverse ways, shape their identities and respond to the culture through spoken word poetry. In addition, teachers and mentors, affiliated with the National Writing Project, will showcase new approaches to working with language in multilingual, multicultural Indianapolis.

Young, local poets, including Derrick Slack, a motivational speaker who has written about his climb up Africa’s highest mountain, and Allyson Horton, a Star Search at the Apollo winner, are among the presenters at the 8:30 a.m. symposium workshop, entitled “Holla if Ya Hear Me: Language and Performance.”

Local teachers will serve as panelists for the 10 a.m. discussion on communicating through writing, “Holla! We Hear Ya: Language and Literacy.”

Workshop sessions are free and open to the public, and registration is encouraged.

Reservations are required for the keynote luncheon to be held from 11:45 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. Individual luncheon tickets are $26 until February 5, 2010; $31 on Feb. 6 and after.

The Joseph Taylor Symposium honors Joseph T. Taylor, Ph.D., for his many contributions to Indiana University, the IUPUI campus, and the Indianapolis community. Taylor served as a professor of sociology from 1965 to 1983 and as the first dean of the School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI from 1967 to 1978. Taylor, who died in September 2000, is remembered for his commitment to dialogue and diversity

Go to http://liberalarts.iupui.edu/taylor for complete details and online registration.