Pryor Center Presents 'Poets in Arkansas' at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 18

Photo Submitted

ASV team and poets

Alessandro Salemme and students from the Honors College Research Team will present "Poets in Arkansas" at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 18, at the Pryor Center on the Fayetteville Square.

This presentation is a continuation of the Pryor Center Presents lecture series hosted by the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. The "Poets in Arkansas" project is part of the Pryor Center's Arkansas Story Vault, which provides students with hands-on experience in media production and community storytelling.

Arkansas is a state rich with talented poets, both past and present. By collecting oral interviews with Arkansas poets, students were able to piece together what makes Arkansas a special place for poets to grow, prosper and inspire. In this presentation, students will explore the poetry community in the state by showcasing excerpts from the interviews and sharing insights gained in their research. The evening will also include audio recordings of the poets reading their own work, which were collected in tandem with the oral history interviews.

Salemme is a video producer at the Pryor Center and project lead for the Arkansas Story Vault program, designed to educate and involve students by encouraging their participation in preserving the cultural heritage of Arkansas. He has over 10 years of experience working in documentary filmmaking, education and national and local news across the US and UK. Salemme holds a Bachelor of Arts in film studies and television production from the University of Chester, England. He sits on the Fayetteville Film Festival Board, which promotes filmmakers across the region and state.

Honors College Research Team students:

• Miceala Morano, sophomore, journalism major with concentration in multimedia production and storytelling
• Janna Morse, sophomore, international and global studies with concentration on peace, security and human rights
• Ella Scurlock, junior, history and anthropology major
• April Trotter, freshman, English major with concentration in creative writing

The Pryor Center is located at 1 E. Center St., Suite 120. The event is free and open to the public, and parking is available on the Fayetteville Square.

About the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History: The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History is an oral history program with the mission to document the history of Arkansas through the collection of spoken memories and visual records, preserve the collection in perpetuity, and connect Arkansans and the world to the collection through the Internet, TV broadcasts, educational programs, and other means. The Pryor Center records audio and video interviews about Arkansas history and culture, collects other organizations' recordings, organizes these recordings into an archive, and provides public access to the archive, primarily through the website at pryorcenter.uark.edu. The Pryor Center is the state's only oral and visual history program with a statewide, seventy-five county mission to collect, preserve, and share audio and moving image recordings of Arkansas history.

About the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences: The Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is the largest and most academically diverse unit on campus with three schools, 16 departments and 43 academic programs and research centers. The college provides the majority of the core curriculum for all University of Arkansas students.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas' economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research News.