FREE | Every Friday: May 10 - October 11 | 5 PM - 6 PM
Join us throughout the residency season for our free public series of short and informal artist talks, readings, and presentations. We’ll learn about works-in-progress from our artists and scholars-in-residence with informative and inspiring presentations in all disciplines. This is a wonderful way to kick off your weekend! Bring a friend, all are welcome.
Location: Main Campus. Look for Craigardan Event sign at the end of Main Campus driveway (two “doors” west of the farm store, towards Keene). Google Maps Link
Kononwa'tshén:ri ión:kia'ts Onkwehonwehnéha
(Sue Ellen Herne)
Kononwa'tshén:ri ión:kia'ts Onkwehonwehnéha. (Kononwa'tshén:ri is my indigenous name.) Sue Ellen Herne ión:kia'ts Kiohrhénsha. (Sue Ellen Herne is my English name.) Wakhskaré:wake, Ahkwesáhsne nitewaké:non. (I'm Bear Clan from Akwesasne.) I have over forty years of experience in creating thought-provoking paintings and installations with a focus on Haudenosaunee (specifically Mohawk) culture and Language. Images of my work may be found in: Iroquois Arts: A Directory of a People and Their Work Johannsen, Christina B. and John P. Ferguson & The Association for the Advancement of Native North American Arts and Crafts, 1983. Three Centuries of Woodlands Indian Art - a collection of Essays edited by J.C.H. King and Christian F. Feest, 2007 Iroquois Art, Power and History by Neal Keating, 2012. I’m an artist who spent 23 years working at the Akwesasne Museum as the program coordinator. I have been a lifelong learner of culture and language, and I have shared what I have learned in classrooms, through my art, and in my work as a museum program coordinator. In 2018, I left my job to study in a full-time Kanién’keha (Mohawk) language program sponsored by the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe. I’m continuing to study, and have the skills to teach the basics. I have been a Kanien'keha Educational Assistant for the Ahkwesahsne Mohawk Board of Education's Skahwatsi:ra program and I'm currently studying in the Ratiwennahní:rats program sponsored by the Kanien’kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa Language and Cultural Center in Kahnawake. I continue to make art in a variety of media.
Bessie N. A. Mbadugha
Bessie N. A. Mbadugha delights in the power and beauty of the written word and has been an avid reader and multidisciplinary writer for as long as she can remember. Born in Tanzania to a Nigerian father and an American mother, Bessie began her writing life tapping stories on her father’s typewriter. As an undergraduate student at Lafayette College, she authored an English honors thesis and served as the Editor-in-Chief of AYA, a Black literary journal. Bessie published her Chemistry doctoral thesis at Emory University and has written several funded grants as a chemistry professor and as a volunteer for local nonprofits. Most recently, Bessie was an award-winning education journalist for Evanston RoundTable, before returning to the classroom as a guest educator. Bessie enjoys composing poetry and weaving stories and is currently working on a compilation inspired by her mother, a poet.
Fran Hoepfner
Fran Hoepfner is a writer and teacher from Chicago living in Brooklyn. She got her Bachelor’s in English from Kalamazoo College and her Master’s in Fiction Writing from Rutgers University in Newark. She is the senior editor for the independent film magazine Bright Wall/Dark Room, and her other nonfiction work and criticism have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, Slate, and Gawker. Her short fiction has appeared in Peach Mag, Burrow Press, and Joyland. She is currently working on a novel about Antarctica and a nonfiction book about classical music.