On October 14, 7-10 am EST, tune in to Marvin Rosen’s Classical Discoveries radio show on WPRB to hear Arwen Myers sing “Strawberry Man” by Lisa Neher and me!
My lyrics:
“Strawberry Man”
The Strawberry Man
and his little pinto pony
Sweetness, slaked
in the city street
If you’d like to perform the piece, you can buy a digital download (in multiple keys, even!) from Lisa’s site. I’d love for this to become part of singers’ repertoires.
Medusa was raped.
Medusa was not raped.
Medusa was given rohypnol.
Medusa lured Poseidon from the sea with a bed of seaweed soaked in salt water.
She became pregnant.
She did not become pregnant.
She became pregnant and used her knowledge of the medicinal arts to end her pregnancy.
She became pregnant and gave the resulting child to Poseidon to raise.
She gave the child to her own parents, Phorcys and Ceto.
She and her sisters raised the child, who then became a sculptor, a psychoanalyst, a designer of prosthetics.
Her body after death produced a winged horse and a golden giant.
Her body after death wept from its palms and the tears mixed with earth to create a golem.
Her body after death was dressed by Versace and laid in a bronze tomb in Buenos Aires.
Medusa angered Athena.
Athena was jealous.
Athena was not a feminist.
Athena was a prude.
It did not matter to Athena what actually happened to Medusa.
Athena was required to take action by a committee.
Athena was wise but had already had to deal with mansplaining gods that night.
Athena was a slut-shaming bitch.
Medusa was made an example of through the great wrath of a goddess warrior.
In the long nights, a mortal woman made immortal because of her story ran
from a temple, from a cave, from Kisthene’s dreadful plain eeking blindness, baldness, rebirth
with her sisters.
So many stories. Let us begin anew.
Protectress.
Out January 2022 from Unsolicited Press.
Yesterday I presented a workshop called “Using Your ‘Research Pantry'” at the joint meeting of TMLA and AMS-SW. You can now download the slides and my speaking notes for it here from Humanities CORE.
Here’s the abstract:
What’s in your research “pantry”? What topics, materials, and data are already on your shelves or in your files, just waiting to become papers, presentations, or articles? The pandemic may have stopped many of us from some of our usual research, library, and archival work, but there is still a lot we can do using materials and information we have and maybe haven’t even thought about. This 1-hour workshop will focus on how we—musicologists, librarians, everyone—can continue or develop research projects working with sources that are immediately available. We’ll discuss taking stock of what we have and how to generate project ideas from those materials; how to work with new and emerging online networks to access archival materials when we can’t travel to the archive; consider how to use recent classroom experiences and data in developing pedagogy- and learning-centered studies; and talk about how librarians and teaching faculty can collaborate on projects that require their specialized skills and training. Participants are encouraged to bring questions, ideas, and projects to discuss. We’ll end with a moderated group discussion to help foster connections and brainstorm further possibilities of using what’s in your research pantry.
