The following was written by Rich Dana, Sackner Archive Project Coordinator
Marvin and Ruth Sackner were the world’s foremost collectors of “visual poetry,” artwork that combines visual elements and text. Dr. Sackner was also an internationally respected pulmonologist and inventor of many medical devices. In 1992, the Sackners created a unique exhibition of work by an international selection of artists entitled The Beauty in Breathing, as a special event at the annual meeting of The American Lung Association & American Thoracic Society.
Visual poetry is, among many things, the depiction of the sounds made by the air moving from our lungs and across our vocal cords. It’s not surprising then, that breath is one of the common themes found in the Sackner’s vast collection of artists’ books, images, and 3D objects.
“It was a scientific meeting,” recalled Dr. Sackner in a previous interview. “And in the middle of it, here is this exhibition. A lot of people got exposed to ‘art and poetry’ for the first time. It was really great fun to observe them. A lot of doctors aren’t necessarily art-inclined, but here, over a thousand people got to see this exhibit over a three-day period.”
Presented in the UIHC exhibit is a small selection of the 167 works included in The Beauty in Breathing show, but the other works, along with copies of the exhibit catalog, original photographs from the event, and the Sackners’ curatorial records are all part of Dr. Sackner’s donation to the University of Iowa Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives.
“Concrete Poetry conveys a visual image to the reader through the arrangement of words or typefaces on the page; there may or may not be additional meanings to the poem in the abstract sense which relate to its content as in a conventional poem. Visual poetry is a form of concrete poetry that integrates visual imagery with the text.” —Dr. Marvin Sackner
The Beauty in Breathing: Selections from The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry will be on display through this fall through January 24th at the UIHC John Colloton Pavillion, located on the 6th floor, as part of their Project Art initiative. The exhibit is curated by Rich Dana, Sackner Archive Project Coordinator.
We are pleased to welcome Rachel Poppen as our new collections archivist in Special Collections and Archives.
Rachel Poppen
Rachel joined the department in mid-July. Raised in Sibley, Iowa, Rachel received her Bachelor of Arts in English and Spanish from the University of Iowa. She then went on to receive her Master of Science in Information Science from the University of Texas at Austin in spring 2023. Rachel is already busy digging into the University Archives.
When asked about what excites her about this position Rachel stated, “I am looking forward to interacting with the history of the University and helping preserve the historic events happening now for future generations.” As an archivist, she looks forward to connecting people and records of the past to people looking for information in the present.
When away from work, Rachel enjoys exploring state and national parks, cooking new recipes (she’s going to love our Szathmary collection), and solving puzzles.
The following is written by Rich Dana, Sackner Archive Project Coordinator Librarian
Image of Congdon in 1966 from issue of Juggernaut, Sackner Archive
On June 3, 98-year-old Kirby Congdon passed away in Key West, Florida, a town that had recognized him as its first poet laureate. Although the arts community of Key West understood the importance of Congdon and his work, much of the rest of America’s literary establishment is yet to recognize him.
According to his obituary, he was born in Pennsylvania in 1924 and was drafted at age 19, serving with valor as an Army sharpshooter in Europe during WWII. “At a time when the United States government and its military were enacting criminalizing edicts against gay service personnel, Kirby fought Nazi snipers to defend and expand the democratic freedoms that he would, only by virtue of his longevity, see come to fruition 70 years later with the establishment of equal rights and protections for LGBTQ+ citizens, such as gay marriage.”
With the help of the GI Bill, Kirby attended Columbia University where he studied philosophy and literature, earning a Bachelors degree… despite his rebellious nature. During this time in New York City, he became part of the Beat poetry scene, along with Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Jack Kerouac. There he gained notoriety as both a writer and indie publisher as part of the “Mimeograph Revolution.”
Cover page of Juggernaut, Sackner Archive
Stunningly handsome, a motorcycle enthusiast and leather fetishist, Kirby was a flamboyant and fearless gay man during a time when homosexual activity was still illegal and most of his beatnik compatriots opted to seek refuge in tweedy intellectualism and academia. Although he was published in the New York Times and Christian Science Monitor, his own Interim Books imprint and ground-breaking publication Magazine (a storehouse for ammunition) published work that wascutting-edge, sexy, and transgressive.
Later in life, Congdon divided his time between Key West and Fire Island, New York. His works included Aipotu (1998), Poems from Fire Island Pines and Key West (1999), Novels, prose poems of people, Old Mystic, Connecticut Sixty-five Years Ago (2003), and Selected Poems & Prose Poems (2006). His work has been anthologized in Gay Roots (1991) and Inside the Outside (2006). (Source: The Poetry Foundation)
He is survived by his husband, the art critic, Darren Jones.
Works by Kirby Congdon from The Ruth And Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry can be found at UI Special Collections.
The following is written by Matrice Young, student life archivist and curator of Professional Attention: The World of Labor.
Extra Extra! Read all about it! Jobs in America are varied and should be valued! Whether it be workin’ the field, fixing railroads, tightening locs or crocheting braids. Be it acrobatics, magic, music, or ballet. Librarians, nurses, comic artists, lecturers—No, All professions deserve praise!
– Poem written by curator Matrice Young
From 2021-2023, before my current job as Student Life Archivist, I worked as an Olson Graduate Research Assistant for University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections and Archives. This position allowed me to learn by hands on experience about several aspects of special collections librarianship. For two years I provided reference services, assisted with instruction, processed collections and worked on descriptive language projects. As a culmination of my time as Olson Graduate, I curated an exhibit that is an homage to labor in the United States. While the exhibit does not feature everyone, it does shine a spotlight on the importance of several different professions, providing samples of our work force that we think about in relation to labor, and the ones we do not. I’ve included samples of our work force that we think about in relation to labor and ones we do not.
This exhibit features nurses, librarians, Black hairstylists, farmers, aviators, railroad workers, comic book creators, and different types of performance artists. However, because of space and material constraints, I was unable to fit all of these stories. While the exhibit only allows so much to be displayed, more stories of American workers can be found in Iowa Labor History Oral Project (ILHOP)!. You can also hear recordings from the project on the Iowa Digital Library.
I hope that from this exhibit people understand that labor is not just physical, but also mental and emotional. I want people to see that all jobs are valuable and that they have more to them than we may see on the surface. Below are some highlights from the exhibit.
Highlights
Dora MacKay was a Black hairstylist from Des Moines who was part of the first graduating class of Crescent School of Beauty Culture. Beauty schools today still do not spend much time on Black hair, and Black women are often turned away from beauty shops because of lack of knowledge on how to do Black hair.
In my undergraduate career, I had to travel over 43 miles to find someone who could do my hair. In Iowa City, I still frequently go up to Cedar Rapids to find someone to do my hair. Black hair typically is tighter coiled and requires more to take care of it, and Black hair does not operate the same as loosely textured hair. You have to consider everything from protecting it at night to using different creams and oils to promote hair health and growth.
Dora learned from Pauline Humphrey, the first Black woman to open a beauty shop for Black women in Iowa. Pauline was denied business loans, property rentals, and rejected from suppliers because of her race. She created Crescent School of Beauty Culture in 1939 after opening the first Black Beauty shop in Iowa in 1935. The racism that Humphrey and MacKay faced in creating and maintaining shops and schools to teach their hair cultures and do their own hair is its own form of labor, an emotional and mental one, not including carpal tunnel and back pain as physical pains that come with the profession.
Image of Helen Knievel during her retirement party, IWA0718
Helen Knievelwas a rural librarian. She grew up on a farm in Cherokee County, Iowa and made sure to carry the voices of the individuals from her communities into her later work. She made sure that the farming and rural area communities knew what the library could do for them, including resource guides on fixing machinery and growing certain crops. She also connected with other small-town libraries to further the outreach that they could provide for their communities as a whole.
Alonzo Moore, Redpath Chautauqua Bureau Records MsC0150
Alonzo Moore was a Black Moroccan magician who started out as an apprentice beneath the great magician Edward Maro, Moore studied magic for 15 years before setting out on his own. At the time (early 1900s) he was known as the only Black magician in the world, and his performances were a mixture of studies “in the history of magic in the land of his ancestors” and brought “forgotten mysteries” to the Americas.
Andre Drew, Redpath Chautauqua Bureau Records, MsC0150
Andre Drew at 16 years old was hailed as one of the top Black tap-ballet dancers in the United States. Drew began to dance almost as early as he began to walk, studying acrobatic and tap dancing at the age of 5 under Essie Marie, and continued his studies. After successful solo performances in tap and Indian interpretive dance, Drew decided to concentrate on ballet under William Sena at the Philadelphia La Scala Opera Company, and carved his way as a Black dancer in the world of ballet.
Come visit the exhibit in the Special Collections & Archives Reading Room on the 3rd floor of the Main Library! View the different forms of labor and share your appreciation for all of the workers you know.
We are happy to welcome Matrice Young as our new student life archivist in Special Collections and Archives.
Matrice Young
Matrice joined the Libraries at the beginning of summer. Hailing from Chicago, Matrice received her BA in creative writing with minors in educational studies and Africana. She received her MA in Library and Information Science from University of Iowa in May 2023. After spending two years working as the Olson Research Assistant in Special Collections and Archives, Matrice dove into her new role with the University Archives, ready to make connections with student groups on campus.
When thinking about this position, Matrice states that she looks forward to making sure that student groups, particularly and especially marginalized ones, continue to be seen, heard, and given the historical spotlight they deserve. “I’m looking forward to making the connections and processing the collections of groups that we don’t have yet and the ones we do! I want people to know that their stories and their groups and organizations matter, and I want to be part of making sure that we continue to record that.”
Away from work Matrice enjoys playing a variety of games, from video to board to card. She enjoys drawing, writing, and embroidery, while also watching horror/thriller movies. Spending time with her loved ones, including an adorable cat named Melvin, is also important to Matrice. And of course, she loves reading a good book!
The following is written by graduate student worker Sydnee Brown
It is usually a shock when we realize that famous historical figures and celebrities struggle with everyday things like chores or math and language homework. Well, what if we told you that the iconic Mary Shelley also struggled with learning a new language?
Mary Shelley, “The Mother of Sci-Fi” and renowned author of Frankenstein, was born in 1797 to Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, who were both known political philosophers in the latter half of the 18th century and early 19th century (de Bruin-Molé). Shelley, unfortunately, did not get to know her mother, as Wollstonecraft died of puerperal fever merely eleven days after giving birth. Godwin then took up the task of raising his and Wollstonecraft’s daughter, as well as Shelley’s five other siblings—all of whom were either illegitimate or siblings through marriage (Bennett).
Shelley was educated early on at both a dame-school as well as a short spell with Miss Caroline Petman at her school for daughters of dissenters. However, her primary educator was her father who prioritized his children’s education highly. Godwin nurtured the imaginative minds of his children, and he gave Shelley the skillset and conviction to be able to instigate change as an activist. He provided Shelley a well-rounded education in history, mythology, and literature—including the Bible. Not only was Shelley educated in English literature, but she was also tutored in several other languages, being fluent in both Italian and French, as well as Latin, Greek, and some Spanish. It has been said that, when she married Percy Bysshe Shelley, he tutored her in both Latin and Greek as well (Bennett).
Inside look into Shelley’s Greek notebook
As a scholar in classical languages and mythology, it is no surprise that Shelley would have read from classical authors such as Homer. In the Leigh Hunt collection where we have an assortment of books and manuscripts by and about English writer James Henry Leigh Hunt, we have one of Shelley’s notebooks where she is working through translations in Ancient Greek (Leigh Hunt Collection, Ms S54G). In this notebook, Shelley is reading Homer’s Odyssey and working through a translation. She wrote down names of significant characters early on—Odysseus, Penelope, and Telemachus—and other line translations indicate that she was working through Book I, lines 114-387 (Bowers 514). This manuscript of Shelley’s has received very little critical attention—Will Bowers’ 2017 article appears to be the only comprehensive study done about the notebook.
While the majority of this notebook is dedicated to Shelley’s translations of Homer, there are also two pages containing an Italian transcription of Marco Lastri’s L’osservatore fiorentino sugli edifizi della sua patria (3rd edition 1821), specifically the section where he quotes Bendetto Varchi’s Storia fiorentino (Bowers 515). Though these transcriptions are interesting, Shelley’s Homer deserves a bit more scrutiny.
According to Bowers’ research, this notebook can be dated back to Shelley’s stay at Pisa from 1820-1822, where one of her primary tasks was to learn Greek. If she was dedicating two years of her life to the study of Ancient Greek, we can assume that she might not have been proficient in the language at this time.
Mary Shelley’s Greek notes
Looking at her notebook, she is working her way through the text as though she is either a beginner or, at the very least, she is struggling with Homer’s dialect. The pages of this notebook are filled with basic Greek words such as ουκ (not), παντας (all), γαρ (for), and διος (god/godlike). This vocabulary is taught to beginner Greek students early on, so it would not be a stretch to assume that Shelley was either a novice or struggling. However, it appears that she becomes more comfortable as she moves through the translations, only writing down difficult vocabulary or working through their grammatical peculiarities.
Along with her vocabulary glosses, Shelley also works through sentence structure in order to translate both full and partial lines of the Greek. She parses verbs and nouns to see how they grammatically work together in the sentence, such as “μεμνησκο a.2.mid part. n.s.f. remembering” in order to fully translate the sentence, “for I desire such ahead – remembring always.” From this moment, it is clear that she is attempting to reinforce grammatical concepts and better understand Homer’s Greek.
Shelley’s translation process throughout the notebook remains much the same, and it is intriguing to watch her learn and grow from a language-learning perspective. From her notes, she seems to be reinforcing her vocabulary and grammar knowledge, and she is consistent with her methods. While Mary Shelley might have been the master and mother of sci-fi, it doesn’t look like she was a master of Greek—at least, not yet.
Works Cited:
Bennett, Betty T. “Shelley [née Godwin], Mary Wollstonecraft (1797–1851), writer.” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 29. Oxford University Press. Date of access 4 Mar. 2023, https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-25311
Bowers, Will. “On First Looking into Mary Shelley’s Homer.” The Review of English Studies, vol. 69, no. 290, 2017, pp. 510-531.
de Bruin-Molé, Megen. “‘Hail, Mary, the Mother of Science Fiction’: Popular Fictionalisations of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in Film and Television, 1935–2018.” Science Fiction Film & Television, vol. 11, no. 2, June 2018, pp. 233–55. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.3828/sfftv.2018.17.
The following is written by graduate student and Special Collections student worker Emily Schartz
Automated External Defibrillator found at Main Library, University of Iowa
To wrap up American Heart Health Month, we’re remembering University of Iowa professor, cardiologist, and researcher Richard Kerber (1939-2016). If you have noticed the white AED (Automated External Defibrillator) boxes around, you have seen Kerber’s long-lasting impact on our campus and community. Kerber was a pioneer in Echocardiography and CPR research, as well as a driving force in expanding public defibrillation programs.
Richard Kerber was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1939. He completed an undergrad degree in anthropology at Columbia 1960 and in June of that same year married Dr. Linda Kaufman Kerber, now retired professor of history. He went on to complete medical school at New York University, graduating with his medical degree in 1964.
After school, Kerber joined the U.S. Army Medical Corps and worked in both a mobile Army surgical hospital and a base hospital in Vietnam between 1967 and 1968. He was awarded the Bronze Star in 1968 for his service. After completing his medical education with a cardiology fellowship at Stanford University, Kerber joined the University of Iowa in 1971. He remained at the University of Iowa for the rest of his career.
At Iowa Kerber took on many roles, serving as Director of Echocardiography, as well as Associate Director of the Division of Cardiovascular medicine, from 1983-2008 and Interim Director from 2009-2012. He helped establish the CPR training program for UI Hospital staff and faculty and served on task forces and committees that established the UI Hospital’s Code Blue and CPR guidelines and policies.
Kerber with students from the Short-term Minority Student Research Training Summer Program
Outside of the University of Iowa, Kerber remained involved in Echocardiography and CPR research. He served as the 11th President of the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) from 1997-1999 and worked closely with colleagues in the American Heart Association (AHA), serving as chair of the AHA’s Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee. His work with these organizations and taskforces helped establish the standards used to train laypeople in CPR beyond the University of Iowa.
A well-loved professor and a dedicated researcher, Kerber published more than 250 articles as well as many book chapters and abstracts over the course of his career. He was in charge of the Cardiology Fellowship Program and mentored students participating in the Short-term Minority Student Research Training Summer Program for many years.
Though he gave many lectures over the course of his time at Iowa, he is perhaps best remembered for his “Deconstructing the Body: Medical Imaging, Medical Art and the Art of Medicine,” where he examined depictions of the body in art throughout history. You can certainly sense his sense of humor from some of the art he chose to include.
Kerber had many interests outside of academics. He is remembered as a successful clarinet player and participated in orchestras and chamber groups. He was also an avid cyclist and rode in RAGBRAI (the Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) multiple times.
In 2017, the Richard E. Kerber HeartSafe Initiative was launched in memory of Kerber with the goal of expanding CPR and AED training for University of Iowa faculty and staff in non-medical buildings. In 2019, inspired by the HeartSafe Intitiative, the Rotary-Kerber HeartSafe Community Campaign was launched to expand community-member training in CPR and AED use in Iowa City and Coralville. These initiatives have certainly had an impact, Johnson County was just recognized as a HeartSafe Community by the Citizen CPR Foundation in January of this year and AEDs can be found in buildings all across campus.
The following was written by academic outreach coordinator Kathryn Reuter
Reading poetry by Black authors is a great way to celebrate Black History Month! We searched through Special Collections and Archives to find materials from Black poets, some who are familiar to us, and some less so. It was tough to limit ourselves to just 10 poets to highlight, but we hope the list below provides some inspiration for your next visit to our reading room.
You can see some of these books of poetry yourself at our Black Poetry Pop-up on Wednesday, Feb. 22, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. in Group Area D of the Main Library (1st floor, across from Food for Thought Café). Stop by the pop-up to make some poetry of your own! We will have supplies for cut and paste and blackout poetry.
Photo: (The Last Poets cover), 1993. (msc 1049, Andrew William “Sunfrog” Smith Collection of Alternative Publications” Box 7 Photo: (The Last Poets Reverse), 1993 (msc 1049, Andrew William “Sunfrog” Smith Collection of Alternative Publications” Box 7
1.The Last Poets
First on our list is the poetry and music collective The Last Poets. Originally founded in Harlem, New York, in 1968, the group has since experienced several iterations with different members. Music historians and critics consider The Last Poets to be the forefathers of hip-hop because of their groundbreaking spoken word poetry and protest raps. Of their founding, Abiodun Oyewole writes, “The Last Poets were born on May 19, 1968/ In Mount Morris Park in Harlem, New York/ It was a birthday celebration in memory/ in honor of Malcolm X/ The Last Poets were on a mission/ we became the voices of the East wind/ blowing away the West with our sound/ The Last Poets, men who knew/ in their youth the truth must be told/ the lies must be revealed/ and we got to be sassy and funky and sincere/ about it” (from the poem “Invocation”). The pamphlet Selected Poems: The Last Poets was printed in 1993 and is part of the Andrew William “Sunfrog” Smith Collection of Alternative Publications. The back cover is inscribed to Sunfrog by Last Poets Umar Bin Hassan, Baba Donn Babatunde, and Abiodun Oyewole.
Photo of Gwendolyn Brooks and family found in A Street in Bronzeville (PS 3503.R7244 S8 cop 2 ) A street in Bronzeville by Gwendolyn Brooks signed to Paul Engle (PS 3503.R7244 S8)
2. Gwendolyn Brooks
Born in 1917, Gwendolyn Brooks published her first poem at the age of 13 and would go on to have multiple pieces published in the African-American newspaper The Chicago Defender. A Street in Bronzeville (1945) was her first book of poetry, it celebrates the everyday people living on Chicago’s South Side. One of the copies held in Special Collections is inscribed by Brooks to Paul Engle, director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, who praised the book in a review for the Chicago Tribune. Found in Special Collection’s second copy of A Street in Bronzeville is a photograph of Gwendolyn Brooks, her husband Henry Lowington Blakely, Jr., and their son Henry Lowington Blakely III, dated to 1945. Because the handwriting on the back of the photograph matches Gwendolyn Brooks’ inscription to Paul Engle, we believe this family photo was labeled by the author herself, and perhaps tucked into the book before giving it to a friend.
For my people. Margaret Walker. Theses/ Dissertations T1940 .W18
3. Margaret Walker
Like Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Walker was an influential poet of the Chicago Black Renaissance. Walker is also a two-time graduate of the University of Iowa. You can visit her 1940 master’s thesis, a poetry collection titled For My People, in the University Archives. With this volume of poetry, Walker won the prestigious Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition. While a master’s degree student at the University of Iowa, Walker was roommates with artist Elizabeth Catlett. In 1992, the two old roommates collaborated to produce an illustrated edition of For My People. Catlett’s prints from this work are held at the Stanley Museum of Art, and you can view them on the Iowa Digital Library. Margaret Walker returned to the University of Iowa to earn her PhD in 1965. For her dissertation, she submitted her first completed draft of her acclaimed novel Jubilee.
Memoir and poems of Phillis Wheatley PS 866. W5 1834
4. Phillis Wheatley
In 1773, Phillis Wheatley became the first African American author to publish a volume of poetry. Born in West Africa, Wheatley was kidnapped and sold by slave traders. The Boston merchant John Wheatley bought her as a slave for his wife and the couple renamed the young girl. In the Wheatley household Phillis received tutoring in reading and writing – she wrote her first poem at the age of 14. Not finding publishers in New England willing to support her writing, Wheatley traveled to London where her collection Poems on Various Subject was published. Special Collections and Archives holds an issue of this volume, printed in 1834, which also includes a memoir of Wheatley written by Margaretta Matilda Odell.
Selected Plays and Prose of Amira Baraka (PS3552.A663 A6 1979) & The Sidney Poet Heroical inscribed by Amira Baraka (PS 3552.A663 S5 1979)Black Art (PS 3552. A663 B533 1966)
5. Amira Baraka
Born Everett LeRoi Jones (in Newark, New Jersey, in 1934) Baraka changed his name to Amiri Bakraka after the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965. The same year, Baraka founded the Black Arts Repertory Theater in Harlem, New York, effectively sparking the Black Arts Movement. Baraka wrote in multiple genres, penning poems, plays, and essays. Baraka’s influence as an artist, activist, and teacher cannot be overstated. Special Collections and Archives houses two inscribed volumes of Baraka’s poetry [Selected Plays and Prose of Amiri Baraka/ LeRoi Jones (1979) and The Sidney Poet Heroical, in 29 Scenes (1979)] – as well as a sampling of poems stapled together in a pamphlet titled Black Art. Printed in 1966, this pamphlet came to the University of Iowa through the collection of artist Lil Picard.
Shakespeare in Harlem by Langston Hughes (PS 3515 .U274 S5 1942)Inscription from Langston Hughes (PS 3515 .U274 S5 1942)
6. Langston Hughes
Like Baraka, Langston Hughes was a writer who excelled in multiple forms. Considered a leader of the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes’ poems such as “Harlem” (also known as “A Dream Deferred”) and “I, Too” are iconic pieces of American poetry. We hold a number of Langston Hughes publications in Special Collections & Archives, but one of our favorites is this first edition of Shakespeare in Harlem, inscribed by the author to his friend Lee Crowe.
Ten Poems by Rita Dove (PS3554.O87 A17 1977 )
7. Rita Dove
Rita Dove was born in Akron, Ohio, in 1952. She earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa in 1977. She was U.S. Poet Laureate at the Library of Congress from 1993 to 1995. Pictured here is Dove’s collection Ten Poems, of which approximately 200 copies were printed by hand in Lisbon, Iowa, at Penumbra Press in 1977.
Copy of Cane published in 2000 ( FOLIO PS3539.058 C3 2000)
8. Jean Toomer
Jean Toomer (born Nathan Pinchback Toomer in 1894, Washington, D.C.) might have objected to being on this list of Black poets because he resisted racial categorization and identified simply as “American”. Of mixed-raced ancestry, Toomer attended both segregated Black schools and all-white schools throughout his education. In 1921, he taught at an agricultural college in Georgia – his experiences there inspired him to start writing a series of vignettes that would be published as Cane in 1923. The novel has a non-traditional structure, combining poems and short stories about different characters. The copy of Cane seen here was published in 2000, it contains woodcuts by the artist Martin Puryear. Jean Toomer’s archival papers are held by the Beinecke Library at Yale, and some of the collection has been digitized, which you can browse here.
The Nature of Things by Frederick Tillis (Iowa Authors Collection)
9. Frederick Tillis
Perhaps best known as a composer and jazz musician, Frederick Tillis (1930-2020) was also a prolific poet. He earned both his MA and PhD in music composition from the University of Iowa. You can find his dissertation (Quartet for flute, clarinet, bassoon and cello) in the University Archives and a number of his poetry books in our Iowa Authors collection.
Book jacket for Re:Creation by Nikki Giovanni (PS3557.I55 R4)
10. Nikki Giovanni
Nikki Giovanni was one of the leading authors of the Black Arts Movement. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1943, Giovanni was raised in Ohio and attended Fisk University. Until 2022, she taught as a university distinguished professor at Virginia Tech. In addition to numerous poetry collections, Giovanni has authored several children’s books and was nominated for a Grammy Award (for Best Spoken Word or Non-musical Album) for The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection. We love the cover of this 1971 publication Re:Creation, which features the photography of Chester Higgins.
We are happy to welcome Kate Orazem as the inaugural Iowa Women’s Archives Women in Politics Archivist.
Orazem joined the team at the beginning of October. She received a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) and Master of Arts in women’s and gender studies from the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Arts in history from Yale University. Orazem recently worked as the first archivist for the Rural Organizing Project in Oregon, a network of community activists across small-town and rural Oregon. Her work in the Iowa Women’s Archives will focus on collecting, processing, and bringing to light the stories of Iowa women and politics.
When asked about working in this new position, Orazem stated she was “looking forward to building community with people at the University of Iowa, across the state, and beyond who are passionate about the rich history and future of Iowa women and their political work.”
The Jean Lloyd-Jones and Michal Eynon Lynch Iowa Women’s Archives Women in Politics Archivist was generously funded by Jean Lloyd-Jones (71MA), who spent 16 years as an Iowa legislator and much of her life advocating for women—from all backgrounds and political affiliations—to pursue careers in politics. This is the second named position in the Libraries and Orazem will be formally invested into the role in 2023. Orazem will help update, maintain, and expand the Hard Won, Not Done—A Salute to Iowa Women Politicians online project. Learn more about Lloyd-Jones and the “Hard Won, Not Done” initiative here.
As an archivist, Orazem says she is a big dabbler and has always loved the generalist nature of the archival profession. “Whether it’s developing relationships with donors, assisting researchers on their subjects of expertise, working with students who are new to archives, or interviewing people about the stories they’ve lived, you get to wear many different hats and dip a toe into many different projects, so my passion for the work is constantly renewed.”
When not working in the IWA, Orazem enjoys seeing live music, playing euchre, and exploring local cemeteries (wait till she hears about our haunted stacks!)
We are so happy to have Kate on the team and look forward to watching her grow the IWA as the Women in Politics Archivist.
The following comes from university archivist Sarah Keen
Have you heard footsteps where no corporeal being is walking? Have unexplainable events occurred in your building that have no humanly cause? Are there spaces on campus where the spirits of those who have walked this earth before us feel particularly present?
If so, the University Archives would like to hear your tales of paranormal encounters on campus and in Iowa City. Share your spooky stories to be added to the archives and shared with the campus community.
