FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2001
question of front
page
“Do you think that our
Spring Break should be two
weeks,
like other schools?”
Albert Lorya
Plastics Engineering, 07
FLOWERS
movements, and instruments, as
well as audience participation.
Flowers continued with the story
of Shine, a black man stoking coal
on the Titanic. Shine is the first to
realize the boat is sinking and
jumps ship even though no one
believes him. The talc highlights
Shine’s humorous swim in the
Atlantic and the shark sandwich he
gets to eat in Harlem before any of
the other survivors get to New York
City.
The third tale Flowers related
was that of Br’er Rabbit and the
troubled alligators he encountered.
The moral of this story was not to
“go lookin’ for trouble unless is
comes lookin’ for you." It is
important to be prepared for trouble
when it turns up, but not to obsess
about it in the meantime.
The former tales were
extrapolated from the works of
other artists. Flowers said he rarely
gave direct credit for the work lie
performs: "as a novelist, when I
use other folks’ work, I don’t give
credit I steal!"
The final tale Flowers performed
was taken from his own works.
This excerpt dealt with the depth
DR. CORTY
“All good teaching requires a strong
command of the subject matter,'' Corty
confides, noting the number of
outstanding professors who populate the
College. Dr. Clare Porac, director of the
School of Humanities and Social
Sciences, cites Corty’s love ot the
subjects he is teaching and ot the act of
teaching itself as key in his success with
students. With this knowledge and
passion to guide him, Corty engages his
students in critical demonstrations and
k Discover the Path to Success...
*
*
*
“What did you do last
Friday night?”
Ryan Alexander
Plastics Engineering, 06
and reality of true love.
Flowers said that he began all of
his novels with the words "1 am
Flowers.” This practice is derived
from the griot traditions, in which
a griot is supposed to introduce
himself and state who had trained
him. Flowers looks to John Killens
as his trainer, as he attended
Killens' creative writing
workshops for 13 years until his
mentor passed away.
Another influence in Flowers’
life was the Vietnam War, in which
Flowers served. “Vietnam blew my
mind. What really blew me away
about Vietnam was that I was part
of history. I had always thought of
history as happening to someone
else until then."
When asked by an audience
member how he became a writer,
Flowers explained that he always
wanted to write. After he returned
from Vietnam in 1971, he went to
college. “I always assumed that one
day 1 would point my finger at a
typewriter y'all remember
typewriters and expected the
words to magically appear,”
Flowers commented. “Then, when
I was in school, 1 thought it was the
dynamic lectures.
"1 try to take complex concepts and
find different and fun ways to make
them understandable,” Corty explains.
For example, he once came to class with
bags of M&Ms for his students. Each was
asked to count out the number of brown
M&Ms per bag and calculate what
percentage of the total they made up.
Although the Mars company stated that
30% of the M&Ms in each bag were
brown, no student reported that
Steven Tarrant
Business Management, 01
FROM FRONT PAGE
time to start writing if I was going
to do it. 1 pointed my finger at a
typewriter and nothing
happened!”
The blues have also inspired
Flowers' work, though he is not as
well versed in it as some people
seem to think. He said that, being
from Memphis, Tennessee,
everyone expected him to know
blues, but he really didn’t. He
gradually learned to "blow" the
harmonica and worked his way
from there. He related a story that
once, when on stage in NYC, he
played the harmonica. The next
day he was described in a New
York paper as the “Blues Man,”
though he still knew very little
about the genre. He later went back
to Memphis and demonstrated
some of his skills. His friends
promptly told him to take his blues
back to New York.
Flowers was asked during the
question and answer session if he
had any formal training. He said
not at all —“I am a clown! I just
had it in me!” He added that the
only thing to performance poetry
was to be able to get up on stage
and make a fool of oneself.
percentage. This demonstration helped
to translate some complicated
terminology into practical terms.
Corty has great respect for his students
and is not afraid to let them see his
imperfections. He actually encourages
his students to point out his mistakes. In
order to demonstrate to his students that
he is willing to take their criticisms, he
has given them the task of critically
reviewing tin anonymous article that was
not very well written; after they have
“What did you do over
Spring Break?”
“What new events would you
like to see on campus on the
weekends?”
Tessa Marshall
Chemistry, 06
steppers, skits, and open mic
readings.
picked it apart in class, Corty informs the
students that he authored it.
After Corty receives his award at the
Recognition Ceremony on Monday,
March 26, he will be obliged to share his
thoughts in a variety of different forums
such as lectures, workshops, and
seminars. He intends to focus his
discussions around questions of the most
effective ways that students learn, saying
that he hopes that the flip-side of this
teaching award is that his students are
“What other types of fruit
juice would you like to see
in the vending machines?
I would like to see orange
PHOTOS BY BECKY WEINDORF
learning. If the student evaluations are
any indication, there is little fear that his
teaching is not sinking in. The honor he
has received, says Porac, is well
deserved.
"This award is a real honor for the
School of Humanities and Social
Sciences and for all of Behrend,” Porac
states. “It highlights the extraordinary
teaching talents present at Behrend, in
particular the Schtxil of Humanities and
Social Sciences."
. »
juice.
Jo Uesugi
DUS, 02
Some of the rhetorical strategies
Kelley points to in her book include
“common ground,” “logic,” “fair
fight," and “strength through
adversity.” Kelley writes that,
largely due to the modern mass
media that is constantly
scrutinizing, Clinton has had to
draw on her agenda-setting skills
and rhetorical strategies to save and
promote her image as well as her
husband’s.
Initially, when Senator Clinton
came on strong early in the
administration, the public was taken
aback by her strong persona. Kelley
indicates that this backlash against
her person played a considerable
part in the downfall of the national
healthcare program. However, after
that incident, Clinton’s image was
consciously toned down and she
gained high evaluation points from
the public. By the time her husband
became enmeshed in scandal, the
public looked to her for guidance
and followed her lead.
Kelley states that by focusing on
issues and by refusing to bring her
discourse down to a base personal
level, Clinton managed to
successfully navigate the turmoil
lapping around the administration.
Kelley described Senator
Clinton’s primary role as being the
“chief surrogate” for the President.
She played an instrumental role in
the development and marketing of
several policies, namely the
national healthcare plan.
While Clinton may stand out as
one of the more visible First Ladies
in history, she is certainly not the
first. Other standouts have included
Mary Todd Lincoln, Eleanor
Roosevelt, and Dolly Madison
all of whom held politically
oriented roles during their
husband’s tenure. According to
Kelley, much of the rhetoric of early
First Ladies didn’t receive much
attention because not much of it was
recorded. But that is obviously no
longer the case.
While her book focused primarily
on Clinton during her years in the
White House, Kelley also followed
Clinton’s U.S. Senate race with
Rick Lazio. Kelley has written
several articles on Clinton’s rhetoric
and strategy during that time as
well. She says that Clinton’s
strategy largely stayed the same.
Lazio attacked Clinton on two main
points - her status as an outsider to
New York and her connection to a
corrupt administration and man.
Kelley explained that Clinton was
able to trump Lazio by agreeing
with his points and using them to
her advantage. She said that she
was an outsider - like most New
Yorkers, and she was connected to
the President - and had gained vast
political experience as a result.
Kelley said that she became
interested in the rhetoric of the First
Ladies several years ago when she
was asked to lecture at a senior
citizen conference in Chautauqua,
N.Y. She then took it as a natural
progression to examining Hillary
Clinton. She also felt a generational
connection with Clinton and
considers her a peer.
Kelley has had extensive
experience in the field of political
rhetoric. She has been published in
The Boston Globe, The Statesman
Journal (Salem, Or. J, The Scranton
Times, the Erie Daily Times, and
Gannett News Service. She has also
had articles on campaign rhetoric
published in such journals as the
Western Journal of Speech
Communication, The Howard
Journal of Communication, and the
Journal for Peace and Justice
Studies.
The Rhetoric of First Lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton: Crisis
Management Discourse is being
published by Greenwood
Publishing Group as part of the
Praeger Series in Political
Communication and is now
available in local bookstores.