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Notes & Quotes

Library Events

by Max Shenk, Periodicals Assistant

    Community Day (October 1)

    MCCC's annual Community Day celebration was held on Saturday, October 1, and for the first time in recent memory, the weather helped out: it was a sunny, warm, clear day, and the turn-out was better than expected, even indoors.

    The Library's activities included...

    Here's the Rub

    For Sue Campbell's annual art project, she placed common objects with unusual textures out on the table (along with crayons and paper) to make rubbings and embossing.

    The objects included lace doilies, netting from an onion bag, crumpled aluminum foil, a coffee can lid, a pill bottle cap with the word CAUTION, a cafeteria tray (with “a nice herringbone pattern”), a cookie tin lid, a vegetable strainer and other textured objects. The finished designs ranged from simple rubbings of a single pattern to complex overlays of several different patterns.

    Sue is already working on ideas for next year's project, and, while I would be remiss to reveal too much, suffice it to say that it involves recycled cataloging cards, straws, and magic markers.

    Construct a Poem

    We repeated the construct-a-poem table from last year. Would-be poets take a small cupful of words and a glue stick and use those words to construct a poem (hopefully) on a sheet of paper. This activity was inspired by “magnetic poetry” kits; the challenge is to make some sort of meaning from the limited number of words you're given.

    This year, it was definitely an all-ages activity: little kids seemed to just like reading the words and gluing them on the pages (most popular question: “What's this one?”), while older poets glued down sometimes complex verse. Sample poems that were left behind at the end of the day included...

    big video
    shift self
    see light
    we came
    see world
    because

    And...

    why she is so pretty
    because her face look like a brown phony
    she's kind of funny
    yes he grow in city

    And the brief but evocative...

    she shouldn't but could rip picture in half

    With missing words replenished and new words added to the mix, Construct-A-Poem should return for a third Community Day next fall.

    Scavenger Hunt

    A scavenger hunt centering on the Multiple Choice Gallery's exhibit of Leo Sewell's mixed media sculptures invited hunters to find different objects in the works, including a bowling ball, cigarette lighter, copper jello molds, a baseball bat, a nutcracker, “Baby's first Christmas” ornament, and a bust of Abraham Lincoln.

    While the hunters scavenged, artist Sewell was busy at work on the quad, constructing a new piece (a pig) from items donated in the library during the weeks preceding community day.

    Storyteller

    For the second year in a row, storyteller Lauraine Lindbloom did hourly readings in the library. Lauraine is an elementary school librarian in the Hatboro-Horsham school district.

    Tim O'Brien Book Discussion

    In conjunction with writer Tim O'Brien's appearance at the MCCC Writer's Club Writer's Conference in November, the Library hosted two book discussion groups --one at each campus-- about O'Brien's book, The Things They Carried.

    Staff, faculty, and students were invited to come and talk about this collection of linked short stories about the Vietnam War written by Tim O'Brien. Kathy Shaw, English faculty, organized and led the discussions. It was not necessary to read the entire book to participate. One could just read a story or two to find out what a masterful writer Mr. O'Brien, a veteran of the War, really is.

    The Central Campus group, including President Karen Stout, English and Library faculty and staff, and Creative Writing students, met for a lively and in-depth discussion on Tuesday, November 1 from 12:30 till 1:30 p.m. in the upstairs lounge of the Brendlinger Library, while the West Campus group met on Monday, October 31.

    O'Brien was the featured speaker at the Writer's Club Conference on Friday, November 4, in the Science Center .