Page Two
THE MICHIGAN. DAILY
Wednesday March 24, 1974-
PaeTw HEMCHGN AL Wdesa1 ach2,p 7
Squi
By GLORIA JANE SMITH
University professors are no-
torious for being more than
teachers, but also authors and
experimenters in their own
right. Radcliffe Squires, P r o -
fessor of English at the Uni-
versity, editor of The Michigan
Quarterly, author of many books
and a published poet, is cer-
tainly not an exception.
Reading Tuesday, Squires pre-,
sented himself in a subtle green
suit, white shirt and uniquely
designed green tie, as a
sensitive h u m a n being, an
accomplished scholar, and an in-
terestingly creative poet.
"The Day America Fell," is a
poem which Squires tells us
should be read more "as a joke"
than as anything else. It takes
the form of a letter written
by a soldier to his "Lord Class
Four Coadjutor of the. People's
res:
A
Empire and Fellow Descendant
in straight blood lines of the
raised workers."
Meeting children in villages,
the soldiers "distributed the syn-
thetic chocolate perfected by
the Empire's Commission on
Fetishes." To women who "ab-
sent mindedly bared their
breasts," t h e y distributed the
"quasi-protein cakes." And to
the pacifists, "you know the
type, I believe," they distribut-
ed . . . for "there is nothing more
cruel than to sustain t h o s e
who cannot possibly adjust to
those who have adjusted to real-
ity." However, they established
in honor of these pacifists "a
sperm bank, naming it after one
of their heroes, 'The Thoreau
Center for Mass Harmony.'"
The soldier ends his letter:
/ I felt the desert was sliding
toward / The stars and smiling
poet w
through me, / As if it, too, had
been liberated / From some-
thing, and would be be / Trick-
ed again. I enclose, my Lord, /
A handful of sand.
The audience did not laugh.
The emotion was heavier, and
certainly not the reaction to a
"Joke."
Attempting to convince us,
then, that either he does feel
that there "is a chance for the
world," or that as a poet, he is
"inconsistent," Squires read "Li-
lacs in August."
. The poem told of a June bush
fire out west which combed "the
touseled grass flat in neat black
sti ands," burning also the li-
lacs. Unlike the grass which re-
mains satisfied to "wait f o r
spring," the lilacs bloom in Aug-
ust: "blood blisters ooze from
the decent black boughs."
"Isn't the desperate haste to
miew of i
.Movies are hard to relate to
by yourself. When you see a wo-
man in the movies you think that
if y'ou're not like that, then
you're not right," Sklar con-
tinued. "It could be really great
for women to deal with these
images together."
Back in January, when plan-
fning for the Festival began, the
group faced the question of how
ho
hap
set seed perverse?" asks the
poet.
"Oh, no, the human heart is
always charred /
Oh, no, it is always August /
Oh, no, the heart is not
grass."/
In the eighth and ninth cen-
tury, he explains, churches were
built below the earth. A visit to
one of these holy buildings is a
"true life experience" for R a d-
cliffe Squires, as is his poem,
"The Prayer."
The poet enters a church
"whose threshold now lies be-
neath history's rubble."
"History," he says, "is only
two feet deep, but we cannot
sweep it away."
In the church is a woman who
prays to the Virgin: "This man's
wife," she sings, "has borne
him no child. Send them a
child."
comen
the festival should relate to men.
The decision was reached to hold
all-women's workshop, as well
as all-men's workshops and
mixed ones.
"We don't want to exclude
those women who feel comfort-
able mainly in the company of
men. We want to include those
women and therefore we went to
include those men," said Sklar.
ens to
An officer enters and explains
that "he has come for this wo-
man who has shamed the mayor
and put off the tourists. She is
quite mad."
Alone, the poet remembers,
as the woman advised, to "pray
for too much": "Let me, Virgin,
let me also go mad."
Of his two love poems read,
"The Vine" was inspired by the
Rackham Building, where t h e
vines have been cut away.
"It comes through layers of
chalky paint as the shadow of
a seaweed-hand," Squires de-
scribes the vine which n o w
"binds the very stones togeth-
er."
"When the wall is gone," the
poet ends, "it will clasp more
air with something stronger
than grief. It is thus our love
holds our life."
Squires once hoped to write a
BACH CLUB
CONTEMPORARY
REACTIONS CONCERT
a 1-hour program of original
works in the styles of
BACH, MOZART, BRAHMS
--FEATURING--
be
a
poem describing the castration
of a young boy so that his voice
would never change. This is
where "The Castrato Singer" be-
gan, however Squires explained
that in its final version, the
poem deals more "with two sta-
tes of life, the ordered and the
disordered."
"The wolves are yodeling," the
poeim begins in a description of
one state and of one type of
singer. "They snap, arch them-
selves up from forefeet a n d
again disgorge a broken arc of
adolescent song."
Abstract and circular," the
castrated boy sings, where his
voice "turns like a star: mov-
ing but never rising or falling."
"They listen," the boy speaks
about the wolves, "waiting like
an opaque fear in the memory
for my voice to break."
Reacting "unlike the journal-
prof.
ist," to the many sheep who
were killed by nerve gas and
who would have otherwise been
slaughtered and eaten, Squires
read "Skull Valley, Utah."
"We browsed here one winter,"
the sheep tell us. "It was a
sky-meadow we lay down in
when we could not breath. We
are here now, a marble empti-
ness."
"Your butcher's handsno
longer frighten us," they say,
"we thank you for a noble
death; from you we expected
otherwise."
This sensitive concern for
sheep fuses with his concern for
all humanity and nature, so
that we are left with only one
reaction to Radcliffe Squires,
that of a sincere desire to ex-
perience more of his successful
experiments with the written
word.
University of Michigan,
Arts Chorale
MOZART
REQUIEM
Fri.. Mar. 26-8:00
Hi1 Auditorium
Maynard Klein, Conductor
FREE
Always the finest in
Screen entertainment
Corner of State and Liberty Sts.
DIAL 662-6264
75C LADIES DAY
Special Price for.
Ladies fraom 1-6 p.m. Wed.
1.
A
folm Is-eye
I i , --- - -- --- - ----
from SONY
T HE MODEL 40
i
By DEBRA THAL
A new adventure in media will
begin tomorrow night with the
opening of the cost free Ann Ar-
bor Women's Film Festival. The
Festival will continue through
Sunday night showing six differ-
ent films, each followed by work-
shops to discuss the issue pre-
'ented in the film.
Each film presents a different
image of women, a stereotype
which will be discussed in the
workshops. The Misfits,dstarring
Marilyn Monroe will be shown
tomorrow. evening. The work-
shops afterward will deal with
the' sexual exploitation of women
in the media and in everyday life.
Friday night, Woman of the
Year, starring Katherine Hep-
burn will be presented. The film.
shows a woman in one of the
few positive roles .to be seen in
the movies, although both the
nmovie and the stereotype are not
of' the present but rather from
the' 1940's. Workshops will, ex-
amine women and independence.
'Saturday and Sunday will ,now
different films at each matinee
and evening performance. The
matinees will have free child care
facilities.
Saturday afternoon will fea-
ture Pumpkin Eater, with Anne
Nancroft. The story is one of a
woman who has child after child
to avoid facing reality; the work
shops will discuss the role of
women in the family.
Saturday night, one of 'he few
films by a woman director will
be shown. Le Bonheui', directed
by Agnes Varda will lead info a
discussion of female identity.
The topic for Sunday ?fternoon
is women in struggle. Joan ofl
Arc, directed by Bresson will be
shown.
The final film of the festival
will be All About Eve, with Betty
Davis and Anne Baxter, to be
shown Sunday night. The work-
shops will discuss female iden-
tity and competition.
Various shorts will also be
shown at each performan e. They
will include Sisters a woman's
film from 1970, a Newsreel film,
and She's Beautiful When She's
Angry.
The Festival is being sponsored
by the Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Memorial Caucus, a small wom-
en's group. They decided that
films would be a good away to
reach all kinds of Ann Arbor
women.
"Movies are one thing that ev-
eryone has grown up with-re-
gardless of their background,
whether working class or mid-
dle class. This is something that
all women in Ann Arbor can re-
late to," said Kitty Sklar, a
member of the Gilman Caucus.
RO94RT 1I(HAkJ.
ADFORD POLLARD
LITTLUSS
AA1D 91G HALSY
4
ACTION-CORDER
That Works Like
a Camera
for
4999w
E
Y
f
f
J
Variations and Fugue on "Jingle
Bells," and works for string or-
chestra and piano, 4 hands by
Joseph Marcus, Randolph Smith,
and Mich~ael Pilafian.
HOME MADE ITALIAN CHILI
afterwards.
Thur., Mar. 25, 8 P.M.
South VdEINT. Longe
EVERYONE INVITED!
--Admission 35c-
I
YOU NEVER HEARD IT SO GOOD
/
"AROARING
VISUAL DELIGHT!"
-L.A. TIMES
1l-Ft
BUYS
F
Ann Arbor-East Lansing
618 S. MAIN
769-4700
"Qualitly Sownd Through Quality Equipment"
"A MUST"
-PLAYBOY
- - ~- - - - .
I
Fr
COUZENS HALL
presents
White Trash
andI
Siracco
DOORS OPEN 12:45
SHOWS AT 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 P.M. -Wanda Hale NewYork Daly News {
NEXT: "GOING DOWN T H E ROAD"
AAFC TOMORROW NIGHT 75c
March 25
Humphrey Bogart
Katherine Hepburn
JOHN HUSTON, dir.
in
African Queen
7-9:30 Aud. A Angell Hall
3020 Washtenaw, Ph. 434-1782
Between Ypsilanti '& Ann Arbor
We Don't Just
Publish a Newspaper
. We meet new people
* We laugh a lot
* We find consolation
OPEN 12:45
SHOWS AT 1:15-3-5-7-9 p.m.
-Starts Thursday-
APRIL FIRST
Dustin Hoffman
as
'LITTLE BIG MAN"
b
P'
0 We play football,
(oncel
III
Sat., March 27, 8:30
p.m.
" We make money (some)
* We solve problems
e We gain prestige
* We become self confident
e We debate vital issues
t We drink 5c Cokes
e We have T.G.'s
JOIN the DAILY staff
Come by 420 Maynard St.
1101
$1.50
B
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75c
,
NOMINATEDFOR
ACADEMY
AWARDS
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u 'i I
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FE
Want
some
Come to the
I K 07
-VER?
to get into
thing new?
BOX OFFICE OPEN 6:30
SHOWS TODAY AT:
1 :00-3:0-5:00-7:0O-9:O P.M.
- NOTE -
SNEAK PREVIEW
FRIDAY NIGHT
. .._ _ _
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PMAON PICTURESPRESi NS
Ali Mac~raw Ryan OB'eal
A HWARD G MINSO- ARTHUR HILLER Productioq
John Marley&Ray Milland x
603 E. Liber
DIAL 5-629
Doors Open 12
Shows at 1, 3, 5,
Free List Susper
ty
o
.:45
7, 9
nded
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4
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MASS MEETING
Wed., March 24-8 P.M.l
420 MAYNARD ST.
rr;,.AI GA
"OA
Daily Classifieds Get Results
Phone 764-0558
KENT STATE
M
! I
1 M
ANN ARBOR WOMEN'S FILM FESTIVAL
Gnd WORKSHOPS
I FREE
THURS: MAR. 25 7:30 Union Ballroom
THE MISFIT, Marilyn Monroe
,1 I k
II I
FRI: MAR. 26 7:30 Rackham
WOMAN OF THE YEAR, Katherine Hepburn
SAT: MAR. 27 2:30 Rackham
PUMPKIN EATER, Anne Bancroft
7:30 Rackham
LE BONHEUR-Agnes Varda, director
SUN: MAR. 28 2:30 Union Ballroom
i
.I
,
a
,
_
,;
a
Gi
,
;
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k
((
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(j
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i
Norman
Kennedy
from Scotland
has appeared in
every major folk
festival including
Newport,j
Philadelphia,
Mariposa; etc,
"The most dynamic, ir
resistable, and enchant-
ing singer we've ever
had at the ARK."
-Linda Siglin
NEXT WEEK
U. UTAH
PHILLIPS
the GOLDEN VOICE
of the,
GREAT SOUTHWEST
APRIL 14th-
Buddies in
the Saddle
o=w%F A
WHAT HAPPENED-AND WHY