THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Seven
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By JOHN McMANUS ner and Robert Bly, a National
According to informed soiirc- Book Award winner. Charles
es, there are more poetry read- CWright and Charles Simic will
ings in Ann Arbor than almost also read from their works.
anywhere else - including Man- "Lately the readings have be-
hattan's famed villages. come fairly colorful," say Eng-
lish Prof. Donald Hall. "There's
Aording tord oneocalpet, na ham in every poet."
you can hardly maneuver in 'There was a time, however,
the city without bumping into a when poet were unused to read-
poetry reading." Orating artists ing their work publicly. Conse-
ran be found at local coffeequnyredgsweusal
houses, ;bars, parks, University quently, readings were usually
dous a, parks, University stiff and dull. Today, ho vever,
auditoriums and high sch aols. most poets thoroughly enjoy
THE UNIVERSITY English such experiences and express
department has one of the most themselves with a flourish.
comprehensive series of poetry HALL POINTS outthat"oral
reading of any college in t he publication" or poetry reading is
country. se becoming much more popular
Every Tuesday afternoon inacosteourysaspty
the Modern Languages Bldg., crs the country as s poetry
the English department offers a
poetry reading, oftan from a
major poet who is reading his/ WD ORLD:AMOUS
Although the Tuesday after-
noon affairs are free and open A
to anyone, they are actually m
part of a course - English 343.
Entitled a "Seminar in C'on-A
temporary Poetry," the three-
credit course also features
lengthy discussions with + h e'ciU
poet following the reading.
AMONG THOSE who will ap-pH
pear this semester are Louis
Simpson, a Pulitzer prize win-2T
The result is the rebuilding of
an oral tradition true to the
origins of poetry some 4,00
years ago "when all poetry was
memorized and p ss d on
mouth to mouth."
Because of the growing im-
portance and popularity o the
oral presentation, Hall is chang-
ing his own style and writing
with an eye to reading his work
out loud.
The University program,
which has received the enthus-
iastic support of the students,
consistently draws 250 to 300
grads and undergrads to each
Tuesday afternoon reading.
"Twenty years ago there were
very few poetry readings in the
US. Today there are thousands,"
stays 'Hall.
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VARBOR (UPSTAIRS)
Local museums offer students
wide range of bizarre exhibits
By SARA RIMER
Since most people do not relisht
the thought of wandering bleary-
eyed through a labyrinth of gal-
leries behind a babbling tour
guide, mammoth museums with
A-Z collections can be frighten-
ing. The appeal of Ann Arbor's
three major museums rests in
their reassuring smallness. They
are not going to eat you up,t
season you with massive doses
of culture, and spit you out feel-f
.ing suffocated and over-exposed.
The museums are welcome1
cases on rainy days when dodg-
ing sharply pronged umbrellas
or groping through the Grad Li-
brary's stacks becomes unbear-t
able.
And whether you want to gaze
happily for hours at a mummy,
a dinosaur, or a Picasso, Annf
Arbor has a museum to suit
your taste.
The Museum of Art may not
be The Metropolitan, but it hasl
an impressive smattering of bigJ
names-Picasso, Henry Moore,
a n d Alberto Giacometti, to
name-drop a few.
THE MUSEUM'S permanentf
collections include arts of thec
Western world from the sixth
century A.D. t the present, Far'
Eastern, Near Eastern, African
and Oceanic art including paint-
ing, isculpture, ceramics, and
manuscripts.
For contemporary art enthu-
siasts the museum offers some
excellent examples of expres-
sionism cubism, futurism, sur-
realism, and abstract expres-
sionism.
SINCE THE museum was ac-
credited last year by the Ameri-
can Association of Museums, it
was able to obtain excellent
traveling exhibitions. Last year
it showed German expression-
ism, Bauhaus, and Hans Hoff-
man.
The Natural History Museum
houses one of the oldest Mich-
igan, residents - a mastodor
which lived here during the ice
age. .
Featuring a survey of prehis-
toric specimens, the museum
also exhibits dinsoaurs and the
fossil marine creatures of Mich-
igan.
The* third floor gallery dis-
plays animal and plant life,
North American Indians, an ex-
tensive collection of minerals
including polished gems rang-
ing from agate to zircon, and a
planetarium are exhiibted on the
fourth floor.
All the exhibits are carefully
explained with diagrams, and
one can acculumate an impres-
sive store of natural history
knowledge in a short visit.
The Kelsey Museum of Arche-
ology, characterized by its for-
bidding- Romanesque Renais-
sance architecture, attracts a
fair share of local museum ad-
dicts. ,
"EVERY ONCE in a while we
get a couple of real weirdos,"
claims a Kelsey employe. "One
man wanted to come in and
wake the mummies up. Another
pulled up a chair in front of the
display of ancient gods, and
copied them all down, explain-
ing that, they had put a curse
on him."
Interestingly, m a n y people
deliberately avoid the Kelsey
Museum on stormy, rainy days.
"On bad days, it's a little
eerie and mysterious in here,"
explains a museum employe. It
looks safer and more secure on
sunny days."
THOSE BRAVE enough to
venture inside the museum's
gloomy exterior will discover a
mummy on loan from the Met-
ropolitan Museum of Art in New
York, the Egyptian book of the
Dead, an ancient doll house
from Egypt and various exam-
ples ofancient arts, crafts and
building materials.
The displays are accompanied
by excellent explanations which
provide fascinating insights into
early civilizations.
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