The 2009 Lorraine W. Frank
Lecture & Humanities Awards
Naomi Shihab Nye
Our Shared Humanity: Place Making and SustainabilityTempe Mission Palms
October 9, 2009
7:30pm - 9:30pm
The Arizona Humanities Council was proud to have Naomi Shihab Nye as our featured presenter for the 2009 Lorraine W. Frank Lecture and Humanities Awards.
Naomi describes herself as a "wandering poet." She has spent 33 years traveling the country and the world to lead writing workshops and inspiring students of all ages. Nye was born to a Palestinian father and an American mother and grew up in St. Louis, Jerusalem, and San Antonio. Drawing on her Palestinian-American heritage, the cultural diversity of her home in Texas, and her experiences traveling in Asia, Europe, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America and the Middle East, she uses her writing to attest to our shared humanity.
Her collection of works includes: You and Yours (a bestselling poetry book of 2006), 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, Fuel (a collection of poems about the Middle East), Red Suitcase and Hugging the Jukebox. Most recently, her collection of poems for young adults entitled Honeybee won the 2008 Arab American Book Award in the Children's/Young Adult category.
Naomi has received awards from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Carity Randall Prize, the International Poetry Forum, as well as four Pushcart Prizes. She has been a Lannan Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Wittner Bsynner Fellow. In 1988 she received The Academy of American Poets' Lavan Award, selected by W. S. Merwin.
Naomi's lecture was preceded by the presentation of the 2009 Humanities Award. The Juliana Yoder Friend of the Humanities Award and the Dan Shilling Public Scholar Award recognize humanities scholars, individuals, and organizations that have made lasting contributions to the cultural life of their communities.
The nominees for the Juliana Yoder Friend of the Humanities Award were:
The recipient of the 2009 Juliana Yoder Friend of the Humanities Award is Winifred Bundy
The nominees for the Dan Shilling Public Humanities Scholar Award were:
- Dr. Albrecht Classen, of the University of Arizona
- Dr. Celestino Fernández, of the University of Arizona
- Dr. John Garrard, of the University of Arizona
- Dr. Simon Ortiz, of Arizona State University
- Dr. Charles Tatum, of the University of Arizona
The recipient of the 2009 Dan Shilling Public Humanities Scholar Award is Dr. Charles Tatum
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Help Build the Lorraine W. Frank Fund
Donations to the Lorraine W. Frank Fund endowment in memory of Lorraine W. Frank will be used to support and continue the annual lecture.
Sponsor
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