Freedom of Mind – Tucson Session

Great Literature From Behind Bars

You might remember these lines from Cavalier poet Richard Lovelace (1618-1658) written to his lover while in prison:

“Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars a cage;

Minds innocent and quiet take

That for an hermitage….”

From To Althea from Prison

In The Scarlet Letter (1850), Nathaniel Hawthorne describes Hester’s prison as “the black flower of civilized society.” From Plato’s description of Socrates in his prison cell in Athens to the most recent proteges of Tucson’s own Richard Shelton – Jimmy Santiago Baca and Ken Lamberton to mention only two contemporary award-winning authors – the world’s literature has been enriched with masterpieces written behind bars. Through the centuries, great works of literature have been produced by incarcerated writers around the world: Roman philosopher Boethius, Sir Thomas Malory, Miguel de Cervantes, Thomas More, Sir Walter Raleigh, Richard Lovelace, John Donne, John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, Leigh Hunt, Oscar Wilde, Maxim Gorky, Feodor Dostoyevsky, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Francois Villon, Francois Voltaire, Marquis de Sade, Jean Genet, Ezra Pound, and myriad others.

Join Dr. Bill Fry as we take an arm-chair journey behind bars and survey some of the greatest literary masterpieces of all time. During our 8-week course, we will read and discuss excerpts from the following:

Plato’s Dialogues: “Crito” and “Phaedo” – The Trial and Death of Socrates (399 B.C.)

Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote (1605-1615)

Richard Lovelace’s To Althea from Prison (1642)

John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1678-1684)

George Gordon, Lord Byron’s The Prisoner of Chillon (1816)

Henry David Thoreau on “Civil Disobedience” (1849) – Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s widely-produced play The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail (1970)

Oscar Wilde’s The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)

O. Henry’s The Cop and the Anthem (1906)

Jack London’s Pinched: A Prison Experience (1907)

Chester Himes’ To What Red Hell? (1934) and Cast the First Stone (1952)

Robert Lowell’s Memories of West Street and Lepke (1959)

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963)

Malcolm X’s The Autobiography of Malcom X (1965)

Joyce Carol Oates’ How I Contemplated the World From the Detroit House of Correction and Began My Life Over Again (1970)

Richard Shelton’s Selections from Walking Rain (1990’s to 2007) and Crossing the Yard: Thirty Years as a Prison Volunteer (2007)

Jimmy Santiago Baca’s Past Present and selected poetry from Healing Earthquakes (2001).

Ken Lamberton’s Time of Grace (2007) and selected recent works.


Instructor: William A. Fry

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Freedom of Mind – Oro Valley Session

Great Literature From Behind Bars

You might remember these lines from Cavalier poet Richard Lovelace (1618-1658) written to his lover while in prison:

“Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars a cage;

Minds innocent and quiet take

That for an hermitage….”

From To Althea from Prison

In The Scarlet Letter (1850), Nathaniel Hawthorne describes Hester’s prison as “the black flower of civilized society.” From Plato’s description of Socrates in his prison cell in Athens to the most recent proteges of Tucson’s own Richard Shelton – Jimmy Santiago Baca and Ken Lamberton to mention only two contemporary award-winning authors – the world’s literature has been enriched with masterpieces written behind bars. Through the centuries, great works of literature have been produced by incarcerated writers around the world: Roman philosopher Boethius, Sir Thomas Malory, Miguel de Cervantes, Thomas More, Sir Walter Raleigh, Richard Lovelace, John Donne, John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, Leigh Hunt, Oscar Wilde, Maxim Gorky, Feodor Dostoyevsky, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Francois Villon, Francois Voltaire, Marquis de Sade, Jean Genet, Ezra Pound, and myriad others.

Join Dr. Bill Fry as we take an arm-chair journey behind bars and survey some of the greatest literary masterpieces of all time. During our 8-week course, we will read and discuss excerpts from the following:

Plato’s Dialogues: “Crito” and “Phaedo” – The Trial and Death of Socrates (399 B.C.)

Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote (1605-1615)

Richard Lovelace’s To Althea from Prison (1642)

John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1678-1684)

George Gordon, Lord Byron’s The Prisoner of Chillon (1816)

Henry David Thoreau on “Civil Disobedience” (1849) – Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s widely-produced play The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail (1970)

Oscar Wilde’s The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)

O. Henry’s The Cop and the Anthem (1906)

Jack London’s Pinched: A Prison Experience (1907)

Chester Himes’ To What Red Hell? (1934) and Cast the First Stone (1952)

Robert Lowell’s Memories of West Street and Lepke (1959)

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963)

Malcolm X’s The Autobiography of Malcom X (1965)

Joyce Carol Oates’ How I Contemplated the World From the Detroit House of Correction and Began My Life Over Again (1970)

Richard Shelton’s Selections from Walking Rain (1990’s to 2007) and Crossing the Yard: Thirty Years as a Prison Volunteer (2007)

Jimmy Santiago Baca’s Past Present and selected poetry from Healing Earthquakes (2001).

Ken Lamberton’s Time of Grace (2007) and selected recent works.


Instructor: William A. Fry

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Adventure Tales from Ancient Times

The Bible and More

The literature of the ancient Near East abounds with tales of great adventure. Gods and mortals battle divine and mythical creatures, travel afar, find friendship, fall in love, struggle against adversity, confront their enemies, and fight for their people. Join us as we read some of these epic stories and poems, which are found in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and the Apocrypha, and in the literatures of Babylon, Egypt and Canaan. Moses and the pharaoh of Egypt, Jael and Sisera, David and Goliath, Esther and Ahasuerus, Daniel in Babylon, Judith and Holophernes, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, Marduk and Tiamat, Baal and Anat, and the intrepid Sinuhe – their tales and more will be the subject of our class. Bring your Bible to class – and bring a notebook, too. Some of these stories might inspire you to do some writing of your own!


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Hooray for Hollywood

Join Richard Hanson for a celebration of the contributions of America’s great musical performers, composers, lyricists, directors, producers and studios who made the movies sing and dance. Hooray for Hollywood! traces the growth and development of the movie musical from The Jazz Singer to Chicago and Dream Girls to Into The Woods.

There are certain cultural periods in which audiences and the creative artist are in sync – each feeding the other. Shakespeare’s audience at the Globe Theatre encouraged his art and in the 20th Century, audiences responded to film. Movies, first dismissed as a cheap opium for the masses were embraced and adored by the public who couldn’t get enough of those images that flickered on the silver screen.

Movies were never bound by the past or traditions that govern other arts. Movie makers made it up as they went along. If the public liked it, they made more. If not, they changed the form or subject. The purpose of the movies was always to entertain – and with the creation of the movie musical, the goal of entertainment grew more important. Fantasy and romance are central to the musical. Life is seen as a song in lavish production numbers. Movie musicals present the dream: life as it should be, not as it is.

Musicals spring from popular culture and reflect the world of the moviegoer. The Depression paved the way for Busby Berkeley and his Golddiggers. World War II and the yearning for home gave Americans Meet Me In St. Louis and Yankee Doodle Dandy. The tabloid culture of the new millennium produced Chicago and Dreamgirls. Musicals allow the human spirit to soar. Music is emotional and expresses what mere words cannot. Musicals allow “All those little people in the dark” to recognize their own hopes and dreams projected on a huge screen that is a wishful mirror of life.

Fall in love again with the Warner Bros. back stage musicals: “You’re going out a youngster but you’ve got to come back a star!” Board the Good Ship Lollipop at 20th Century Fox with Shirley Temple and mingle with those “Foxy Blondes:” Alice Faye, Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe. Fly down to Rio with Fred & Ginger in the Art Deco masterpieces at RKO. Hit the road with Bob and Bing at Paramount. Follow the Yellow Brick Road at MGM with Dorothy, Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion. Throw away that umbrella and splash with Gene Kelly in his masterpiece, Singin’ In The Rain. Enter the enchanted kingdom of musical animation with Mickey and Minnie at Disney.

We invite you to put on your tap shoes and join Dick & Ruby, Mickey & Judy, Bob & Bing, Fred & Ginger, Nelson & Jeannette, Tom & Jerry, and a cast of thousands in a Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! extravaganza that salutes the musical on the silver screen. As the great Al Jolson said in The Singing Fool, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”


Instructor: Richard T. Hanson

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How to Draw What You See – Session 1

A Beginning Drawing Class

Anyone can learn to draw. It is just a matter of really seeing what is in front of you. In this beginning drawing class you will learn the fundamentals of realistically rendering what you see. You’ll study line, shape, form, light and shade as they relate to the world around us. You’ll learn to interpret objects through their basic geometric shapes – a principle which will allow you to draw anything you wish. You will also master the principles of perspective as they relate to all compositions. We’ll use a variety of drawing media to render the still life and other compositions of interest. Through careful observation of light and dark, you will learn to translate color into successful black and white drawings. This class is for both beginners and those who wish to refresh their drawing skills.

Materials: Drawing pencils (ebony) and charcoal pencils; charcoal: vine and compressed; kneaded and pink erasers; 16 x 24 newsprint pad; additional materials will be announced in class.


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Landscape of Power and Landscape of Delight

The Gardens and Trianons of the Palace of Versailles.

This series is a continuation of the lectures dedicated to the Palace of Versailles. Now, instead of the chateau itself as the focus….it will always be important….Dr. Justus looks at the extensive gardens as well as the small palaces and pavilions located within them. Not only will the history and the engineering of the gardens be examined, but also their rich and complex meaning, as well as their integral function in supporting the ideology of the monarchs of the 17th and 18th Centuries. Attention will also be given to the Grand and Petit Trianons, situated within the gardens, both of which are historically rich in relation to the monarchy and the periods that follow. Finally, the gardens are a living, growing creation, so their tending, their restoration and their modification to support more and more visitors will also be examined.

Week 1: The Garden of Absolute Power: The Creation of the Gardens at Versailles, Louis XIV, Le Notre and the desire to control Nature — The Grand and Petit Parc

Week 2: Sculpture, Water, Trees, and Flowers. The Bosquets of the Petit Parc and the Depiction of the Cosmos. — Symbolism, beauty and function.

Week 3: A Kingly Escape, and, an Escape for a King — The Grand Trianon of Louis XIV.

Week 4: Paradise Found: The Petit Trianon of Louis XV

Week 5: Paradise Lost: The Petit Trianon of the late 18th and early 19th Centuries

Week 6: The Gardens reborn — Versailles and the 20th and 21st Centuries…. Restoring, Replanting and Reimagining.


Instructor: Kevin Justus

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Painters Workshop – Session 1

Painters of all levels are invited to come together for instruction, inspiration, and encouragement. Review the basic elements of painting and receive plenty of individual attention in a small and supportive class environment. Work on projects of your choice or those suggested by the instructor. Discuss methods for color mixing, techniques for paint application, and ideas for still life, landscape, and portrait. Bring any art supplies you have. Additional supply needs will be discussed at the first class.

 


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Piano Works of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven

The Age of Reason produced the art of symmetry, balance and proportion, manifested in the works of three greatest classical era composers – Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

Through a combination of lecture and piano performance, you’ll learn about the piano works of the highest order from the late, innovative sonatas by Haydn, to magnificent concertos by Mozart, and prophetic last sonatas by Beethoven. Discover how the composers’ personalities shaped their art, and discuss the influences they had upon each other’s work. Hear the “storm and stress” era expressed strongly in their works and appreciate their virtuosic potential as exercised fully in their piano concertos. The music will be richly illustrated and analyzed in detail.

Week 1: Haydn’s late piano sonatas and piano trios

Week 2: Mozart’s early concertos and sonatas

Week 3: Mozart’s mature piano concertos and his operatic style

Week 4: Beethoven’s early piano works

Week 5: Beethoven’s “heroic” period

Week 6: Beethoven’s late piano sonatas


Instructor: Alexander Tentser

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Speaking Up and Writing Down

Giving Voice to Our Stories!

So many of us enjoy writing, but instead of sharing our work we accumulate boxes of journals, stories, essays, etc. over the years. We replay in our minds insightful moments and experiences, thinking someday we’ll get them written down and even published. If you would like to give voice to your life stories, to liberate them from memory—let them have a life of their own—this is the class for you. We’ll write vignettes and essays utilizing a variety of narrative writing techniques to find the larger narrator within each of our stories: the voice which is able to discern the themes, patterns, and metaphors running through our lives: the voice which is more reliable and fresh than memory: the voice which keeps us evolving.

Whether you’re putting family stories together for the clan, seeking to publish a memoir, or simply interested in writing more vibrant personal essays, this class will allow you to explore, be heard, and get feedback in a supportive environment. Practice getting out of your head, onto the page, and into a larger life! Continuing students are welcome.


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One World

Global Perspectives in Contemporary Literature

Have you ever been to Zimbabwe? India? Botswana? Greece? Would you like to go? Are you interested in knowing more about what life is like in these countries? There is no better way to understand the cultures and mores of a country than by reading works written by an author who has lived there and experienced it firsthand. We will read works by authors from Malaysia, Nigeria, and Bangladesh, among others. In reading these works, we will see both what separates us and what unites us as members of the human race. The stories are vivid, compelling, complex, and current, offering us an intimate view into the lives of people all over the world.

Our text book will be One World: A Global Anthology of Short Stories, New Internationalist, London, 2009, available for sale on-line through Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Walmart. Each week, we will be reading and discussing three or four selections from this book. There will be a very brief lecture component to the class where pertinent background information and a framework for the discussion will be presented. The vast majority of the course is discussion driven, so please plan to do your reading ahead of time and bring your book to class for what will certainly be a lively, engaging, and revealing talk.

Before our first class session, please plan to purchase the book and read the first three selections. Readings for subsequent weeks will be assigned at the end of each class session.


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