BMCS Speakers
Joseph Bathanti
Professor of Creative Writing at Appalachian State University and former N.C. Poet Laureate (2012-14). He is a BMC expert and recipient of the 2016 N.C. Award for Literature. He will be delivering a talk at 6 p.m. in the Blowing Rock Art & History Museum (BRAHM) on the arts at Black Mountain College on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018.
Katherine Chaddock
Biographer of John Andrew Rice (the founder of BMC) and the author of "Visions and Vanities: John Andrew Rice of Black Mountain College" (1998). She is currently a Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of South Carolina. She will be delivering a talk at 7 p.m. in Belk Library and Information Commons, Room 114, at Appalachian State University on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018.
Mary Emma Harris
Mary Harris has long been regarded as one of the most prominent scholars on BMC. Her book, "The Arts at Black Mountain College" (1987), is one of the most influential publications on the history of BMC. She will deliver a talk on the history and reach of BMC at 7 p.m. in Belk Library and Information Commons, Room 421, at Appalachian State University on Wednesday, April 4, 2018.
Frank Hursh
A former student at BMC and a visual artist. Hursh will be included in the exhibition at the Turchin Center and deliver a gallery talk at 6 p.m. in the Turchin Center Lecture Hall on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018.
Basil King
Author and visual artist, King has displayed his work widely, and authored many works as well. King was a former student at BMC and will be included in the exhibition at the Turchin Center for Visual Arts. He will be delivering a gallery talk at 6 p.m. in the Turchin Center on Thursday, March 1, 2018.
Clark Maddux
Director of Watauga Residential College, Maddux has taught undergraduate and graduate courses ranging from first year seminar to early American literature and philosophy. He will deliver a talk at 11 a.m. in the Blowing Rock Art & History Museum on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018.
To view or share a comprehensive flyer with all the BMCS speaker events, download this event flyer. (129 KB, PDF)
Alice Sebrell
Sebrell has worked for the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center since 1999 and is currently the Program Director for the organization. Sebrell will talk about the history of BMCM+AC and its work regionally in preserving the heritage and artifacts of BMC. She will be delivering a talk at 6 p.m. at the Blowing Rock Art & History Museum (BRAHM) on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. Sebrell will deliver another talk at the Turchin Center on Wednesday, April 18 at 6 pm.
David Silver
David Silver is an associate professor of environmental studies and urban agriculture at the University of San Francisco, where he teaches classes on food, culture and storytelling. For the last five years, he has been researching and writing a multimedia history of the farm at Black Mountain College. During the summers of 2014 and 2015, Silver was scholar-in-residence at Hunt Library at North Carolina State University, where he worked with NCSU’s library and IT staff to design multiple video walls to accompany his talks about the farm at Black Mountain College. He will be delivering a talk at 7 p.m. in Belk Library and Information Commons, Room 114, at Appalachian State University on Thursday, March 15.
Julie Thomson
Julie Thomson is an independent scholar and curator who lives in Durham, North Carolina. She has been researching and writing about the Black Mountain College artist, Ray Johnson (student 1945-48) since 2006 and photographers who were at Black Mountain College since 2015. In 2017 she curated the exhibition "Begin to See: The Photographers of Black Mountain College" at the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center. Her writing has appeared in "Black Mountain College Studies" and "Raw Vision." She has an M.A. in Art History from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and was a Critical Studies Fellow in the Core Program at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in 2010-11.
Thomson will give a talk at 6 p.m. in the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts on Wednesday, March 28, 2018. titled "Two Ways of Looking at Black Mountain College: Ray Johnson and also the Photographers." In this talk she will combine and share two areas of research and writing about artists who were at Black Mountain College.
Anne Waldman
Internationally recognized and acclaimed poet, she is recognized in the lineage of Whitman and Ginsberg, and in the Beat, New York School and Black Mountain trajectories of the New American Poetry. She is the author of more than 40 books. She will give a reading of her work and talk about the broad influence of BMC on poetics, as well as her relationship with legendary BMC poet and the College’s last rector, Charles Olson at 7:30 p.m. in the Table Rock room in Plemmons Student Union on Thursday, March 22, 2018. Waldman's visit is combined with the Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writer's Series in the Department of English. As part of this series, she will also give a craft talk at 3:30pm on the same day and in the same location.
Cathryn Davis Zommer
A graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and filmmaker of "Fully Awake: Black Mountain College" (2008). Cathryn is in the process of releasing a newly expanded iteration of the film. She will be delivering a talk at 7 p.m. in the Belk Library and Information Commons, Room 114, at Appalachian State University on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018.