CULTURE | 09.11.2015 | GREENVILLE JOURNAL | 43
Universal theme, personal experiences After a writing career hiatus, Drewry pens personal poems CINDY LANDRUM | STAFF
clandrum@communityjournals.com The title of Elizabeth Drewry’s soonto-be released chapbook is based on a song by 1930s blues singer Etta James. Like all good blues singers, James sang about passion, music, love, despair – universal themes, Drewry says, “but I write about them out of my particular experi-
ences.” D r e w r y, who holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in English, had been an associate editor for a small press poetry magazine in Memphis before taking a 25-year hiatus from writing for a career on the business side of newspapers.
Artists Naomi Nakazato, Anthony Modesto Milian and Glory Loflin (center) with Brandon Fellowship Selection Committee members Frances Gray (far left) and Sandra Rupp (far right)
GCCA to cultivate 3 artists via new fellowship BENJAMIN JEFFERS | STAFF
bjeffers@communityjournals.com A Greenville Center for Creative Arts (GCCA) selection committee named three members to the inaugural Brandon Fellows program, which is aimed at supporting young artists who lack the resources to have their own studio. GCCA is providing Naomi Nakazato, Anthony Modesto Milian and Glory Loflin with a studio space, access to classes, mentorship and engagement opportunities. Nakazato is a graduate of Anderson University, where she focused on painting and drawing as well as the history of portraiture. The fellowship will help her “communicate the challenges and experiences of mixed ethnicity through new mediums,” GCCA said in a release. Milian is a graduate of Greenville Technical College and has pursued studies in hospitality at Bob Jones University. As a Brandon Fellow, he will seek to hone his technical and artistic skills to enhance his street photography. He said he plans to explore pub-
lishing a book depicting the cultural richness of the Faces of the Upstate, based on a Facebook page he created. Loflin is a graduate of the Cooper Union for Advancement of Science and Art in New York City, where she studied painting, and an alumna of the Fine Arts Center and the S.C. Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. She has taught arts to children and volunteered her artistic abilities to benefit a variety of causes. Through the fellowship, she will preparing a portfolio of ceramics work in view of applying to graduate school in this medium. “We are extremely pleased to have such a talented and passionate group of young artists in our first class of Brandon Fellows,” said Cherington Shucker, executive director of GCCA. Shucker said GCCA hopes to augment the fellows’ experience by asking them to work together on a community driven project. One of the ideas is to connect the artists with Legacy Charter School and produce a youth art show in December and January, she said.
Emrys Press will release Drewry’s chapbook, “My Wild Hair Undone, Poems” on Sept. 17 at the Greenville Center for Creative Arts. The reading and book release will also serve as Emrys Foundation’s annual meeting. Emrys, a foundation that seeks to nurture creativity among writers and further the impact of the literary arts, launched a publishing venture that became known as Emrys Press in 1994. Original plans called for publishing the work of a woman poet once a year, a goal the press achieved with publications annually from 1996 through 2002. In 2003, the foundation’s 20th year, Emrys broadened its scope to print writings outside of the realm of poetry and published two works of nonfiction. With the cost of printing rising, the editors then chose to launch a series of chapbooks that would cost less to produce but still offer women poets an opportunity for publication. Four chapbooks have been published since 2005.
Yikes!
So you know WHAT: Emrys Annual Meeting and Press Book Release for “My Wild Hair Undone, Poems” by Elizabeth Drewry WHEN: Thursday, Sept. 17, 6 p.m. WHERE: Greenville Center for Creative Arts, 25 Draper St. COST: Free, but RSVPs to emrys.info@ gmail.com are requested
“My Wild Hair Undone, Poems” is the first time Drewry’s poetry has been collected in a book, although she has had some of her work published. About two dozen poems are included in the book. “I think it’s wonderful they [Emrys] reach into the community to give voice to people who are trying to write,” Drewry said. Emrys is now taking submissions of unpublished fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction for the Emrys Journal Volume 33. Submissions will be taken through Nov. 1. For more information on both the chapbook and the Emrys Journal submission guidelines, go to Emrys website, emrys.org.
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