News&Notes SPRI NG/SU M M E R 2022
A digital future for Black poetry at JMU
by building a sustainable digital framework for the Furious Flower archive,” said founder Joanne V. Gabbin, executive director of Furious Flower and professor of English. “The Mellon Foundation’s The Mellon Foundation has investment has helped us grow awarded JMU $2 million over from a history of individual four and a half years to secure collaborations and friendthe digital future of the Furiships into a true institutional ous Flower Poetry Center, the and organizational effort,” nation’s first academic center said Bethany Now viskie, devoted to Black poetry. This dean of Libraries, senior acagenerous grant will support demic technology officer and the center’s internationally professor of English. “This is recognized leadership and hard, necessary work that goes provide for archival descripbeyond mere preservation and tion, digital preservation and access,” she added. “It is based global access to an extensive in equity and shared underarchive of Furious Flower standing aimed at repairing poetry and spoken-wordhistorical imbalances and performance videos in JMU Located in Cardinal House, the Furious Flower Poetry Center building a better future.” Libraries Special Collections. serves creative writers, literary and cultural scholars, and poetry The Special Collections The grant will help to lovers everywhere. department houses Furious strengthen and enhance the center’s web and scholarly publishing Flower’s extensive and unique audiovisual, print and manuscript colinfrastructure in partnership with open access and digital scholarship lections, as well as Gabbin’s papers. Funding from the Mellon Founinitiatives at JMU Libraries. This work includes Furious Flower’s trail- dation will help support videography, digital collections technology blazing literary journal The Fight & The Fiddle. and the participation of poets in Furious Flower’s fourth major field“It is really gratifying to know that this grant from the Mellon building conference in 2024. Foundation will help us to nurture, recognize and support Black poets — Ginny Cramer
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Partnership with BRCC, Merck nets economic award
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workforce development partnership between JMU, Blue Ridge Community College and Merck recently received the Judge’s Choice Award from the University Economic Development Association. Since 2019, Merck has hired 40 JMU
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graduates and 35 BRCC graduates to fill full-time and contract positions. In addition, the partners created an internship program to provide a pipeline of future workers, hired a regional manufacturing liaison, and developed a curriculum to train students for biotechnology and manufacturing jobs. The partnership received a $2.5 million special appropriation over five years from the Virginia General Assembly. “While working together seems obvi-
ous, it’s easier said than done,” said Melissa Lubin, dean of the School of Professional and Continuing Education and JMU’s chief economic engagement officer. “Finding ways to connect our work takes strategy, intention and a lot of conversation.” The partnership began after Merck announced a $1 billion investment in its Elkton facility to increase production of its human papillomavirus vaccines. — Eric Gorton (’86, ’09M)
C LI F TO N A N D PO E T G RO U P PH OTO G R A PH S BY D I A N E E LLI OT T ( ’ 0 0); G I OVA N N I BY C . B . C L A I B O R N E