NEWS RELEASE, 8/27/97 Sept. 4 kick-off of Lunch Poems series features new chancellor plus faculty, staff and students reading their favorite poems

by Robert Sanders

Berkeley -- A lunch-time poetry series directed by former Poet Laureate Robert Hass kicks off its second year at UC Berkeley Sept. 4 with a special guest, the campus's new chancellor, Robert Berdahl, plus faculty, staff and students reading -- and singing -- their favorite poems. Women's basketball coach Marianne Stanley, former Clinton economic advisor Laura D'Andrea Tyson, an astronomer and an engineer are among campus figures who will read and discuss their favorite poems. Capping the event is a cappella singing by students Myriam Casimir and Desirée Pointer. The event, from 12:10 to 1 p.m. in the Morrison Room of Doe Library, inaugurates the second annual Lunch Poem series, begun last fall by Hass, professor of English. "This series will be a way of celebrating the extraordinary richness of Berkeley's poetic tradition and will provide a forum for the campus where faculty, students, staff and the general public will be able to experience the intellectual and artistic electricity of UC Berkeley," said Hass. Aside from Stanley and Tyson, a professor of economics and business, others reading favorite poems include Ivan Arguelles, poet and librarian; Alexei Filippenko, professor of astronomy; Ronald Gronsky, professor of materials science and mineral engineering; and Pedro Noguera, associate professor in the Graduate School of Education. The regular Lunch Poems format begins Sept. 11, when Pulitzer Prize-winner Jorie Graham comes to UC Berkeley to read from some of her poems. She won the prize last year for her book of selected poems, "The Dream of a Unified Field." The Sept. 11 event and subsequent readings will take place from 12:10 to 12:50 p.m. in the second-floor Subject Catalog Hall outside the main reference room of Doe Library, because of seismic construction that forces the temporary closure of the Morrison Room. Other poets slated for the series are essayist and screen writer Tess Gallagher (Oct. 30); Dionisio Martinez (Dec. 4); Brigit Pegeen Kelly (Feb. 5); Elizabeth Alexander (Mar. 5); Marilyn Chin (Apr. 2); and a final reading May 7 by students. Support for the series is provided by the Library, the Morrison Fund and the College of Letters and Science. These events are also partially supported by Poets & Writers, Inc. through a grant from the Lannan Foundation. The appearance of Tess Gallagher in October also is sponsored by the English Department, the Townsend Center for the Humanities and The Bear Student Stores operated by the Associated Students of the University of California.

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