The Black Studies lecture series, “Remaining Awake through a Great Revolution” will present a screening of the documentary entitled, “I Sit Where I Want: The Legacy of Brown v. Board of Education” on Thursday, April 23 at 7 p.m., in the Wien Experimental “Black Box” Theater, in the Quick Center for the Arts. Admission is free for this public event.

Though the Brown v. Board of Education case ruled that segregation in schools was unconstitutional, the issue of social segregation still plagues many schools today. The film, co-produced and directed by Whitney Dow and Marco William to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, follows a group of students at the Academy of the Visual & Performing Arts in Buffalo, New York, and their efforts to tackle the issue of social segregation in their high school. More…

Sue Miller, author of the best-selling novel, “The Senator’s Wife” joins the growing ranks of literary guests of University College’s Inspired Writers series at Fairfield University on Tuesday, April 7 at 7:00 p.m. in the Barone Campus Center Oak Room. Michael White, director of Fairfield University’s MFA program in Creative Writing will introduce Miller.

Miller received critical acclaim when “The Senator’s Wife” was published in 2008. In this novel, she examines the complexities of women, marriage and relationships as she focuses on two women of different generations living in different worlds, who happen to be neighbors. More…

Fairfield University’s Inspired Writers series of University College joins with the Italian Studies Program to co-sponsor the appearance of author-illustrator John Bemelmans Marciano on Thursday, April 2 at 7:00 p.m. in the DiMenna-Nyselius Library Multimedia Room. Marciano will introduce and discuss his latest book, “Madeline and the Cats of Rome,” a work for children inspired by the author’s observations of and research about the Roman Cats of Torre Argentina in the Italian capital. Admission is free. More…

Tuesday, May 12, 2009, 8:00 to 2:00 pm
Dolan School of Business, Fairfield University

For more information, go to the Writers’ Day page.

Two Poems Walk into a Bar
by Jack Powers

It’s not that I don’t want to talk,
but I’ve got nothing to say to you, Poetry.
Nothing, that is, that hasn’t been said.
The sonnets alone have covered love.
And death? Aren’t they all about death?
I guess I’m speaking now about loneliness,
but what do I have to complain about? No,
Poetry, talk to me instead. Let me feel what you’ve felt,
see what you – Laugh what you’ve laughed? Sure.
Two poems walk into a bar… And? Ouch! No. Poetry, listen:
two poems walk into a bar. They buy a round for the house,
play some pool, lead the bar in song. Later that night
under a cue ball moon, little poems are conceived
all over town. No one is lonely again.

More…

via The New York Times:

Connecticut’s schools are big underperformers. The gap between the educational performance of low-income and middle- and high-income pupils is the widest in the nation. Only one-third of poor and minority children in elementary schools meet the state’s goals for mastery of reading, writing and math.

The loss of manufacturing jobs, coupled with an achievement gap, is a recipe for perpetually worsening poverty.

As graduation rates go down, school ratings go up
New study shows the negative implications of No Child Left Behind

A new study by researchers at Rice University and the University of Texas-Austin finds that Texas’ public school accountability system, the model for the national No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), directly contributes to lower graduation rates. Each year Texas public high schools lose at least 135,000 youth prior to graduation — a disproportionate number of whom are African-American, Latino and English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students.
More…