News Releases:Libraries host 'Livin' la Vida Polka' as part of UW Open House Aug. 18-20

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Libraries host 'Livin' la Vida Polka' as part of UW Open House Aug. 18-20

Posted 8/1/2000

Poetry, storytelling, music, and bookmaking for kids will highlight campus library participation in the UW-Madison Open House, Saturday, Aug. 19.

Campus events Aug. 18-20 have been grouped in major categories, such as "From Cows to Wows," "Stars of the Heaven and Earth," and "Hot Summer Nights." Library events on the southeast end of campus have been billed as 'Livin' la Vida Polka.'

The programs on Library Mall will use the west steps of Memorial Library as a stage. Four major events are planned for the afternoon.

1 - 2 p.m.

Poetry from the Parallel Press

Hear Wisconsin poets read from their chapbooks published by the Parallel Press, an imprint of the UW-Madison Libraries. Selections from the entire series of chapbooks will also be presented.

- Award-winning Wisconsin poet Andrea Potos is the author of the first Parallel Press chapbook, The Perfect Day. Her writing has been published in many journals and anthologies including At Our Core: Women Writing About Power and Claiming the Spirit Within.
- Gwen Ebert, an environmental educator and winner of the 1999 Heart Quarterly Prize for Poetry, will read from her chapbook of natural-feeling works, The Twig Songs.
- Marilyn Annucci's poems struggle with questions--about mortality, about longing, about memory--in ways that are both playfully wry and dead serious. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Southern Poetry Review, Poet Lore and The Journal. Annucci will read from her chapbook, Luck.

2 - 4 p.m.

Bookmaking for Children

Silver Buckle Press Curator Tracy Honn and associates will demonstrate how to make your own books.

3 - 4 p.m.

Summer Stories and Ice Cream Social (for children 3-10)

Trudy Barash, president of the Friends of the UW-Madison Libraries and frequent host of story hours at Canterbury Books in Madison, will read from the best of children's literature. Babcock Hall ice cream will be served.

4 - 6 p.m.

Polka Party and Dance

A polka party will draw on the rich history of Wisconsin's indigenous music, which is well-represented in the Wisconsin Music Archives of the Mills Music Library. The Steve Meisner Band from Whitewater, one of the bands featured in the Smithsonian Folkways CD 'Deep Polka,' will perform live. Folk dancers will be on hand to teach various dance steps.

Photo: Steve Meisner, of The Steve Meisner Band