Traveling Stanzas: Writing Across Borders
If you’ve paid us a visit over the last few weeks, you may have noticed a new, interactive exhibit in the Center for the Arts lobby. Traveling Stanzas: Writing Across Borders is part of the Fall for the Book Festival and sponsored by Mason’s College of Visual & Performing Arts.
Using the newest technology to connect us to one of our oldest technologies—the written word—Traveling Stanzas celebrates the diverse cultural identity of our democracy and engages a national civic dialogue through the intimate and inclusive voice of poetry. The traveling digital exhibit features poems, illustrations, and videos that showcase refugee resettlement in our community. At the heart of the exhibit is an interactive touchscreen experience, allowing community visitors to choose a short written piece to modify into their own poem. When visitors interact with digital creative tools, their voices will be incorporated into the exhibit in a variety of ways.
The Fall for the Book Festival is held October 10-13 at George Mason University. Participating writers who are featured in the Traveling Stanzas exhibit include: Renee Macalino Rutledge, The Hour of Daydreams; Hernán Díaz, In the Distance; Elena Georgiou, The Immigrant's Refrigerator; Asmaa Albukaie, from American Hate: Survivors Speak Out, edited by Arjun Singh Sethi; Tom Sleigh, The Land Between Two Rivers; and Yang Huang, My Old Faithful. The exhibit is scheduled to remain up through a week after the festival’s end date. We invite all patrons visiting the Center for the Arts to check it out between now and then. More information about Traveling Stanzas and other Fall for the Book Festival events can be found at fallforthebook.org.