Another snowy day on campus ….

photo by Preston Moretz, Office of University Communications

Looks like Punxsutawney Phil was right. As predicted our six additional weeks of winter are in full swing, blasting the Philadelphia area with frigid temperatures and heavy snow storms. While the weather may have slowed down campus-life for some, Preston Moretz used the freshly fallen  snow as an opportunity to take a few nice environmental shots. Moretz, a senior staff writer in the Office of University Communications, braved the chilly temperatures to get the photograph above. Check out more of Moretz’s work on the  Temple Newsroom Facebook page and while you’re there become a fan of the newsroom and  CherryTArts.

-Jazmyn Burton

Boyer College of Music and Dance Faculty Concert

Friday, February 26 at 7:30pm

Saturday, February 27 at 7:30pm

Featuring works by  Eva Gholson, Philip Grosser, Jillian Harris, Laura Katz-Rizzo, Merian Soto and guest artist Nichole Canuso

Tickets: $20 general admission

$15 students and senior citizens

$10 with Dance USA/Philadelphia Dance Pass

$5 for students with OWLcard

Conwell Dance Theater

A Conversation with Jazz Legend Jimmy Heath

Friday, February 19
Lecture @ 4:00 p.m.
Book Signing @ 6:00 p.m.

Jazz legend Jimmy Heath—composer of more than 100 songs, three-time Grammy nominee, and performer on more than 125 albums—tells his life story through I Walked With Giants, a compelling new autobiography published by the Temple University Press.

Over his long career, Heath played with John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie. On February 19th, Heath shares his stories—from growing up in South Philadelphia to becoming one of the most-respected musicians in his genre—at Temple University Libraries. This event will include live jazz performance and an interview with Heath by Bob Perkins. At 6:00 p.m., Heath will sign copies of I Walked with Giants, which will also be on sale.

Lightning Thief movie shows compelling nature of Greek myths

It’s not hard to figure out why The Lightning Thief, either as a movie or book, would be compelling to young audiences…actually its a no-brainer.

Set in the present day, the best selling series charts the adventures of 12-year-old-Percy Jackson as he discovers he is the son of the Greek god Poseidon and the adventures begin. With his friends, who are also the offspring of Greek gods, Percy embarks on a quest to prevent an apocalyptic war between the Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. In the process, he befriends satyrs and battles minotaurs and more.

But, according to Daniel Berman, associate professor in the Department of Greek and Roman Classics at Temple University, Greek mythology has always had its fans in modern America.

“The Greek myths, which are interwoven into the Percy Jackson series so well, have staying power, because the stories can still help us come to grips with conflicts in our lives, just as they did for the ancient Greeks,” said Berman.

But the myths influence our culture in deeper ways. The narrative patterns pervasive in modern stories mirror those in many Greek myths, said Berman.

“A foundling or otherwise disadvantaged protagonist is raised and eventually comes into his own, often into a kingship or other heroic status, or a son takes over the authority of his father only to be usurped by his own son in time,” said Berman. “These narrative patterns are familiar to us today.”

For more, check out Lightning Thief shows Greek mythology’s staying power

–Kim Fischer

Temple U. prof bringing translation to forefront in literary circles

Temple University English Professor Lawrence Venuti, a Temple alum and South Philadelphia native, finds himself at the center of a movement to rethink literary translation and its role in the academy.

Venuti, an internationally renowned translator and translation theorist, wants both translators and readers of translations to be more mindful and appreciative of the cultural differences they encounter in a foreign text. His latest project, a translation of Ernest Farrés’s Edward Hopper (Graywolf Press, November 2009), won the second annual Robert Fagles Translation Prize, sponsored by the National Poetry Series.

A leading theorist in his field, Venuti is at the forefront of what might be called a translation renaissance. Once invisible in their behind-the-scenes roles, translators are increasingly recognized in academic and publishing arenas for their contributions to the literary process.

The most prevalent translation strategy has been to adhere to the current standard dialect of the translating language, which is the most familiar and least noticeable to the reader. This kind of translation, according to Venuti, effaces the translator’s presence and erases cultural distinctions.

“Translation rewrites a foreign text in terms that are intelligible and interesting to readers in the receiving culture. Doing so is akin to committing an act of ethnocentric violence by uprooting the text from the language and culture that gave it life. Translating into current, standard English at once conceals that violence and homogenizes foreign cultures,” he said.

Venuti has translated everything from 19th-century prose by a neglected author of Gothic tales to canonical modern novelists to controversial contemporary best-sellers. Some of his translations are credited with improving the literary reputations of the original authors, in one case raising the author’s status to literary stardom.

Because of his national and international reputation, he has been invited to teach translation workshops at Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia.

For more and to hear Venuti read from a translation, check out CLA professor at center of translation renaissance.

–Kim Fischer

A History of North Broad

Thursday, February 11, 5 pm
A History of North Broad Street: A Lecture by Robert Morris Skaler
Wagner Free Institute of Science
1700 West Montgomery Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19121
Free and open to the public

Noted historian and architect Robert M. Skaler will present a lecture and a series of images illustrating the development of North Broad Street in the 19th century. While prosperous, North Broad Street was respectable but never really fashionable, as a “north” address did not have the cache of one south of Market Street to Philadelphia’s traditional elite class ensconced around Rittenhouse Square. Perhaps to compensate for this lack of social standing, residents of North Broad Street built their houses and churches grander than many in Center City preferring the clean “Uptown” air to that of the old Quaker City with its cramped hurley-burley. In addition, it is the home of Temple University and the Wagner Free Institute of Science. North Broad Street was also the center of social life of upper class German Jews who built four major synagogues, and the impressive Mercantile Club on Broad below Jefferson Street.

Robert M. Skaler is a forensic architect and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Architecture. He is a Past President of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Victorian Society, board member of the Old York Road Historical Society member of the Union League of Philadelphia, and is an adviser to several Historic Societies. His books entitled West Philadelphia, University City to 52nd Street, Philadelphia’s Broad Street, South & North, and Society Hill & Old City, and Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square with co-author Tom Keels, are pictorial histories of Philadelphia.

Following his lecture Mr. Skaler will sign copies of his book Philadelphia’s Broad Street, South & North.

Super Bowl advertising controversy

Most sit down to watch their favorite teams battle it out, but in recent years viewers have come to expect that game day will include a series of entertaining advertisements.

However, there are a few commercials that won’t see the light of your television screen this Sunday.

According to web reports a commercial for a Gay-dating site, a GoDaddy.com spot that features a football player who finds his  feminine side and spot created for the text-and-answer service, KGB have been rejected by CBS due to their content.

Dr. Michael Maynard, chair of the advertising department, said networks have the right to deny controversial advertisements

Although the network’s decision has received a lot of media attention,  Michael Maynard, chair of the advertising department at Temple University,  says media outlets are well within their right to deny commercials that fall outside of their advertising policy.

While a good lawyer can argue for the inclusion of the spots, rejection is a normal part of the advertising business, he said.

Still, the cheeky ads have a good chance of being aired on networks on the other end of the dial. You’ll just have to pay to see them.

“They’ll probably end up on cable, it’s more forgiving,” Maynard said. “They have a better chance of being aired there.”

– Jazmyn Burton

Abolitionist’s papers to be preserved in Blockson Collection

Several 19th century photographs will be digitally preserved in Temple's Blockson Collection.

A series of 19th century personal letters and photographs that once belonged to African American entrepreneur and abolitionist William Still will be preserved by Temple University’s Blockson Collection.

William Still, one of the most successful black businessmen in Philadelphia’s history, was a prominent and respected leader of Underground Railroad activities in the area and author of The Underground Railroad, the only first-person account of black participation in this freedom movement.

His papers, which include several personal letters to his daughter Carrie, are in a state of severe deterioration.

Temple recently received funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities to assist in the conservation and digitization of Still’s 140 documents and 14 photographs.

“These papers are a national treasure because Still was a major contributor to the success of the Underground Railroad activities in Philadelphia,” said Blockson librarian Aslaku Berhanu. “He was part of Philadelphia’s free black community that played an essential role in Railroad activities.”

– Jazmyn Burton

Telling the story of the ’60s sit-ins

Fifty years ago this week, a student movement against segregation began at a Woolworth store in Greensboro.

The civil rights movement was energized by the sit-ins of the sixties, yet these protests have always been the least understood, so says Historian Andrew B. Lewis in an opinion piece published in the Los Angeles Times.

Lewis, author of the critically acclaimed new book, The Shadows of Youth, will be at Temple this month to talk about the 50th anniversary of the sit-in movement that triggered the upheavals of the 1960s.

Date: Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Time: 3:00pm – 4:30pm

Location: Gladfelter Hall, 9th Floor

1115 West Berks Street, Temple University

–Kim Fischer