A SECOND LOOK AT THE WRITERS ON KENT LIBRARY

Sunday at Kent Library, Dr. Susan Swartwhout will recite Walt Whitman's poem "I Sing the Body Electric" while two Southeast students perform avant-garde electronic music. Philosophy professor Dr. Hamner Hill will don a toga to read from Homer's "Iliad" -- in Greek. And farmer Lester Goodin will portray Mark Twain. Huck and Jim will be there, too.

The upcoming Millennial Symposium of the Arts isn't going to be a staid educational exercise.

The symposium was organized to examine the merits of the writers -- sometimes derisively called "the 17 dead white males" -- whose names decorate the facade of Kent Library. Many people walk into the library never questioning who those people are, says Dr. Marc Strauss, one of the coordinators of the event.

"This will bring them to life and help us think about their value to us personally and whether they still hold value in today's society. That's what higher education is all about."

In each case, the view represented by these writers will be rebutted or illuminated by alternative ideas. For instance, a commentary written by "Invisible Man" author Ralph Ellison will follow the Twain presentation with a different view of race relations. It is titled "What America Would Be Like Without Blacks."

Besides Twain, Homer and Whitman, Sunday's kickoff of the symposium will feature Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" with a lute performance and a re-enactment of Goethe's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." Music, literature, dance and theater are incorporated into the performance pieces.

"This is a wonderful opportunity to explore what a liberal arts education is all about," Strauss says.

More than 100 students in addition to numerous faculty members have been involved in developing the symposium.

The presentations will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday in the third-floor reading room in the library. Following a 4 p.m. reception Sunday, scholars and those in attendance will debate the merits of those 17 names on the library wall. The scholars will include Dr. John Bierk, a professor emeritus of English at Southeast, retiring English professor Dr. Henry Sessoms and Dr. Frank Nickell, director of the Center for Regional History.

The names on the library facade were chosen in 1939, primarily by English professor Dr. Harold Grauel and by Dr. W.W. Parker, then president of the university.

On subsequent days next week, other writers will be represented in the symposium, including Milton, Emerson, John Henry Cardinal Newman, Vigil, Chaucer, Thomas Carlyle, Hugo, John Ruskin, Tolstoi, Thoreau, Poe and Eugene Field (see schedule). All the presentations will be made in the third-floor reading room at the library.

The symposium will culminate with a master class Wednesday by the Parsons Dance Company at Parker Dance Studio and a performance by the company at 7 p.m. Thursday at Academic Auditorium.

The event is being coordinated by Strauss, associated dean of the College of Liberal Arts, and by Dr. David Reinheimer, an assistant professor of English.

The symposium is designed to provoke participation from the audience. Strauss said he would neither encourage nor discourage any subsequent campaign to replace some of the names on the library.

"The symposium is a juxtaposition of different viewpoints," he said. "Whatever happens is supposed to happen."

SCHEDULE

Sunday

2 p.m. -- Showcasing the Canon, introduction by Dr. Marc Strauss and Dr. Dave Reinheimer

Homer, William Shakespeare, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Mark Twain and Walt Whitman

Monday

Noon -- John Milton

1:15 p.m. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Henry Newman

Tuesday

12:30 p.m. -- Virgil

1:45 p.m. -- Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Carlyle

Wednesday

noon -- Victor Hugo

1:15 p.m. -- John Ruskin, Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoi

6 p.m. -- Master class, Parsons Dance Company, Parker Dance Studio

Thursday

12:30 p.m. -- Henry David Thoreau

1:45 p.m. -- Edgar Allan Poe, Eugene Field

7 p.m. -- Parsons Dance Company public performance, Academic Auditorium