Rotary File - December 17, 2013
Guests and Visiting Rotarians: Andrew Adamec, guest of Brian Adamec; Sandy Kray, guest of Sue Cronin; John Kenyon, speaker.
Announcements:
AM Rotary is all over the District 6000 newsletter. Sue Cronin wrote a great article. Xicotepec is featured as are Chris and Vernette Knapp their official status as DG Nominee. It also was announced that AM Rotary stands at 7th in the District in attendance at 80%.
Rotarians in the News: Katie Langenfeld was mentioned in a newspaper article on Bridges to Prosperity project. Dave Parsons editorialized about the problem of street potholes in the area. Rick Dobyns read a humorous rebuttal letter on behalf of the City of Iowa City on the potholes issue. He said potholes should be considered “traffic routing intervention” especially on East Washington Ave.
See Roger Christian to sign up to help out with dishwashing on Jan. 28. The other dates for the next couple months are filled.
Liz Nichols mentioned that Tae Sung is still in need of a second host family for the second half of his stay. See Liz or Andreas with ideas of people to contact.
Pat Schnack will be filling out the Meals on Wheels schedule right after first of year. See Pat to volunteer.
Program:
John Kenyon, UNESCO City of Literature Executive Director for the Iowa City project, was introduced by Deb Galbraith. John is a former editor for The Daily Iowan, has worked for The Gazette and then helped launch the Corridor Business Journal before he became the director for the City of Literature here in Iowa City.
The Creative Cities Network was started by UNESCO in 2004 with Edinburgh Scotland as the first City of Literature. UNESCO is a division of the United Nation, what John called the “softer” side of the UN. Early on there were World Heritage sites designated by UNESCO and there are now over 900 of them world-wide. By 2004, however, the organization wanted to expand to cities with distinctive cultural contributions in crafts, visual arts, culinary arts, performing arts and literature.
Edinburgh became the first City of Literature because it was the home of such great writers as Robert Burns, RL Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott and JK Rowling. A successful City of Literature must also have an environment where literature thrives through its educational and cultural programs, libraries, bookstores, and museums. Iowa City fit the criteria, was entered into the competition to be considered and ended up the third City of Literature throughout the world. It was beaten out for the second position by Melbourne, Australia. Now Dublin, Reykjavik, Norwich, and Krakow have been added to the mix. The other arts subdivisions with cities representing these areas include Crafts and Folk Art, Film, Design, Gastronomy, Media Arts, and Music.
Cities earn the designation from UNESCO but receive no financial compensation from the UN program. The individual cities must determine the programs and the support level. Our City of Literature program has been supported with a 501(c3) status since 2009 with several area foundational partners including the City of Iowa City, the University of Iowa, Iowa City Public Library, Coralville, North Liberty, Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce, Johnson County, and the Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The City of Literature Vision is to establish each City of Literature as a place that invites citizens to discover and share its vibrant literary culture. The Mission is to celebrate and support literature on a local, regional, national, and international level, connecting readers and writers through the power of story.
Our own community is so strong in the literary front that what our local program tries to do is to fill in the gaps by practicing advocacy and to help people network with literature and cultural themes. For example, the City of Literature helped the UAY to get in touch with the Iowa Youth Writing Program at UI to collaborate on a project. The biggest thing our local program does is to offer programs on the literary theme. On UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day (April 23) there will be a Community Book Talk. Paul Engle Day (Oct 12) this year included a high school sophomore essay contest around the state and scholarships were given to the winners, including one year free at UI to the top student. The Paul Engle Prize is awarded to an essay writer from anywhere in the country who has best used his or her skills to elevate literature. The Hawkeye Readers is a joint project of the City of Literature and the UI football program to have players read in 3rd grade classrooms throughout the Iowa City district. “On the Fly” is a videotaped interview series featuring visiting authors. The City of Literature has also sponsored the Little Free Libraries (of which there are now between 40 and 50 in the area). The Book Marks statues distributed around the area a couple years ago was also a City of Literature project.
A very large endeavor was taking over the Iowa City Book Festival from the UI Library. In 2013 it was completely taken over by the City of Literature and was moved from summer months to four days in October and moved downtown. This year the Festival brought 36 authors to town from all over the country and featured 25 local and regional authors.
The next City of Literature event will be January 17-19 with the “One Book Two Book” children’s literature program. Loren Long who illustrated Obama’s “Of Thee I Sing” will be featured. The program gives the opportunity to recognize the writing of elementary kids. One student from each school in Iowa City is selected to read a piece of original writing at the annual banquet. These students are coached on how to read their work and they do it with great poise after a little coaching.
Liz Nichols,
Scribe