BCC Center for Liberal Arts

BCC Reads!

BCC/Bellevue Reads Book
Selection for 2006-07:
Tim O'Brien's
The Things They Carried

As part of the culminating programming for this year's BCC Reads! program, Tim O'Brien, author of the featured novel The Things they Carried, will deliver a free public lecture on May 16th at 7:30 p.m. in BCC's Carlson Theatre. No reservations are required.

A volunteer committee of BCC faculty joined by staff from community partner, King County Library System, met for four months to select the 2006-07 BCC/Bellevue Reads book. Their choice, Tim O'Brien's 1990 novel The Things They Carried will be debuted in Fall 2006 in BCC class syllabi and county-wide book group discussions. Related public lectures, arts programs, a student scholarship contest and other cultural events will follow to expand the community-wide learning around this saga of soldiers' experience during the Vietnam War.

Scott Bessho, BCC English and American studies instructor and BCC Reads co-chair explains the relevance of the selection: "The idea of revisiting events and places, the act of remembering and replaying moments and emotions and images reflects in some way our national re-examination of the trauma, the history and the issues of the Vietnam war through the lens of the war that we find ourselves immersed in today."

Connie Younkin, King County Library System librarian and a member of the selection committee adds, "I think that The Things They Carried is an excellent selection for the whole community as well as for the college. One of my favorite parts of the BCC Reads program is hearing how people from different generations respond to the book. By transforming his own Vietnam War experience into a fictional work, Tim O'Brien makes his stories more universal and somehow easier for us to relate to in a personal way. I hope that everyone who is looking for a good book to read will read this one and then share his own life experience as it relates to wartime, from the World War II era through Vietnam and up to today. Tim O'Brien's narrator says, 'What stories can do, I guess, is make things present.' We can do that with our own stories, too, as we read and talk about The Things They Carried."

Selection committee members included: Nicole Longpre, chair; Akemi Matsumoto; Carolyn Gates; Constance Younkin; Deborah Kilgren; Elizabeth Dills; Ewan Magie; Francis Hatstat; Humaira Jackson; James Torrence; Lee Buxton; Scott Bessho; Trevor McMorris Tate; Wendy Pickering; Diane Douglas.

BCC Art Gallery hosts “Legacies of War"

As part of the War and Peace program, the BCC Art Gallery will host “Legacies of War,” a multimedia exhibit depicting the legacy of the U.S. bombing of Laos during the Vietnam War. This traveling museum exhibit features recently recovered illustrations drawn 30-years ago by survivors of the secret U.S. bombings in Laos. The exhibit documents survivors’ lives, the impact on the Laotian diaspora and Laotian immigrant and refugee experience from the past to the present.

Dates:	May 7-19
Location:	BCC Gallery D271
Hours:	Monday, Tuesday, Saturday 12-4 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday 2-6 p.m.

A public exhibit reception will be held on May 16 from 6-7:15 in the Gallery, at which time BCC Reads Scholarship winners and author in residence Tim O’Brien will also be recognized.

BCC Reads Scholarship Winners Announced

The Center for Liberal Arts is pleased to announce the following 5 student winners in the 2007 BCC Reads scholarship contest.

Colby Clark, Untitled, painting
Jennifer Lina, Backpack, mixed media sculpture and performance
Katrina Peterson, The Life of a Nineteen-Year-Old Girl and the Lives of Nineteen-Year-Old Soldiers, essay
Iksan W. Rosli, Brave, essay
Mayo Takiguchi, War, essay

Developed to stimulate student creativity, critical thinking and interdisciplinary learning, the contest awards full tuition for one academic quarter to students who create outstanding original work inspired by a featured book. This year’s book is Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. Submissions included a diverse and thoughtful array of responses in a variety of formats—digital media, visual art, essays and poetry. Faculty judges for the contest included: Gordon Leighton, chair, Christopher Shelley, Eva Norling, Daniel Knight, Jennie Mayer, James Torrence, Lee Buxton and Wendy Pickering.

An exhibition of the award winners’ work will be featured in the new BCC Art Gallery from May 7th – 19th with an awards reception scheduled from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. on May 16th co-sponsored by the Center for Liberal Arts and the Office of Student Programs.

Installation Art by Timea Tihanyi

Installation art by Timea Tihanyi was featured March 2 – April 5 at BCC’s new Gallery Space

“Casualties of Peace and War” and “I’m a Uniter, Not a Divider” – both large-scale installation works by artist and University of Washington lecturer Timea Tihanyi -- went on display March 2 as Bellevue Community College celebrated the opening of its new gallery exhibition area, “Gallery Space.”

Constructed of synthetic felt, thread and pins, “Casualties of Peace and War” is based on an etching by 18th century English artist William Hogarth entitled, “The Reward of Cruelty.” The exhibition relates closely to this year’s Hands On Democracy focus on issues of war and peace as well as the BCC Reads program feature book, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien.

The Tihanyi exhibit ran through April 5, although the gallery was closed from March 22 through April 1 for the college’s spring break. The artist was present at the gallery to discuss her work at 12:30 p.m. on Thurs., March 8. The event was free and open to the public.

Gallery hours are noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, Mondays and Tuesdays, and 2 to 6 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays. It is closed Fridays and Sundays. The Gallery Space is located in room 271 of the D Building on BCC’s main campus (3000 Landerholm Circle S.E. in Bellevue, at the intersection of S.E. 28th St. and 148th Ave. S.E.).

Collecting Stories of War and Peace
A BCC Reads! Project

As part of this year's BCC Reads! program, we invite you to help us collect the wisdom of our community's experiences of war and peace-making. Our plan is to build a publicly accessible, internet-based anthology of personal stories that will be used for teaching and learning, sharing and reflection. With authors' permission, selected stories will also be published in community newspapers and broadcast on community radio programs.

Write about your own or others' personal experiences with war, war's effects or peace-making. We welcome provocative, engaging content, but please refrain from submitting material that incites hate, contains threats, calls for violence or is a statement of political partisanship.

To publish your story or if you have any questions, please contact BCC Story Curator, Nancy Eichner: neichner@bcc.ctc.edu or phone (425) 564-4185, select #4. Send mail to Nancy Eichner, R-230, Bellevue Community College, 3000 Landerholm Circle, Bellevue, WA 98007-6484.

This project is co-sponsored by a network of community partners-Bellevue Community College Center for Liberal Arts, King County Library System, Voices in Wartime, KBCS-91.3 FM Radio and Northwest News.

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BCC Reads! program funders and partners include the National Endowment for the Humanities, Seattle Public Library, King County Library.

For More Information:
Please contact Scott Bessho (425-564-2425), Michael Hanson (425-564-2467) or Helen Taylor (425-564-2550)