Join The Georgia Review and UGA’s MFA program in Narrative Media Writing for a special event with author Kristal Brent Zook.
For more than twenty years, Dr. Kristal Brent Zook has reported on social issues such as health, education, culture, politics, race, gender, and the environment. She is an award-winning journalist and author of four books, including The Girl in the Yellow Poncho, a coming-of-age story about being biracial in America, searching for her missing white father, and finding one’s authentic identity. In 2023, it was chosen as a favorite book by Vanity Fair, BET, PEOPLE, Ms., and The Root, and received praise in The New York Times Book Review and Kirkus. A former contributor to the Washington Post and ESSENCE, Dr. Zook’s work has appeared in Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, TIME, LIFE, and The Guardian, among other outlets. She is currently working on an in-depth essay about the Tulsa, Oklahoma, race massacre of 1921 for The Georgia Review. Dr. Zook is a professor of journalism at Hofstra University in New York.  
UGA’s low-residency MFA program in narrative nonfiction, part of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, is designed for students who want to develop their research, reporting, and writing skills to take on topics of national and global importance. Students explore long-form storytelling in research-based narratives that rise to the level of literature. Many of them are mid-career journalists and other industry professionals who want to elevate their careers and write a book. This program paves the way for nonfiction writers to use their talents and skills to engage the world.Learn more here. 

The Athens Art Book Fair was established to spotlight the critical relationship between contemporary art and publishing with a regional focus on the Southeast. The second annual Athens Art Book Fair will showcase a variety of works on paper produced by dozens of artists and presses. This event is free to the public. Join us to explore a wide variety of techniques and subject matter on display and connect with artists and publishers!

Please note that this event is affiliated with the annual arts and music festival AthFest, which will attract considerable traffic in the area. Plan your visit and parking accordingly.

The Athens Art Book Fair is presented by the University of Georgia Art Library, the Lamar Dodd School of Art, and the UGA Printmaking Students Association.

Get ready for a night of bejeweled glamour and style at The Athenaeum! Join us for an unforgettable night of dazzling fashions 
 showcasing the intersection of fashion and jewelry. Witness stunning designs on the runway and be inspired by the creativity of Haute's talented creatives. Don't miss out on this exclusive opportunity to experience the magic of the JEWELRY BOX. See you there!

Purchase tickets here.

Haute Creatives Collective is a women led student organization that focuses on creating a space for POC and LGBT+ creatives looking to enhance their artistic portfolios for a career in creative industries.  Haute’s goal is to support our creative’s talent development and to provide a dynamic and safe space for collaboration; through shoots, shows, and service projects.

Join us for short artist talks by our graduating MFA students.

Lamar Dodd School of Art alumni Clay Jordan, Brittainy Lauback, and Tatum Shaw will present on their recent photography books published by Atlanta's Fall Line Press. Join us at the Athenaeum on Saturday, April 13 at 4pm as they discuss their monographs and participate in a roundtable discussion led by Director of the Athenaeum, Dr. Katie Geha. A book signing will follow the event. Writer Amy Bonnaffons will read from her essay featured in Lauback's monograph "Infinite Bonheur."

Clay Maxwell Jordan is a photographer who has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally. He is a 2019 MacDowell fellow and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. Perpetual Care is his second monograph with Fall Line Press; his first book, Nothing’s Coming Soon, was published in 2019.  www.claymaxwelljordan.com

Brittainy Lauback is an artist and photography educator living and working in Houston, Texas. She received her BFA from the University of New Mexico in 2003 and her MFA from the University of Georgia in 2014. Lauback’s latest group exhibitions include Reckonings and Reflections at the Georgia Museum of Art, Athens; Looking Male at the Bo Bartlett Center, Columbus, and the LaGrange Museum of Art; and New Southern Photography at the Ogden Museum of Art, New Orleans. Her first monograph titled Infinite Bonheur published by Fall Line Press was published this year.

Tatum Shaw is a photographer based in both Portland, OR and Atlanta, GA. With his background as an advertising creative, Shaw combines his conceptual skills with a photographer’s eye to create crafted worlds exploring a mix of anxiety and nostalgia. 

Join us for a spring evening of contemporary dance, colorful sculpture, and catered bites and drinks by Athens pop-up restaurant Mouth Feel. The exhibition Fabienne Lasserre: Listeners will be activated by a commissioned dance by award-winning choreographer Beth Gill and an accompanying sound piece by experimental composer Jon Moniaci. Meet a diverse group of artists and chat with Lamar Dodd School of Art students who benefit directly from the programming and community partnerships hosted by the Athenaeum. Details on the Fundraising Event:

March 16, 2024
5 - 7:30 pm
Athenaeum
287 W Broad St. Athens, GA 30605
Tickets: $350

Register here

5:00: Welcome Drinks
5:30: Beth Gill & Jon Moniaci Performance
6:00: Bites and Drinks
7:00: Hear from Katie Geha, Director the Lamar Dodd School of Art Galleries
7:15: Private tour of Listeners by artist Fabienne Lasserre

Artist Biographies
Fabienne Lasserre, educated at Concordia University in Montreal (B.F.A., 1996) and Columbia University, New York (M.F.A., 2004), lives and works in Brooklyn NY. A 2019 Guggenheim Fellow, she is the Director of the interdisciplinary MFA in Studio Art at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). She has participated in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and internationally. Recent solo projects include Make Room for Space (2018, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY); Les Larmes (2018, Parisian Laundry Gallery, Montreal); and C.Ar.D in città (2015, Palazzo Costa Tretenerro, Piacenza, Italy). Some group exhibits featuring her work have been: Feed the Meter (2017, Ceysson de Bénétière, Luxembourg); Outside the Lines (2013, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, TX), Saber Desconocer, (2013, Museo de Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia), and La Triennale québécoise, (2011, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal).

Beth Gill is an award-winning choreographer based in New York City since 2005. Her multidisciplinary works are captivating, cinematic timescapes, the product of long-term collaborations with celebrated artists. Gill is the proud recipient of the Herb Alpert, Doris Duke Impact, Foundation for Contemporary Art, and two “Bessie” awards. She has produced eight commissioned evening-length works met with critical acclaim. She has toured nationally and internationally and has been honored with (among others): Guggenheim Fellowship, NEFA’s National Dance Project grant, Princeton’s Hodder Fellowship, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Extended Life Artist in Residence.

Jon Moniaci is a composer, performer, and computer programmer. Interested in improvisation and live electro-acoustic performance, he has collaborated extensively with dance and performance makers. A frequent collaborator of choreographer Beth Gill, his score for her dance Electric Midwife received a 2011 Bessie New York Dance and Performance Award. He has also worked with Chase Granoff, Andrew Dinwiddie, Jeff Larson, Peter Kerlin, Anna Sperber, Marissa Perel, Alex Escalante, Mark Jarecke, Dean Moss, and Peter Jacobs. He plays music with Stephen Rush and Chris Peck in their project Crystal Mooncone.

Support for the Athenaeum's multifaceted programming and exemplary exhibitions comes directly from private philanthropy. Your ticket to Night at the Athenaeum will provide vital support for this multidisciplinary student lab and community incubator. If you are unable to join us but have an interest in giving to the Athenaeum, please donate below.

The exhibition Fabienne Lasserre: Listeners will be activated by a commissioned dance by choreographer, Beth Gill and an accompanying sound piece by experimental composer, Jon Moniaci. The new work will premiere at the Athenaeum with a free public performance on March 15 at 7pm.

Beth Gill is an award-winning choreographer based in New York City since 2005. Her multidisciplinary works are captivating, cinematic timescapes, the product of long-term collaborations with celebrated artists. Gill is the proud recipient of the Herb Alpert, Doris Duke Impact, Foundation for Contemporary Art, and two “Bessie” awards. She has produced eight commissioned evening-length works met with critical acclaim. She has toured nationally and internationally and has been honored with (among others): Guggenheim Fellowship, NEFA’s National Dance Project grant, Princeton’s Hodder Fellowship, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Extended Life Artist in Residence.
Jon Moniaci is a composer, performer, and computer programmer. Interested in improvisation and live electro-acoustic performance, he has collaborated extensively with dance and performance makers. A frequent collaborator of choreographer Beth Gill, his score for her dance Electric Midwife received a 2011 Bessie New York Dance and Performance Award. He has also worked with Chase Granoff, Andrew Dinwiddie, Jeff Larson, Peter Kerlin, Anna Sperber, Marissa Perel, Alex Escalante, Mark Jarecke, Dean Moss, and Peter Jacobs. He plays music with Stephen Rush and Chris Peck in their project Crystal Mooncone.

The Creative Writing Program welcomes Elizabeth Willis, the first visiting poet in the 2024 Blakely Program, with gratitude to the Diann Blakely Visiting Poet Fund.

Currently serving as Professor of Poetry at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Elizabeth Willis’s most recent book is Alive: New and Selected Poems (New York Review Books, 2015), which was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. Her other books of poetry include Address (Wesleyan University Press, 2011), recipient of the PEN New England/L. L. Winship Prize for Poetry; Meteoric Flowers (Wesleyan University Press, 2006); Turneresque (Burning Deck, 2003); The Human Abstract (Penguin, 1995); and Second Law (Avenue B, 1993). She also writes about contemporary poetry and has edited a volume of essays entitled Radical Vernacular: Lorine Niedecker and the Poetics of Place (University of Iowa Press, 2008).
A recent Guggenheim fellow, she has held residencies at Brown University, the MacDowell Colony, the Ucross Foundation, and the Centre International de Poésie, Marseille.  Her poetry has been translated into French, Dutch, Polish, and Slovak.

Join us in celebrating the opening of Fabienne Lasserre: Listeners, an immersive and responsive sculptural installation. Free and open to the public.