News Releases

UWI hosts Open Mic Night with Dr Traci Currie

For Release Upon Receipt - March 29, 2012

St. Augustine


 

Dr. Traci Currie will perform at an Open Mic Night, hosted by the Communications Department of The UWI’s Faculty of Humanities and Education on Friday 30th March, 2012, from 8pm, at Veni Mange, 67 A Ariapita Avenue, Woodbrook.

Open Mic Night is a part of the Department’s annual Communication Studies Open Week, which will take place from Thursday 29th March to Thursday 5th April, 2012. Themed “(Re) Connect – ting,” this week of events brings together students and staff of the University for a variety of activities including presentations, a mentoring session, chalk drawing and an evening with lecturers.

Members of the public are invited to join the Campus community for Friday’s Open Mic Night, the highlight of the week, which features world renowned writer and poet, Dr. Traci Currie. Dr. Currie is a Jamaican-American poet, writer and lecturer at the University of Michigan-Flint, Michigan, USA, who is well known for engaging her audience with a fusion of poetry and music.

The Department also invites all upcoming artists and musicians to take the stage at Open Mic Night and display their talent.

In addition to Open Mic Night, other events being held as a part of Communication Studies Open Week include:

Thursday 29th March:

Short presentation by visiting lecturer, Dr Traci Currie, and Oral Thesis presentations by final year students – 9am-noon, CLL Auditorium

Poster thesis presentations from final year students – 2-3.30pm, South Block 1 (SB1) and South Block 2 (SB2), Humanities Building

Friday 30th March 2012:

Open Mic Night – 8pm, Veni Mange, 67 A Ariapita Avenue, Woodbrook

Monday 2nd April 2012:

Minute Mentoring. Where students can engage in individual mentoring sessions with industry professionals, based on the concept of speed dating – 1-4pm, SALISES Conference Room

Tuesday 3rd April 2012:

Chalk Drawing – noon, JFK Quadrangle

Wednesday 4th April 2012:

Lime with lecturers. An opportunity to (re)connect with lecturers on a personal level – 7pm, Staff Social Club

Thursday 5th April 2012:

Communication Open Day – 1-4pm, South Block 1 (SB1) and South Block 2 (SB2), Humanities Building

For further information, please contact the Communications Department via e-mail at   uwicommunicationstudies@hotmail.com, or call 678-5573.

For the latest UWI News, click http://sta.uwi.edu/news.

ABOUT DR. TRACI CURRIE

For poet and spoken word artist, Traci Currie, writing started in the sixth grade with her first journal project as a means to express herself. Writing, also encouraged by her father, became a natural outlet for a child who was an avid reader needing something to do after she finished reading a story. Today, Currie has about 56 journals, dating back to her childhood in Wilmington, Delaware living with her Jamaican parents.

Currie writes for pretty much the same reason that Toni Morrison wrote The Bluest Eye. To express something that hasn’t been told yet. She feels she is still trying to figure out how to express herself, trying to craft her style of writing, and still trying to figure out her story.

But, she doesn’t write just for herself. She also writes to make a difference in people’s lives, with the idea that her writing just might actually help someone. Her goal is to be as powerful in both mediums that she operates, the public persona of the spoken word artist, and the private poet persona. She also, in her words, just wants to be good at something.

Currie's pursuit to be good at something led her to obtain graduate degrees in film and media with the desire to mix different forms of communication as a way of reaching the masses.

Her short stories and poetry are rich with references to her Jamaican-American upbringing, and her experiences as an adult. Her literary work is both fictional and non-fiction.

Currie lives in Flint, Michigan, where she currently teaches an array of communication courses at the University of Michigan-Flint.

For more information on Traci Currie, visit: http://www.tracicurrie.com/about.html

About UWI

Over the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with over 50 physical site locations across the region, serving over 20 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Pure & Applied Sciences, Science and Agriculture, and Social Sciences.

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)

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