Mother Tongue
The Language of Families
What does it mean to communicate?
Mother Tongue: The Language of Families revolves around language – the centrality of language to families, its influence on our personal evolution, and how speech sparks creativity in other artistic media. The West Gallery will feature Steffen Thomas’s art that was inspired by his Germanic roots and his English literary influences. In this show, visitors will find paintings, drawings, and sculptures that were shaped by powerful prose and poetry.
The Steffen Thomas Museum also invites fans of this exhibition to visit the sister show Mother Tongue: Expressions of Steffen Thomas at Oxford College at Emory in Covington, GA – on view in the Oxford College Library until September 5, 2022. German Language students at Emory have worked with STMA to interpret German phrases written on select Steffen Thomas pieces. This is a truly unique opportunity for those who appreciate Steffen Thomas, German culture, and how difficult it is to read someone else’s handwriting.
Workshop
Put down the necktie and coffee mug!
On June 11th, try something new in our Father’s Day Poetry Workshop (suggested ages 8 and up). Tickets are $10 – included all materials and a guided tour of the museum.
Guest poet Josina Guess will teach how to express appreciation, love, and humor in an illustrated poem made for Dad. Josina is a poet, farmer, and senior writer for The Bitter Southerner based near Athens, Ga. Her writing may be found in Ecotone, Fourth Genre, About Place Journal, Sojourners and in anthologies Fight Evil With Poetry and Bigger Than Bravery: Black Resilience and Reclamation in a Time of Pandemic edited by Valerie Boyd (Lookout Books, Fall 2022).
Spoken Word Night
Come out for Spoken Word Night on August 20th from 4:30 to 6 PM!
STMA is proud to bring Linqua Franqa, Christopher Martin, and returning guest poet Josina Guess for an evening of powerful spoken word poetry performances. Linqua Franqa, a.k.a. Mariah Parker, is a legislator, linguist, and hip hop artist rooted in Athens, Georgia. Parker holds a PhD in Language and Literacy Education from the University of Georgia. Their music grapples with the oft-unseen nuances and contradictions of life as a queer Black femme in the American South. Christopher Martin is author of the poetry collection Firmament (Wandering Aengus Press, forthcoming 2023), which won the Wandering Aengus Book Award, and the essay collection This Gladdening Light (Mercer UP, 2017), for which he received the Georgia Author of the Year Award in Memoir and the Will D. Campbell Award in Creative Nonfiction.
