Palm Desert Center

UCR Palm Desert Hosts Congressional Hearing

On Monday, May 11 more than 100 people gathered at the UCR Palm Desert Center for a Congressional Hearing led by Representative Jim Costa (D-CA).

The topic of the oversight field hearing was "Solar Energy Development on Federal Lands: The Road to Consensus." The purpose of the hearing was for the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources to examine the status of planning for placement of large-scale solar power plants on federal lands.

The members present at the hearing were Representative Jim Costa, Chairman of the Committee, U.S. Representative Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo) and the valley’s own Congresswomen Mary Bono Mack (CA-45). Witnesses to the panel included the following, Palm Desert Councilman Jim Ferguson; Commissioner Julia Levin, California Energy Commission; Commissioner Rachelle Chong, California Public Utilities Commission; James Abbott, Acting State Director, California State Office Bureau of Land Management; Thomas M. Kretzschmar, Senior Projects Manager, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Steven Malnight, Vice President of Renewable Energy, Pacific Gas and Electric Company; Bill Corcoran, Senior Regional Representative, Sierra Club; Katherine Gensler, Manager of Regulatory & Legislative Affairs, Solar Energy Industries Association; and Michael Niggli, Chief Operating Officer, Sempra Energy Utilities.

"UCR was delighted to host this field hearing," said Lars Walton, Executive Director of Advocacy, UCR Governmental & Community Relations. "UCR Palm Desert was an ideal setting for the topic given Palm Desert’s leadership in the community on alternative energy."

For more information on the committee and their progress, visit resourcescommittee.house.gov and click on subcommittees and then select Energy and Mineral Resources.

MFA Students Teaching in Valley Schools

The 2009 Writers in the Schools (WITS) program involves more than 550 high school students with eight MFA students teaching in 16 different English classes in all three of the K-12 school districts in the Coachella Valley and at Xavier College Preparatory High School in Palm Desert. The program culminates on May 29th with the "Emerging Writers Showcase," that features the high school students reading their work at the UCR Palm Desert Center. Students are also presented with an anthology that includes one submission per student in the program.

The public is invited to hear the student readings at the Emerging Writers Showcase on May 29th at 6:30 p.m.

WITS is a grant and gift-supported program developed in 2007 as an outreach program designed to provide local high school students an opportunity to explore creative writing. WITS also provides funds and teaching experience to UCR Palm Desert Center students earning an MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts. The program consists of ten-week workshops with structured creative writing exercises led by the MFA students in high school English classes.

If you are interested in learning more about the WITS program or providing funding so we may expand our program, please contact Toni Lawrence at (760) 834-0578 or toni.lawrence@ucr.edu.

Largest MFA Class to Graduate

UCR PDGC congratulates 13 MFA students who will celebrate graduation on June 14 at UCR. The students represent the largest class based at the Palm Desert campus to graduate since the center opened in 2005.

The graduates are Jessica Huettner, Aja Henriquez, Christopher Millan, Laura Ortega, Robert Potts, Sharon Prentice, Heather Riccio, Stephen Torres, Tom Snyder, Jaime Soria, Kimberly Ussery, Lon Varnardore and Allorah Wyman.

Some students have already begun their journey and are published authors. To name a few, Rick Marlatt, a poet in our low residency program, recently was published in the New York Quarterly and has new critical work appearing in Cold Front Magazine and Whistling Shade; Jay Lewenstein's essay "The Sun Runner" recently appeared in The Rambler; RaNeeka Claxton, a fiction writer in our low residency program, recently received a fellowship to attend the prestigious Summer Literary Seminars in Kenya; and Kim Ussery, a recent fiction graduate, will have her play "Silent Spring" performed Friday, May 29 at 8 p.m. at UCR.

The MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts program at UCR PDGC is a unique two-year program that provides writers with a path toward publication and production in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, screenwriting or playwriting. Students explore multiple genres, allowing for a cross-disciplinary approach that is ideal for writers seeking the artistic latitude to move fluidly within the field. Course work includes workshops, critical studies, and theory. The MFA program is offered in two formats at UCR Palm Desert; a traditional, full residency program and a new two-year low residency program where students come together twice a year for a 10-day residency period at the Parker Hotel in Palm Springs, and when not on residency they are in constant interaction electronically.

To learn more about the MFA program, visit palmdesertmfa.ucr.edu or call (760) 834-0926.

MFA Faculty Receives California Book Award

UCR Palm Desert is pleased to announce Deanne Stillman, a core faculty member in our Master of Fine Arts Low Residency program, has won the California Book Award for her latest book "Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West."

The book was ten years in the making, taking her deep into historical archives and across the wild horse ranges of the West, particularly Nevada, where most of the country's mustangs still roam. In it, she explores various questions, including why America, (a cowboy nation), has turned its back on the wild horse, our great partner and icon.

Stillman earned a Silver Medal for what critics are calling a remarkable work that is part history, part examination of a vicious crime. NPR’s "On Point" called it "A stunner and a heartbreaker."

"It's been said that the history of this nation was written from the back of a horse," said screenwriter John Fusco (Thunderheart, and Hidalgo). "But not until now--with Deanne Stillman's `Mustang’ — has that history come to epic life. At once an important, comprehensive study and a spellbinding read, `Mustang’ is ultimately a hymn to our homeland. Deanne Stillman makes a compelling case for the preservation of wild horses."

Bring on "da Buck"

Buckworld One, a theatrical performance featuring nine krump dancers from the Inland Empire and four poets, hits the stage on Saturday May 30 at 7 p.m. at the UCR Palm Desert Center.

Buckworld One was developed through the CaliFest Theatre Workshop under the guidance of Rickerby Hinds, playwright and UCR professor of theater, who happened onto inner-city youths participating in this new hip hop dance style at a local church. Hinds said when he witnessed the intensity, passion and athleticism of the dance he saw an opportunity for good theater.

"Krump or Buck is a form of expression often related to praise dancing that explores the human situation and the lives of young people in the Inland Empire," Hinds said. "It addresses themes such as violence in the community, police brutality and the civil-rights movement."

This electrifying Hip Hop Theatre performance fuses "Krump" dancing with spoken word and interactive video projections in telling the story of our existence in and connection to the universe as well as to each other. The performers deliver their own unique and personal stories through words and movement. The Krump dancers command the stage with the power, energy and creativity, which is the hallmark of this dance style while the poets attempt to capture the intangible reality of what it means to be a human being. The fusion of these two art forms complimented by thought provoking and viscerally evocative projections merge to create a theatrical experience, said Hinds.

Admission for the performance is free. For more information, call (760) 834-0590 or e-mail palmdesert@ucr.edu .

Free EMBA Information Session

Working professionals with at least seven to 10 years work experience who want to earn their MBA are invited to attend a free information meeting about the new UC Riverside Executive MBA, which is now accepting applications for fall 2009.

The next information session is Tuesday, June 2 at 5:30 p.m. at the UC Riverside Palm Desert Center, 75-080 Frank Sinatra Drive, Palm Desert. Light refreshments will be provided and parking is free.

The Executive MBA is offered by UCR’s A. Gary Anderson School of Management at UCR Palm Desert Center. The Executive format is crafted for working professionals, allowing students to earn an MBA degree in less than 22 months by attending five alternate Friday/Saturday residential sessions per term and three one-week extended residential periods.

To RSVP for an information session, call (760) 834-0975, e-mail emba@ucr.edu or visit www.agsm.ucr.edu/emba.

"Heresies Project" Art Show at UCR PDGC

The UCR Palm Desert Center is pleased to announce the "Heresies Project," a retrospective of four decades of groundbreaking work by innovative photographer, Pedro Meyer, is on display now in the University Building Atrium.

The show is presented jointly by the UCR California Museum of Photography (UCR/CMP) and the UCR Palm Desert Center. Since the early 1990s, UCR/CMP has been involved with the presentation of work by the Mexican photographer Pedro Meyer. The "Heresies Project" opened simultaneously in nearly 60 museums around the world in October 2008, including UCR/CMP.

Meyer is recognized for his provocative and powerful images and his work in the digital imaging era. Meyer’s critics note his photographs consistently test the limits of truth, fiction and reality. With the advent of digital photography in the early 1990s, Meyer evolved from a documentary photographer into a digital-documentarian who often combines photographic elements from disparate times and places to arrive at a different or higher truth. Meyer’s oft-expressed contention that all photographs–digitally manipulated or not–are equally "true" and "untrue" has been labeled "heretical" in the orthodox documentary photography community. Hence the title "Heresies".

For more information, please call (760) 834-0590.

UCR Palm Desert Staff Receives Recognition Award

Cristina Gregorio , an administrative specialist with UCR PDGC, was recognized for her outstanding contributions to UCR with a 2009 Outstanding Staff Award. More than 60 UCR staff were nominated for the awards, which were announced on April 29.

"She is a smart, competent person with creative ideas," said her boss, Carolyn Stark. "She is a natural leader without being the one with the leadership job."

Stark had Cristina take the lead in organizing the Coachella Valley Literacy Network. She researched people and organizations in the valley who are involved in literacy, called them to discuss their programs and interest in a Literacy Network, and when they suggested other people to include, she picked up the phone and called them too. The result was a group of 30+ people meeting every month at UCR Palm Desert to share ideas and best practices, and plan a valley-wide literacy fair that will raise awareness of the importance of reading and learning and stimulate the love of reading — something we at UCR hope will also help to improve the college-going rates and UC eligible students here in the Coachella Valley, Stark said.

Cristina organized a book drive during the Christmas holiday season last year at UCR Palm Desert that benefited the Torres Martinez band of Cahuilla Indians community education center and library. She was able to get Barnes and Noble to donate 200 new books, the UCR Rivera Library donated 300 books from their stacks, and 500 books were collected from staff, students, and members of the desert community.

Cristina was also one of a group of UCR staff and graduate students that volunteered to staff a UCR booth at the recent celebration of the new East Valley campus of the College of the Desert. She and a fellow staff member did a Haiku tutorial for grade school children that resulted in a crowd waiting in line to participate in writing Haikus.

"We are very proud of Cristina," Stark said. "She is a valued member of our team in Palm Desert."

Save The Date

Executive MBA Information Session

Working professionals with at least 7 to 10 years work experience who want to earn their MBA are invited to attend a free information meeting at UCR Palm Desert about the new Executive MBA, which is now accepting applications for fall 2009.

Tuesday, June 2 at 5:30 p.m.

Light refreshments will be provided. To RSVP, call (760) 834-0975 or RSVP online at www.agsm.ucr.edu/emba

"Heresies Project" Art Show

The Heresies Project is a retrospective of four decades of groundbreaking work by one of the world’s most innovative photographers, Pedro Meyer, is on display now at UCR Palm Desert.

March 6 through June 16

"Buckworld One"

A theatrical production to encourage healthy relationships among youth as it combines krump dancing and spoken word poetry.

Saturday, May 30 at 7 p.m.

To RSVP, call (760) 834-0956 or e-mail palmdesert@ucr.edu