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Wife-husband duo featured in Monmouth College's 'Visions & Verse' series

by Barry McNamara

Monmouth, Ill. (02/27/2020) — The second installment of collaborative series at Monmouth College is underway with the opening of an art exhibition in the Len G. Everett Gallery in Hewes Library.

Titled "Connections," the exhibit of quilts and ceramics by Guadalupe Lanning Robinson is part of this year's "Visions & Verse" program, which began with an exhibit last fall. The program celebrates collaborations between poets and artists.

Robinson's husband, poet James Miller Robinson, will join his wife on campus for special presentations and class visits in April. There will be a poetry reading and public talk by the couple at 7 p.m. April 2 in the Barnes Electronic Classroom in Hewes Library.

The next day, April 3, the couple will be featured at a reception from 3-4:30 p.m. in the Everett Gallery, and they'll speak about the exhibit at 3:30 p.m. The poetry reading, exhibit, reception and talk are all free and open to the public.

"I was born and grew up in Mexico City, a place with strong cultural ties and great tradition, full of sights, energy, sounds and flavor," said Guadalupe, who now lives in Huntsville, Ala. "Bringing together my Mexican heritage with the richness and tranquility of the Deep South has enriched my life. This constantly moves my work toward blending the two cultures."

For the past 30 years, she's experimented with different-colored clays and the textures that can be produced with stoneware.

"Continuous respect for the material is a factor I try to maintain in my work," she said. "I also have a great reverence for the idea of 'craftsmanship,' and it is a strong element when creating my work."

James published two books of poetry in the past decade: The Caterpillars at Saint Bernard in 2014 and Boca del Rio in the Afternoon the following year. His work has also appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including Southern Humanities Review, Spoon River Poetry Review and Whatever Remembers Us: An Anthology of Alabama Poetry.

James studied poetry writing with Tom Rabbitt and Everette Maddox at the University of Alabama. He did further graduate studies in Latin American literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and in secondary education at Alabama A&M.

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