Claremont, Calif. (November 13, 2013) — Tom Healy, poet and chairman of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, and two Pitzer professors will hold a workshop to explore the art of ink in both the written word and tattooed images. Assistant Professor of English & World Literature/Creative Writing Brent Armendinger and Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies Todd Honma will facilitate the workshop, which is free and open to the public. The workshop is held in conjunction with the Fulbright Board’s first visit to Southern California. It starts at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, November 19 in 110 Fletcher Hall at Pitzer College.
Tom Healy, poet and chairman of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
Workshop participants will be invited to design their own text- and image-based temporary tattoos and Healy will read from works that were inspired by his collaborations with tattoo artists. Healy’s book Animal Spirits pairs the author’s poems with images by the tattoo artist Duke Riley. Healy’s first book, What the Right Hand Knows, was a finalist for the 2009 Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Lambda Literary Award. He has two forthcoming books of essays, one about his work in international education and diplomacy, and the other about contemporary artists and writers.
In 2011, President Barack Obama appointed Healy to the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, which oversees the Fulbright program worldwide. Pitzer is hosting the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board’s quarterly meeting on November 17-19.
Healy served on former President Bill Clinton’s Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and has worked around the world on AIDS and poverty programs. A former New York City art gallery owner, he received the New York City Arts Award by Mayor Michael Bloomberg for leading rebuilding efforts for the downtown arts community after 9/11.
Tom Healy teaches creative writing at New York University and is a visiting professor at the New School. He has a regular column in the Huffington Post and is a Harriet Monroe Fellow at the Poetry Foundation. He studied philosophy at Harvard University and received his MFA in creative writing from Columbia University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and PEN International.
Professor Armendinger’s poetry has appeared in a wide range of publications, and his research interests include contemporary poetry and text and image collaborations. An expert in Asian American studies and body art, Professor Honma teaches a course on tattoos in American culture at Pitzer.
