Cutting edge filmmaker Matt McCormick, award-winning poet Judith Barrington, and the great “Poetry Slam,” will all be coming to MHCC, free and open to the public, during the English Department’s fall reading series.

The fall reading series was kicked off Tuesday with a student/teacher reading in room 1001. Featured speakers included a few teachers, Lynn Darroch, Chad Bartlett and Lourdes River-Nystrom, as well as some students, Sarah McCredie, Timothy Stafford, Brandon Van Bibber and Teresa Corio.

Each performance warranted applause from the audience of about 40 people.

Portland’s award-winning filmmaker and director, Matt McCormick, whose work includes abstract and witty observations of contemporary culture and current issues, will be the featured speaker on Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m. in the Visual Arts Theater. He is likely to be showing one of his short films.

His films have aired on MTV and the Sundance Channel, and have also been screened at several film festivals, art museums and micro-cinemas around the world.

His films are said to blur the lines between documentary and experimental practices.
Judith Barrington will be the featured speaker Nov. 30 in the Visual Arts Theater from noon to 1 p.m. She is a current finalist for the Oregon Book Award and has been an English teacher for the past 25 years teaching creative writing at various universities and many summer writing workshops. She recently published her third collection of poems.
Don’t miss the “Poetry Slam” Dec. 6 from noon to 1 p.m. in the Town and Gown Room. Poets will be performing their work and will be judged by members of the audience, which puts emphasis on both writing and performance.

Scarlett Saavedra, an instructor of literature and composition, and member of the Creative Writing Committee, speculates that 60 to 100 people will be in attendance during each event. Attendance for events with speakers are usually “slimmer than we wish,” said Saavedra because, “People don’t know about it.”