Arts Spotlight: Angela Alaimo O'Donnell

May is apparently The Month of Angela.

This month, Angela Alaimo O'Donnell, associate director of Fordham's Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, published her fourth collection of poems, Saint Sinatra & Other Poems, with Word Press.

St. Martha

"She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord's feet, listening to His word." Luke 10:37

A silly child she ever always was-
our mother said so a thousand times-
her quick eye caught by the flight or buzz
of some pretty creature's mastering wings.
Lazarus tried to keep her out of sight,
to spare his clever sister women's tasks.
I hauled the water, rose before first light,
set bread upon the board before they asked.
The day You came to us our prayers were granted.
My hands obeyed the rhythms of my labor
while Mary sat beside You like a man,
embraced within the circle of Your favor.
I stood apart, Your beauty kept from me,
and only when You left us did I see.

Her essay, "Seeing Catholicly: Poetry & the Catholic Imagination" has been published in The Catholic Studies Reader (Fordham University Press, 2011), edited by Jim Fisher and Margaret McGuinness. The book is the inaugural volume in the new Catholic Practice in America Series at Fordham University Press.

Her poems, "Circling the Inferno" and "Letters to My Heart" were published in the spring issue of Saint Katherine Review, a new literary journal published by Saint Katherine's College; and "Our Mother at the Nursing Home," was published in the spring 2011 issue of Christianity and Literature.

O'Donnell has also recently published poetry in Windhover: A Journal of Faith & Art; The Journal of the Motherhood Initiative; and Tiferet magazine. The poem in the latter is part of a series of ekphrastic pieces O'Donnell has written in response to paintings by Holocaust survivor Martin Spett.

Finally, O'Donnell presented a lecture/poetry reading, "Making Saints: The Mothers, Sisters, and Daughters of the Church," for The Women's Guild of Saints John & Paul Church at the Larchmont Shore Club, on May 12.

Visit Angela Alaimo O'Donnell's website for more poetry, reviews, photos, videos, articles, and event information.

Reflections on the “Lost” Conference

Tom Beaudoin, Ph.D., associate professor of practical theology, wrote a blog on the conference held at Fordham University this past weekend on Twenty-Somethings and the Church: Lost?, where he hosts a link to a video made by lay ministers on what the twenty-somethings in attendance thought of the conference theme.

You can view it here.

Jesuits in Conversation: Nicholas Lombardi, S.J.

Episode 8 of "Jesuits in Conversation," and interview with Nicholas D. Lombardi, S.J., airs on channel 10 at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 20, and on the web at www.fordham.edu/jescom/Conversations.shtml. Father Lombardi, the associate director of online services for the Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies is interviewed by Patrick Ryan, S.J., the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham.

Fordham University’s Jesuit community aired the first in its 28-part Jesuits in Conversation series in November 2010, with a video interview of the late Charles Beirne, S.J.

Jesuits in Conversation introduces the Jesuits working at Fordham to the larger University community and the public. The interviews include Jesuit priests at Fordham, Jesuit visiting scholars, and young Jesuits-in-training (called scholastics). Joseph Koterski, S.J., and Father Lombardi coordinated the production with Matt Schottenfeld of Fordham’s television studio in the Walsh Family Library. Tim Valentine, S.J., wrote the original theme music.

Angela O'Donnell's Moving Words

Angela Alaimo O'Donnell's book of poetry, Moving House, is moving critics. Peggy Rosenthal, writing in The Christian Century, says, "I know of no other poet so immersed in human mortality yet without the least morbidity. The boundary between mortal and eternal life is porous for this poet, and it is at this boundary where her poetic imagination is comfortably placed."

"Moving House is a deeply affecting book. It balances hard truths with a sweetness of spirit that is, if not singular, rare in our time, especially in contemporary poetry," according to America magazine.

Rattle says, "Moving House ranges through a heady mix of topics against an autobiographical backdrop, the bleak days of O’Donnell’s childhood through the quiet chronology of a move in her maturity."

Finally, Barbara Crooker, writing for The Pedestal, says, "O’Donnell’s poems echo with the delights of well-employed language. She has taken up her pick, put on her miner’s helmet, and descended into the shaft of the past, finding these gems of poems and bringing them to the light. Let’s hope that more books quickly follow this ambitious debut."

O'Donnell, who says, "I've been ridiculously lucky in getting reviews as books of poems often go completely unnoticed," is the associate director of the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, and serves on both the English and American Catholic Studies Faculty.

American Catholic Studies Media: Black Women of Virtue

Monday, October 19, 2009
Black Women of Virtue: The Oblate Sisters of Providence in Antebellum America. Fifth in The Rita Cassella Jones Annual Lecture Series
Speaker: Diane Batts Morrow, Ph.D., associate professor of history and African-American studies at the University of Georgia and author of Persons of Color and Religious at the Same Time: The Oblate Sisters of Providence, 1828-1860 (2002).

Winning at Any Cost

The Curran Center hosted "Winning at Any Cost: Vince Lombardi and the Catholic Contribution to America’s 'Must-Win' Obsession," on Monday, October 5, 2009, with Jeffrey Marlett, Ph.D., professor of Religious Studies, College of Saint Rose, Albany, N.Y.



Established in 2001, The Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies is an inter-disciplinary center sponsoring a four-fold set of programs: national conferences; public lectures, symposia and readings; faculty seminars; and an undergraduate interdisciplinary certificate program.

The Making of "The Rat That Got Away"

American Catholic Studies Media: Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins and The Fine Delight That Fathers Thought: How to Sign on to a Poet for Life, with speaker: Paul Mariani.



Established in 2001, The Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies is an inter-disciplinary center sponsoring a four-fold set of programs: national conferences; public lectures, symposia and readings; faculty seminars; and an undergraduate interdisciplinary certificate program.