Basketball, Irish
We celebrated St. Patrick's Day and Women's History Month together by congratulating the Ballard Bombers for winning the 4A conference championship in girl's basketball. This was especially memorable in 2021 because several of the high school basketball stars also had leading roles in a newly released film, New Providence, which tells the story of the end of six on six girls basketball. Paul Wierson filled us in on some of the history of how the game was played and why it was so popular. Moving to Iowa State, we continued the Cranford Apartment story by featuring one of the women faculty who lived there, Dorothy Lee, whose colleague David Gradwohl gave a tribute to this revolutionary anthropologist. Her insightful use of novels to see the inside of cultures led to an exploration of a popular contemporary genre -- romance novels. Leigh Williamson, who has had a long and very successful career writing, and teaching how to write romance novels, explained the characteristics and appeal of these "happily ever after" love stories.
In honor of St. Patrick's day we turned to internationally known Irish tenor, Michael Londra who spoke from his home in Ames about "Ireland With Michael" -- a virtual concert to benefit CY Stephens.