But What Do Other People See?

In his poem “Musee des Beaux Arts,” W.H. Auden asks us to consider Brueghel’s painting of the fall of Icarus and how the painter shows people nearby going on about their lives. It’s a meditation on perspective, and how there can be people near an event “who did not specially want it to happen.” In this workshop, we will try to consider other perspectives inside of our work. Who else is there? Nearby? What are they doing and thinking? How might they alter our understanding of what’s happening?

This is an OnDemand webinar.

Instructor:

A faculty member at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Joseph Mills holds the Susan Burress Wall Distinguished Professorship in the Humanities. He has published seven volumes of poetry, most recently Bodies in Motion: Poems About Dance. His collection This Miraculous Turning was awarded the North Carolina Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry for its exploration of race and family. In 2019, he published his debut collection of fiction, Bleachers, which consists of fifty-four linked pieces that take place during a youth soccer game. He also has edited the collection of film criticism A Century of the Marx Brothers, and with his wife, Danielle Tarmey, he researched and wrote two editions of A Guide to North Carolina’s Wineries. More information about his work is available at www.josephrobertmills.com.