June 23, 2006
Poet & Activist: Dora McQuaid Presents Reading
Press Release
For Immediate Release
Contact: Lucy Perera-Adams, Curator of Education
505/758-9826 x 105
Dora McQuaid,
Harwood poet-in-residence
814-880-8757 (cell in Taos)
Poet, Activist - Dora McQuaid to present Reading at the Harwood Museum
Taos, NM – The Harwood Museum of Art in Taos presents a special reading event with current Poet-in-Resident, Dora E. McQuaid, on Thursday July 6th at 7pm. McQuaid a poet, activist, performer and teacher comes to Taos from Pennsylvania where she serves as a faculty member of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State. McQuaid’s reading at the Harwood is free to Harwood Alliance Members, students & UNM Community, $7 non-members.
Curator of Education, Lucy Perera-Adams explains: “For her July 6th event, Dora will present recent poems and discuss her work as an Artist-in-Resident here at the Harwood Museum. Another exciting program, which McQuaid is involved with is the SOMOS Summer Writer Series which will be held this summer at the Harwood on a weekly basis, beginning Friday July 7th through August 25th featuring different writers, poets, and performers. The special project McQuaid is working on for this Series is the July 28th Joint Benefit for SOMOS and the Community Against Violence, which will include readings from McQuaid along with Susan Berman, Singer and Songwriter and Michelle Holland, Poet.”
Dora McQuaid is descendant of traveling gypsies, Irish Golden-gloved boxers, and strong women, whose stories and the telling of them prompted her fascination with the written and spoken word. In addition to teaching in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State, Dora combines her passion for language and performance with her dedication to activism, using poetry, performance and speaking to raise awareness of the issues of domestic and sexual violence, and teaching writing and performance as means of empowerment.
