Sunday, March 9, 2014

Carl Kenney, Jenny McGee, Bob Hodgson


Join us at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, for prose by Carl Kenney and visual and literary art by Jenny McGee and Bob Hodgson.



CARL KENNEY

Carl Kenney is a novelist and columnist currently working as an adjunct professor at the Missouri School of Journalism. Affectionately known as “Kenney the voice of many,” Carl Kenney was named the best serious columnist of 2011 by the North Carolina Press Association for his work with the News & Observer's community paper The Durham News. He earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and a master of divinity from Duke University. He was named a fellow in pastoral leadership development at the Princeton Theological Seminary in 2005. He is a freelance writer whose commentary has appeared in The News & Observer, The Independent Weekly and The Durham Herald-Sun. Kenney is the author of two novels: Preacha’ Man and the sequel, Backslide. He has led congregations in Missouri and North Carolina. Before joining the University of Missouri faculty, he was an instructor at Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies.

JENNY MCGEE AND BOB HODGSON

Jenny McGee
Jenny McGee is a professional artist who is passionate about helping people express their love to another through her abstract paintings. Jenny is a cancer survivor who is learning to love her freckles and life’s imperfections and to cherish each moment with her husband, David, and two children, Jonny and Ema Blue.

Jenny McGee's paintings hang in numerous private and corporate collections, and you can visit Jenny’s work at Orr Street Studios in Columbia,  at the Leopold Gallery in Kansas City, or at the World Trade Art Gallery in New York City.

Learn more about expressing and celebrating your love for another through her art at www.jennymcgeeart.com.




Bob Hodgson
As editor, writer, columnist and Missouri State University professor of religious studies, but also as translator and executive at American Bible Society in New York City, Bob Hodgson toggled between word and image all his professional life. At the society, he worked as senior producer and co-executive director of a 10-year long multimedia translation project that produced music and performance videos of biblical stories, garnering more than a dozen film, video and multimedia industry awards, including two CINDY and two CINE citations. Today, writing fiction or oil painting, he sets to work as a translator, walking alongside his original “texts” — story and memory, imagination and emotion, experience and attitude — nudging them across borders of language, time, space, culture and medium. Bob and his wife, MaryTim, live in Columbia close to two of three children and three of four grandchildren. Here Bob has found a diverse and nurturing creative community at Orr Street Studios and in workshops led by artist Hannah Hollister Ingmire and authors Keija Parsinnen and Bridget Buford. His short stories have appeared in Well-Versed, the literary magazine of the Columbia Chapter of the Missouri Writers Guild. Columbia Art League's 2013 Interpretations includes two poems he wrote. His paintings hang in private collections as well as at Orr Street.

Orr Street Studios is located at 106 Orr St. in downtown Columbia, Mo. Join us the third Tuesday evening of each month during the academic year for literary readings and visual-arts presentations.