Poet and Visual Artist Recognized at 42nd Commencement Ceremony
By Gwyneth Merner
Coleman Barks and Mayumi Oda
“Hariti,” scroll by Mayumi Oda, courtesy of Ren Brown Collection. © 2010 by Mayumi Oda.
At the 2010 CIIS commencement ceremony, poet Coleman Barks and artist Mayumi Oda will be awarded honorary doctorates to celebrate their creativity and cultural achievements.
Coleman Barks is best known for his translations and free verse renderings of the poetry of Sufi mystic Jallaludin Rumi. When the poet Robert Bly introduced Barks to a scholarly translation of Rumi in 1976, Bly urged, "These poems need to be released from their cages." Since then, Barks has published over a dozen collections of Rumi's works and has created an enduring position for Rumi's canon in the English-speaking world.
Barks was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and educated at the University of North Carolina and the University of California, Berkeley. He has been a student of Sufism since 1977. His own books of poetry include Winter Sky: New and Selected Poems, 1968-2008. The evening of Saturday, May 15, 2010, Barks will be appearing at a private reception at the CIIS 42nd Anniversary Alumni Reunion as a benefit for the Alumni Scholarship Fund. The event will be hosted by President Joseph L. Subbiondo and Dean of Alumni Richard Buggs. For more information, please contact Cynthia Mitchell at cmitchell@ciis.edu.
Japanese-born artist Mayumi Oda has exhibited her silkscreen works, etchings, and paintings internationally since 1969. Her voluptuous, dynamic, and brightly colored nudes and goddesses from numerous cultures have often drawn comparison to Henri Matisse. She graduated from the Tokyo University of Fine Arts, and her artwork is in the permanent collections of many institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Library of Congress. Oda began a Zen practice in 1978 and later moved to the U.S. to train at the San Francisco Zen Center's Green Gulch Farm.
She wrote about her experience at Green Gulch Farm in her illustrated book I Opened the Gate, Laughing: An Inner Journey. In addition to her activism against nuclear proliferation, Oda currently runs an organic farm and retreat center called Ginger Hill on the island of Hawai'i.
The commencement ceremony will take place on May 16 at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco.
