The Passing Show: What Makes a House a Home
National Willa Cather Center
413 N. Webster Street
Red Cloud, NE 68970
United States
Join us for an engaging panel discussion with three scholars that will discuss architectural and interior styles, powerful landscapes, and the domestic scenes that all feature prominently in Cather’s writings as this popular perennial favorite will further explore our annual Spring Conference theme.
This event is free to attend thanks to the generosity of Humanities Nebraska and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.
Claire Schmidt
Claire Schmidt is a folklorist and associate professor of English. She teaches courses in British and World literature and writing. As a folklorist, Claire's research is focused on the everyday, specifically occupational humor and foodways and race. She is the author of If You Don't Laugh You'll Cry: The Occupational Humor of White Wisconsin Prison Workers (2017, University of Wisconsin Press) and has published research in Western Folklore, Digest: A Journal of Foodways and Culture, Oral Tradition, as well as in edited collections, including Wait Five Minutes: Weatherlore in the Twenty-First Century, Culture Work: Folklore for the Public Good, Reading Mystery Science Theatre: Critical Approaches and History of Folklore Studies in the United States and Canada.
John Swift
John Swift taught English at Occidental College in Los Angeles from 1981 until his retirement in 2019. He is the author of essays on Willa Cather and other American writers of the 19th and 20th centuries, and the co-editor of Willa Cather and the American Southwest (2002). A past President of the Willa Cather Foundation, he was the summer editor of the Willa Cather Review for many years and lives with his wife and occasional collaborator, the environmental scientist Cheryl C. Swift.
Steve Tamayo
Steve Tamayo draws upon his family history as a member of the Sicangu Lakota tribe. His fine arts education (BFA from Singe Gleska University), along with his cultural upbringing, have shaped him as an artist, historian, storyteller and dancer. Steve provides activities during his residencies that include art and regalia making, drumming, powwow dance demonstrations and lectures on the history, symbolism and meaning behind the Native customs and traditions. His work is currently represented in We're Still Here: American Indian Spirit in the Unmade Place which is on display in our Red Cloud Opera House Gallery through August 1.