2-MINUTE DESK SETS ONLINE VIDEO SERIES
The University of Toledo College of Arts and Letters launched a series of videos during spring 2020 designed to help elevate the somber mood brought on by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.
Stop, breathe and enjoy the moments of beauty expressed by our arts and humanities faculty. In these challenging times, let's share what we love.
The videos were shared on the college’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.
Dr. Edmund Lingan, professor and chair of the Department of Theatre and Film, recites Lewis Carroll's
poem "Jabberwocky.”
Dr. Jason Cox, assistant professor of art education, shares the Ivan Brunetti method of drawing
from “Making Comics” by Lynda Barry.
Dr. Michael Boyd, professor of piano, performs Busoni’s piano transcription of JS Bach’s organ chorale
prelude “I call to you, Lord.”
Yerra Sugarman, visiting assistant professor of creative writing, shares her poem titled “Hymn”
for her late father, who was a refugee and a Holocaust survivor.
Jay Weik, associate lecturer in the Department of Music, performs “These Foolish Things” with
his daughter and UToledo student Isabella Weik. The jazz standard features lyrics
by Eric Maschwitz and music by Jack Strachey.
Sophie Tang, violin instructor in the Department of Music, performs an excerpt from Antonín Dvořák's
Romance in F minor, Op. 11.
Dr. Matt Foss, associate professor of theatre and film, shares his love of prop and puppet making
with his students.
Dr. Gaby Semaan, director of Middle East Studies, reads an excerpt from the poem "Smile" by Elia
Abu Madi, a Lebanese American writer.
Deb Davis, professor of new media in the Department of Art, shares an online view of the 2020
UToledo Juried Student Exhibition, which was put on without a live viewership because
of COVID-19
Dr. Ayendy Bonifacio, who joined UToledo in the fall as an assistant professor of U.S. ethnic literary
studies, shares Salomé Ureña's poem "Gratitud" (Gratitude) read, in part, in its original
Spanish and also in English.
Dr. Christina Fitzgerald, professor of English literature, recites the opening lines of the General Prologue
of “The Canterbury Tales.”
Dr. Joey Kim, visiting assistant professor of English, shares a Lord Byron poem, "So We'll Go
No More a Roving."
Manuel Montes, assistant professor of Spanish and Latin American literature and cultures, reads
an excerpt from Violeta Parra’s poem "Gracias, A La Vida" (Thanks to Life).
Dr. Olman Piedra, associate professor of percussion in the Department of Music, becomes, in effect,
a one-man-band in his rendition of the Peruvian folk tune “Alcatraz.”
Dr. Emily Oehrtman, visiting assistant professor of voice in the Department of Music and head of the
opera program, shares one of her favorite pieces, "How Can I Keep from Singing?" a
folk tune from Robert Lowry.