“I wasn’t expecting to win,” says Straumanis. “It’s almost surreal that I saw my advisor, Jennifer Grotz, receive the award several years ago, and now it’s my turn.” Poet Jennifer Grotz is a professor of English at Rochester.

In previous years, the award has been given to visual artists, writers, choreographers, and composers. But the community impact of literature in translation can be just as deeply felt as that of other works of art.

“By making people aware of translation, we’re bringing world voices into English and making world literature accessible,” says Straumanis.

Hailing from Minnesota, Straumanis has lived in Rochester for nearly a decade. She graduated from the literary translation program in 2012 before joining Open Letter Books, the University’s nonprofit literary translation press.

“The Rochester community and the Rochester experience has been synonymous with my translation career,” says Straumanis. “This is where I started my translation career; this is where I began working with the press. Rochester is where I got the idea to reach out to Latvian publishers and authors and get more into that part of the translation world.”

Translated into 11 other languages, Doom ’94 is set in the Latvian city of Jelgava in the 1990s. The story is told through the intimate diary of a young boy trying to find himself through death metal and heavy metal subculture, but the book also vividly depicts the beginnings of the second independence of Latvia, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a coming of age story, the book acts as a portrait of a generation searching for its identity.

“This is a book that spoke to a lot of people,” says Straumanis. “I wanted this to resonate with people who were in the same generation as the author, in the States or around the world.”

At the presentation ceremony, , chair of the , called Straumanis’s translation a “remarkable artistic accomplishment.”

Kegl headed the award committee, whose members also included Jonathan Binstock, the Mary W. and Donald R. Clark Director of the Memorial Art Gallery; , an associate professor of musicology at Eastman; and , a professor in the Department of Art and Art History.

“Her prose is equal to the immediacy of the voices of our protagonist and his new friends,” said Kegl at the award ceremony, describing how Straumanis depicted “the subtle shifts in perspective and tone that locate them within larger and longer personal and historical acts of rebelling, faltering, remembering, and forgetting.”

“It made me think about Anthony’s legacy, and I wanted to translate that to the larger community,” Rutherford says.

So began the project “Her Voice Carries,” which has earned Rutherford this year’s Lillian Fairchild Memorial Award. The award has been given for more than 80 years to a Rochester-based visual artist, writer, choreographer or composer for commitment to the community. Born and raised in Boston, Rutherford has called Rochester home for the last decade.

A tribute to five Rochester women who work to lift others’ voices in the community, the project includes five murals, one in each of the city’s quadrants and another in Center City. Each mural depicts one of the women and is painted in a location appropriate to her community work. The Fairchild Award specifically recognizes “Her Voice Carries: Prelude,” an installation at the Memorial Art Gallery that points viewers to the other paintings and unites all five women in a single mural.

The award was presented to Rutherford on March 8. At the presentation ceremony, Rosemary Kegl, chair of the English department, called the museum exhibition “compelling in itself and as testimony to the extraordinary originality of the larger ‘Her Voice Carries’ project.”

Kegl headed the award committee, whose members also included Jonathan Binstock, the Mary W. and Donald R. Clark Director of the Memorial Art Gallery; Roger Freitas, an associate professor of musicology at Eastman; and Paul Duro, a professor in the Department of Art and Art History.

The women depicted in Rutherford’s murals are involved in a range of community issues:

• Trelawney McCoy works as a project counselor at the University, supporting young mothers as they work toward independence. She is an adoptive, foster, and biological mother of nine children. Her mural is in the Susan B. Anthony neighborhood, in the city’s Northeast Quadrant.

• Rachel McKibbens is a poet and activist for mental health awareness and gender equality. She also advocates for victims of domestic abuse and violence. McKibbens founded the Pink Door Writing Retreat for women writers of color. Her mural is at Planned Parenthood in Rochester’s Northwest Quadrant.

• Imani Olear is the pastor of Reformation Church and the founder of Yoga for a Good Hood, which brings yoga and meditation to people who otherwise would not have access to it. The Charles Settlement House in Center City is home to her mural.

• Safi Osman is a founding member of Refugees Helping Refugees. Born in Somali, Osman has lived in the U.S. for two decades. She’s known as “Momma Safi” by newly arrived refugees, and she teaches them sewing skills, acts as an emergency translator, and provides transportation to those in need. Her mural is at the Southwest Quadrant’s Reformation Lutheran Church.

• KaeLyn Rich is a queer feminist, direct action organizer, writer, and sexuality educator who is an assistant advocacy director for the New York Civil Liberties Union and the cofounder and editor of “Queer Family Matters.” The location of her mural will be announced this spring.

Rutherford says receiving the award is particularly gratifying because recognition of her art is also recognition for the work of the women. “It’s a chain,” she says. “I feel like I’m the conduit for this project, not the only author.” In addition to her collaboration with the women depicted, Rutherford is also carrying out the project with the aid of two young artist apprentices, Charisse Warnick and Maribel Hernandez, and a project assistant, Elizabeth Lenz.

“Sarah is more than just a terrific talent and mural painter, and her work goes beyond beautifying walls and places,” says MAG director Binstock. “Through art she brings people together, she brings communities together, and for this she deserves extraordinary recognition.”

Rutherford hopes to expand the project beyond Rochester, to highlight women’s work for their communities in other cities, as well.

This spring, she is teaching Introduction to Painting and Advanced Painting for the University’s studio art program. In the latter course, she’s giving students a taste of mural painting.

The murals of “Her Voice Carries” range from large (70 by 20 feet) to immense: Olear’s mural on the Charles Settlement House reaches five stories high. That kind of visibility is important, says Rutherford. Murals are “accessible to all—they’re not based on someone owning the art.”

And once completed—a process that takes Rutherford from two to six weeks—they become part of the urban landscape.

“Murals work their way into the fabric of people’s daily lives,” she says.

Composers Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon—both professors of composition at the Eastman School of Music—and choreographer Darren Stevenson, the director of PUSH Physical Theater, were recognized for their contributions to , an original opera about the travails of the creative process. It was performed at the Eastman Theatre last October and at the Teatro Diana in Guadalajara, Mexico, in November.

The award is presented annually to a Rochester-area visual artist, writer, choreographer, or composer for his or her commitment to the community. Zohn-Muldoon is a two-time winner, having also received the award in 2011 for his CD Cantos.

Rosemary Kegl, the chair of the English department, calls the production an “extraordinarily original and moving combination of music, dance, puppetry, and theater.” She headed the award committee, whose members also included Jonathan Binstock, the Mary W. and Donald R. Clark Director of the Memorial Art Gallery; Roger Freitas, an associate professor of musicology at Eastman; and Joan Saab, the chair of the Department of Art and Art History.

Both composers grew up in Mexico, and drawings by famed Mexican illustrator José Ignacio Solórzano inspired the life-size surrealistic puppets—created by the Mexico City puppetry group La Coperacha—that appeared onstage with the physical illusionists from PUSH. The Eastman BroadBand Ensemble performed the music, and soprano Tony Arnold took on the starring role of “the author.”

The opera “plays with fantasy at its very core,” Zohn-Muldoon told interviewer Dan Gross in an October story on the . “It’s like that drawing of Escher’s where the hand is drawing itself. It’s like that, you’re seeing an opera being made for you, and experience what the author is experiencing, but it’s composed. It’s all an illusion, but we were really trying to do justice to the music.”

The Department of English at the URochester named artist Nate Hodge as the recipient of the 2015 Lillian Fairchild Memorial Award, during a ceremony on Monday, Feb. 29.

The award is given annually to a local visual artist, writer, choreographer, or composer for his or her commitment to the arts in the Rochester community. In 2015, Hodge participated in WALL/THERAPY, a public art project that uses murals as a way to provide new life and energy to blank walls in downtown areas.

“We were particularly impressed with his mural ‘City and Sky’ on Atlantic Avenue and how it excels at Wall Therapy’s goal – using ‘mural art as a vehicle to address our collective need for inspiration, ‘” said Rosemary Kegl, chair of the English department and member of the Fairchild selection committee.

Hodge began working with WALL/THERAPY in 2015 after participating in several group shows at the 1975 Gallery in Rochester, which specialized in showcasing the work of up-and-coming local artists. He has a BFA from SUNY Brockport and an MFA from the University of Buffalo. Hodge currently lives and works in Brockport, N.Y., while he exhibits drawings and installations both locally and regionally.

“The most inspiring thing about public art is its ability to reach a wide spectrum of people,” said Hodge. “Outside of a gallery or museum there are few places you can encounter paintings or sculptures and I feel like only a small portion of the population is able to make time to visit these places. Public art exists on the periphery of everyday activities and democratizes a field that unfortunately can come off as elitist and exclusive.”

In the spring, Hodge will begin working on a large-scale mural in the University’s Memorial Art Gallery as a way to provide museumgoers with an “immersive painting they can step into rather than observe on a wall.” Visitors will also have the opportunity to watch the painting develop on site. No sketches will be available prior to the start of the project, as the indoor environment will dictate the creation of the mural. To date, this will be the sixth collaboration between WALL/THERAPY artists and the University.

Established by Ģ����ý Professor Herman L. Fairchild in 1924, the Fairchild award is in memory of his daughter, an accomplished designer who died of tuberculosis at the age of 32. Previous awards have been given out to choreographer Garth Fagan, sculptor Albert Paley, and Pulitzer Prize- winning poet Anthony Hecht.

“I am honored to be included in a roster of distinguished artists and visionaries,” says Hodge. “It’s energizing and gratifying to have my efforts noticed and I’m channeling this energy to continue to move forward with my artistic explorations.”

For more information about WALL/THERAPY, including information on where to find Hodge’s murals in Rochester, visit

The award is given annually to a local visual artist, writer, choreographer, or composer for his or her commitment to the arts in the Rochester area. Rosemary Kegl, chair of the English department and member of the Fairchild Award committee, said the selection committee chose Gage and Thorne for their recent portfolio of innovative and collaborative projects, including Psychopomp & Pageantry – Dance. Ritual. Magic, which premiered at the First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival, Riot- A Performance/Installation, a piece that commemorated the 50^th anniversary of the Rochester race riots, and their work with Rochester area schools.

Gage and Thorne co-founded FuturPoint Dance in 2009 as a way to promote cultural diversity and awareness in dance through community outreach, performances, and artistic residencies. The contemporary dance company’s eclectic work combines Caribbean dance forms, ballet, and Latin vocabulary.

“We use influences from Africa, Europe, Asia and even pre-Columbian America that are in touch with contemporary and urban culture,” said Thorne, who has a bachelor of fine arts in dance from SUNY Brockport. “By breaking the rules of dance, we are able to build our skills and find meaningful work in this medium.”

Over the past few years, the Rochester-based dance company, FuturPointe, has toured around the world, most recently performing the Let’s Dance International Festival in Leicester, United Kingdom, and the Santa Cruz Fringe Festival in Santa Cruz, California. Locally, their work has been featured at the Rochester Fringe Festival and they have worked with Young Audiences of Rochester, a non-profit arts education organization, to stage multiple interactive performances at the Rochester City School District.

Established by Ģ����ý Professor Herman L. Fairchild in 1924, the award is in memory of his daughter, an accomplished designer who died of tuberculosis at the age of 32. Previous awards have been given out to visual artists, composers, choreographers and writers such as modern dance choreographer Garth Fagan, sculptor Albert Paley, and Pulitzer Prize- winning poet Anthony Hecht.

“I love the spirit of this award, and it does an excellent job of encouraging burgeoning artists,” said Gage, who graduated from the University of Arts in Cuba with a master’s degree in Cuban modern dance techniques. “This year, we’d like to use our dance to help encourage social wellness and interactions, and gain a newer and more diverse audience.”

For more information of Gage and Thorne’s work, visit .

The annual award is given to a Rochester-area resident who has “created extraordinary artistic work in any artistic medium in the past year.” Rosemary Kegel, chair of the English department said the selection committee chose Peppermint for his portfolio of innovative and collaborative projects, which include , a workshop and art installation that explores environmental awareness, and INDUSTRIAL WILDERNESS, an online and community-based artwork that explores connections between industry and nature.

“One of the things I try to do as an artist who works with new and emerging technologies is to somehow interrupt the use of those technologies so that it causes people an unexpected or renewed awakening or sensibility of those devices being in our lives,” said Peppermint, an professor of art at Rochester.

Peppermint and his partner Leila Nadir, a writer and lecturer on sustainability at Rochester, are the co-founders of , a collaboration that explores technology and environmentally focused work with other artists and organizations. Their work, which uses new media to inspire awareness of nature in everyday life, can currently be found in the collections of the Whitney Museum, Walker Art Center, and New Museum. Their research has received awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In 2013, the pair created , an art app for mobile devices that encourages participants to experience nature in unexpected urban spaces.

Established by Ģ����ý Professor Herman L. Fairchild in 1924, the award is in memory of his daughter, an accomplished designer who died of tuberculosis at the age of 32. It is given out annually to a local visual artist, writer, or composer for his or her commitment to the arts in the Rochester area. Peppermint is the first digital artist to receive the award for visual arts. In the past, the awards have been given for painting and drawing, sculpting, and printmaking.

“I feel honored to receive this year’s Fairchild Award,” said Peppermint. “It’s incredibly humbling to see my name associated with such an important and longstanding award.”

For more information on Peppermint and Nadir’s work, visit 

The award is given to a Rochester-area resident who has “created extraordinary artistic work in any medium in the past year.” This year’s selection committee chose Grotz, associate professor of English at Rochester, for her second selection of poems,��The Needle, which explores both Polish and American 20th century poetry and their traditions. The collection also includes a series of poems that are elegies for her younger brother, who passed away in 2006.

Over the past year,����������𳦳ٱ����The Needle (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) as one of the five best books of poetry published in 2011, and the  noted that the collection should establish Grotz “as one of America’s best young poets.” In addition, her poem “Poppies,” originally published in the New England Review, was selected for inclusion in the anthology The Best American Poetry 2011��(�����������Ա��).

“We are so excited that Jen is receiving this year’s Fairchild Award,” said John Michael, chair of the English department. “She is still a young poet, but she has already developed a distinctive voice and tone. The Needle is one of the most affecting poetic explorations of locale and loss that I know.”

Established by Ģ����ý Professor Herman L. Fairchild in 1924, the award is in memory of his daughter, an accomplished designer who died of tuberculosis at the age of 32. It is given out annually to a local visual artist, writer, or composer for his or her commitment to the arts in the Rochester area. Grotz joins current and former English department colleagues Anthony Hecht, James Longenbach, Hyam Plutzik, Jerry Ramsey, and Joanna Scott in receiving the literature prize.

“I feel both honored and tremendously happy to receive the Fairchild Award,” said Grotz. “It’s edifying to know that my poetry has been well-received, but for me, still fairly new to Rochester, this feels like a real gift from the community.”

Grotz joined the English department at the University in 2009 and teaches courses in translation, poetry writing, and modern and contemporary American and European poetry. She is the poetry editor for , the University’s press for translated literature, and is one of four creative writers on the English department faculty who help coordinate the , the longest running collegiate poetry reading series in the United States. She also is the recipient of awards from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, and the Camargo Foundation.

In addition to her academic pursuits, she is the assistant director of the  in Middlebury, Vt. Founded in 1926 by American poet Robert Frost, the gathering is the oldest writers’ conference in the United States. The conference also is where Grotz said she received her most important education as a poet, one that she is happy to pass on to others. “It’s a privilege for me to be able to help carry on that essential tradition of nurturing and guiding young writers in the assumption of their voice and craft,” said Grotz.

The Needle is Grotz’s second collection of poetry. Her first book,��Cusp, received the Katharine Nason Bakeless Prize and the Natalie Ornish Best First Book of Poetry Prize from the Texas Institute of Letters. Her poems, essays, translations, and reviews have appeared widely in journals such as Boston Review,��Kenyon Review,��New England Review,��Ploughshares,��Southern Review, and in anthologies including the Pushcart�����Ի���Best American Poetry.

Her newest book,��The Psalms of All My Days, is a translation of poems by the French poet Patrice de La Tour du Pin that will be released February 2013 from Carnegie Mellon University Press.