Nova Forum Seminar: Poetry, Attention, Joy

Join us for an exciting in-person event at Our Savior Parish & USC Caruso Catholic Center on West 32nd Street in Los Angeles, CA, USA. Nova Forum Seminar: Poetry, Attention, and Joy led by Prof. David Albertson and Mary Ortiz. This event takes place at the USC Caruso Catholic Center and an optional mass will be offered at 9:00am. If you don't plan on coming to mass you can meet us at 9:30am for some donuts and coffee!

For our final seminar this year, we turn to T.S. Eliot’s beautiful and profound poem, Four Quartets, in dialogue with an essay by philosopher Simone Weil. How can poetry respond to the “wasteland” of our fragmented and alienated culture? What virtues of attention and memory do we need to rediscover? How do Christian prayer—and university studies—both require the virtue of attention? Join us for our final conversation!

All Nova Forum Seminars are free and open to the public. Please register on Eventbrite so that we can plan accordingly. We hope to see you there! To access readings visit our website HERE.

Seminar Schedule:

9:00-9:30 Mass in Church of Our Savior (optional)

9:30-10:00 Coffee & donuts on patio

10:00-11:30 Session 1 in Newman Hall

11:30-12:30 Buffet Lunch outside on the patio

12:30-1:30 Session 2 in Newman Hall

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Nova Forum provides students with programs for intellectual formation in Catholic thought, connecting the spiritual life with the life of the mind. Our seminars, workshops, lectures, and symposia offer learning experiences that draw on the Catholic past to speak to topics of contemporary concern in ways that supplement the university. Nova in Latin names the “new things” promised in the Scriptures and reflected in Catholic humanistic disciplines, including theology, philosophy, history, literature, politics, and the arts.

Nova Forum also shares Catholic intellectual traditions with the secular academy. As contemporary universities struggle to connect teaching and research, ethics and the marketplace, culture and the common good, Catholic thought offers new resources and new perspectives. While located at USC, Nova Forum engages other institutions across southern California, starting with a founding partnership with Pepperdine University. We welcome the participation of colleges and universities throughout the region as well as Catholic communities in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

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