University of South Carolina
uscTIMES
September 20, 2012
A publication for faculty, staff and friends of the university
USC Times
Stories, snippets & scenes from the
University of South Carolina. Aiken
Aik
en /
Beaufort
B ea ufor
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To acknowledge the place of performance and art in the ecosystem of a university is to recognize that they are not merely attractive diversions but part of the lifeblood of the institution. President Harris Pastides says it succinctly: “Our actors, dancers, artists, writers and musicians are the embodiment of our intellectual spirit. From Theater South Carolina, to collaborations with the NYC Ballet, to our Strings Project, poetry readings and everything in between, each of us is sensitized, humbled and elevated through the arts.” This issue celebrates USC's artists.
Columbia
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the inside
Union
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Upstate
11/4 /2013
At home in the urban jungle
By Craig Brandhorst
Creative nonfiction professor goes wild
S
ix years ago, when James Barilla first came
“I want our yard to be the kind of place where my
to USC to teach creative writing and bought
kids can catch grasshoppers by day and fireflies at night,
a house in town, he dug up half his driveway,
where they can dig up potatoes and pick strawberries,” he
killed his lawn through neglect and planted
wrote in the introduction to “My Backyard Jungle.” “The
a sign in the dirt announcing that his yard
yard I imagine will be interesting and alive.” And that’s
would be unlike any other on the block.
exactly what happened — for better or worse. He grew
Barilla wasn’t trying to be a bad neigh-
peaches only to see them devoured by squirrels; he de-
bor. Rather, he was trying to be a good host — to the birds
bated the pluses and minuses of carpenter bees; he woke
and bees, to wildflowers and fruit trees, to any and every
one night to the sound of rats behind the wall.
type of flora and fauna that might possibly make a go of it
The urge to provide refuge for a few critters and plant
in the urban Midlands landscape. He was also researching
an edible garden soon evolved into a deeper investigation
for the memoir that would become “My Backyard Jungle,”
of what it means to coexist with the rest of the natural
published this year by Yale University Press.
world. With help from a grant from USC’s Office of the
“Our yard was pretty bad when we arrived, but by the
Provost, Barilla traveled to India to observe urban monkey
end of that summer it was just like a parking lot. There was
populations, then checked out urban marmosets in Brazil,
very little life, but that did mean I could start from scratch,”
backyard bears in Massachusetts and a range of other
says Barilla, who admits knowing little about the Columbia
urban wildlife.
ecosystem before starting the project. “So I thought, ‘Okay, I’m here. What does it mean to be here — ecologically?’” To make things official, Barilla had his property de-
“For me, what puts my own backyard in an interesting context is how these other people manage to live with these creatures, and how that relationship has evolved, in
clared a “certified wildlife habitat” by the National Wildlife
some cases over thousands of years,” he says. “I started
Federation. The designation, in a nutshell, means his prop-
thinking, ‘What are the limits? Setting aside for a moment
erty provides the essential habitat elements for wildlife
the question of what’s native and just thinking about what’s
survival: food, water, cover and places to raise young.
endangered or not endangered, what could live here?’”
Meet Marius Valdes,
assistant professor of graphic design, Department of Art, creator of Zoo Valdes Marius Valdes is a doodler. And like most artists, he keeps a sketchpad handy, especially when his wife is shopping. “The best place for me to brainstorm is the mall,” he says. “I discovered this habit quite by accident. I don’t know what it is, but some of my best ideas have come while my wife is off shopping somewhere. I’m not sure if it’s the people watching or the fact that I’m not in the studio staring at a blank piece of canvas or computer screen. But I believe my muse is witnessing life happen.” You can view Valdes’ quirky animal paintings at zoovaldes.com