Sunday, Sept. 11, is the 21st anniversary of 9/11, the morning terrorists hijacked four American airplanes resulting in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. Villanova University lost fifteen alumni that day. Falvey Memorial Library honors the Villanovans and all those who lost their lives, displaying a tribute each year to mark the tragic anniversary. The display, located in Access Services, lists the names of the Villanovans killed on 9/11 and is juxtaposed against flag designs and vases containing red, white, and blue flowers.

Photo courtesy of Joanne Quinn, Director of Communication and Marketing. Display curated by Anna Jankowski ’23 CLAS.

Join the Villanova Communication Department for the world premiere of Parakeet at the Villanova Communication Department Studio (Garey Hall) on the following dates: Thursday, Sept. 29 (7 p.m.), Friday, Sept. 30 (7 p.m.), Saturday, Oct. 1 (7 p.m.), and Sunday Oct. 2 (2 p.m.) Click here or use the QR code above to reserve tickets.

Parakeet, a play adapted and directed by Heidi M. Rose, PhD, Chair of the Department of Communication, Professor of Performance Studies, is based on the novel by Marie-Helene Bertino ’99 CLAS.

Parakeet tells the story of a bride-to-be who is visited by a bird (parakeet) she identifies as her dead grandmother. After her grandmother tells her not to get married, the bride takes a transformational journey a week before her wedding. “Parakeet asks and begins to answer the essential questions. What do our memories make us? How do we honor our experiences and still become our strongest, truest selves? Who are we responsible for, what do we owe them, and how do we allow them to change?” (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2020). Read the novel before the world premiere of the play: Parakeet is available for loan at Falvey Memorial Library.

Parakeet is co-sponsored by the Villanova College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, the Office of Intercultural Affairs, VU Pride, the Honors Program, the McNulty Institute, the English Department, the Creative Writing Program, Gender & Women’s Studies, and the Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Parakeet kicks off the 30th anniversary celebration of Performance Studies at Villanova University.

Photo courtesy of http://www.mariehelenebertino.com/

Marie-Helene Bertino ’99 CLAS

Marie-Helene Bertino’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Electric Literature, Tin House, McSweeneys, Granta, BOMB, Guernica, NPR, and others. The author of four books: Safe as Houses, 2 A.M. at The Cat’s Pajamas, Parakeet, and Beautyland (forthcoming), she is the recipient of The Frank O’Connor International Short Story Fellowship in Cork, Ireland, The O. Henry Prize, and The Pushcart Prize. She teaches in the Creative Writing programs of NYU and The New School, and earned a BA in English from Villanova University and an MFA from Brooklyn College. For more on Bertino, visit her website.

Dig deeper and explore the links below for further reading:

• Safe as Houses (Bertino, 2012)
• 2 A.M. at The Cat’s Pajamas (Bertino, 2014)
• Parakeet (Bertino, 2020)
• “2 A.M. at The Cat’s Pajamas” in conversation Marie-Helen Bertino with Marina Petrova (The Brooklyn Rail, 2014)
• An Interview with Marie-Helene Bertino (Liontas, 2021)
• In Search of Honesty, Reality, Truth (The New York Times, 2020)
• Hannah Tinti, Mira Jacob, Jai Chakrabarti, and Marie-Helene Bertino: Small Odysseys (Free Library of Philadelphia, 2022)
• Authors on Tap: Marie-Helene Bertino and Rebecca Makkai (Exile in Bookville, 2021)
• Marie-Helene Bertino on the Dual Portals of Trauma and Friendship (Kisner, 2021)
• Marie-Helene Bertino + Alexandra Kleeman, with Angel Nafis and BOMB Magazine (Greenlight Bookstore, 2020)
• The Art of the Short Story: Cara Blue Adams on You Never Get It Back with Marie-Helene Bertino (The Center for Fiction, 2021)

Photo courtesy of Villanova University.

Heidi M. Rose, PhD

Heidi M. Rose joined the Communication Department at Villanova University in 1993. She earned a BS in Speech/Theatre from Northwestern University, a MA in Communication from Emerson College, and an Interdisciplinary PhD in Communication from Arizona State University. Her scholarship focuses on performance ethnography, autoethnography, performance, culture and identity, ASL poetics and Deaf culture, and performance and advocacy. The author of numerous publications, she is the writer and performer of “Twin,” “Mirror Image,” and “Good Enough.”

She is a recipient of the Top Contributed Performance, Performance Studies Division, National Communication Association (2020), the Leslie Irene Coger Award for Distinguished Performance, National Communication Association (2018), the Creative Expression Award, Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender (2017), the Lilla A. Heston Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Performance Studies, National Communication Association (2015), Service to the Discipline Award, Performance Studies Division, National Communication Association (2012), and many others. For more information on Dr. Rose’s scholarship, please visit her webpage.

Anna Jankowski ’23 CLAS

Photo courtesy of Anna Jankowski.

Voicing the parakeet is Anna Jankowski ’23 CLAS, a senior communication major, and communication and marketing assistant at Falvey Memorial Library.

Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Memorial Library.

Before Villanova Magazine there was The Spires, published from October 1974 to December 1984. The first issue introduces The Spires as a new publication that combined the Villanova Alumnus and The Capsule, previous publications that brought campus news to the alumni community.

The Spires takes its name from the twin gothic-styled towers atop the main chapel. They have been a landmark along the Main Line for more than three quarters of a century. The spires, which rise nearly 130 feet in the air, capture the eye of the visitor and dominate memories of the Villanova campus.

The Spires was published six times a year (October, December, February, April, June, and August) by the Public Relations Office, Villanova University, Austin Hall, Villanova, PA. Villanova Magazine is the current publication of the now-named Office of University Communication and Marketing.

Check out the newly digitized issues of The Spires in the Digital Library. Earlier issues of the Villanova Alumnus are available in the Digital Library as well.

Rebecca Oviedo is Distinctive Collections Archivist at Falvey Memorial Library.

Photo courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library.

This week’s “Throwback Thursday” (TBT) is a celebration of Villanova alumni! Check out this image of Alumni Hall featured in the 1938 Belle Air Yearbook (page. 11).

We celebrate our recent alumni, the Class of 2022, and the Class of 2020. This weekend, Villanova University is welcoming back the Villanova Class of 2020 (bachelor’s degree recipients) for a special celebration weekend, as this class did not have an in-person Commencement ceremony due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The full schedule of events for the celebration (June 3—June 5) can be found here.

Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Memorial Library.

Photo courtesy of Tom Costello Jr.

On Saturday, Sept. 21, volunteers from Falvey Memorial Library, the Law Library, and Peer Ministry participated in the annual St. Thomas of Villanova Day of Service. Teaming with Tom Costello Jr. ’69 COE, founder of The Joy of Sox, the group assisted in cleaning and painting the organization’s warehouse, sorting and taking inventory of socks, and assembling shelving. The Joy of Sox is a nonprofit organization that collects and purchases new socks to distribute to the homeless. The group’s Day of Service work was covered by the Philadelphia Inquirer! In all, they sorted nearly 4,000 pairs of socks for distribution.

Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Memorial Library.