Point of Contact: On Sports
Contributors
Roy Bautista is a Master of Fine Arts candidate at Queens College. He describes a part of his process as an inventory of the space between a joke and a metaphor.
Jim Boeheim is head coach of the Syracuse University men's basketball. The longest-tenured coach at a single school, Boeheim has had many triumphs in his 27-year tenure. In the spring of 2003, he took his team all the way to the NCAA Men's Basketball title. Among other causes, he is dedicated to supporting The American Cancer Society. Boeheim is also host of the popular sports radio program, The Boeheim Show .
Dennis S. Brogan, a.k.a. “Dome Ranger,” is a journalist, broadcaster and football coach. Currently a Senior Aide to Syracuse Mayor Matthew J. Driscoll.
Pedro Cuperman is Associate Professor of Latin American Literature and Semiotics at Syracuse University, where he is the Graduate Advisor for the Spanish Program. Among his works: Diario de Viaje, a children's novel coauthored with Irene Vilar, (Scholastic 1996); Tango coauthored with Nancy Graves ( Iris Editions 1991); Go East by Going West, art by Izhar Patkin (Carla Sozzani 1990), and American Baroqu e (Holly Solomon, New York 1988).
Mario Diament is an Argentine-born journalist, playwright and educator. He is Associate Professor of Journalism at Florida International University and a member of the National Academy of Journalism of Argentina. He is also the author of several award-winning plays that have been produced in Argentina and throughout Latin America, Europe, Israel and the U.S. His latest play, Blind Date recently premiered at the New Theatre, in Coral Gables, Florida. He currently writes a weekly column for the Argentine daily La Nación.
Tom Friedmann didn't see a TV set or a baseball game until age 10. He is a novelist, ( Damaged Goods) and a scriptwriter, ( Prisoners of Freedom , Open Secrets ) who lives in New Jersey and teaches at Onondaga College, Syracuse University, and 7th grade at SSDS of Greater Monmouth.
John R. Gerdy is a former All-American and professional basketball player, NCAA Legislative Assistant and Associate Commissioner of the Southeastern Conference. He is currently a Visiting Professor in Sports Administration at Ohio University (Athens) and has authored several books, most recently Sports: The All-American Addiction.
Sander Gilman is Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Medicine at the University of Illinois, Chicago, where he also directs the Humanities Laboratory. Among his many books: Making the Body Beautiful: A Cultural History of Aesthetic Surgery; Smart Jews: The Construction of the Image of Jewish Superior Intelligence and Fat Boys: A Slim Book.
Roberto Gonzalez Echevarría is Sterling Professor of Hispanic and Comparative Literatures at Yale and Chairman of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. He is the author of many books of literary criticism and of The Pride of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball . In 2005 the Yale University Press will publish his Love and the Law in Cervantes. He writes often for The New York Times and other newspapers on literature and sports.
Tim Green is a novelist, athlete, scholar, lawyer and sports commentator for FOX-TV and NPR. Currently practices law with Hiscock & Barclay in Syracuse, New York. An All-American football player and a first round draft pick in 1986.
Mary Karr just won a Guggenheim Fellowship in poetry. She's the author of 2 bestselling memoirs The Liar's Club and Cherry and 3 poetry collections, most recently Viper Rum . She's the Peck Professor of Literature at Syracuse University.
Alberto Lastreto is a visual artist born in Argentina, raised in Uruguay and presently residing in USA. He studied Architecture and Fine Arts both in Uruguay and Cuba where he also lived for many years. His personal experience with displacement has been a mayor influence in his art based on re-constructing personal memories over found photographs. His latest exhibition (2003) was at the Museo Metropolitano in Buenos Aires.
Oren Lyons is Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation and professor of American Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo. A leading advocate for American Indian causes, he has authored numerous books including Exiled in the Land of the Free; Democracy, Indian Nations, and the U.S. Constitution; Voice of Indigenous Peoples (1992), and Native People Address the United Nations (1994). He is also a lifelong lacrosse player.
Juan Mandelbaum is an Argentine filmmaker who lives in Boston, where he runs Geovision, a production company. His credits, all aired on PBS, include two episodes in the AMERICAS prime time series, Liliana Porter: Fragments of the Journey, Caetano in Bahia and Ringl and Pi, which received the 1996 Biographical Film Award, Athens International Film Festival. He has been flying gliders since 1974.
Priscilla Monge is a Costa Rican artist whose work has been shown in major museums, among others, the Museo Tamayo of Mexico; the Museo de Arte Costarricense of San Jose, Costa Rica, and the Museum Van Hddedagse Kunst Gen. Gent Belgium. She also participated in collective shows in the MoMA of Queens, New York, the Museo Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the Taipei Museum of Fine Art, Taipei, ROC.
Barry Norman made two films - Blues for the Avatar , winner of the Silver Certificate from the 1996 Houston World Fest and a short: Deadbeats . He created a nationally syndicated alternative radio show that aired in 30 markets in 1992 and is the Founder and Executive Director of the Dahlonega (now Rome) International Film Festival. Currently works at Cartoon Network.
Tere Paniagua is a Senior Editor of Point of Contact and currently teaches journalism at Syracuse University's Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics. She is the former Culture and Lifestyles Editor of El Nuevo Día in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Director of Imagen magazine, also in San Juan.
Liliana Porter is an Argentinean artist living in New York. She is a Professor at Queens College, City University of New York. Her work includes printmaking, painting, photography, installations and video. She has also completed important permanent public art commissions in New York City and in San Juan, Puerto Rico (terracotta and glass mosaics murals). Her work is represented internationally in Museums and private collections.
Regina Silveira is a professor at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. Her large-size installations have explored spatial interactions between viewpoints, cast shadows and distorted perspectives. Received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1991, the Pollock-Krasner Grant in 1993 and the Fulbright Fellowship in 1994. In 2000 she received the Art and Technology Sergio Motta Award, in Brazil.
Nicasio Silverio, a Cuban journalist and poet , published a collection of poems in Spanish under the title Afán del agua . His work as radio producer with screenwriter Marcos Miranda -a piece called Requiem for Oscar- received the Margarita Xirgú Award 2003 for Radio Theater in Madrid, Spain. Last February he was inducted into the Cuban Hall of Fame for Swimming.
Owen Shapiro is an independent filmmaker. He is Professor of Film at Syracuse University where he is the direwcto of the film program Among his films are the award winning Prisoners of Freedom, And Many Happy Returns , and Tomas Szas and the Myth of Mental Illness. He has also written extensively on film theory and criticism.
Roy Simmons Jr. , is a Lacrosse player and the only coach in the history of College Lacrosse to win four NCAA Division 1 National Championships with the Syracuse University Men's Lacrosse Team. After retiring from the sport in 1998, he is dedicated to his art. He works in collage and assemblages using textiles, paper, and found objects.
Bruce Smith is the author of four books of poems, The Common Wages , Silver and Information (National Poetry Series Selection), Mercy Seat and most recently, The Other Lover (University of Chicago), which was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. His fifth book, Songs for Two Voices , will be published in the spring of 2005. He teaches in the Graduate Writing Program at Syracuse University.
Sid Vicious is a formidable world-class wrestler who made a quick and powerful impact with his entry into the sport in 1987. He was Heavyweight Wrestling Champion in all the major organizations in which he wrestled.
Peter Wollen wrote, among other books, Signs and Meanings in the Cinema and Raiding the Icebox: Reflections of 20th Century Culture . Among his films are Riddles of the Sphinx , made in collaboration with Laura Mulvey. He also coauthored the script of Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger . He teaches film at the University of California, Los Angeles.