Dec 6, 2016 5PM Poet, Milton Scholar, Playwright, and Novelist Francis Blessington

Poet Francis  Blessington

Francis Blessington’s first novel is The Last Witch of Dogtown. He has translated The Bacchae of Euripides and The Frogs of Aristophanes. He has published two books of poems, Lantskip and Wolf Howl. He is a Milton specialist, the author of Paradise Lost and the Classical Epic and Paradise Lost: Ideal and Tragic Epic (A Student’s Companion to the Poem). His essays, poems, and short stories have appeared in the Harvard Magazine, The Sewanee Review, The Southern Review, and many other journals. He has also published a play, Lorenzo de’ Medici. A professor of English at Northeastern University in Boston. He lives with his wife, Ann Taylor, also a writer and English professor, and their two children. In the summer, he works part-time on a farm in Spain.

Nov 8, 2016 Nanette Perrotte

Nanette Perrotte

Born to an Ecuadorian mother and French father, Perrotte was raised in Amsterdam Holland and Orlando Florida before attending Boston’s Berklee College of Music where she received her BA in Jazz Composition and Arranging with a principal instrument of Voice. This course of study was the fulfillment of a childhood spent singing and performing that continues on as a professional vocalist.

Perrotte’s Masters Degree in Education from Lesley University in Cambridge Massachusetts focused her work on Arts as a tool to learn about and experience cultural diversity. With her college teaching career, private voice students, college choir and acting/improv troupe, Perrotte has now evolved a new lecture/presentation form. This is a new series that combines social history, musicology and storytelling. Ella Fitzgerald- Queen of Swing and Duke Ellington and the Harlem Renaissance.

Recently Perrotte has been traveling with her internationally recognized father who is a chef and Continental Director of the Americas WACS. These travels to South America, South Korea and France have been part of witnessing Louis Perrotte’s work using fine cuisine as cultural diplomacy- although here it is an American chef encouraging chefs in other cultures to pursue their own cuisine first.

Nanette Perrotte’s travels have led to a series of blogs reflecting on cultural differences around music, cuisine and food preparation. Her blog posts (May, October 2012) on South Korea have quickly attracted a following of interested South Korean readers. In these travels Perrotte finds that people want to know the real America. With her musical background, Perrotte is able to convey that to them through the great American Songbook, the richness of our original music tradition that is loved and shared around the world.

Starting in 2010, Perrotte focused her musical theatre work by re-creating the story lines and music of traditional children’s literature to reflect current times and current generations of creative students. Some of her adaptations include: Alice in Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Perrotte has a 500 hour advanced Yoga certification, an AFAA Group Fitness Certification, TRX training certification and CPR certification.