8 | THELAKER campus happenings Retired professor is ‘Keeping a Promise’ Retired humanities professor Barbara Murphy returned to campus in March for a combined exhibit of photography and poetry called “Keeping a Promise,” which runs through April 7 at the Williams-Insalaco Gallery 34. e exhibit features photographs by the late Joe Ripperger with poems Barbara, his aunt, wrote in response to each photo. is type of writing is known as ekphrastic poetry. Barbara and Joe began talking about a collaboration in early 2019. “I had taken a week-long poetry course at Writers and Books in January, and one of the instructors had asked us to write some ekphrastic poems. I had fun with it and thought it could be fun to collaborate with Joe,” she explained. “He came to my house with his laptop and showed me some photos and sent me others. I wrote some poems, and he did give me feedback on those rst few poems. We also talked about how cool it would be to nd a place in Rochester to exhibit his work.” Joe, who had bipolar disorder, died by suicide in June. “I wrote Joe’s eulogy and began to write poems about the experience of losing him,” Barbara said. “I asked his father for Joe’s hard drive and started working on the ekphrastic poems. Holocaust survivor to speak April 20 e College will host Holocaust survivor Warren Heilbronner on ursday, April 20, at 12:45 p.m. in the main campus auditorium. His talk is part of the History, Culture and Diversity series organized by Robert Brown, professor of history. e event is free and open to the public. It will also be broadcast live on Finger Lakes Television, available on Spectrum cable channel 1304, Roku and ngerlakestv.org. As a child, Warren saw the Gestapo come to his home in Stuttgart during Kristallnacht in 1938 to look for his father. His father, who successfully hid that night, was later arrested and sent to the Dachau concentration camp. Warren’s mother was able to secure his father’s release with an a davit from an uncle in Memphis who pledged to support them upon immigration to the U.S. Warren attended Columbia Law School then served in the Army Reserves before taking a job as a lawyer in Rochester. He is an advocate for social justice issues and shares his story to teach about the Holocaust. “ e writing that corresponded to his photos and the writing that re ected my grief turned into a book. As the book, a er many revisions, seemed to be nished, I thought, ‘I’ve got to nd a place to exhibit Joe’s work!’ at desire eventually led me to the Mental Health Association of Rochester.” e exhibit was rst staged last year at the Mental Health Association of Rochester’s o ce on North Goodman Street and then at the Joy Gallery in Rochester. Barron Naegel, director of FLCC’s Williams-Insalaco Gallery 34, attended the closing reception at the Joy Gallery and invited her to bring the show to the College. “ e purpose of the exhibit is to celebrate what he saw through his lens and to, in a way, keep the promise to nd someplace to exhibit his work,” Barbara said, adding, “He loved taking pictures of many subjects, including his friends, baseball games, owers, and downtown Rochester. Being diagnosed with bipolar disorder at 16 or 17 began a lifetime of struggle, but his curiosity about the world and his camera were mainstays in his life.” Barbara Murphy at a poetry reading at FLCC before her retirement. A photo by Joe Ripperger in the “Keeping a Promise” exhibit at FLCC, which closes on April 7.
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