Frank Bidart Chair 2022: opening day

The opening day and cultural programme for the Frank Bidart Chair will be held on 4 and 5 December at California State University Bakersfield (CSUB). Different activities will be held to present the work of Frank Bidart himself and other Basque creators.

On Sunday 4 December, at 12:00, streamers Iruñe Astitz (ARKKUSO) and Eneko Oroz (Ekintaekin) will interview the writer Miren Agur Meabe and Etxepare Basque Institute director Irene Larraza. They will also offer a reading (in Basque and English) of Miren Agur Meabe´s writing.

On 5 December, the will chat with Amaia Gabantxo and Sabrina Otaegi at 12:00.

The Frank Bidart Chair programme will open at 1:00pm in the Dezember Reading Room at California State University Bakersfield’s Walter W. Stiern Library.

CSUB President Lynnette Zelezny, Professor Steve Gamboa, and Irene Larraza will sign the agreement. This will be followed by a reading of Bidart´s passages by Professor Matthew Woodman and Miren Agur Meabe.

The programme will come to a close at 2:00pm with a round table titled ´Remote Writers: Close Connections Among Minor/Small Cultures´. Participants include Basque autor and poet Miren Agur Meabe; Maria Dolores Morillo, Associate Professor Spanish in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures at California State University, Fresno; and Iker Arranz Otaegui, Director of the Institute for Basque Studies at CSUB and lecturer in Basque Studies. Arranz will act as moderator.

The Frank Bidart Chair was founded in 2022 as part of the Institute for Basque Studies at California State University Bakersfield to support research projects related to culture and art and to develop creative projects. The selected expert or creator will carry out a one-month residency for research or creation.