David T. Hanson Artist Lecture Series
The Wege Center for the Arts at Maharishi International University is pleased to announce the creation of the David T. Hanson Artist Lecture Series, featuring annual presentations by accomplished artists, curators and art historians. The inaugural presentation will feature a storytelling performance for adult listeners by Milbre Burch on January 17 at the Wege Center’s Ross Theater.
David T. Hanson is a photographer, environmentalist, writer, and teacher, best known for his photographic work investigating the contemporary American landscape. He taught in the departments of Photography and Landscape Architecture at Rhode Island School of Design from 1983-2000. He has received a number of awards for his work, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and two NEA fellowships, and his photographs have been widely exhibited by museums throughout the world. Five monographs of his work have been published, most recently The Cloud of Unknowing (2019). A selection of his photographs from India will be included in an upcoming exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum in New York.
events
MILBRE BURCH | WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU REALLY LISTEN: ORAL STORYTELLING IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Saturday, January 17, 2:30pm CST
Ross Theater at the Wege Center for the Arts / Zoom
Join us for a storytelling performance by Milbre Burch, a GRAMMY-nominated spoken-word recording artist, internationally renowned storyteller, published writer, poet, scholar, and produced playwright. What Happens When You Really Listen features global folktales, original stories, and character monologues drawn from her nearly fifty-year career. Between stories, Burch will explore the visual and co-creative dimensions of oral storytelling, as well as the phenomenon of the storytelling trance. A Q&A session will follow.
Milbre Burch, since 1978, has performed and taught across the US, Europe, and Asia, using storytelling to address social justice issues. She is currently a guest lecturer on folklore and performance as a Research Collaborator in the American Studies Department of the University of North Carolina. In 2023, she made her ninth appearance at the National Storytelling Festival. In 2025, she served as a teller-in-residence at the International Storytelling Center. Burch holds a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Missouri.