2022 Fletcher Lecture Series to Feature Louisiana Storyteller

Filmmaker, Photographer Monique Verdin to Speak at Nicholls

Louisiana Filmmaker, Photographer to Speak at 2022 Fletcher Lecture Series

Filmmaker, photographer and interdisciplinary storyteller Monique Verdin will be the guest lecturer for the 2022 Fletcher Lecture series. Verdin will host a question-and-answer session at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 3 in Le Bijou Theatre. At 6 p.m. she will discuss her works and themes in a lecture in the Gouaux Hall auditorium. The question-and-answer and talk are free and open to the public.

A citizen of the United Houma Nation and resident of St. Bernard Parish, Verdin is the director of the Land Memory Bank & Seed Exchange. The Land Memory Bank is an experiential digital archive that aims to build a community record of unique coastal cultures and native ecology in the name of coastal preservation and adaptation. Verdin is also a member of the women-of-color-led Another Gulf Is Possible Collaborative. The grassroots organization is centered on bringing just economies, vibrant communities and sustainable ecologies to life across the southeastern U.S.

Verdin co-produced the documentary My Louisiana Love in 2012. In 2020, she co-authored the book Return to Yakni Chitto: Houma Migrations. Her works have also been featured in the multi-platform performance Cry You One and the book Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas.

She was a visual artist resident for A Studio in the Woods in 2007, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Several universities across the country have featured her art and her story, including the University of California, Georgia College and State University, Mesa College of San Diego, Tulane University and more.

For 37 years The Fletcher Lecture Series has brought major writers and literary figures to campus to speak and interact with students. Past Lecturers have included such luminaries as Robert Penn Warren, Noel Polk, Lee Smith, Gerald Early, Marianne Robinson, Yuri Herrera, and the filmmaker Behn Zeitlin. The 2020 event was canceled because of COVID-19 and the 2021 event because of Hurricane Ida.

The 2022 recipients of the Linda Stanga Award for Excellence in Literary Studies and the 2022 Noel Toups Award will also be recognized.