2019 TYCAT CONFERENCE
Friday,
nov. 1
2:30-6 pM
Registration/Refreshments/Exhibits (SRB Humanities Building Entryway)
3-3:15 pm
Welcome (The Performing Arts Studio)
3:15-4:15 pm
TYCATTalks 1 (The Performing Arts Studio)
4:15-4:30 pm
Break
4:30-5:30 pm
Concurrent Session 1 (Various Locations)
6-8 pm
Dinner Party and Entertainment at the EPIC Event Center
Saturday,
nov. 2
8-10:15 am
Registration/Refreshments (SRB Humanities Building Entryway)
8 am-1:30 pm
Exhibits Open (SRB Humanities Bldg Entryway)
8:15-9:15 am
TYCATTalks 2 (The Performing Arts Studio)
9:15-9:30 am
Break
9:30-10:30 am
Concurrent Session 2 (Various Locations)
10:30-10:45 am
Break
10:45-11:45 am
TYCATTalks 3 (The Performing Arts Studio)
12-1:30 pm
Luncheon (Speaker: Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman) (Mary Nichols Dining Room)
Jessica
Chiccehitto
Hindman
Our TYCAT 2019 luncheon speaker will be
Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman, author of Sounds Like Titanic.
Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman has “performed” on PBS, QVC, and at concert halls worldwide. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, McSweeney's, Brevity, and Hippocampus. She holds a BA in Middle Eastern studies and an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and a PhD in English from the University of North Texas. She teaches creative writing at Northern Kentucky University and lives in Newport, Kentucky. Hindman is the author of Sounds Like Titanic (2019).
A young woman leaves Appalachia for life as a classical musician—or so she thinks. When aspiring violinist Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman lands a job with a professional ensemble in New York City, she imagines she has achieved her lifelong dream. But the ensemble proves to be a sham. When the group “performs,” the microphones are never on. Instead, the music blares from a CD. The mastermind behind this scheme is a peculiar and mysterious figure known as The Composer, who is gaslighting his audiences with music that sounds suspiciously like the Titanic movie soundtrack. On tour with his chaotic ensemble, Hindman spirals into crises of identity and disillusionment as she “plays” for audiences genuinely moved by the performance, unable to differentiate real from fake. Sounds Like Titanic is a surreal, often hilarious coming-of-age story. Hindman writes with precise, candid prose and sharp insight into ambition and gender, especially when it comes to the difficulties young women face in a world that views them as silly, shallow, and stupid. As the story swells to a crescendo, it gives voice to the anxieties and illusions of a generation of women, and reveals the failed promises of a nation that takes comfort in false realities.