The Humanities Symposium and Wildwood Writers' Festival celebrates learning and creativity through works by talented presenters from various disciplines, including writing, the humanities and more.

The festival is free and open to the public.
 

When and where is this year's festival?

Join us as professional authors and members of the HACC community showcase writing, live music, scholarly talks and dramatic readings on the theme of "Innocence and Experience."

The event will be held in person March 31-April 2, 2026, from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. on HACC's Lancaster Campus, East Building, Room 203.

The event will also be livestreamed on Zoom at the following link: https://hacc.zoom.us/j/96475014419

Live viewing parties will be held on the following locations:

• HACC's Harrisburg Campus, Bruce E. Cooper Student Center, Room 209
• HACC's York Campus, Cytec, Room 101

What is the schedule for this year's festival?

Please note the following schedule is tentative and subject to change.

Tuesday, March 31, 2026

9:30am – 10:45am   "William Blake's Visions"

The poet and printer William Blake (1757-1827) wrote, illustrated, printed, and distributed 21 books that combined poetry and art. This presentation provides a basic introduction to William Blake and his illuminated printing with a focus on two early works Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience and explores dualities as well as the influence and legacy of Blake's works. Lancaster East 203. Seth Martin.

11:00am – 12:15pm   "Pictures Must Be Miraculous: On the Paintings of Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman"

In this talk I will take up the paintings of Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, examining their respective influences, relations to other of the so-called Abstract Expressionist painters, their intellectual inspirations, and, most importantly, what their work has to say to the viewer. Harrisburg Cooper 209. Charles Comer.

1:00pm – 1:50pm   "String Trio"

A live musical performance. Lancaster East 203. Stock Weinstock-Collins.

2:00pm – 3:00pm   "Am I Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?"

Have you noticed that many movies and TV shows portray ordinary "innocent" kids as smarter than "experienced" adults? In this session, we will explore this theme by reviewing clips from works like Matilda, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Goonies, Home Alone, and even Baby's Day. Lancaster East 203. Mike Corradino.

3:15pm – 4:00pm   "Live Reading"

via ZOOM. Rachel Luann Strayer.

Wednesday, April 1, 2026

8:00am – 9:15am   "The Innocence Project"

Do we have confidence that someone found guilty by a jury of a serious crime is guilty? What if they are innocent? What is our experience in the ways that innocent people are wrongfully convicted and is there a way to correct these injustices? Lancaster East 203. Steve Lustig.

9:30am – 10:45am   "Lady Day: The Life of Billie Holiday"

One of the greatest jazz singers overcame a turbulent youth to be discovered by the legendary John Hammond. Born Eleanora Fagan in 1915, Billie Holiday rose to fame during a period of profound racial injustice and social change in America. Her life was marked by hardship, addiction, and exploitation, yet her artistry reshaped jazz and vocal performance forever. Songs like Strange Fruit forced audiences to confront the brutality of racism, while her tender ballads redefined emotional honesty in music. We'll explore Billie Holiday's life, her musical innovations, and the cultural impact of her work—asking not only how she changed jazz, but why her voice still matters today! Lancaster East 203. Jill Graybill.

12:00pm – 12:50pm   "Live Reading"

via ZOOM. Kirsten Kaschock.

1:00pm – 2:15pm   "Never Look Away" – Is "Experience" a Kind of Destruction of the "Innocence?"

This presentation will inquire, in the context of art history, whether "Social Realism" is a form of "Innocence" and "Abstraction" a form of "Experience." With a case study focusing on German artist Gerhard Richter (1932 -), this talk explores the potential destruction of "innocence" and, in its replacement, a kind of "experience" that questions and transcends the boundaries of perception, representation, and ideology. via ZOOM. Xiaoqing Zhu.

2:00pm – 3:00pm   "Innocence and Experience Disrupted: The Struggle for Artistic Maturity Inside a Religious Cult"

While artists place high value on authentic personal expression, cults seek to replace a follower's authentic personality with an identity that will best serve the cult. Children born into a cult are perfect targets because the cult can begin the process of identity replacement before the child is old enough to realize something is being stolen. In this presentation, Professor Cline discusses the challenge of developing as an artist inside a high-demand religious cult. Harrisburg Cooper 209. John Cline.

3:00pm – 4:00pm   "Live Reading"

via ZOOM. Sami Miranda.

Thursday, April 2, 2026

9:30am – 10:45am   "Tiny Terrors/Twisted Fears: Innocence and Decay in Horror"

Drawing on concepts like childhood innocence and gerontophobia (fear of aging and the elderly), this presentation explores how horror movies use both children and the elderly to embody our deepest fear. The session will discuss common tropes like the "creepy little kid" or the "fragile but malevolent" grandmother and ask what these portrayals reveal about cultural fears of childhood, aging, and sickness. NOTE: Short clips and stills from horror films and/or television will be incorporated into the presentation. Lancaster East 203. Matthew Eberhart.

11:00am – 12:15pm   "Personal Moments from Past and Present: Laughter, Heartache and Song"

Join Julie for innocent memories of her mother, hard lessons learned as a performing musician, and poems and songs about growth and humor. Harrisburg Cooper 209. Julie Moffit.

12:30pm – 1:45pm   "From Innocence to Experience: Why True Learning Requires Friction"

John Dewey argued that education is not the transmission of information but the reconstruction of experience. This talk suggests that meaningful learning requires relational encounters and moments of productive discomfort—in other words, it requires friction. Lancaster East 203. Kimberly Green.

2:00pm – 3:00pm   "Live Reading"

via ZOOM. Jeanette (Amy) Trout.

Who are this year's presenters?

John Cline is an Assistant Professor of Art, Painting/Drawing, at HACC. Before taking up this appointment in the fall of 2023, he taught at the college and high school level in eastern Wyoming for over ten years. His artwork has been exhibited at local, regional, and national exhibitions.

Charles Comer is an assistant professor of philosophy at HACC.

Mike Corradino is the executive dean of the School of Science & Math at HACC.

Matthew Eberhart is a professor of English at HACC.

Jill Graybill is currently an adjunct professor at Harrisburg Area Community College. At HACC Lancaster, Jill teaches a variety of music classes, as well as college success courses. Previously, Jill was the band director and fine arts department head at Palmyra Area High School and a music teacher in the Dallastown Area School District. Jill earned her bachelor's degree in Music Education from James Madison University, and a Master's degree in Music Education with a concentration in Performance from West Chester University. Jill completed additional graduate work at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Jill performs with the Allegro Chamber Orchestra of Lancaster, Bravura Brass Quintet and the Franklin and Marshall College and Community orchestra. In addition, Jill has performed with Opera Lancaster, the York Symphony, Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, as well as many other local events.

Kimberly Green is a professor of English at HACC and the Chair of the English Department.

Kirsten Kaschock is a poet and novelist who writes across several genres. Her background in dance has impacted her work—she consistently addresses intersections between language and body. She holds doctorates in English literature and dance studies. Kaschock is the author of seven poetry books and has received fellowships from the Pew Foundation, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Vermont Studio Center, Subcircle, and the Summer Literary Seminars in Tbilisi. Coffee House Press published her debut speculative novel—Sleight. She has lived in Iowa, New York, Georgia, and Maryland—and currently resides in Northeast Pennsylvania with her partner. Her work has been called "gothic and intense," "as fascinating as it is disturbing," "inventive and exhilarating."

Steve Lustig

After long careers in law and business, Steve Lustig began a third career: teaching. He first taught at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and has taught at HACC since 2014. Professor Lustig currently teaches Legal Environment of Business, Introduction to Business, and Introduction to International Business. He also serves as president of the Faculty Organization. He received his bachelor's degree in economics with a business certificate from the University of Cincinnati and earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Rutgers School of Law, Newark, New Jersey. He loves teaching, engaging in critical thinking with students and growing hot chili peppers.

Seth Martin is a professor of English at HACC.

Sami Miranda

Samuel "Sami" Miranda grew up in the South Bronx and resides in Washington, DC. He is a visual artist, poet, filmmaker and high school teacher. For over three decades Sami Miranda has focused on story telling through multiple media. First through his poetry and visual art and in the past five years through combining poetry and film to tell stories that help provide space for people's names to be spoken, for their stories to be told and remembered. He is the author of Protection from Erasure, published by Jaded Ibis Press, Departure, a chapbook published by Central Square Press, and We Is, published by Zozobra Publishing and his book Rewarding the Unhurried is forthcoming from Flowersong Press.

He is currently working on collaborative projects with musicians, visual artists and filmmakers. He has performed his poetry and facilitated poetry workshops throughout the US, St. Maarten, Mexico City, Oaxaca, and Madrid. Samuel's artwork has been exhibited internationally in Puerto Rico and Madrid, as well as New York and Washington, DC. Most recently, his work was in the Smithsonian's new Molina Family Latino Gallery inaugural exhibition ¡Presente! and has been included in university and private collections. Films he co-produced and co-directed, Hiding Place, Desert Poems, Jesus and Spanish Joe Remembers have been included in film festivals in DC, Berlin, the Netherlands, Madrid, Houston, Bethesda, Seattle and Milwaukee. Sami Miranda also manages programming for the American Poetry Museum and serves as its Executive Director.

Julie Moffit

A musician, writer, and teacher, Julie has many interests that are tied together by an earnest desire to know more about the world and a wonder at the beauty of nature. Her early musical works suggest a practical mysticism about and love for both the natural world and the natural world of humankind. Her books continue these themes and explorations. When she's not wearing one of these many hats, Julie practices Sound Healing in South Central Pennsylvania and spends time with her husband and their two kitties and a dog on their one-acre nature preserve.

Rachel Luann Strayer is a published and internationally produced playwright, director and theatre artist. Her first full-length play, Drowning Ophelia, was published in 2021 and has been performed across the US and internationally in Canada, Bulgaria, Serbia, and, most recently, at the prestigious Sibiu International Theater Festival in Romania. Her full-length plays include Songbird (Premiere Stages Finalist, Henley Rose Finalist), The Last Daughter (Jane Chambers Award for Feminist Playwriting Finalist), A Decameron for the Apocalypse, After Jane, and The Poe Asylum. Her most recent play, Laertes Dies Too, was a semi-finalist for both the 2025 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and the 2024 Premiere Stages Play Festival at Kean University. Laertes Dies Too receiving its first staged reading at The Container Globe in Detroit in 2025, followed by a local staged reading with the Lancaster Dramatists Platform in 2026. Rachel's short plays and monologues have been produced in the United States, Canada, and Norway, through companies like The Bechdel Group, BATS Theatre, The Femme Fatale Play Festival, and Creative Works of Lancaster. Her monologues Bloody Mary and The Bell Witch were performed as a part of Gretna Theatre's Whispers in the Dark in the fall of 2025. Rachel has an MFA in Creative Writing from Wilkes University. She currently teaches, directs, writes, and resides in Lancaster, PA, with her husband, Jonathan. www.RLStrayerWrites.com

Jeanette Trout started her writing life as a lonely child on her family's mountaintop property, just outside of Lewisberry, Pa. She spent much of her childhood, camped out under the trees with her books and imagination, and various pets in her lap.

She was a founding member of the Almost Uptown Poet's Cartel, a weekly reading series that ran for 30 years in the Harrisburg area.

In 2021 she founded the Blacklisted Poets of Harrisburg, and took over hosting the Thursday readings. They still read every Thursday night in the city.

She was also creator and host of the Poet's Cruise that held an annual reading on the Pride of the Susquehanna Riverboat at the close of each summer.

In 1998, she co-founded and published Experimental Forest poetry magazine with her husband. She has been published in Potomac Review, the New England Review, and several other journals throughout the years.

Stock Weinstock-Collins is a professor of chemistry/physics at HACC.

Xiaoqing Zhu, Ph.D. is a senior professor of Humanities and Art History at HACC.

Please contact Seth Martin with any questions at sdmartin@hacc.edu.