I danced a hybrid of tap and pure abandon to every kind of music-James Brown, Scott Joplin, The Rolling Stones. I had tap shoes, and I danced complicated steps all over the kitchen floor, trying to remember my childhood lessons. The reading was the last sessions of the James and Marilou Kelly Writers Series for this semester. A large crowd gathered to support a professor that has influenced and touched their lives. The applause of friends, students, colleagues, and family faded as Bean stood before the crowd with a toothy grin on her face, ready to begin.
Bean teaches creative writing classes in the English.
And if you have her as a teacher you experience that relationship. The numerous students that Bean has taught are not the only people she has influenced. Bean has affected fellow faculty members who she has worked with over the years as well. There was a genuine affection in the introduction to the reading by colleague Tom Chiarella that culminated in a fantastic embrace of the two friends. She proves that you can teach and write at the same time.