Page 2 - Florida Sentinel 3-13-20

Feature
Author/Poet Was Inspired By ‘Love And Hate’ In Her Book Of Poetry
BY MONIQUE STAMPS Sentinel Feature Writer
Anyone who has been in love knows —– there is a thin line between love and hate. The Persuaders had a hit song about it in 1972 and Martin Lawrence made a hit movie about it in 1996.
Author and poet, Mary Love Dance knows about it, too. Her father had those two words tattooed on the webbing between his thumbs and fingers. The left hand had love and the right hand had hate. He got them while in the Army to separate his loving feelings from his fight- ing feelings. In addition to growing up with the last name Love, the poet states that those emotions are al- ways close to her.
Those words had a big impact on Dance. They nur- tured her sensitivity to feel- ings especially that thin divide between those two strong emotions.
In her book of poetry “Love and Hate,” Mary ex- plores these two emotions in depth. The book of poetry breaks down many forms of love and explores the ways that love can endure or turn into something darker. The deeply moving poetry in- vokes images of past, pres- ent, and future love. She explores the nature of love,
MARY LOVE DANCE Author of book ‘Love and Hate’
the evolution of love, and the cost of love.
She says her poetry is based on her experiences in her life, marriage, and career. In her work as an educator, watching parents and stu- dents interact often elicits powerful emotions. She says she can also be motivated by television or what she sees in everyday life.
When sparked by these flashes, Dance looks for a quiet place to write. How- ever, if the feelings are strong enough, she will stop what she is doing and write about them wherever she is. She has even written in her car when a particularly strong emotion moves her.
Growing up, she was a prolific reader and loved po- etry. The great Maya An-
gelou and her incredible works of poetry inspired Mary to start writing. She started seriously writing in middle school, but ended up tossing a lot of her early work, thinking that it wasn’t any good. She later started saving her work and plans to base another book of poetry on those writings. She also wants to write a series of chil- dren’s books with math as a focus.
Always the encourager and teacher, she advises young writers to never give up on their dreams. “The road may seem long and never-ending, but persevere to reach your goal because it is worth it.”
Mary Dance lives in Tampa with her husband, Warren. She is very close to their two adult sons, Marty and Richard, their wives, and her two grandchildren. She recently retired from the Hillsborough County School System. She is the past pres- ident of HABSE, is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Soror- ity, Inc., and The Tampa Chapter of The Links, Inc.
The book of poetry, Love And Hate can be purchased on Amazon or at https://au- thorhouse.com/en/book- store/bookdetails/744848-L ove-and-Hate.
District Closes Middle School For 48 Hours
Superintendent Jeff Eakins and Incoming Su- perintendent Addison Davis announced that Far- nell Middle School, in North- west Hillsborough County, will be closed Thursday and Friday, out of an abundance of caution,
The Florida Department of Health notified the school district that a person who regularly comes to the cam- pus had recent direct contact with someone who tested positive for coronavirus in another county. The contact was within the last six days.
This individual has ab- solutely no symptoms but, as man- dated by the health depart- ment, this person is now self-isolating and being as- sessed by the health depart- ment. This individual will not be allowed to return to the
school until cleared by the health department.
A spokesperson for the Hillsborough County School District said, “There is cur- rently no evidence that coro- navirus is in any of our schools. Our district has im- plemented several preventa- tive measures for all schools. Our custodial crews are pro- viding extra cleaning and dis- infecting for high-traffic areas and surfaces that are frequently touched.
“We also installed hand sanitizer dispensers on all school buses and at all dis- trict-operated schools' main entrances and cafeterias.”
The district will provide updates on our website, Hills- boroughSchools.org, where parents, students, staff and the community can find FAQ’s and other important information.
University Of South Florida Coronavirus Update
The University of South Florida announced Wednes- day evening several opera- tional changes, in light of continuing concerns about COVID-19 (coronavirus).
The health and wellness of students, faculty and staff is USF’s first priority as uni- versity leaders work closely with local, state and federal agencies to monitor the coronavirus.
As directed by the Florida Board of Governors, USF will join other state universi- ties in beginning to transi- tion all classes to remote instruction as soon as possi- ble. For USF, fully remote instruction will begin March 23, following next week’s spring break. This will con- tinue through at least April 5. Student support func- tions, such as counseling and advising, will continue remotely.
While classes are moving
to remote delivery, USF’s campuses will remain open and many normal university operations will continue, in- cluding Student Health Services and USF Health clinical operations. USF res- idence halls remain open, however students are en- couraged to remain off cam- pus during this time, if other reasonable accommodations are possible.
For the next 30 days, all university-sponsored events on campus, at other USF in- structional sites or off cam- pus will be postponed or canceled. USF Athletics events will be addressed in the near future.
USF will continue to eval- uate the situation and new guidance will be provided as needed. The university com- munity and public can con- tinue to check the website for the latest information and resources available.
PAGE 2-A FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2020