Category: Events

Esteemed Guests Offer Free Play to Honor MLK

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Dwandra Nickole Lampkin Rehearses for the Free MLK Play, 'The Conviction of Lady Lorraine'
Western Michigan University Associate Professor of Theatre Dwandra Nickole Lampkin
is the writer and actor behind “The Conviction of Lady Lorraine,” a free play
being presented Friday and Saturday at the Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College.

Two esteemed guests visited the senior seminar led by Kalamazoo College Professor of Theatre Arts Lanny Potts on Wednesday. It’s not unusual for him to bring in professionals that have something to offer his students, but Dwandra Nickole Lampkin and Dee Dee Batteast are special because they’re ready to present the at-large Kalamazoo community with a gift from their talents.

The Festival Playhouse will produce The Conviction of Lady Lorraine, a one-person show written and performed by Lampkin and directed by Batteast. The free play will be offered to the public Friday and Saturday as a part of K’s Martin Luther King Jr. week celebrations. Support for the production is provided by the Arts Fund of Kalamazoo County, a program of the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo.

Director Dee Dee Batteast with Projection Designer Angela Mammel and Theatre Arts Professor Lanny Potts at the Festival Playhouse
Director Dee Dee Batteast (left) prepares for “The Conviction of Lady
Lorraine,” a free play this weekend at the Festival Playhouse, with Projection
Designer Angela Mammel ’22 and Theatre Arts Professor Lanny Potts.
Batteast is an adjunct faculty member at Ball State University.

The play is set in Memphis near the Lorraine Motel where King was assassinated. A writer, played by Lampkin, has a brief but powerful encounter with a homeless woman, Lady Lorraine. The writer finds herself transformed by Lady Lorraine’s 20-year quest to right a social wrong. One year later, the writer returns to Memphis, hoping that Lady Lorraine will share her full story of conviction. The writer quickly finds herself asking new questions about many things, and discovers that Lady Lorraine is not the only one on a quest for recognition.

Lampkin connected with Potts when the two worked on a virtual production of The Conviction of Lady Lorraine through Farmers Alley Theatre in Kalamazoo, where they agreed it would be outstanding for the community to see.

“Every theatre has its own energy,” Lampkin said. “The moment I walked into the Festival Playhouse, I thought, ‘Oh yeah, this space feels good!’ The intimacy of that space is perfect for a one-person show. It allows me, the story-teller, to connect with the audience; in the way that larger space wouldn’t.”

Lampkin serves as an associate professor of theatre at Western Michigan University. Her career spans two decades with television credits that include Law & Order, Law & Order SVU, Third Watch and Wonderland. She has performed at the Tony-Award winning Denver Center Theatre, the Huntington Theatre in Boston, the Human Race Theatre Company in Dayton and the Indiana Repertory Theatre in Indianapolis. She received her Masters of Fine Arts from The National Theatre Conservatory.

Batteast is an adjunct faculty member with Ball State University’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program, where she teaches courses in beginning acting, auditioning, one-person shows and Shakespeare. She also coaches Ball State’s professional showcases in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. Her recent regional theater credits include work with the Clarence Brown Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, PlayMakers Repertory Company and Indiana Repertory Theatre. Her television credits include Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. She also has a Master’s of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Batteast and Lampkin are natural creative partners as they have known each other since Batteast was Lampkin’s student at Ball State.

“I’m 38, I’ve been through two degrees and this is the only person of color who has ever taught me theatre,” Batteast said, while gesturing toward Lampkin. “I’ve always been drawn to this person as a storyteller and thirsting for that person to teach me because she handles stories in a way that I understand, as she intrinsically looks like me. This is a collaboration that continually gives back. I’m still learning and that’s a gift.”

Lampkin was a short-list candidate for a faculty position at the University of Memphis when she visited, among other sites in the city, the Lorraine Motel. That’s when she got the idea to write The Conviction of Lady Lorraine, thanks to a woman she spotted on the corner.

“The moment I walked away from that corner, I knew that I wanted to tell her story,” Lampkin said. “They ended up offering me the teaching job at Memphis, but I turned them down because I realized that I was never meant to teach at University of Memphis. I believe I was put in that space for the sole purpose of crossing paths with this woman.”

Tickets for The Conviction of Lady Lorraine, which is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the Playhouse at 129 Thompson St., are available online. Please note that proof of vaccination and masks are required for admittance to the theatre.   

“We’re coming up to MLK Day, so just the idea that I can tell this story is personally significant because there are many themes that surround Martin Luther King Jr. and his life and legacy,” Lampkin said. “To be able to bring a show like this to K College and to the community of Kalamazoo at this time, is a blessing and a privilege. It’s a way for me to use my creativity to keep his legacy alive, and honor him and the celebration that surrounds his day.”

Duo to Help K Mark MLK Day

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Performance Duo In the Spirit
The performance duo In the Spirit celebrates the power of the word to connect,
uplift and transform. They will present “We Shall Not Be Moved: Stories and Songs
to Celebrate Resistance as a Form of Revolution” at 2 p.m. Monday, January 17.

A performance duo with more than 20 years of storytelling experience will provide Kalamazoo College students, faculty and staff with a livestream presentation to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Storyteller Emily Lansana and vocalist Zahra Baker form the Chicago-based partnership In the Spirit, which celebrates the power of the word to connect, uplift and transform. They will present “We Shall Not Be Moved: Stories and Songs to Celebrate Resistance as a Form of Revolution” at 2 p.m. Monday, January 17. The performance—sponsored by the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, Student Development and the Black Faculty and Staff Association—will celebrate dynamic leaders and everyday people who have contributed to changing our world, in addition to King’s commitment to social justice and radical change.

In the Spirit traditionally celebrates the Black experience using pieces that highlight significant moments in history. Their repertoire includes African and African American folktales, stories from history, inspirational stories, original tales and personal stories. The livestream will be viewable through Vimeo.

Free MLK-Week Show Opens Winter Theatre Events

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Students acting in theatre events
Kalamazoo College’s Festival Playhouse produced “Well-Intentioned
White People” last term. This winter, its theatre events include
two one-person productions and a satirical vignette about
Black cultural issues.

Make plans now to attend three theatre events during the winter term at Kalamazoo College, including two one-person productions and a satirical vignette about Black cultural issues. 

First, the Festival Playhouse will produce The Conviction of Lady Lorraine, written and performed by Dwandra Nickole Lampkin, and offer it free to the community as a part of K’s Martin Luther King Jr. week celebrations. Support for this production is provided by the Arts Fund of Kalamazoo County, a program of the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo.

Directed by Dee Dee Batteast, the January 14 and 15 play is set in Memphis near the Lorraine Motel where King was assassinated. A writer, played by Lampkin, has a brief but powerful encounter with a homeless woman, Lady Lorraine. The writer finds herself transformed by Lady Lorraine’s 20-year quest to right a social wrong. One year later, the writer returns to Memphis, hoping that Lady Lorraine will share her full story of conviction. The writer quickly finds herself asking new questions about many things, and finding that Lady Lorraine is not the only one on a quest for recognition. 

Lampkin serves as an associate professor of theatre at Western Michigan University. Her career spans two decades with television credits that include Law & Order, Law & Order SVU, Third Watch and Wonderland. She has performed at the Tony-Award winning Denver Center Theatre, the Huntington Theatre in Boston, the Human Race Theatre Company in Dayton and the Indiana Repertory Theatre in Indianapolis. 

Tickets for The Conviction of Lady Lorraine, which is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Playhouse at 129 Thompson St. both days, are available online. Please note that currently both proof of vaccination and masks are required for admittance to the theatre.   

Then, from February 10–13, Matthew Swarthout ’22 will undertake Sir Ian McKellen’s one-person show, Acting Shakespeare in this year’s Senior Performance Series. The show will encompass both Swarthout’s and McKellen’s insights into Shakespeare’s plays, featuring monologues and scenes from Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s dream, Hamlet, Macbeth and more. Watch the Festival Playhouse website for ticket information for the show at the Dungeon Theatre, 139 Thompson St.  

Finally, from February 24–27, a quick-witted comedy will follow in the Festival Playhouse’s 58th season themed “Black is Beautiful: An Ode to Black Life, Love and Strength.” BLACKS+PHATS will examine themes such as beauty ideals, relationship dynamics and levels of attraction while searching for enlightenment in stereotypes. Current K students are eligible to audition. Watch the Festival Playhouse website for ticket information. The show will take place in the Festival Playhouse at 129 Thompson St. 

Please observe the Festival Playhouse’s COVID-19 safety plan when enjoying productions this term. The plan follows current guidelines from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Michigan State Department of Health and Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Actors Equity Association (AEA). Find more information online about the safety plan and upcoming shows.  

Lecture to Address Ancient India’s Mahabharata

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Assistant Professor of Religion Sohini Pillai to Discuss the Mahabharata
Assistant Professor of Religion Sohini Pillai

Assistant Professor of Religion Sohini Pillai will represent Kalamazoo College at 9 a.m. Eastern time Sunday in a YouTube lecture titled “The Multiplicity of the Mahabharata Tradition” that she will present through Karwaan: The Heritage Exploration Initiative.

The initiative is an independent, student-led initiative based in India, which aims to revive the love for India’s heritage and history and inspire young minds. Throughout the pandemic, it has organized scholarly online lectures on Indian history, culture, art, literature, film and religion. 

The ancient Sanskrit Mahabharata (c. 300 BCE–300 CE) is a massive epic poem 15 times the length of the Bible that focuses on the war over the Bharata kingdom between two sets of paternal cousins in the royal Kuru family, the five Pandavas and the 100 Kauravas. Pillai said the Mahabharata has been presented as poems, dramas, ballads, novels, short stories, comic books, television shows, feature films, children’s fantasy series, podcasts, YouTube videos, social media posts and more.   

Pillai’s talk Sunday will illustrate the rich multiplicity of the Mahabharata tradition through the close examination of 12 renderings of a single Mahabharata episode that was created over a span of at least 2,000 years. She will focus on the most disturbing and popular scenes in the Mahabharata tradition, the attempted disrobing of Draupadi, the shared wife of the Pandavas, and the heroine of the epic.  

In May 2021, Pillai co-edited a volume with Nell Shapiro Hawley of Harvard University titled Many Mahabharatas, which was published by State University of New York Press. Some of the Mahabharatas she will discuss Sunday will be prominently featured in her current book project which is tentatively titled Krishna at Court: Devotion, Patronage and the Mahabharata in Premodern South Asia.

The talk will be available free of charge to the public at the Karwaan initiative’s YouTube channel.  

Begin Your Holiday Season with a Bach Festival Concert

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Stetson Chapel During a Bach Fest Holiday Season Concert
The Kalamazoo Bach Festival Chorale will perform in two holiday season concerts titled
Holidays with the Kalamazoo Bach Festival, including a virtual option, on Sunday,
December 5.

UPDATE: All in-person concerts are canceled on December 5. Bach Fest is moving to an all virtual live-stream only concert at 4 p.m. The concert will remain available on our YouTube Channel for 30 days after the initial concert. If you have already purchased in-person tickets, please check your inbox or junk folder for an email with more details about how you can exchange or get a refund for your ticket purchase.

Begin your holiday season with an annual concert featuring nearly 50 musicians including Kalamazoo College alumni, singers from the at-large community, professional musicians, and a great line-up of soloists.

The Kalamazoo Bach Festival Chorale will perform in two concerts titled Holidays with the Kalamazoo Bach Festival, including a virtual option, on Sunday, December 5. The ensemble, led by K Assistant Professor Chris Ludwa, unites people of diverse backgrounds and ages to provide them with the joy of making music, while exploring messages of hope, racial equity and inclusion.

The performances, a more than 50-year tradition, feature holiday music favorites, including carols from over two hundred years of music history, all performed in Stetson Chapel. Local favorites and special community guest artists will join in the two 70-minute shows, one at 2 p.m. and the other at 4 p.m. The 4 p.m. concert will also be available through a live stream.

Tickets are available online at prices from $5 to $29 for the in-person concert. The virtual broadcast will be available through YouTube for $19. For more information, call the Bach Festival ticket office at 269.337.7407.

Talk Offers Flavor of Artist’s Olfactory Work

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Olfactory artwork
Anicka Yi’s “Force Majeure,” 2017, is made out of Plexiglas, aluminum, agar,
bacteria, refrigeration system, LED lights, glass, epoxy resin, powder-coated
stainless steel, light bulbs, digital clocks, silicone and silk flowers. Yi has created
art containing olfactory effects.

An Asian American conceptual artist whose work includes a mix of fragrance, cuisine and science along with collaborations with biologists and chemists will be the subject of a Kalamazoo College faculty member’s presentation at noon on December 7 at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Art and Art History Eunice Uhm will discuss Anicka Yi, a Korean American artist, who has created memorable works of art that have famously contained olfactory effects. Uhm’s presentation will analyze how Yi’s work transgresses the boundaries that are established and sustained by the conventions of Western aesthetics to investigate the racialized and gendered politics of space. The presentation considers the deodorization of the museum in the context of a larger cultural and political process of deodorization in the U.S. that simultaneously excludes smell from aesthetic judgments and establishes aromatic phenomena to be “non-Western” or primitive. 

Born in 1971 in Seoul, Yi began working as an artist about 15 years ago after a career in fashion. Yi’s work has won her top honors, including the Guggenheim Museum’s $100,000 Hugo Boss Prize in 2016, which included an exhibition there the next year. Yi’s work elicits visceral sensorial responses in the visitor, demonstrating the subversive aesthetic possibilities of smell to underscore and negotiate biopolitics of race and gender. 

Uhm, who serves as a postdoctoral curatorial fellow at K and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, specializes in modern and contemporary art, with a transnational focus on the United States and East Asia. Her work examines the conditions of migration and the diasporic aesthetic subjectivities in the works of contemporary Japanese and South Korean art from the 1960s to the present. She has previously taught courses on modern and contemporary art, East Asian art, and Asian American studies at Ohio State University. She has organized panels and presented her work on Asian American art at national conferences.  

In-person and virtual tickets to Uhm’s presentation are available at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts’ website.  

International Percussion Highlights Music of Different Cultures

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Taiko drummers music concerts
The International Percussion concert scheduled for November 17 will feature K’s Taiko drummers
along with other international percussion groups.

Experience the music of different cultures at Kalamazoo College’s Dalton Theatre on Wednesday, November 17.

The Department of Music’s International Percussion ensemble will perform its fall concert, titled “Collage,” at 7 p.m. as it features a Caribbean steel drumming group with instructor Jean Raabe, a Japanese Taiko drumming group with instructor Carolyn Koebel and a West African drumming group with instructor Nathaniel Waller.

The ensemble unites individuals with varied musical backgrounds from K, nearby institutions and the general community. The concert is free and the public is invited. All attendees must wear masks to comply with the College’s COVID-19 policies.

For more information on this event and others sponsored by the Department of Music, visit music.kzoo.edu/events.

Fall Concerts Feature Jazz Band, Philharmonia

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Jazz Band Fall Concerts
Kalamazoo College’s Jazz Band performs at 8 p.m. Friday in Dalton Theatre in one of two fall
concerts this weekend.

Enjoy a return to in-person fall concerts this weekend by swinging and bopping on Friday and taking in a theme of transcendence on Saturday.

The ever-entertaining Kalamazoo College Jazz Band, directed by Professor of Music Thomas Evans, performs at 8 p.m. Friday in Dalton Theatre. Its free fall concert, titled “November Shadows,” will cover jazz styles including swing, bop, blues, hard bop, cool, Latin and fusion. The Jazz Band presents a concert each term and performs for the annual Burgers and Blues in the Quad in the spring. For Friday’s concert, feel free to bring your dancing shoes and boogie in the aisles.

At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Conductor and Music Department Chair Andrew Koehler will lead the Kalamazoo Philharmonia in its fall concert in Dalton Theatre. The performance will include “Fanfare on Amazing Grace” by Adolphus Hailstork, “Heiliger Dankgesang” by Ludwig van Beethoven, “Overture to The Wreckers” by Ethel Smyth and Symphony No. 3, “Sinfonia Espansiva” by Carl Nielsen. Tickets for this concert are available at the door. Adults are $5, students are $2 and K students are admitted free with a College ID.

The Philharmonia unites students, faculty, amateur musicians and professional musicians of a variety of ages to perform symphonic music. Having grown since its inception in 1990, the ensemble has been recognized as an arts organization of importance in greater Kalamazoo.

Attendees are required to wear masks at both performances. For more information on either of the fall concerts and the College’s music ensembles, visit music.kzoo.edu.

“Well-Intentioned White People” Runs Through Sunday

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Well-Intentioned-White-People-Poster
“Well-Intentioned White People,” runs Thursday
through Sunday at the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse.
A live stream will be available Friday night.

Is it possible for people who mean well to do more harm than good when it comes to race relations? Well-Intentioned White People, running Thursday through Sunday, examines this idea. It is the first production in the Festival Playhouse at Kalamazoo College’s 58th season themed “Black is Beautiful: An Ode to Black Life, Love and Strength.” All three plays—including Black+Phats in February and Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet in May—will feature Black playwrights telling Black stories.

In this play, college professor Cass wants to forget about experiencing an anti-Black hate crime while simply moving on with her life. Her white roommate and the dean of the university, however, push her to do something about it.

Suddenly, Cass is roped into planning an Equality Day and Unity Week while trying to convince her roommate not to plan a sit-in. Well-Intentioned White People explores how some people attempt to deal with discrimination not directed at them and how “well intentions” can be problematic.

“This play has a lot of heavy themes, wrapped up as a humorous political satire,” said Meaghan Hartman ’23, the play’s dramaturg. “It deals with the constant presence of racism at primarily white institutions and how white people attempt to cover it up, rather than digging into the root of the problems. It also forces its audience to think critically about racism on this college campus and the impact it has on our daily lives. This whole play shows us that meaning well is completely different from doing good.”

Cameo Green ’23 plays Cass in the main role. Addison Peter ’25 portrays Viv, Arman Khan ’24 plays Parker, Brooklyn Moore ’24 presents Dean Baker, and Mickie Wasmer ‘25 fills the role of Mara.

Tickets for Well-Intentioned White People, which will take place at the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse at 129 Thompson St., are available online. The presentations start at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday. A virtual live stream will be available with Friday’s show. A recording of the live stream then will be available until Sunday. Adults are $15, seniors are $10 and students are $5. K students and faculty and staff are free when an ID is presented. Audiences should expect mature language and situations within the play.

“We hope to start a larger and critical conversation about race and racism on campus and in the community,” Hartman said. “I hope that after seeing Well-Intentioned White People that the audiences, especially white people, are able to critically examine their own feelings about race.”

Concerts Offer Sweet Treats for Your Ears

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Image says Academy Street Winds, Thomas G. Evans Conductor, 8 p.m. October 29 at Dalton Theatre Fall Concerts
The Academy Street Winds will perform in one of two concerts
sponsored by the Kalamazoo College Department of Music this weekend.

Don’t just eat candy and trick or treat this weekend—enjoy something sweet for your ears when the Academy Street Winds performs a free fall concert at 8 p.m. Friday in Dalton Theatre. 

Audiences are encouraged, but not required, to wear costumes for “Trick or Tweet, a Howl-o-Ween Concert.” The Academy Street Winds is a wind ensemble providing a performance outlet for woodwind, brass and percussion students. Community musicians joined the ensemble in winter 2016 to expand the group’s sound and capabilities. 

The group, conducted by Music Professor Thomas Evans, performs one concert each term, playing exciting arrays of challenging band music. The ensemble’s programs are coordinated around diverse themes, which allow for performances of much-loved pieces, both classic and contemporary. 

In a bonus free performance, K’s music department will present “Music for Two Trumpets and Piano,” with trumpeters David Bernard and Keith Geiman, and pianist Tina Gorter at 7 p.m. Saturday at Dalton Theatre. 

The three formed their double trumpet and piano trio in 2019, and have been entertaining audiences with their diverse repertoire of music from living composers. After more than a year off, the trio has reunited to perform virtuosic trumpet and piano music. 

To comply with the College’s rules regarding indoor gatherings, please wear a mask to both concerts. For more information on concerts and other music department events, visit music.kzoo.edu.