Music Concerts This Weekend Feature Students

Make plans today to attend three music concerts this weekend featuring Kalamazoo College students.

Music Concerts This Weekend
Music concerts from Friday, Nov. 10-Sunday, Nov. 12, include performances for the Kalamazoo College Jazz Band, the Kalamazoo College Singers and Chamber Choir, and the Kalamazoo Philharmonia.

8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10, at the Dalton Theatre: Directed by Thomas G. Evans, Kalamazoo College’s Jazz Band pulls together an eclectic collection of contemporary and classic jazz arrangements to provide the students participating and the audience members an electric experience. Find recordings of past performances such as “Count Bubba,” “The Chicken” and “The Last Dive” online.

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11, in the Light Fine Arts Building lobby: The Kalamazoo College Singers and Chamber Choir, partnering with the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, will present “Shattering Despair,” a multimedia concert experience featuring spoken words, songs, stories and special guests. Directed by Christopher J. Ludwa, the College Singers feature a mixed soprano, alto, tenor and bass choir, performing a diverse array of music.

4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 12, at the Dalton Theatre: The Kalamazoo Philharmonia will present “In Nature’s Realm,” a Mozart Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola featuring Jun-Ching Lin and Andrew Koehler. The ensemble brings together students, faculty, amateurs and professional musicians of all ages to perform great music. The group’s repertoire features dynamic, adventurous and thoughtfully-curated works.

For more information on any of these concerts, contact Susan Lawrence at 269-337-7070 or Susan.Lawrence@kzoo.edu.

Festival Playhouse Stages ‘Fun Home’

“Fun Home,” a Tony Award-winning musical adapted for the stage by Kalamazoo College alumna Lisa Kron ’83 and Jeanine Tesori from a best-selling graphic memoir of the same name, will be the Festival Playhouse’s first production of its 54th season.

Fun Home actors rehearse ahead of premiere
The musical has earned Tony awards for Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book, as well as the N.Y. Drama Critics Circle Award, Lucille Lortel Award, The Outer Critics Circle Award and the Off-Broadway Alliance Award.

K is the first college in the nation to present “Fun Home” and organizers expect each performance to sell out. The shows are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Nov. 2-4 and 2 p.m. Nov. 5 at the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse, 129 Thompson St., at the north end of the Light Fine Arts Building.

“Fun Home” tracks Alison Bechdel, a middle-aged cartoonist. Writing her memoir in the present, Alison actively combs her past, including life as a 10-year-old as well as a first-year college student, when she came out as a lesbian. She particularly struggles to piece together a truer version of her father, Bruce, who was in the closet, and his suicide.

The musical has earned Tony awards for Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book, as well as the N.Y. Drama Critics Circle Award, Lucille Lortel Award, The Outer Critics Circle Award and the Off-Broadway Alliance Award. It also was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship as well as numerous other grants, Kron teaches playwriting at Yale and also continues to work as an actress to great acclaim, most recently in the La MaMa production of Brecht’s “The Good Person of Szechwan.”

Tickets for all four shows are available by visiting festivalplayhouse.ludus.com/index.php or by calling 269-337-7333.

Adults are $15, seniors are $10 and students are $5 with an ID. Kalamazoo College students, faculty and staff are admitted free with their school ID.

This season’s Festival Playhouse theme is “Theatre and Making New Families,” reflecting stories of characters searching to make sense of their family’s past or trying to create a new vision of family all together. Learn more about “Fun Home” and the upcoming theatre season at reason.kzoo.edu/festivalplayhouse.

Alumni Return for Homecoming 2017

As many as 1,000 alumni from around the nation and world will gather on the Kalamazoo College campus Friday-Sunday for K’s annual Homecoming.

Topping the list Friday night will be the annual Distinguished Alumni Awards and Athletic Hall of Fame Inductions. And Hornet Pride will be on display at football, men’s soccer and women’s soccer games on Saturday, alumni volleyball, softball and baseball games on Friday and an alumni swim meet and 5k Run/Walk on Saturday.

Homecoming Welcomes Alumni Stetson Chapel
Kalamazoo College will conduct its annual Homecoming festivities Friday, Oct. 20-Sunday, Oct. 22.

Also among the Friday-Sunday events:

  • Reunions of the classes of 1967, 1972, 1977, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007 and 2012. There is also an informal gathering for the class of 2017.
  • Receptions and gatherings for groups including LandSea alumni, 1833 Society Young Alumni, Alumni of Color, the Emeriti Club, theatre arts alumni and athletics teams, plus a chance to socialize with faculty and staff in departmental receptions throughout the Weimer K. Hicks Student Center on Saturday morning.
  • Guided campus tours and opportunities to visit new facilities including the Fitness and Wellness Center, the Intercultural Center, the Hornet Golf Lab and revamped weight room at Anderson Athletic Center and the Batts Pavilion at the College’s Lilian Anderson Arboretum.
  • A student film festival, performances by Monkapult and Cirque du K.
  • A chance to sip hot chocolate and reminisce about campus experiences at Story Zoo around the Cavern Fire Circle next to Stetson Chapel.
  • Poetry readings honoring the late Conrad Hilberry, K’s former poet laureate.
  • Gatherings where alumni can offer advice and compare notes with current students.
  • Fun, games and treats with the Fresh Food Fairy.

You can still join the fun and renew connections with your classmates. Visit our homecoming website for a full schedule, details and registration information. And watch the College website, Facebook page and Twitter account (@kcollege) for photos and updates throughout the weekend.

 

Actresses Tomlin, Fonda Visit K, Raise Minimum-Wage Awareness

Actresses Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda
Actresses Lily Tomlin (left) and Jane Fonda (middle) discuss an initiative to raise the minimum wage of Michigan residents with Saru Jayaraman at the Arcus Center for Social Justice.

Two legendary, award-winning actresses – Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin – visited Kalamazoo College and the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL) on Tuesday to heighten awareness about an initiative to raise the minimum wage of Michigan residents.

ROC United, a restaurant workers and workers’ rights group, brought Fonda and Tomlin to K for the issue-focused, non-partisan event. ROC United is a winner of the 2013 Global Prize for Collaborative Social Justice Leadership and partner with the ACSJL.

Fonda and Tomlin, stars of the Netflix comedy series “Grace and Frankie,” are participating in a series of ROC United fundraising and public-education events in Detroit, Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor this week. Fonda and Tomlin will speak out about the need for One Fair Wage in Michigan, and the importance of amplifying the voices and perspective of those who work in the restaurant industry.

The Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York was initially founded in New York City by Fekkak Mamdouh and Saru Jayaraman after September 11, 2001, to support restaurant workers displaced as a result of the World Trade Center tragedy.

 

Convocation Launches New Academic Year

UPDATE: A chance of rain is pushing Convocation indoors this afternoon, Sept. 6. Join us in the gymnasium at Anderson Athletics Center.

Kalamazoo College will begin the 2017-18 academic year at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 6, with its annual Convocation ceremony for new students.

Convocation International Flag Ceremony at Kalamazoo College
Symbolic of the sustained presence and significant impact of an international focus on campus, Kalamazoo College enacts an international flag ceremony at Convocation, honoring the flags of the countries from which students come.

K will welcome 455 first-year students including 13 transfer students and 21 visiting international students at Convocation. New students come from 28 states including California, Texas, Illinois and New York, and 13 countries including Vietnam, China, Jamaica and Greece. Students of color from the U.S. make up more than 35 percent of the incoming class. Twenty percent of the incoming class will be the first in their families to attend college.

President Jorge G. Gonzalez, Provost Michael McDonald, Vice President for Student Development and Dean of Students Sarah Westfall, Chaplain Elizabeth Candido ’00, faculty, staff and student leaders will welcome new students and their families. Convocation will conclude with new students signing the Matriculation Book.

Erin Mazzoni ’07, the president of K’s Alumni Association Executive Board, will deliver the keynote address. At K, Mazzoni was an economics and business major with an environmental studies concentration. She played on the women’s tennis team and served as its captain. Her study abroad experience was at the London School of Economics.

Life after K has taken Mazzoni to London, New York and Washington, D.C., to pursue a career in finance. Through connections and friendships built with alumni while a student at K, Mazzoni joined the high-yield research group at Jefferies & Co. shortly after graduating. She next worked within the corporate finance team at Tory Burch, also supporting the Tory Burch Foundation, which promotes female entrepreneurship.

Mazzoni currently works at Under Armour in Baltimore, supporting the company’s product and merchandising teams. She also serves as a member of K’s Board of Trustees.

Learn the Ropes of Change Ringing at K

Michiganders’ lone opportunity to participate in an international event and learn the ropes of change ringing will be at Kalamazoo College. K will welcome the public into Stetson Chapel to see a demonstration of English change ringing on tower and hand bells by members of the Kalamazoo College Guild of Change Ringers at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 10.

Chapel Bell Change Ringing at Stetson Chapel
The Kalamazoo College Guild of Change Ringers, seen here during President Jorge G. Gonzalez’s inauguration in November 2016, will demonstrate English change ringing on tower and hand bells on Sept. 10 at Stetson Chapel.

The event, coordinated with similar events at some of the 50 towers in the United States and Canada through the North American Guild of Change Ringers, will include an explanation of change ringing and the history of K’s chapel bells. Change ringing provides mild aerobic activity and intellectual challenges. After several weeks of lessons and commitment to regular practice, almost anyone can become a ringer. This open day will provide those interested an introduction to a hobby with endless fascination and continuing challenges. All ages are welcome; minors must be accompanied by an adult.

In change ringing, bells are rung one after another in continuously changing sequences determined by mathematical rules, producing a cascading sound rather than traditional tunes. K’s change-ringing bells are the only ones of their kind in Michigan.

The tower at Stetson Chapel was empty for its first half-century. Professor Emeritus of Mathematics T. Jefferson Smith first had the idea that it might house a set of change ringing bells after learning to ring at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. After a study to determine whether the tower could withstand eight swinging bells weighing several hundred pounds each, college trustee Maynard Conrad raised funds to buy and install the bells. In 1983, the College’s sesquicentennial, President David Breneman gave the project the final go-ahead. The bells were cast at Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London and installed June 2, 1984, at K.

Each bell bears the college motto – Lux Esto, meaning “Be Light” – and is inscribed with a Biblical quotation and the name of a person associated with the college during its first century. Many people have learned to ring at K including students, faculty, staff, alumni and area residents. Stetson Chapel has been the site of many change ringing firsts and records, including the longest continuous ringing, or peal, in North America.

For more information on the event, contact Margaret Miller at 269-365-2823 or kzooringers@yahoo.com.

 

2017 Commencement Scheduled for Sunday

Kalamazoo College’s 2017 Commencement will take place at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 11, on the campus Quad. A total of 418 members of the class of 2017 will receive Bachelor of Arts degrees. A livestream will be available.

Kalamazoo College 2017 Commencement Speaker Kevin Lobo - Stryker Chairman and CEO
Stryker Corporation Chairman and CEO Kevin Lobo will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree and serve as the 2017 Commencement keynote speaker.

Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez will welcome graduates – along with about 2,500 family members and friends, faculty, staff, trustees, alumni and community members – in what will be his first commencement as president. This year’s class includes:

  • 263 Michiganders;
  • students from 33 states and 14 countries; and
  • 116 double majors and three triple majors.

The College departments graduating the most students are biology, business, chemistry and psychology.

Stryker Corporation Chairman and CEO Kevin Lobo, the 2017 Commencement keynote speaker, will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

Lobo joined Stryker in April 2011 and was named its chief executive officer Oct. 1, 2012. He was appointed chairman of the board July 22, 2014, and serves on the Board of Directors for Parker Hannifin Corp., a global leader in motion and control technologies.  He is also a board member of the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed), the Business Leaders for Michigan and United Way for Kalamazoo/Battle Creek regions, and is a member of the Business Roundtable.

Lobo has a broad business career that includes executive positions in general management and finance with organizations such as KPMG, Unilever and Kraft Canada. He spent eight years with Rhone-Poulenc, with roles based in Europe as worldwide corporate controller of the chemical spin-out Rhodia and general manager of Specialty Phosphates EMEA.  He then spent eight years at Johnson & Johnson, where he was the chief financial officer of McNeil Consumer Healthcare and Ortho Women’s Health & Urology, the president of J&J Medical Products Canada and president of Ethicon Endo Surgery.

Kalamazoo College 2017 Commencement Student Speaker
Kalamazoo College 2017 Student Commencement speaker Mireya Guzmán-Ortíz.

Graduating senior Mireya Guzmán-Ortíz, of Salem, Ore., will receive a B.A. degree in critical ethnic studies and serve as the student speaker. While at Kalamazoo College, Guzmán-Ortíz served as an Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership student fellow and served other students in the College’s Writing Center.

Graduating seniors Melissa Erikson, Alyse Guenther and Chido Chigwedere will speak at Baccalaureate at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 10, at Stetson Chapel. The Baccalaureate is a nondenominational service with student and faculty speakers and musical performances.

 

African Studies Lecture at K

African Studies Lecture with Saheed Aderinto
Saheed Aderinto

The African studies program at Kalamazoo College is sponsoring a lecture that is free and open to the public. Saheed Aderinto, Ph.D., will give a talk titled “Did a Gun Society Exist in Precolonial and Colonial Africa?” on Wednesday, May 3, 2017, at 4:30 p.m. in the Mandelle Hall Olmsted Room. Dr. Aderinto is a professor at Western Carolina University and author of the book, Guns and Society in Colonial Nigeria. Guns are an enduring symbol of imperialism, used to impose social order, create ceremonial spectacle, incite panic, or inspire confidence. In his book, Aderinto considers the social, political, and economic history of these weapons in colonial Nigeria, sharing insights into how colonialism changed access to firearms after the 19th century. He explores the unusual ways in which guns were used in response to changes in the Nigerian cultural landscape. More Nigerians used firearms for pastime and professional hunting in the colonial period than at any other time. The boom and smoke of gunfire even became necessary elements in ceremonies and political events. Aderinto argues that firearms in the Nigerian context are not simply commodities but are also objects of material culture. Considering guns in this larger context provides a clearer understanding of the ways in which they transformed a colonized society.

May Marcia Wood Exhibition Includes Silent Auction

May Marcia Wood Exhibition
Marcia Wood inspects “Prospect” prior to finishing stages. The sculpture is part of K’s campus.

The late Marcia Wood ’55 served Kalamazoo College as a professor in the art department from 1965 to 1998. She also was a renowned and award winning artist whose works appear throughout the country. An exhibition of her work, Marcia Wood: Monuments and Miniatures, will occur in the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo EPIC Center Gallery from May 5 through May 26, 2017.

According to Wood’s friend and former colleague, David Curl, who served as a visiting professor of Art at Kalamazoo College from 1989-2000, the exhibition will feature legacy work—various examples of Wood’s smaller sculptures, maquettes, and early paintings. Many of the items have been donated by the Wood family for sale by silent auction. Proceeds of the auction benefit the Marcia J. Wood Scholarship Fund at Kalamazoo College.

“Marcia touched and inspired many lives through her original work and 40-year career,” said Curl. “She conceived and executed sixteen large-scale public art sculptures that were installed in four states, as well as literally countless paintings and smaller sculptures. Her style was conceptually and symbolically representational, but reflected the abstract expressionism of the times.” One of her large-scale installations, Prospect, was commissioned to celebrate the College’s 1983 sesquicentennial and is located in front of the Light Fine Arts Building. In 1980 Wood received the Florence J. Lucasse Fellowship for Excellence in Scholarship, the highest award bestowed by the College’s faculty honoring contributions in creative work. In 1997 Wood was honored with the Governor’s Art Award from the Concerned Citizens for the Arts in Michigan.

Prices of the artwork donated for auction, according to Curl, are not expected to approach “gallery” levels; only to reflect the maximum that each buyer is willing to commit to the scholarship fund. Online bidding will end as of the close of the EPIC Center exhibit on May 26, 2017, but bids entered by the exhibit opening on May 5, 2017 will be posted during the exhibition to encourage further bids from gallery visitors. “This silent auction of some of her lesser known work,” Curl says, “is a rare opportunity to continue Marcia’s legacy through contributing to her scholarship fund, and a last chance to acquire for your own collection a unique artifact of art history.”

The website is sponsored and supported solely by Curl, as agent for the Wood family, and is not connected directly to the College, to the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, The Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo, or to any other entity. All proceeds from online and gallery sales will go entirely to the Marcia J. Wood Scholarship Fund at Kalamazoo College. By bidding, you agree that your contact information will be used only for communication about your bid, to notify you if you submit a winning bid by close of this online auction at midnight Friday, May 26, 2017, and to arrange for payment and for pick-up or shipment of your purchase(s).

“I’m grateful to all who browse these few remaining items from her legacy work,” says Curl, “and to all those who purchase one in her honor, and attend her exhibitions!”