Professor of Theatre Arts Ed Menta, who also directs Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College, gives a shout-out to the 5th Annual Kalamazoo Improv Festival. Festival activities take place on May 10 and 11. Friday, May 10, features four shows (6PM, 8PM, 10PM, and 11:30 PM). Saturday offers two workshops (1PM and 4PM) and two shows (8PM and 10PM). All shows and workshops will be at Farmers Alley Theatre. More information and ticket reservation are available online, for call the Farmers Alley box office at 269.343.2727.
Category: Events
Washington March Culminates in Campus Event
Kalamazoo College sophomore Mariah Hennen, a member of MiRA, an advocacy program of the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Institute for Service-Learning, organized 13 Kalamazoo College students to attend the National March for Immigration Reform on April 10. Those 13 students will be part of a special campus event called “What is Immigration Reform?” That event features a keynote address by Susan Reed. Reed has practiced immigration and immigrant rights law since 2003. She has also served as a staff attorney at Farmworker Legal Services of Michigan and as a regional attorney for Justice for Our Neighbors, the immigration legal services program of the United Methodist Committee on Relief. Her particular interests include the intersection of family and immigration law, the rights of unaccompanied immigrant children, immigrant eligibility for public benefits and programs, and civil rights matters. Reed is Secretary of the Steering Committee for the Michigan Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and co-chairs the Advocacy Committee of the Michigan Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. She has served as an adviser to several State Bar of Michigan committees and initiatives. Her research and commentary has been published in Clearinghouse Review among other publications. “What is Immigration Reform?” will occur Wednesday, April 17, at 4 PM in Dewing Hall Room 103.
Kalamazoo College Will Host a Ceremonial Groundbreaking for New Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership
EDITOR′S NOTE: DUE TO RAIN, THE GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY WILL BE MOVED INDOORS TO LOUNGE OF TROWBRIDGE HALL, IMMEDIATELY TO THE EAST OF TROWBRIDGE LANE.
Kalamazoo College will host a ceremonial groundbreaking for its new Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership on Friday, April 19, at 4:30 p.m. The ceremony is open to the public and will take place on the construction site located at the corner of Academy St. and Monroe St. on the K campus. Attendees are asked to gather on Trowbridge Lane that runs south off Academy St. along the east side of the construction site.
K students, faculty, staff, alumni, and board members will participate in the ceremony along with representatives of Chicago-based Studio Gang Architects.
An Arcus Center staff member and Studio Gang architect will discuss the building’s use and design in the lobby of Upjohn Library Commons at the corner of Academy St. and Thompson St., at 12:15 and 3:00 p.m. on the day of the groundbreaking ceremony. On display will be architectural drawings, a 3D model, and a sample section of the distinctive wood masonry siding planned for the building.
Construction for the single-story, 10,000 sq. ft. building began in late fall 2012 with contractor Miller-Davis Company of Kalamazoo. The building is scheduled to be completed in late winter 2014 at a cost of approximately $5 million—paid through a generous gift from K alumnus and trustee Jon Stryker.
Upon completion, the Center will be the world’s first purpose-built structure for social justice leadership development and will support the College’s mission in multiple ways. It will feature study, meeting, and event space where students, faculty, visiting scholars, social justice leaders, and members of the public will come together to engage in scholarship, dialog, and activities aimed at creating a more just world.
The Center is sited to engage its three immediate contexts—the K campus, a residential neighborhood, and an old-growth grove of trees—by drawing their topography into the building and outwardly projecting the activities taking place within through transparent façades.
The gently curving walls connecting these façades are constructed with wood masonry, a low-carbon, highly insulating building method traditional to the upper Midwest, updated to respond to the needs of a contemporary institutional building for the first time. A LEED Gold rating is targeted.
The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership was launched in 2009 with support from the Arcus Foundation (www.arcusfoundation.org), including a $23 million endowment grant in January 2012. Supporting Kalamazoo College’s mission to prepare its graduates to better understand, live successfully within, and provide enlightened leadership to a richly diverse and increasingly complex world, the new social justice center will develop new leaders and sustain existing leaders in the field of human rights and social justice.
Kalamazoo College (www.kzoo.edu), founded in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1833, is a nationally recognized liberal arts college and the creator of the K-Plan that emphasizes rigorous scholarship, learning by practice, leadership development, and international and intercultural engagement. Kalamazoo College does more in four years, so students can do more in a lifetime.
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Tuesday April 9 at Kalamazoo College
Baseball v. Holy Cross College (double header)
2 PM, Homer Stryker Field
Men’s Tennis v. Hope College
4 PM, Stowe Stadium
Territories of the Breast
6 PM, Connable Recital Hall, Light Fine Arts
Film screening with filmmaker Sonia Baez-Hernandez
Visiting Fellow, Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership
The film traces Sonia Baez-Hernandez’s experiences after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001. She interviews four other Latina and African American breast cancer survivors. The film interweaves their journeys and discloses the complexities of medical access and choices, and the process and meaning of becoming women. Honest, heartfelt, hopeful.
Ms Baez-Hernandez will be present and take questions from the audience.
How Did Civil Rights Happen In Kalamazoo?
7 PM, Olmsted Room, Mandelle Hall
Oral history interviews and discussion with Phyllis Seabolt, Cal Street, Charles Warfield and James Washington, Sr. Sponsored by students in the Kalamazoo College Senior Seminar “Building the Archive: James Baldwin and His Legacy” in partnership with Southwest Michigan Black Heritage Society.
La Fiesta Desi Soul 2013
What better way to fend off winter blues than to celebrate the ethnic diversity of Kalamazoo College’s student body? In February a number of ethnic student organizations joined the Office of Student Involvement to host and organize the 4th annual La Fiesta Desi Soul (LFDS) event. Student organizations–including the Black Student Organization (BSO), the Caribbean society, Kalama-Africa, K-Desi, the Asian Pacific Islander Student Association (APISA), the Latino Student Organization (LSO), and the Young Persian Society–have helped turn this into the biggest Zoo After Dark event.
The event’s origins trace back to Fall of 2008, according to the Assistant Director of Student Involvement Kate Elizabeth-Leishman Yancho. It was sponsored at that time by BSO, LSO, and K-Desi. “Compared to the first time when the event took place in the Welles Dining Hall with a relatively smaller crowd, the event has become one of the most highly attended events on campus”, says Yancho. Furthermore, LFDS won the award for the 2011 Outstanding Campus Collaboration by the National Association of Campus Activities (NACA).
Participating student organizations put up visuals, serve different dishes (catered by Sodexo) and sponsor interactive games for everybody. Sashae Mitchell ‘14, the president of the Caribbean Society, said the purpose of this event is to “share aspects of the culture of the ethnic student groups through music, food, dance, and fun activities.” Mitchell added that she would like to see “more students attend the event so that it outgrows Hicks!” When asked about the future goals for LFDS, Brittany King-Pleas ‘13, president of BSO, said she hopes “the educational component continues to expand and the members of the committee work together to create a bit of cohesion amongst themselves.”
Kalamazoo College Raises Curtain on 50th Anniversary of Festival Playhouse
Kalamazoo College lifts the curtain early for the 50th anniversary season of its celebrated Festival Playhouse theatre arts program. Although the anniversary takes place during the 2013-14 academic year, the celebration begins May 16-19 with the staging of Into the Woods, the groundbreaking musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, produced in collaboration with the K Department of Music.
“Our history is so rich and our celebration events so numerous, we had to start this spring in order to do it justice,” said longtime Professor of Theatre Arts and Festival Playhouse Director Ed Menta, who will stage the show. “And we are thrilled to start the celebration with Sondheim’s masterpiece.”
Into the Woods will be performed in the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse on Thursday May 16 at 7:30 p.m., Friday May 17 and Saturday May 18 at 8:00 p.m., and Sunday May 19 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $15/Adults, $10/seniors and $5/students.
Professors of Music Tom Evans and James Turner will serve as musical and vocal directors, respectively.
This Tony, Drama Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Award winning show “helped change the ‘American Musical,’” Evans said. “Sondheim shows are special. They combine in the most masterful way, music, lyrics, and plot. Perhaps what I like most about his work is his ability to create multilevel meanings simultaneously.”
Into the Woods features memorable songs such as “Giants in the Sky,” “Agony,” and “Children Will Listen” sung by iconic characters such as Jack (of Beanstalk fame), Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Cinderella.
“And it puts a contemporary twist on the timeworn fairy tale ending,” Menta said, “What happens the day after they all lived happily ever after?”
Kalamazoo College Professor of Theatre Arts Nelda K. Balch established the first season of Festival Playhouse—with generous support from the Dorothy U. Dalton Foundation—in 1963-64, with a schedule of groundbreaking modern dramas such as Max Frisch’s The Firebugs, Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, and a revival of Balch’s own 1958 production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (the first time a college in the United States had produced this landmark Absurdist play).
Beginning this spring and running through the 2013-14 season, the College will celebrate and renew the original goals and spirit of Festival Playhouse with events that include: the grand re-opening of the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse; the return of internationally known performance artist and K alumna Holly Hughes ’77; “An Evening of Kalamazoo College Theatre Alumni Scenes;” a season of three classics of Modern Drama, including Strindberg, Ibsen, and a restaging of a rarely produced early Absurdist comedy from the original Festival Playhouse season staged by professional director and K alumna Nora Hauk ’04; a special “Talkback” series led by K theatre alumni; and much more.
“From the beginning, Festival Playhouse sought to produce provocative and thoughtful theatre by combining the talents of K students, members of the greater Kalamazoo community, and professional artists,” said Ed Menta.
“The 50th anniversary season will live up to that standard.”
Dates, locations, and more details about the 50th anniversary season of Festival Playhouse at Kalamazoo College can be found by visiting www.kzoo.edu/theatre.
Kalamazoo College (www.kzoo.edu), founded in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1833, is a nationally recognized liberal arts college and the creator of the K-Plan that emphasizes rigorous scholarship, experiential learning, leadership development, and international and intercultural engagement. Kalamazoo College does more in four years so students can do more in a lifetime.
Author will speak at K about journalism and fiction
Author and former New York Times reporter Amy Waldman will visit Kalamazoo College on March 6 to discuss the balance between journalism and fiction writing.
Waldman is the author of “The Submission,” a fictional novel about controversy surrounding a 9/11 memorial in New York. After a jury panel selects a design from an anonymous architect, they learn he is a Muslim. The revelation triggers both fury and ambivalence in New York City and beyond.
“The Submission,” Waldman’s first published novel, is the 2013 Reading Together book for the city of Kalamazoo.
Waldman worked for the New York Times for eight years. She was also a national correspondent for The Atlantic. Her fiction has been published in The Atlantic, Boston Review and the Financial Times and was anthologized in “The Best American Non-required Reading 2010.”
Waldman will speak from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Connable Recital Hall, Light Fine Arts Building, on the K campus. The event is free and open to the public.
Public Art and Artistic Truth Lecturer at K
Kalamazoo College will host two public lectures on “Artistic Truth” and “Public Art” by Lambert Zuidervaart, Ph.D., professor of philosophy at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto and a member of the graduate faculties in theology and philosophy at the University of Toronto. He was recently appointed Director of ICS’s Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics. His recent books include Art in Public (2011), Dog-Kissed Tears (2010), Social Philosophy after Adorno (2007), and Artistic Truth (2004).
On Thursday Feb. 28, his topic will be “Artistic Truth.” On Friday March 1, his topic will be “Public Art.” Both lectures take place in the Olmsted Room, in Mandelle Hall, at the corner of Academy and Thompson streets on the K campus. Free and open to the public, the lectures start at 8:00 p.m. Call (269) 337-7076 for more info.
Zuidervaart is a recognized expert in critical theory, especially the work of Theodor Adorno. His research and teaching range across continental philosophy, hermeneutics, social philosophy, and philosophy of art, with an emphasis on Kant, Hegel, Marx, Heidegger, Gadamer, and Habermas. He is currently developing a comprehensive and transformative conception of truth, in debate with prominent philosophers in both analytic and continental traditions.
Before moving to Toronto in 2002, Zuidervaart was a professor of philosophy at Calvin College for 17 years and served as board member and president of the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts.
K Honors Extraordinary Student Leaders
Leadership development is part of the mission of Kalamazoo College, and gains in leadership capability for every student is one of K’s goals. Each year the College recognizes extraordinary leadership–leaders’ leaders, so to speak–with the annual Senior Leadership Recognition Award.
The 30 seniors honored this year serve as student organization leaders, athletic team captains, student housing resident assistants, peer leaders, departmental student advisors, teaching assistants, literacy tutors, civic engagement scholars, career advisors in the Center for Career and Professional Development, and peer advisors for the Center for International Programs.
Their leadership has benefited fellow students and members of the Kalamazoo community, and their work has contributed to the achievements of organizations such as Helping Youth through Personal Empowerment, the First-Year Experience Program, Farms to K, Student Commission, the Chapel Program, Student Activities Committee, K-Crew, Community Advocates for Parents and Students, the Writing Center, Jewish Student Organization, LandSea, Black Student Organization, Frelon Dance Company, Gospel Choir, Kalamazoo Outing Club, OrangeZest, Asian and Pacific Islander Student Association, and Model United Nations, among others.
The 2013 Senior Leaders are (l-r): front row–Kathleen Barrett, Marjorie Toshach, Allison Liddane, Brittany King-Pleas, Eric Glanz, Darwin Rodriguez; second row–Monika Egerer, Charles Weber, Mary Goyings, Hannah Gray, Eeva Stout-Sharp, Bianca Rasho, Yongle Wang, Grace Kelley, Shoshana Schultz-Purves; third row–Michael Hicks, Caitlin McCarthy, Moriam Aigoro, Elizabeth Vincensi, Craig Isser, In Hae Sohn, Samantha Gross; back row–Melissa Sparow, Lauren Rosenthal, Bradley Merritt, Ian Flanagan, and Angiola Gabriel. Not pictured are Cierra Gillard, Mara Livezey, and Margaux Reckard.
K Declares!
It almost eclipsed Valentine’s Day! And one could think of it as an academic love story. Tuesday, February 12, was the long-awaited Declaration of Majors (DOM) day held in the Fine Arts Building. Three hundred and thirty seven sophomores gathered to declare and celebrate an academic track of their choosing for the next two and a half years. Scores of faculty members along with their department student advisors eagerly waited at their booths during the lunch hour to answer questions and assist with declaration forms. “This event officially welcomes sophomores to the academic curriculum of Kalamazoo College,” says Lesley Clinard, assistant director of academic advising and institutional support. “It’s a fun time that has become a rite of passage because of the cake and ‘I declared…’ stickers.” DOM makes a difference in academic focus before spring course registration. Most students expressed excitement; a few called it “anticlimactic” and “not a big deal.” Assistant Professor of Classics Elizabeth Manwell says DOM is “an opportunity for sophomores to feel special. Moving forward,” she adds, “students begin thinking about their future courses and all the pieces of the K-plan.” Tristan Kiel, department student advisor of Computer Science, thinks being a sophomore is difficult because class workloads pick up. “But DOM brings together the diverse spectrum of sophomores, and they own and enjoy this momentous occasion,” he says. (Story and photo by Sameen Haque ’14)