Kalamazoo College is again drawing national attention for its quality in higher education with three national publications—Forbes, Washington Monthly and Money—ranking the institution among the top colleges and universities in the country.
Forbes placed K as the top private school in Michigan and listed it third in the state overall through the 2026 America’s Top Colleges list. That recognition places the College No. 153 in the country regardless of size, location or public/private status. The business, finance and investing publication emphasized return on investment, alumni success, graduation rates, post-graduation debt and student outcomes in selecting the 500 institutions honored. Forbes also ranked K 46th among the nation’s top schools with fewer than 4,000 students and credited the College on its list of 25 private schools that award generous financial aid.
K is featured on two lists through Washington Monthly, finishing 30th on both: TheBest Liberal Arts Colleges for Your Tuition (and Tax) Dollars and Best Bang for the Buck Colleges (Midwest). Washington Monthly editors have touted their lists of top colleges as an antidote to the U.S. News & World Report rankings. U.S. News heavily considers factors such as colleges’ reputations, wealth and their students’ SAT scores, which are often correlated with the income of students’ families. In comparison, Washington Monthly’s rankings are meant to measure accessibility, affordability and commitment to certain social ideals, with data points including colleges’ voter-registration rate and the percentage of degrees they award in fields such as health and education.
Forbes, Washington Monthly and Money are honoring Kalamazoo College among the top national institutions of higher education.
Money revamped its Best Colleges in America ranking system two years ago into a star-ratings list. Of the 2,400 institutions the publication analyzed in 2025, 732 four-year public and private nonprofit institutions—including K—received at least a two-star rating based on 25 factors such as graduation rates, cost and what alumni can expect to earn. With three and a half stars, this is the third consecutive year K has been among the institutions ranked by Money.
Cristin Reid, Chair and CEO of Capitol National Bank in Lansing, Michigan, will deliver the keynote address at Kalamazoo College’s 2025 Convocation on September 11 at 3 p.m.
Reid, a 1990 graduate of Kalamazoo College, has built a distinguished career spanning finance and law. Her early work in the legal field led to her appointment as counsel for a newly formed bank holding company led by her family; today, she serves as chair and CEO of that company, Capitol National Bank, where her leadership has been recognized nationally and statewide. Under her guidance, the bank was named a top five finalist in the country for “Extraordinary Bank of the Year” and was ranked by S&P Global in the top 100 banks in the country based on 2023 and 2024 performance. Reid was recognized by American Banker at the 2024 Most Powerful Women in Banking Gala and that year she and Capitol National Bank also were selected for the Influence and Impact Award in the Greater Lansing Entrepreneurial Awards. In 2025, she was named a Notable Leader in Finance by Crain’s Detroit Business.
In addition to her role at Capitol National, Reid is managing director of Access BIDCO, a regulated financial organization that delivers both financing and management consulting to small businesses, primarily across Michigan. She has served on the board at Access since 1994.
Cristin Reid ’90, the chair and CEO of Capitol national Bank in Lansing, Michigan, will deliver the 2025 Convocation keynote address at 3 p.m. Thursday, September 11, on the Quad at Kalamazoo College.
Her commitment to economic inclusion and community vitality also extends into the nonprofit sector. Reid is the founder of the Capitol Foundation, which offers immediate gap financing to small businesses and individuals who do not qualify for traditional bank loans. Since its start, the foundation has returned over $1.2 million back to the community. She serves on several boards, including the Lansing Economic Area Partnership Board and the Michigan Bankers Association Board.
Reid holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Kalamazoo College, a juris doctor from the University of Toledo College of Law and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
Convocation marks the start of the academic year and formally welcomes the matriculating class of 2029 into the Kalamazoo College community. President Jorge G. Gonzalez, Vice President for Student Development J. Malcolm Smith, Provost Danette Ifert Johnson, Director of Admission Shannon Milan, Chaplain Elizabeth Candido, the Convocation speaker, faculty, staff and President’s Student Ambassadors will welcome students and their families. All students, families, faculty and staff are invited to attend in person or via livestream.
When prospective families weigh the return on investment of a college education, they can rest assured that Kalamazoo College provides one of the best values in the U.S., according to the Princeton Review.
For the fourth consecutive year, the education services company has included K on its Best Value Colleges list, placing the institution among the top 209 in the country for 2025 regardless of size, location or private/public status. K is one of just five Michigan institutions overall and two privates to receive the honor.
Although schools are not ranked individually, K was selected as a best value based on 40 data points that calculate ratings based on academic offerings, costs, financial aid, career services, graduation rates and student debt. The Princeton Review also considers student surveys and PayScale.com reviews of alumni salaries. K received an overall ROI score of 90 out of 99 with additional high marks for its accessible faculty at 92, interesting professors at 92 and financial aid at 91.
K’s profile at the Princeton Review website features student surveys that describe building “personal relationships with their peers and professors” at “a campus run by and for the students.” The flexible curriculum encourages students “to explore exactly what they want to learn,” while K’s alumni are easy to contact and have a strong culture of support for current students.
For the fourth year in a row, Kalamazoo College has been rated among the nation’s best values by the Princeton Review, an education services company.
“The schools on our Best Value Colleges list this year are truly exceptional,” Princeton Review Editor-in-Chief Rob Franek said. “They offer outstanding academics and excellent career services. They also demonstrate extraordinary commitments to affordability via generous financial aid and/or comparatively low sticker prices. We commend them for all that they do to help students afford to attend them and we recommend them highly to college applicants.”
For more information on the Princeton Review’s methodology, visit its website.
Six Kalamazoo County high school students seeking to major in STEM-related fields will attend Kalamazoo College in the 2025-26 academic year as Heyl scholars.
The Heyl Scholarship Fund was established in 1971 through the will of Dr. Frederick Heyl and Mrs. Elsie Heyl. Frederick Heyl was the first chemist at The Upjohn Company, later becoming a vice president and the company’s first director of research. When he retired in 1945, he had contributed scientifically to about 80 research papers and patents while also teaching chemistry at Kalamazoo College. He maintained a lifelong passion for science and education and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from K in 1937.
Since then, Heyl scholarships have enabled hundreds of high school graduates from Kalamazoo County to attend Kalamazoo College for STEM-focused majors or Western Michigan University for nursing, with renewable benefits for up to four years that cover tuition, fees, housing and a book allowance.
This year’s K recipients of the scholarships and their high schools are:
Methmi Amaratunga, Portage Central and the Kalamazoo Area Mathematics and Science Center (KAMSC)
Stephanie Castillo, Kalamazoo Central
Eiden Jonaitis, Loy Norrix and KAMSC
Dewen Luo-Li, Portage Central and KAMSC
Gwendolyn MacEwen, Portage Central and KAMSC
Kaljona Thanmanavar, Kalamazoo Central and KAMSC
The 2025 Heyl scholars include (back row from left) Fiona Braun, Kaljona Thanmanavar, Margaret Winter and Gwendolyn MacEwen. Front row from left: Stephanie Castillo, Eiden Jonaitis, Methmi Amaratunga and Dewen Luo-Li.
Two additional Heyl scholars—Fiona Braun of Loy Norrix and Margaret Winter of Parchment and KAMSC—will attend the Western Michigan University Bronson School of Nursing.
The Kalamazoo College Singers will present the Michigan premiere of Hymnody of Earth, a song cycle composed by musician and choral director Malcolm Dalglish, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 20, at K’s Stetson Chapel, 1200 Academy St.
The composer himself will play the virtuosic hammered dulcimer and will be joined by International Percussion Ensemble Director Carolyn Koebel on percussion. Associate Professor of Music Chris Ludwa will be conducting the 45-voice college choir.
This 70-minute program features 19 songs, many of which are inspired by eco-poet Wendell Berry. This is the fourth time Ludwa has directed the piece, having previously led three performances in Indiana. He notes that the work is an all-time favorite among participating singers and audiences.
Hymnody features the hammered dulcimer, an ancient instrument, often considered an ancestor of the piano, that has been popular in various cultures, including in the Middle East and Europe. Dalglish and Koebel are performing the piece with several other choirs in the Midwest this spring.
While a music education student at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Dalglish designed and built more than 60 hammer dulcimers. He was a founding member of the popular folk trio Metamora and has nine albums, including solo offerings on the Windham Hill label. The American Boychoir, the St. Olaf Choir, the Indianapolis Children’s Choir and others have commissioned his folk-inspired music. In 1997, he formed the Oolites, an engaging young group of folk singers. Hymnody of Earth was their second CD; it is a spiritual celebration of nature that has been performed by choirs around the world.
The Kalamazoo College Singers are a mixed soprano, alto, tenor and bass choir.
Composer Malcolm Dalglish
Associate Professor of Music Chris Ludwa serves as the director of the Kalamazoo College Singers.
International Percussion Director Carolyn Koebel
“Dalglish’s songs are instantly accessible to anyone, yet somehow speak to the deepest part of our being on a soul level,” Ludwa said. “I’ve encountered few composers that can move both the skeptic and the most devout in the same way. His music is a balm to the weary human as he knits ancient musical traditions, texts that magically describe the magnificence of nature, and melodic and harmonic material that sends shivers up the spine and brings tears to the eyes.”
Tickets will be available at the door for a suggested donation of $15. For more information, contact Ludwa at 231-225-8877 or cludwa@kzoo.edu.
Something big, green and hungry is taking root at Kalamazoo College this week with Mo Silcott ’27 and Lee Zwart ’27 bringing it to life. The two will provide the puppetry behind the Audrey II, a giant plant with a taste for trouble, in the dark musical comedy Little Shop of Horrors, presented by the Festival Playhouse May 15–18.
In the play, Seymour—a wallflower of an assistant at Mr. Mushnik’s plant shop—desires Audrey, a beautiful co-worker who dates a sadistic dentist. After a sudden solar eclipse, Seymour finds a mysterious plant that looks like a Venus fly trap and names it the Audrey II.
Despite Seymour’s best efforts, Audrey II sickens until Seymour pricks his finger on a thorn, causing the plant to hungrily open its pod. Business begins to blossom for the shop as the bloodthirsty Audrey II grows like a weed. The situation, however, seeds problems, forcing Seymour to nip them in the bud. Max Goldner ’27 portrays Seymour, James Hauke ’26 plays Mr. Mushnik, Sophia Merchant ’25 performs as Audrey, and Drew Oss ’28 presents Orin the Dentist.
Sophia Merchant ’25 portrays Audrey and Max Goldner ’27 plays Seymour in “Little Shop of Horrors Thursday–Sunday at the Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College. Audrey II puppet provided by Cameron McEachern.
“Little Shop has always been one of my favorite shows, and I think the plot speaks to a lot of Americans’ current situation, whether that be in the same sense as Seymour or not,” Silcott said. “We might want to get out of a bad spot, to be somewhere that isn’t the harsh reality we find ourselves in during our day-to-day life. Little Shop gives the audience a chance to laugh at that a little bit and digest those realities in a show that manages to take itself seriously while also finding places for laughter.”
Bringing the botanical behemoth to life is no small feat, but Silcott and Zwart are up for the challenge. The Festival Playhouse is renting the puppets with Silcott performing as the smaller Audrey II in the first act and Zwart performing as the full-grown beast in the second act.
“One of the biggest challenges of performing the role of Audrey II is having to sit still on stage for about 25 minutes,” Silcott said. “Most of my acting consists of me sitting idly, and I didn’t realize how hard it is to actually just sit in one position with a full costume on, one that is stuffed with extremely warm materials. It’s very difficult to not move in a puppet that is a lot of fun to operate.”
Zwart potentially faces an even bigger challenge, wearing a harness that allows him to operate an upper and a lower pod of the Audrey II plant: He faces a full-body workout while synching his movements with an offstage voice.
“It’s physically taxing,” Zwart said. “I have to maneuver all of myself around to move this puppet and it’s pretty heavy and hot.”
After weeks of such exertion, Zwart is looking forward to opening night.
“It’s always fun to practice a play just running through it, but hearing the audience laughing and clapping is really very rewarding, especially for a play that’s as over the top as Little Shop.”
The student-led production promises big vocals, bold costumes and plenty of leafy-green surprises, providing the cast and crew with ambitious challenges. The musical will be staged at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 15–Saturday, May 17, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 18, in the Festival Playhouse Theatre at 129 Thompson St. Thursday’s show will include a talkback with the cast after the performance. Tickets are available online or by calling the Festival Playhouse at 269.337.7333.
“I’m really looking forward to the audience’s reaction to the puppets,” Silcott said. “I can’t see too much, so all of my cues and understanding of how my performance is going, is through sound. The best part of a production like this is seeing the audience’s initial reaction to each of the puppets, and that gives me a lot of motivation to perform and to perform well. Working with this cast has been a truly incredible experience and I’m especially excited to perform with them in the coming week.”
Kalamazoo College announced today that it’s launching plans to build new residence halls on its historic campus, a step that reflects the College’s long-term commitment to enhancing student life and academic experiences as detailed in its latest campus master plan.
Construction on the project along West Main Street in Kalamazoo will begin in May of this year and is currently scheduled for occupancy in fall 2027. The buildings will primarily house juniors and seniors and provide space for 218 beds. Progressive Companies is designing the building and Owen-Ames-Kimball is constructing.
“K is a college that offers a top-notch, world-class education,” Vice President for Student Development Malcolm Smith said. “Our students deserve to live in buildings that draw in the academic experience and match that education. When people start to see the pictures and the construction equipment on campus, we think there will be a lot of buzz because construction means investment.”
Kalamazoo College will hold a ground breaking in June on a project to build two fully accessible, barrier-free residence halls that will consist of two towers, both four floors high, connected by a common space to create an L shape with universal design.
The new residence halls are part of an effort to meet a growing need for affordable, on-campus housing as off-campus housing costs continue to increase. The growing popularity of an already strong study abroad program also is prompting a demand for on-campus housing each midyear as students return from overseas. Yet Smith notes that there are even more important, tangible benefits to students who reside on campus.
“You see a higher retention rate and therefore a higher graduation rate when students stay on campus,” Smith said. “Students have increased access to resources, community, co-curricular programs, interactions with their peers, the faculty and services. Studies have shown that on-campus living can lead to measurable increases in academic success, critical thinking skills, life-skill development, belongingness and more. There are so many benefits to a full residential model, and we’re trying to recapture that.”
Smith said the additional residence hall space makes it more likely students will stay on campus for four years, while providing students with a “coming home” feel. Student input was sought early in the planning process to capture their needs and hopes for the new facilities.
The fully accessible, barrier-free residence halls will consist of two towers, both four floors high, connected by a common space to create an L shape with universal design. It will provide green space and help form another quad on campus with Crissey and Severn residence halls while maintaining K’s Georgian architectural styles. The common space inside will be accessible to all students and include a community kitchen, a marketplace, a terrace with outdoor seating that faces the community, and a hall lounge suitable for presentations and programming—similar to K’s Olmsted Room in Mandelle Hall.
Privacy will increase for the students living there as occupants move deeper into the building’s village-style living spaces. About 88% of the rooms will be single occupancy and 12% will be double occupancy, to suit the needs of upper-level students.
Passers-by will see carport-like solar panels that will supply electricity to the halls, where a parking lot covers a geo-thermal field, providing heating and cooling to the new halls. K’s nearby Hoop House, a greenhouse used by students for all-season produce production, will stay in its current location. As completion nears, locally sourced furnishings will be installed toward the end of summer 2027.
The cost of the project is expected to be about $55 million with $25 million in funding provided by a 2023 anonymous donation. Energy tax credits estimated at $4.64 million and bonds will also contribute to the financing.
“The last new residence hall was built on campus in 1967,” said President Jorge G. Gonzalez. “A lot has changed since the 1960s and this investment will help meet the modern needs of students while also providing space that can reduce the College’s carbon footprint and operating costs, compared with older facilities. Living on campus plays a vital role in student life, and we are excited for all the ways these new halls will enhance that experience for K students.”
A groundbreaking ceremony for the project is being planned for June.
Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez announced today that he will retire from his position at the end of his contract on June 30, 2026, after 10 years leading the institution.
“Serving as K’s president has been the greatest honor of my life,” Gonzalez said. “After nearly a decade, it is a job I still look forward to every day, which makes this announcement so bittersweet for me. It has been a privilege to work alongside the exceptional faculty and staff, administration and Board of Trustees to guide K’s strategic priorities and provide transformative opportunities for our students, and I intend to finish my term with the same commitment and enthusiasm I brought to my first day at K.”
“The Board of Trustees has deeply appreciated President Gonzalez’s leadership. He leads with vision, optimism, wisdom, and trust,” said Board Chair Jody Clark ’80. “He approaches problem-solving with the analytic lens of an economist and the empathy of a humanitarian. He successfully brings the College’s mission to life for students, faculty, staff and alumni. He is totally committed to the success of our students. While we would love to extend his tenure at K, his retirement is well-deserved.”
Gonzalez became the 18th president of Kalamazoo College in 2016. In his time at K, Gonzalez has overseen strategic planning efforts designed to enrich curricular and co-curricular experiences, foster an inclusive and supportive campus for all, strengthen financial and enrollment sustainability and modernize K’s historic campus.
Campus renewal projects have included replacing the aging natatorium with a new 29,600-square-foot, LEED-certified two-story facility. The natatorium, which opened in 2021, hosts the College’s athletics events and other community programming. Additional projects have included a new Admission Center, renovations to Stetson Chapel, updates to classroom spaces to improve technology and flexibility of use, significant maintenance to Dow Science Center and the replacement of electrical and thermal systems across campus. Future projects include the construction of two new residence halls, slated to start in the summer of 2025, which will increase access to on-campus residential life for K students.
A fierce champion of the liberal arts and the benefits such a comprehensive education provides, Gonzalez has worked with administration, faculty and staff to expand access to K for talented students around the nation and the world. Incoming classes during his tenure have been among the most diverse by a number of demographics, with increased growth in first-generation and Pell-eligible college students. Ensuring access to all aspects of the K-Plan, the institution’s approach to a personalized, integrated curriculum, has also been a key focus. Additionally, athletic opportunities have expanded under Gonzalez’s leadership, with improved strength and conditioning programming and, most recently, men’s and women’s track and field returning to the list of varsity sports.
Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez announced Monday, April 14, that he will retire in June 2026.
Kalamazoo College Board of Trustees Chair Jody Clark ’80 will lead a national search for a new College president. President Jorge G. Gonzalez announced today that he will retire in June 2026.
In 2020 and 2021, Gonzalez guided the campus through the COVID-19 pandemic, working closely with the Board of Trustees and his administration while empowering faculty and staff to plan and make decisions. His collaborative approach helped K protect its community and support students in continuing their academic progress during an unprecedented global crisis.
In 2021, Gonzalez led the public launch of the Brighter Light Campaign, the institution’s largest fundraising campaign to date, which focused on support for student access to every facet of the K-Plan and investments in the institution’s faculty, instructional spaces, athletic programming, and other aspects of campus life. The campaign concluded in 2024 and exceeded two fundraising goals ($150 million and $190 million respectively), raising a total of $203,236,489 from more than 16,500 donors.
A 30+-year veteran in higher education, Gonzalez previously served as Occidental College’s vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college from 2010 until 2016. Prior to Occidental, Gonzalez was an economics faculty member at Trinity University for 21 years.
He earned a B.A. in economics from the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Monterrey, Mexico, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Michigan State University.
Gonzalez is the president of the Board of the F.W. and Elsie L. Heyl Science Scholarship Fund, the chair of the Board of the Great Lakes Colleges Association, the Michigan Independent Colleges and Universities, and the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association and serves on the boards of the Annapolis Group, the American Council on Education, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, Bronson Healthcare Group, Kalamazoo Community Foundation, and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. He served as the president of the International Trade and Finance Association in 2014.
The Board of Trustees will begin a national search for Kalamazoo College’s 19th president in partnership with Storbeck Search, a leading search firm in higher education and nonprofit leadership. A search committee comprised of trustees, faculty, staff, students and alumni will be chaired by Board Chair Jody Clark ’80.
College-bound students interested in global experiences should take a close look at Kalamazoo College considering its latest honors from the Fulbright Program, the U.S. government’s flagship academic exchange program. K has been named a Top Producing Institution for Fulbright U.S. Students in the 2024–25 academic year by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
K’s recognition, publicly unveiled today, was given to the colleges and universities that received the highest number of applicants selected. Since the 2019–20 cycle, K has earned the Top Producer recognition six times among baccalaureate schools and produced 32 U.S. Student Fulbrighters.
Chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential, the four alumni from the Class of 2024 who were selected this year are participating in the English Teaching Assistant (ETA) program, which places grantees in primary and secondary schools or universities overseas to supplement local English language instruction and provide a native-speaker presence in the classrooms. The alumni, their hometowns and their host countries are Julia Holt, of Owatonna, Minnesota, Taiwan; Teresa Lucas, of Mattawan, Michigan, Germany; Ally Noel, of Midland, Michigan, Laos; and Danielle Treyger, of West Bloomfield, Michigan, Spain.
Jessica Fowle ’00—K’s director of grants, fellowships and research—is a key individual at K when it comes to advising students about the federal program’s international immersion opportunities. She said the College’s long history of supporting successful Fulbright candidates is directly connected to the opportunities students have through the K-Plan.
Julia Holt ’24
Danielle Treyger ’24
Teresa Lucas ’24
Ally Noel ’24
“The combination of scholarly and experiential learning—in both supported and independent settings—nurtures the development of graduates who have the curiosity, flexibility and skills to thrive in the unique cultural exchange environment of a Fulbright grantee,” Fowle said. “Every year I am inspired by our applicants’ ability to reflect on their journey as K students, connecting their academic studies, co-curricular experiences and mentorship from faculty and staff to articulate a direct connection to their long-term goals.”
Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided over 400,000 talented and accomplished students, scholars, teachers, artists, and professionals of all backgrounds with the opportunity to study, teach, and conduct research abroad. Fulbrighters exchange ideas, build people-to-people connections, and work to address complex global challenges.
Fulbright alumni—working in their communities, sectors and the world—have included 44 heads of state or government, 62 Nobel Laureates, 90 Pulitzer Prize winners, 82 MacArthur Fellows, and countless leaders and changemakers who build mutual understanding between the people of the United State and the people of other countries. For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit fulbrightprogram.org.
A local theatre company’s full-circle moment will come to fruition this week when it presents Sunset Baby at the Nelda K. Balch Festival Playhouse, 139 Thompson St.
Face Off Theatre presented The Mountaintop in its first season at Kalamazoo College 10 years ago and is returning to stage Sunset Baby at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Also, before the Saturday night performance, the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, 205 Monroe St., will host a community discussion about the play at 5 p.m. with Bianca Washington Ciungan—a local actor, director and theatre professor at Hope College—serving as the moderator.
Sunset Baby features Kenyatta, a former Black revolutionary, who visits his daughter, Nina, in East Brooklyn, New York. The estranged father looks to obtain pieces of his late wife’s legacy including the letters she wrote to him while he was in prison. Nina, meanwhile, pursues her own life with her boyfriend, Damon. Ron Ware portrays Kenyatta, Western Michigan University alumna Mikaela Johnson performs as Nina, and former WMU student Delanti Hall embodies Damon. K alumna Milan Levy ’23 will serve as a production manager.
Face Off Theatre Managing Artistic Director and founding company member Marissa Harrington, another WMU grad, will direct the play, her fourth at a K venue between company productions and the Festival Playhouse.
“I’ve directed at a lot of theatres,” Harrington said. “This is one of my favorites and an inspiring place to work. The College’s mission to lean into equity and representation with its stories makes this production a smart way to start our season. It’s a play by Dominique Morriseau, who is a fantastic playwright, and her work is hard. You want to produce a show like this with people who know what they’re doing. Everybody at K is a true professional and that has made this a great time.”
The director said she saw Sunset Baby for the first time herself with her husband in 2017 in Chicago.
“I was immediately taken by the story,” she said. “You have this beautiful woman in Nina who is strong, driven and convicted, and her father comes out of the woodwork to reconnect. That in itself is an intriguing storyline. But Dominique Morriseau weaves in current events with all her shows. She takes this man who was a figure in the Black Panther movement. He’s looking for things and Nina wants nothing to do with him. There’s discourse in this show around love, activism and their costs in fighting a system that isn’t made for you. When you have this interpersonal dynamic, between a man and his estranged daughter, that is powerful. You then layer in the idea that she was a lovechild—a product of two Black Panthers who wanted to continue their work through love because love was the answer after all that fighting. It’s a well-written, powerful show.”
The Festival Playhouse is hosting Face Off Theatre for its production of “Sunset Baby.” Five shows are available this week through Sunday.
Ron Ware (from left) portrays Kenyatta, Mikaela Johnson performs as Nina and Delanti Hall embodies Damon in “Sunset Baby.”
Sunset Baby will help Face Off Theater take its first steps toward its renewed goals of expanding opportunities for People of Color as actors, directors, stage managers, costumers and more in Kalamazoo while instilling a love for theatre in local Black and brown youths. Harrington said she grew up in South Central Los Angeles in an area that many would consider to be a bad neighborhood, where theatre was the only activity she had to shape who she is today.
“I think we take for granted the skills that youths gain from the arts,” Harrington said. “When we talk about arts education, we talk about a well-rounded education. All kids deserve to have access to that. We want to lean into how we can create community impact and change through what we’re doing. We talk about graduation rates, reading levels and attendance in Kalamazoo, and there are statistics to back up that. Kids engaged in the arts, especially with afterschool activities, their whole trajectory of learning changes. They’re more excited about learning and school, and their test scores increase. It’s about accessibility.”
Black and brown representations within all roles of theatre are important, she added, to ensure young people pursue that accessibility.
“Regardless of good intentions, safety means, ‘you look like me,’” Harrington said. “You look like me, I feel welcome, and I can do this, too. We’ve had 10 years of beautiful community work. Now it’s time to lean into training the next generation with an arts organization that is Black-ran, woman-ran and queer-ran to see what the need is in the community and address it. I think it’s important for us this year as an organization to show that we’re arts and activism together: artivism. That’s who we’ve been this entire time. But moving into this next generation, we see the importance of training Black and brown artists now more than ever. We want to be a beacon of light for the kids who don’t see themselves going into engineering or business, but they love creating, writing plays and seeing stories in their minds. They love taking a moment and recreating it. We have kids who have that talent, and they don’t have anywhere to put it. We want them trained to be hirable.”
Tickets for all performances of SunsetBaby and Face Off Theatre’s entire 10th season are available at its website.
