In Berlin, Germany, in 1930, three years before Adolf Hitler came to power, Cliff, an American novelist, is searching for inspiration when he finds lodging at Frau Schneider’s boarding house above the notorious and racy Kit Kat Club. Led by a saucy Emcee and Sally Bowles, a sassy showgirl and British singer, the free-wheeling performers at the club turn Cliff’s world upside down while the power of the Nazi party lurks just beyond the club’s doors.
This is the plot of “Cabaret,” which Grand Valley students will perform Nov. 16-18, 29 and 30, and Dec. 1-2 at 7:30 p.m., and Nov. 19 and Dec. 3 at 2 p.m. All performances will take place in the Linn Maxwell Keller Black Box Theatre, located in the Thomas J. and Marcia J. Haas Center for Performing Arts.
“These characters are focused on having a good time and living in an environment that is free and liberated, but what they fail to realize, or refuse to realize, is that a change in German politics is allowing the Nazi party to come to power,” said Dennis Henry, director and visiting professor of theater. “’Cabaret’ is a warning about the need for everyone to know what is going on in politics in order to prevent the rise of evil.”
Lindsey Normington, a senior majoring in communication studies who plays Sally Bowles, said that portraying her character’s denial has been her biggest hurdle during rehearsals.
“I’m the type of person who is generally very concerned when I feel like I see someone being treated unfairly,” she said. “Sally gives off a happy-go-lucky vibe, but she is more interested deep down in protecting herself over others.”
“Cabaret” marks the first theater performance to take place in the new Keller Theatre, and Henry said the production will take full advantage of the black box theater’s ability to provide flexible staging and audience seating formations.
“For this first production, we are arranging the seats in an ‘arena’ configuration, with the audience on all four sides of the playing space,” he said. “Since much of the play takes place in the Kit Kat Club, this arrangement will give the audience the feeling of being in the club with the performers, and there will even be some limited table seating on the edges of the stage itself.”
While the themes of “Cabaret” are serious in nature, Henry said the play itself is light-hearted.
“The songs are classics that will stick in your head and the characters of Sally and the emcee are some of the most popular and memorable characters of the American theater cannon,” he explained.
Ticket prices are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and Grand Valley alumni, faculty and staff, and $6 for students and groups. To purchase tickets, contact the Louis Armstrong Theatre Box Office at 616-331-2300 or visit startickets.com.
By Karen Thoms, Grand Rapids Public Library, West Side Branch
Using the kindheartedness of most Americans as a backdrop, Robert Lupton’s Toxic Charity shows how the choices we make to express our compassion can have negative consequences on the very people we hope to help. It is a hard read because most of us who give have done some of the things he identifies as damaging.Yet he does not leave us to wallow in guilt or shame but quickly charts a course correction for givers that can make a restorative difference in the lives of hurting people.
Throughout the book Lupton walks us through actual situations where people or churches are giving time or money.Outcomes of these efforts are gleaned and measured. The stark findings command our attention: much of our giving is a Band-Aid and sometimes the results are disastrous!Lupton is able to turn our good intentions upside down to reveal pages of negative repercussions.We are brought up short story after story and then faced with the hard truth.There are no quick fixes when we are hoping to help people toward wholeness here or abroad. Being willing to consider Lupton’s assessments is a first step toward moving from hurtful aid to wholeness and development.
Helping agencies and compassionate people will be challenged by the evidence in this book.Armed with this new knowledge Lupton turns the reader’s attention to the cure as he proposes an Oath for Compassionate Service, describes in detail what service with dignity looks like, and finally suggests steps to reaching the better outcomes we had hoped for in the first place.After reading Toxic Charity you will likely be changed in how you evaluate the use of your resources.
By Benjamin Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
I was born anxious and angry, my sinuses and digestive system didn’t work as they should have. However, dad was a doctor. He knew what to do. Dad prescribed the medicines for my frequent bouts with this and that. Dad gave me shots. And enemas. Dad put me on his treatment table and “cracked my neck,” our family nickname for the osteopathic manipulations he had learned in medical school. And it was dad the radiologist who gave me the many x-rays that were supposed to cure my sinus problems.
And so we are introduced to the terrifying childhood of Michigan author and children’s book illustrator David Small. In this illustrated memoir, Small tells and draws us the story of growing up in a household where he is subjected to his father’s scientific experimentations and his mother’s emotional manipulations. Eventually, due to excessive exposure to radiation, he develops a tumor and is diagnosed with throat cancer and left speechless. The young boy is helpless, alone, and silent. However, in his drawings and art he finds refuge.
With the simple lines of his drawings, Small takes his reader’s eyes through a roller coaster of memories and emotions. Furrowed brows, creased frowns, and skewed glances speak volumes. So much is told in so few words. This book will break your heart. Small’s memoir is a touching look at the silences many endure among people called family.
Stitches appeals to readers of character driven fiction and memoirs, and is also a worthwhile recommendation for teenagers who enjoy graphic novels.
Los Angeles-based costume concept artist, Phillip Boutte Jr., has created costume designs for blockbuster films, such as “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” “Man of Steel,” “Star Trek,” “Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and “Inception.” His upcoming projects include Disney’s “A Wrinkle in Time” and Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther.”
Boutte will discuss the intersection of film, fashion and art during a panel discussion at Grand Valley State University on Wednesday, Nov. 8. “Film, Fashion, and Art: Imagining Real and Fictional History” will take place at 7 p.m. in Loosemore Auditorium, located on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus.
Phillip Boutte Jr.
Joining Boutte on the panel will be Grand Valley faculty members Durwin Talon, assistant professor of illustration and foundations, and Julie Goldstein, assistant professor of film and video production. Suzanne Eberle, professor of art history at Kendall College of Art and Design, will also sit on the panel.
“Having the opportunity to host a concept artist such as Phillip Boutte Jr., who has worked on a range of projects including design for Madonna to ‘X-Men,’ provides a rare opportunity for the West Michigan community to contextualize our studies within the visual trends of popular culture,” said Goldstein.
The event will kick off with a screening of the winning films of the Mosaic Mobile challenge, presented by The Mosaic Film Experience. The contest features short films that were produced by college students around the Midwest, including multiple Grand Valley students, using only a mobile device.
The Mosaic Film Experience began in 2012 in Grand Rapids as a film festival for commercial and jury-selected works focusing on under-told stories. In 2015, the festival changed formats to include the creation of two-minute mobile videos by students in order to minimize economic barriers to filmmaking.
For more information about this event, contact the Visual and Media Arts Department at vma@gvsu.edu or 616-331-3486.
President Richard Nixon had his Elvis sighting; George W. Bush had his bond with Bono; Bill Clinton and Barak Obama had a ton of encounters with the politics of rock ’n’ roll music.
The constant is that since the 1960s, the songs and songwriters of rock have been a consistent voice on the political and social scene, and even presidents are not immune to the influence.
So, after opening at Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2016, and then spending early this year at the prestigious Newseum in Washington, D.C., the exhibit, “Louder Than Words: Rock, Power & Politics” — which explores the power of rock music to change attitudes about patriotism, peace, equality and freedom — will open at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum next week.
The exhibit will open Tuesday, Nov. 7 and run through Feb. 11, 2018. (It will then travel to the William J. Clinton Presidential Library in 2018, and then the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in 2020.)
Photo of exhibit with clothing related to war protest songs. (Supplied)
Using video, multimedia, photographs, periodicals and artifacts, “Louder Than Words” showcases the intersection between rock and politics. According to supplied information, the exhibit “explores how artists exercise their First Amendment rights, challenge assumptions and beliefs, stimulate thought and effect change.
“Beyond music’s influence on the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and gender equality, the exhibit also features other significant moments and figures, such as Bob Dylan, who rallied people against social inequality, the hip-hop music of the 80s that discussed police brutality in poverty stricken neighborhoods, and Pussy Riot, who utilized their music as an outlet for social activism in Russia.”
A supplied description of the exhibit goes on to say: “Whether you identify as red or blue, we all bleed rock and roll. Voicing political beliefs mixes its way into conversation and lyrics all the same. Whether you’re a fan of Jimi Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner” reinvention or Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’ ” insightful ballad, many musical artists have broached the subject of politics or have reacted to the current political and cultural climate through note and song. Inside of a song or performance, artists feel safe expressing their opinions and inviting fans to connect with their message regardless of party affiliation.
“Do those same established boundaries exist today? The stage has recently come under fire for openly expressing political critique, which prompts the question — is free speech still protected inside of a performance or song? Regardless of recent and future criticisms, artists will continue to fold political sentiments into their work, and we will continue to support those rock and rollers, unafraid of controversy, letting their music play louder than words.”
Photo of exhibit with clothing related to war protest songs. (Supplied)
The original exhibit included exclusive video interviews with Bono, David Byrne, Dee Snider, Tom Morello, Lars Ulrich, Gloria Estefan, Gregg Allman, Jimmy Carter and others to examine how music has both shaped and reflected our culture norms on eight political topics: civil rights, LGBT issues, feminism, war and peace, censorship, political campaigns, political causes and international politics.
Artifacts in the original exhibit include Joe Strummer’s Fender Telecaster, correspondence between the FBI and Priority Records regarding N.W.A’s “F*** the Police” song, original handwritten lyrics from Neil Young’s “Ohio” and artifacts related to the Vietnam war and the May 4, 1970 shooting at Kent State.
As part of the exhibition run, the Ford Museum will also present several special events:
A lecture, “The Meaning of the Vietnam War”, will be presented by Fredrik Logevall on Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. at the museum. Logevall is the winner the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for his book, “Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam.”
In his lecture, he will trace the path that led two Western nations to tragically lose their way in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Logevall is the Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and an author of numerous books on the Vietnam War.
A discussion, “Arlington and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier”, will be presented by Tom Tudor on Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. at the museum.
Tudor will actually give a two part talk in one event. The first part focuses on Mr. Tudor’s personal connection with the historic cemetery as he recalls his time standing watch over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The second part gives the history of Arlington National Cemetery and discusses some of America’s finest who are laid to rest within the gates.
(An aside: remember that the museum will present its annual Outdoor Tree Lighting Ceremony on Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. Always a grand kickoff to the holiday season.)
The Vietnam War Lecture Series will also continue on Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. with Dr. Edward J. Marolda presenting “Admirals Under Fire: U.S. Naval Leaders and the Vietnam War”.
Marolda, before his retirement in 2008, served as the Director of Naval History and Senior Historian of the Navy at the Naval Historical Center, Washington, D.C. He has authored and coauthored numerous books with an emphasis on the U.S. Navy in the Vietnam War.
The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum is located at 303 Pearl St. NW, Grand Rapids. For more information visit fordlibrarymuseum.gov .
Part manual part memoir, Roadie serves as a personal introduction to the world of bike racing. Because the author is a self-proclaimed roadie, the information and advice he provides not only feels sound, but includes enough of a mix of personal anecdote and humor to come across as honest and genuine.
Readers will learn everything there is to know about bike racing, from the reasons why roadies shave their legs to the physics of drafting properly. The chapters on bicycles, training rides, and road racing are enough to motivate anyone to get out, purchase a road bike, and start pedaling. This book is an obvious fit for several different types of readers including those who are interested in getting started in the sport of bike racing, those who are already roadies, or those who live with a roadie and want to better understand their lifestyle and idiosyncrasies.
But, because of its lighthearted tone and the author’s individual voice and narrative, this book has wide appeal and is a great read for anyone who enjoys peeking into the secret world of others.
By Matthew Makowski, Grand Valley State University
Vu Tran
Vu Tran’s first novel, Dragonfish, was a New York Times Notable Book and one of the San Francisco Chronicle’s Best Books of the Year. His short fiction has appeared in O. Henry Prize Stories, Best American Mystery Stories, and many other publications.He is the winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award and has received fellowships from Bread Loaf, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Vermont Studio Center, and the MacDowell Colony.
Born in Vietnam and raised in Oklahoma, Vu received his MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a doctoral degree from the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is currently an assistant professor of practice in English and creative writing at the University of Chicago.
What: Craft talk
When: November 14, 2:30-3:45 pm
Where: Kirkhof Center, room 2266 (Allendale Campus)
What: Reading and book signing
When: November 14, 6-7:30 pm
Where: Cook-DeWitt Center (Allendale Campus)
Authors from around the world will visit Grand Valley State University’s Allendale Campus as part of the 2017-18 Grand Valley Writers Series. The series has a rich history of bringing distinguished and emerging writers to campus to read work, visit classrooms and interact with students. For more information about the GV Writers Series, visit gvsu.edu/writing.
“Mathias J. Alten: An Evolving Legacy”
Exhibition dates: ongoing
George and Barbara Gordon Gallery
DeVos Center, Building E, Room 103 and 202, Pew Grand Rapids Campus
Gordon Gallery hours: Friday and Saturday, 1-5 p.m.; closed on holiday weekends
The German-born American artist, Mathias Joseph Alten (1871-1938) is often referred to as the dean of Michigan painters. Working in a traditional representational style, Alten incorporated the aesthetics and techniques of the Impressionist Movement in paintings infused with light and punctuated with deft brushwork. Based in Grand Rapids, Alten created more than 3,800 works over a more than 40-year career, including landscapes, seascapes, portraits and florals. Grand Valley State University holds the largest public collection of Alten’s work in the world.
‘Kunnnby’ – Bush Lolly Dreaming
“Drawn from the Desert: Australian Aboriginal Paintings from the Central and Western Deserts”
Exhibit on display through March 2, 2018
Kirkhof Center Gallery, Allendale Campus
From 1940-1960, the Australian government forced Aboriginal groups off their lands and into organized communities of the Central Desert region and along the northern coast. Papunya, located about 150 miles northwest of Alice Springs, was the final community established to collect these displaced groups, and where the contemporary Australian Aboriginal art movement began. This exhibition is drawn out of a recent gift of Australian Aboriginal paintings to Grand Valley State University, created by artists from Papunya and the surrounding region. It features artwork that provides insight into Aboriginal life, retellings of important ancient stories and symbols, and the sacred sites of this vast and arid landscape.
“Balloon Popping” Nau-Kim
“2017 SeoulTech & GVSU Art & Design Student Exchange Exhibition”
Exhibit on display through December 8
Red Wall Gallery, Lake Ontario Hall (first floor), Allendale Campus
This exhibition continues the collaboration between Grand Valley State University and Seoul National University of Science and Technology (SeoulTech), that was started in 2008. It features 40 photographs of artwork by SeoulTech art students, while a similar number of photographs by GVSU art and design students were sent to South Korea for a partner exhibition.
“Hunkered Down” Virginia Jenkins
“Landscapes, Color & Light: Paintings by Virginia Jenkins”
Exhibition dates: December 15, 2017-March 2, 2018
Red Wall Gallery, Lake Ontario Hall (first floor), Allendale Campus
Virginia Jenkins is a professor and former chair of the Department of Visual and Media Arts at Grand Valley State University. Landscape forms and images have been the primary focus of her work for over two decades, and her areas of specialty are in painting, drawing and mixed media. This exhibition is drawn from a recent series created in response to the landscape of the Northwest coast of the United States.
“Traveling with the Bangalore Wanderlusters: Reflections on a Semester in India by Maya Grant”
Exhibition on display through March 2, 2018
Blue Wall Gallery (Building B), DeVos Center, Pew Grand Rapids Campus
In the fall of 2016, Maya Grant travelled to India on a study abroad scholarship from the GVSU Padnos International Center. Grant, a sociology major, was led to India by a need to escape and explore. She studied at Christ University in Bengaluru, volunteered at a local non-profit and captured her experiences and interactions through photography. On the weekends, Grant joined a group of expats called the Bangalore Wanderlusters, and traveled throughout Karnataka and its neighboring states. This exhibition includes more than 25 photographs documenting her experiences studying abroad, and exploring the landscape and people of India.
For more information about Art Gallery exhibitions, visit gvsu.edu/artgallery or call 616-331-3638.
Many agree that November is a little too early for holiday music, but every rule has an exception.
Back by popular demand, the Grand Rapids Symphony performs “The Snowman” at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 11 for the DTE Energy Foundation series program in DeVos Performance Hall.
Based on Raymond Briggs’s beloved children’s tale about a boy and a snowman who comes to life for an evening of adventure, the animated short was nominated for a 1982 Academy Award. See the film while the Grand Rapids Symphony performs Howard Blake’s score featuring the song, “Walking in the Air,” sung by members of the Grand Rapids Symphony Youth Chorus.
Associate conductor John Varineau also will lead the orchestra in music including Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” and highlights from the film score to “The Polar Express” during the one-hour concert especially for children ages 8 to 13 with the families.
Pre-concert activities begin at 2 p.m. including a musical instrument petting zoo and craft projects inspired by the film.
Tickets are $15 adults and $5 children, available at the GRS ticket office, weekdays 9 am-5 pm at 300 Ottawa Ave. NW, Suite 100, (located across from the Calder Plaza), or by calling 616.454.9451 x 4. (Phone orders will be charged a $2 per ticket service fee, with a $12 maximum.)
Tickets are available at the DeVos Place box office, weekdays 10 am – 6 pm or on the day of the concert beginning two hours prior to the performance. Tickets also may be purchased online at GRSymphony.org.
By Matthew Makowski, Grand Valley State University
Cabaret takes place in Berlin, Germany, in 1930. American novelist, Cliff, is searching for inspiration when he finds lodging at Frau Schneider’s residence above the notorious Kit Kat Club. Led by a saucy emcee and Sally Bowles, a sassy showgirl, the free-wheeling performers at the club turn Cliff’s world upside down. Can Cliff and Sally find happiness as anti-Semitism and homophobia are on the rise?
When: November 16, 17, 18, 29, 30, and December 1, 2, at 7:30 pm; November 19 and December 3, at 2 pm.
Where: Linn Maxwell Keller Black Box Theatre, Thomas J. and Marcia J. Haas Center for Performing Arts, Allendale Campus
Tickets: $12 adults, $10 seniors and GVSU alumni, faculty and staff, $6 students and groups
Sue Bender has written a timeless book.Five years after her New York Times bestseller Plain and Simple, Bender admits she drifted away from what she had learned living with the Amish.In Everyday Sacred she chronicles how she got back on track again.
Bender, a deeply spiritual person, draws on various religious traditions to light her path away from her internal harsh judge to her gentle “enough”. Her journey begins with a phrase everyday sacred and an image, a begging bowl.She does not know what either mean; yet from the beginning of the book the reader understands that she is going to trust the process of finding their meanings.
“All I knew about a begging bowl was that each day a monk goes out with his empty bowl in his hands.Whatever is placed in the bowl will be his nourishment for the day.I didn’t know whether I was the monk or the bowl or the things that would fill the bowl, or all three but I trusted the words and the image completely.”
She had hoped to find a straight path but hers led in circles.
“So it helps if you listen in circles,” said a Jewish friend.And listen Bender does.She listens to “the opening ceremony of my day”—the smiley face her barista swirls into her cappuccino.She listens as a friend with a hurt knee tells her all the things she discovered on her walk because she had to walk slowly.When feeling overwhelmed, she remembered a friend telling her to “phase things in.” She pondered her physical therapist’s statement that she had “self-corrected in the wrong direction.”Her friend Helen, who lost everything in a house fire, said the fire “fine-tunes my attitude about the remainder of my life.” Bender listened, watched and acted her way back to her center.
Each day Bender presented her empty begging bowl and daily an experience, or a statement, or a feeling appeared in the bowl.By the end of the book Bender has slowed.
“Being empty is a beginning.”
“Good deeds have echoes.”
Instead of judging her inabilities and flaws, clarity dawns.
“Our imperfections are a gift, the very qualities that make us unique.If we make the shift to see them that way—we can value ourselves… just as we are.”
Ballet 5:8’s Antonio Rosario, front, was a focal point whenever he was on stage for the group’s “Compass” program. (Supplied/Lana Kozol)
By K.D. Norris
ken@wktv.org
Ballet 5:8’s “Compass”, Oct. 28, at The Devos Center for Arts and Worship, Grand Rapids Christian High School, Grand Rapids, Mi.
60-second Review
This weekend’s visit of the Chicago-based Ballet 5:8 dance company, and its original modern ballet/dance program “Compass”, choreographed by Julianna Rubio Slager, offered a welcome addition to what is a quality if not-so-plentiful spectrum of modern dance opportunities in the Grand Rapids area.
The program of four one-act ballets, inspired by the challenges of personal navigation in a world of cultural tension and personal quandary, was consistent in its imaginative choreography by Slager — the troupe’s artistic director — as well as being accompanied by mostly well matched music and well danced by Ballet 5:8’s dancers.
Special note should be given to the on-stage presence and prowess of solo dancers Stephanie Joe and especially Antonio Rosario — the pair were perfect together in the second movement/Culture 4 segment of “All God’s Children”, the opening of the four one-act ballets. But Rosario’s stage power and personality was a focal point whenever he was on stage.
The most memorable — and emotional — of the one-acts, however, was the sparse, incredibly emotional “The Mother”, and the dancing perfection of lead dancer Lorianne Barclay. Based on an interpretation of a poem by Pulitzer Prize author (and Chicagoian) Gwendolyn Brooks, the dance — where in Barclay’s channelling of Brooks’s lament of “the abortion of decades past” is both raw and sadly tender but also hints (to me) at the ultimate acceptance of one’s life decisions and the consequences of those decisions.
The dance company’s mission, according to the program, is to engage in a “conversation of life and faith” through dance. And “Compass” did that very well, and with out being too preachy.
For more information about Ballet 5:8 visit ballet58.org.
May I have more, please?
As I said, the visit by Ballet 5:8 was a beginning and a welcome addition to the area’s fall/winter modern dance offerings.
Next up is Grand Valley State University’s modern dance offering, part of its Fall Arts Celebration, as Aerial Dance Chicago presents a free program, “Celebrating Originality: Defying Gravity with Aerial Dance Chicago”, on Monday, Nov. 6, at 7:30 p.m., in Louis Armstrong Theatre on the Allendale Campus.
The annual visit by a professional dance company is always worth the time and the short drive west.
And also worth the effort is the GVSU Fall Senior Dance Concert, scheduled for Dec. 9, at 7 p.m., and Dec. 10, at 2 p.m., at the Dance Studio Theatre, also on the Allendale Campus. The dance program, all choreographed and danced by students, is free.
For more information GVSU’s entertainment programs visit gvsu.edu/mtd.
The high-point of the modern dance season, of course, the annual presentation of the Grand Rapid’s Ballet’s Movemedia program, this season offering a series titled “Movemedia: Diversity” and presented on Feb. 9-11, 2018 (Movemedia I) and on March 23-25, 2018 (Movemedia II), both at the ballet’s Peter Martin Wege Theatre.
The program, according to the Grand Rapid Ballet’s website, includes “world-premiere works by some of today’s most important and influential choreographers.”
If past performance(s) is any indication of future expectations, I can’t wait to see what hits the stage early next year.
For more information on the Grand Rapids Ballet visit grballet.org.
‘Kunnnby’ – Bush Lolly Dreaming, Michael Nelson Tjakamarra, Acrylic on Canvas
By Matthew Makowski, Grand Valley State University
From 1940-1960, the Australian government forced Aboriginal groups off their lands and into organized communities of the Central Desert region and along the northern coast. Papunya, located about 150 miles northwest of Alice Springs, was the final community established to collect these displaced groups, and where the contemporary Australian Aboriginal art movement began. This exhibition is drawn out of a recent gift of Australian Aboriginal paintings to Grand Valley State University, created by artists from Papunya and the surrounding region. It features artwork that provides insight into Aboriginal life, retellings of important ancient stories and symbols, and the sacred sites of this vast and arid landscape.
Look & See revolves around the divergent stories of several residents of Henry County, Kentucky who each face difficult choices that will dramatically reshape their relationship with the land and their community.
In 1965, Wendell Berry returned home to Henry County, where he bought a small farm house and began a life of farming, writing and teaching. This lifelong relationship with the land and community would come to form the core of his prolific writings. A half-century later, Henry County, like many rural communities across America, has become a place of quiet ideological struggle.
In the span of a generation, the agrarian virtues of simplicity, land stewardship, sustainable farming, local economies and rootedness to place have been replaced by a capital-intensive model of industrial agriculture characterized by machine labor, chemical fertilizers, soil erosion and debt — all of which have frayed the fabric of rural communities. Writing from a long wooden desk beneath a forty-paned window, Berry has watched this struggle unfold, becoming one of its most passionate and eloquent voices in defense of agrarian life.
Filmed across four seasons in the farming cycle, Look & See blends observational scenes of farming life, interviews with farmers and community members with evocative, carefully framed shots of the surrounding landscape. Thus, in the spirit of Berry’s agrarian philosophy, Henry County itself will emerge as a character in the film — a place and a landscape that is deeply interdependent with the people that inhabit it.
Directed By: Laura Dunn | Jef Sewel
Genre: Documentary
Run Time: 82 min
MPAA Rating: NA
Origin: USA
A film showing and panel in partnership with Plainsong Farm, Local First, and the UICA, this documentary delves into the life of Wendell Berry as well as the interdependence of land and community.
St. Cecilia Music Center will feature the outstanding Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in a concert on Thursday, Nov. 2, featuring co-artistic director and cellist David Finckel, with violinist Arnaud Sussman and violist Paul Neubauer. The program titled “Essential String Trios” will include the works of Beethoven, Mozart and Penderecki.
“We are excited to embark on our sixth season with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center,” SCMC executive director Cathy Holbrook said. “The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is comprised of the finest chamber musicians in the world. Co-Artistic Directors David Finckel and Wu Han choose the most amazing programs for this series and send us dynamic performers. If you haven’t attended one of these performances you should come to hear vibrant music in one of the finest concert halls in the world – The Royce Auditorium at St. Cecilia Music Center.”
The “Essential String Trios” concert will feature a string trio — violin, viola, and cello —is the chamber music connoisseur’s delight. The program will be:
Beethoven — Trio in G Major for Violin, Viola and Cello, Op. 9, No. 1
Penderecki — Trio for Violin, Viola and Cello
Mozart — Divertimento in E-flat Major for Violin, Viola and Cello, K. 563
Concert tickets are $38 and $43 and can be purchased by calling St. Cecilia Music Center at 616-459-2224 or visiting the box office at 24 Ransom Ave. NE. Tickets can also be purchased online at scmc-online.org.
A pre-concert wine/hors d’oeuvres event for $15 will be available to all ticket holders starting at 6:30 p.m. There will also be a pre-concert talk with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center artists in the Royce Auditorium to discuss the music selection for the evening and any other questions that pertain to the artists themselves.
A post-concert party is open to all ticket-holders giving the audience the opportunity to meet the artists and obtain signed CDs of their releases.
Season tickets for the Chamber Music Society Series are still available and include a $15 discount off of single ticket prices for the three concerts (with the others to be held Jan. 18 and April 19) by calling 616-459-2224 or visiting St. Cecilia Music Center at 24 Ransom NE, Grand Rapids.
By Matthew Makowski, Grand Valley State University
Fall Arts Celebration will transcend the traditional dance floor and fly into the sky when Aerial Dance Chicago (ADC) presents a new world of athleticism coupled with an elegant showcase of dancing in the air.
A pioneer and an international leader in aerial dance, ADC is dedicated to presenting original choreography and performance in the field. The ensemble launches itself into the creative possibilities found in a vertical realm.
During the company’s Fall Arts Celebration performance, ADC will incorporate a variety of apparatus, including suspended fabrics, bungee cords, hoops, swings and ropes.
When: November 6, at 7:30pm
Where: Louis Armstrong Theatre, Thomas J. and Marcia J. Haas Center for Performing Arts, Allendale Campus
*Concert will be preceded by a carillon concert at 7:10pm featuring Julianne Vanden Wyngaard, university carilloneur, and followed by a reception.
By Matthew Makowski, Grand Valley State University
Enrich your life with these free performances in November at Grand Valley State University!
High School Vocal Day Concert
When: November 3, at 2 pm
Where: Cook-DeWitt Center, Allendale Campus
Now in its 7th year, High School Vocal Day at Grand Valley State University welcomes more than 100 high school students from around Michigan to a day of learning and performing alongside Grand Valley music faculty and students, as well as nationally known guest instructors. This concert will be the capstone performance for High School Vocal Day at Grand Valley. This busy day of workshops and seminars will conclude with a performance by Grand Valley student soloists and a choir consisting of both Vocal Day participants and Grand Valley students. This concert is free and open to the public.
GVSU Faculty-Artist Recital: Sookkyung Cho, piano
When: November 7, at 7:30 pm
Where: Sherman Van Solkema Recital Hall (room 1325), Thomas J. and Marcia J. Haas Center for Performing Arts, Allendale Campus
This free concert will highlight the musical prowess of Sookkyung Cho, assistant professor of piano at Grand Valley State University. This concert is open to the public. Before Grand Valley, Cho served on the piano faculty at New England Conservatory Preparatory School and Continuing Education in Boston. She was also adjunct faculty in theory at Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and served as a Teaching Fellow in the piano minor and music theory departments at The Juilliard School.
Cho has performed throughout North America, Europe, and her native country, Korea, in prestigious venues, including the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Steinway Hall in New York, Chicago Cultural Center, Sarasota Opera House, Beaux concerts de la releve in Quebec, Château de Fontainebleau in France and Zijingang Theater at Zhejiang University in China, among others. She received a bachelor’s of music and doctorate of musical arts degrees from The Juilliard School, and her master’s from Johns Hopkins University.
GVSU presents Amosa Duo
When: November 8, at 7:30 pm
Where: Sherman Van Solkema Recital Hall (room 1325), Thomas J. and Marcia J. Haas Center for Performing Arts, Allendale Campus
Join the Amosa Duo at Grand Valley State University as they present works for clarinet and piano by Schubert, Schumann, Lindberg, and Weinberg. Comprising Gary June on clarinet and Chia-Ying Chan on piano, the Amosa Duo is devoted to bringing the best of the clarinet and piano repertoires to the concert stage, including both well-known masterpieces and contemporary gems. This concert is free and open to the public.
GVSU Laker Marching Band presents Bandorama
When: November 12, at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Kelly Family Sports Center, Allendale Campus
Join the 220-member Laker Marching Band at Grand Valley State University as they perform a sampling of their 2017 football season halftime shows. This performance will feature song selections ranging in genre from jazz and top 40 to “music from across the pond.” This concert is free and open to the public.
GVSU Saxophone Studio Recital
When: November 28, at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Sherman Van Solkema Recital Hall (room 1325), Thomas J. and Marcia J. Haas Center for Performing Arts, Allendale Campus
During this free concert, Grand Valley State University’s Saxophone Studio will perform solo and quartet performances. The Saxophone Studio consists of multiple student ensembles, including the Yavin IV Quartet, GQ Quartet and Jubilee Quartet.
For more information about Music, Theatre and Dance Department events, contact 616. 331.3484 or visit gvsu.edu/mtd.
In a time of national need to navigate the sometimes-turbulent currents of cultural diversity issues, and the tension such debate and differences can lead to, a local dance program will attempt to provide a compass over the troubled waters.
The Chicago-based Ballet 5:8 dance company will make its Grand Rapids area debut this week with a program titled “Compass”. (Supplied/Lana Kozol)
The Chicago-based Ballet 5:8 dance company will make its Grand Rapids area debut this week with a program titled “Compass”, four one-act ballets inspired by the challenges of navigating cultural tension, Saturday, Oct. 28, at the Devos Center for Arts and Worship.
Ballet 5:8, now in its sixth performance season, has performed in Jackson for the past four seasons. Ballet 5:8’s mission, according to supplied material, is “shaped by a desire to engage audiences in meaningful discussion through innovative storytelling and the beauty and power of professional dance.”
The four “Compass” dances, according to supplied material, will approach the issue in different ways — “From an alien society to 1970’s Chicago, Compass stretches across time and space to explore some of our country’s most pressing topics. At times witty and satirical, and at times deeply emotional, Compass is full of athleticism, power and poetry.”
The four original ballets in the Compass program include works inspired by poems authored by African-American abolitionist and women’s rights activist, Sojourner Truth, and Pulitzer Prize author and Chicagoan, Gwendolyn Brooks.
Among the Ballet 5:8 dancers performing in Grand Rapids is company apprentice Emily Ratkos, a Michigan native who in her first season with the company. A recent graduate of Ballet 5:8’s Trainee Program, Emily moved to Grand Rapids at the age of 16 to train with the Grand Rapids Ballet School under Attila Mosolygo before joining Ballet 5:8 as a trainee in 2016.
A single performance of “Compass” will hit the stage at 7 p.m. The Devos Center for Arts and Worship is located at 2300 Plymouth Ave. SE. Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for students and seniors, and $15 for children. Tickets can be purchased at ballet58.org or by calling 312-725-4752.
After the performance, audience members are invited to stay for a Ballet 5:8 tradition, the Talk Back. During this panel discussion, Ballet 5:8 Artistic Director Julianna Slager and artists of the company discuss questions, comments and feedback on the performance with audience members.
The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) is pleased to announce its fall exhibitions opening October 28, Andy Warhol’s American Icons and Christian Marclay: Video Quartet. American Icons will be on view at the Museum through February 11, 2018, and Video Quartet will be open through January 14, 2018.
Organized by the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Andy Warhol’s American Icons showcases Warhol’s vision and celebration of America by bringing together paintings, prints, photographs, and films that create a handbook of American cultural icons.
“Andy Warhol makes a dramatic return to the Grand Rapids Art Museum this fall,” commented GRAM’s Director and CEO Dana Friis-Hansen. “One of the Museum’s first exhibitions in its new building was Rapid Exposure: Warhol in Series in Spring 2008. We can’t think of a better way to celebrate our tenth anniversary at 101 Monroe Center than by bringing back key works by this quintessential contemporary artist.”
American Icons spotlights iconic figures like Marilyn Monroe, Sitting Bull, Muhammad Ali, Liz Taylor, and one of the most famous Grand Rapidians, Gerald R. Ford. Products and symbols can be icons as well; the exhibition includes Warhol’s well-known Campbells soup can screenprints and an important early painting on loan from the Whitney Museum of American art, Green Coca-Cola Bottles (1962), among other symbols of America. American Icons draws on artworks from GRAM’s collection, as well as works from private collections and other public art institutions throughout the country, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Andy Warhol Museum, and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.
“It’s exciting for GRAM to be organizing an exhibition of Andy Warhol’s work around a theme that occupied the artist for his entire career: what products and symbols define and represent the US? Which Americans are the most iconic?” said GRAM’s Chief Curator, Ron Platt. “Thirty years after his death, Warhol is still influential and seems ahead of his time. I would argue that Warhol himself is as much an American icon as any of those represented in the exhibition.”
Still from ‘Christian Marclay: Video Quartet’
Rounding out the exhibition are photographs and early films, from a period when Warhol was experimenting with the mediums. Empire, an eight-hour long “portrait” of the famed Empire State Building as filmed from a static position in an adjacent building, will be on view, along with several of the artist’s Screen Tests. The Screen Tests are 3-minute filmed portraits of Warhol Factory regulars and visitors, in which the subjects stared back at or enjoyed the attention of the stationary camera, constructing their own personas before our eyes.
Christian Marclay: Video Quartet—a seventeen-minute film installation on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art—is opening in conjunction with Andy Warhol’sAmerican Icons. The exhibition consists of four synchronized video projections that form one contiguous image-and-sound work. The installation is comprised of more than 700 individual fragments of film and sound from popular movies which feature people playing musical instruments or singing, as well as other soundtrack elements such as shouts, screams, crashes, and moments of cinematic silence.
“Swiss-American artist Christian Marclay has sampled, improvised, and remixed sound, video, and performance into multi-media works that defy categorization,” added GRAM’s Director and CEO Dana Friis-Hansen. “Video Quartet is an immersive installation experiencethat’s sure to captivate film and music fans alike.”
The clips included in Video Quartet are primarily taken from Hollywood feature films dating from the 1920s to the early twenty-first century. Marclay meticulously edited the clips on a home computer into a new unified composition in which the performers seem to improvise together free of their original context, creating moments of synchrony or seeming to spontaneously respond to each other as if performing live.
Complementing Andy Warhol’s American Icons and Christian Marclay: Video Quartet, GRAM members and the public can enjoy several events and related programming, including the Member Exhibition Party, Warhol Factory Party, Drop-in Tours, and lectures.
By Matthew Makowski, Grand Valley State University
Arts at Noon brings nationally and internationally-known musicians to Grand Valley State University for 14 performances each academic year. All Arts at Noon concerts will take place in the Cook-DeWitt Center, located on the Allendale Campus. They will begin at noon and last approximately one hour.
Every concert is free and open to the public. For more information about Arts at Noon, visit gvsu.edu/artsatnoon or contact Henry Duitman, series coordinator, at duitmanh@gvsu.edu.
November 1–Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra
Members of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra will return to Grand Valley State University’s Allendale Campus for their annual Arts at Noon performance.
“As the premiere arts organization in West Michigan, the Grand Rapids Symphony provides amazing cultural and educational benefits to the region,” said Henry Duitman, Arts at Noon coordinator and GVSU Symphony Orchestra director. “Every year, the performance by the Grand Rapids Symphony during the Arts at Noon series brings the warmth of exquisitely played string and woodwind instruments to the audience in the Cook-DeWitt Center. This is always the most eagerly-anticipated performance of the semester.”
Akropolis (photo supplied)
November 15–Akropolis Reed Quintet
The Akropolis Reed Quintet takes listeners on musical adventures by performing an innovative repertoire with acclaimed precision. The quintet was founded in 2009 at the University of Michigan and became the first reed quintet to win the Fischoff Gold Medal in 2014. Championing the next generation of musicians, Akropolis delivers impactful outreach programs at schools ranging from kindergarten to conservatory.
The ensemble has released two studio albums to critical acclaim and commissioned more than 25 reed quintet works to date. Their dynamic concerts feature accessible contemporary works framed by invigorating arrangements of classical music spanning four centuries.
Nicholas Photinos (photo supplied)
November 29–Cellist Nick Photinos
Cellist Nicholas Photinos is a former and founding member of the four-time Grammy Award-winning new music ensemble, eighth blackbird. During his Arts at Noon performance at Grand Valley State University, Photinos will perform works from Petits Artéfacts, his debut recording on New Amsterdam Records. Formed in 1996, eighth blackbird performs throughout the world, with approximately 50 concerts annually, and has been featured on the 2013 Grammy Awards, CBS Sunday Morning and in The New York Times.
The group’s mission extends beyond performance to curation and education. The ensemble served as Music Director of the Ojai Music Festival (2009), enjoyed a three-year residency at the Curtis Institute of Music, and holds ongoing Ensemble-in-Residence positions at the University of Richmond and the University of Chicago. Photinos teaches at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival every July. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Join Grand Rapids Story Spinners and BNC for an afternoon of scary stories. Turn off your devices for a couple hours and listen to some Halloween tales. Audience will be divided based on suspense levels.
Where: Blandford Nature Center Visitor’s Center, 1715 Hillburn Ave NW,
Date: 2-3:30 pm, Saturday October 28, 2017
Cost: This program is $5 for members and non-members. $10 for families .
Grand Valley’s award-winning New Music Ensemble has released a new CD that was composed by three alumni of the program.
The release of the ensemble’s fourth commercial CD, “Return,” will be celebrated on Friday, Oct. 27, with a concert from 7:30-9 p.m. in Louis Armstrong Theatre, located in the Thomas J. and Marcia J. Haas Center for Performing Arts on the Allendale Campus.
The album’s three composers, Adam Cuthbért, ’10, Matthew Finch, ’15, and Daniel Rhodé, ’12, will be in attendance, and Cuthbért will open the show with a special performance. An opportunity to meet the composers and the members of the New Music Ensemble will take place following the concert. The event is free and open to the public.
Bill Ryan, New Music Ensemble director, said this project fulfills his longtime goal of producing a “100 percent homegrown project.”
“This recording represents everything I envisioned when I started the New Music Ensemble — an entire album composed by three outstanding creative thinkers who came through our program, enthusiastically performed and recorded by current students,” said Ryan. “The result is a strikingly beautiful 78-minute journey that has been the most gratifying experience of my career.”
The composers worked with the ensemble’s acoustic recordings, and manipulated some to create the 15 acoustic-electronic hybrid compositions featured on the album.
“There are moments when the instruments are clearly heard, and others where you may think you know what’s happenings or where you are just perplexed,” Ryan explained. “Clarity of the sonic division between the two worlds of acoustic and electronic is a great tool to play with in terms of engaging the listener.”
Students were encouraged to explore their instruments in new ways for the album, which Hannah Donnelly said is one of the unique experiences of being a member of the New Music Ensemble.
“Being a part of the New Music Ensemble provides students with a musical experience you won’t find anywhere else on campus,” said Donnelly, a senior majoring in music performance and psychology who plays the flute in the ensemble. “You come to rehearsal and are allowed to experiment with your sound, even if it’s ‘ugly.’ You definitely begin to learn the endless possibilities of the sound of your instrument.”
Ryan Schmidt, a senior majoring in music, said the process of creating “Return” helped him see the possibilities of music differently through feedback from the three composers.
“Something that I thought sounded bad or unacceptable was exactly what the composers wanted, and in fact, they wanted more,” said Schmidt. “For instance, the microphones picked up subtle noises that your mouth can make while wetting a reed or just setting the mouthpiece to play. The composers used these sounds that otherwise would be useless or strange, and made music with it.”
Schmidt added that this experience helped him better appreciate the creative process of developing new music.
“Most often, we are playing from a deceased composer’s score and it can feel like we are trying to replicate something that has already been done,” he said. “This process was so valuable because we were making something brand new.”
Cuthbért said the inspiration for the pieces he composed for the album stemmed from his internal questioning of how people can keep their humanity in the midst of advancements in technology and science.
“‘Location Sharing’ and ‘Background Refresh’ are two tracks named for minor features on our phones that streamline communication through pretty complex technology,” he said.
“Return” is available for purchase on Amazon and iTunes. The CD will be released on the Innova label, and the album was mastered by Grammy Award winner Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound, whose other clients include Lady Gaga, Adele and Katy Perry.
The New Music Ensemble promotes contemporary classical chamber music, with a special focus on music of the past 20 years, through commissions, tours, recordings, educational events, workshops and videos.
Since the ensemble formed in 2006, the group has released three other critically acclaimed recordings, which have appeared on “best release lists” by The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Weekly and Time Out Chicago. Some of the ensemble’s recordings have appeared in film and television shows on MTV, Showtime, as well as at more than 75 film festivals around the world, and most recently in U.S. movie theaters as a part of the soundtrack for the film “As I AM: The Life and Times of DJ AM.”
The ensemble has completed four tours, including their most recent tour across four U.S. national parks in 2016. The group has also performed at the Bang On a Can Marathon in New York City, the College Music Society National Conference in Atlanta and at Carnegie Hall.
Every time I read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark, I find myself completely immersed once more. Despite numerous efforts, I have yet to find another novel that so perfectly mixes the elements I especially love in a story:Jane Austen-style English manners, British history and subtle fantasy.
In early nineteenth century England during Napoleon’s heyday as a major threat, two magicians work to bring magic back to the world.Quiet, mousy Mr. Norrell and his increasingly successful and confident apprentice, Jonathan Strange find themselves beset both by their own competitive natures and long-forgotten powers that have taken an interest in the mortal world once more.
Clark took took ten years to research and write this huge, complexstory, and the effort shows in every intricately laid-out detail.She has painstakingly created a Britain where magic has been intertwined in politics and life for centuries, and gives plenty of fascinating hints to the hidden world that lies behind our own.
There is a sly and witty sense of humor in descriptions of situations and characters, and extensive footnotes fill in what we need to know about this slightly different, magical Britain.I happen to love footnotes, especially fictionalized ones, plus I find it difficult to resist any book that makes me feel as if I’m in an ancient, snowy wood where anything could happen.
Legendary comic Denis Leary will visit Grand Rapids this month as part of Schuler Books & Music’s 35th anniversary celebration.
Leary will visit Monday, Oct. 30, at 7 p.m. at Wealthy Street Theatre, 1130 Wealth St. SE, and will be discussing his newest book “Why We Don’t Suck: And How All of Us Need to Stop Being Such Partisan Little Bitiches.”
In the new book, Leary refutes the current highly partisan Right Wing Nutjob versus Left Wing Snowflake approach to American politics – where you’re either one or the other, with no gray areas in between. Leading a new protest movement called Gray Lives Matter, he takes equal opportunity aim at the screaming heads we see arguing every night on CNN (the Clinton News Network) and Fox’s Fair and Balanced Reublican Report. With a devoted mission to Make American Laugh Again, Leary take the topics we all hold close to our American hearts: Twitter, Instagram, and the seeminelying endless search for fame and diet vodka.
Tickets for the Leary event are available through the Wealthy Theatre box office. Tickets are $46 and include entry to the event and a signed copy of “We We Don’t Suck” to be claimed at the event. Limited VIP, front-row seats with first access to the signing are available for $66.
For more information about the Leary event or for other activities taking place at Schuler Books & Music, visit schulerbooks.com.
The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) is pleased to announce that it will open a brand new original production in the Chaffee Planetarium on Oct. 21. The show, titled Subatomic, will take visitors through the discovery of the Higgs boson, a scientific quest solved in our lifetime.
Subatomic will take viewers on a journey of scientific discovery. In 2012, after a 48-year search and the construction of the world’s largest machine, more than 10,000 physicists celebrated the discovery of the Higgs boson, an elusive subatomic particle crucial to physics and existence itself. Learn more about this important discovery, and how it fits into humanity’s quest for unraveling the secrets of the universe.
Subatomic will include a produced portion, followed by a live and interactive portion with a planetarium staff member, and hands on components just outside the Chaffee Planetarium to demonstrate the concepts highlighted in the show. The entire show will be 30 minutes in length.
Subatomic was developed through collaborations between the GRPM, scientists, and local experts specializing in serving neuro-diverse audiences. It will be part of the daily schedule of shows in the Chaffee Planetarium upon its launch.
For scientific accuracy, the Museum worked with academic advisors Dr. Jacob Bourjaily, theoretical physicist at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Dr. Brian Winer, Chair and Professor of Physics at The Ohio State University, and Dr. Reinhard Schwienhorst, physics professor at Michigan State University. Numerous interns and staff helped produce the show with assistance from Kendall College of Art and Design for audio and sound editing. Subatomic is narrated by Grand Rapids’ own Adrian Butler.
“It is exciting to be part of a project like this” said Prof. Brian Winer, of The Ohio State University. “I was pleased to be one of the many experts the Museum worked with for the development of this show, which undoubtedly covers one of the important scientific discoveries in our lifetime – the Higgs boson. This show is a great way to bring a complex idea involving physics to the general public.”
The Museum also partnered with Dr. Mira Krishnan and Hope Network at the beginning of the show’s development, discussing the creation of an experience that would resonate for children with autism. Dr. Krishnan made recommendations for how the GRPM could visually enhance the show for these unique learners. As a consequence, a shorter show was developed, with some specialized graphics to emphasize complex scientific concepts in different ways, a live presentation was created to complement and reinforce the show, and hands-on activities were developed for students and Museum visitors to learn more scientific concepts in kinesthetic ways outside of the planetarium.
“I first approached the Museum looking for ways to make our community more accessible to people with differences. I was really overwhelmed with the Museum’s support for this,” said Dr. Mira Krishnan, a clinical neuropsychologist. “The Museum’s focus on universal design gave us a really common language to make Subatomic more autism and learning difference friendly. Beyond that, I did applied physics before I became a psychologist, so being a part of this particular project is an amazing dream come true for me, because it brings together so many of my passions!”
“This project has a great story,” said Dale Robertson, President and CEO of the Grand Rapids Public Museum. “From the very beginning, we were working with Dr. Krishnan to make this an experience that could be enjoyed by all audiences. We then brought in scientists – two of whom grew up in Grand Rapids – to consult on the content of the project. The group then took a very complex idea, physics and the discovery of a subatomic particle, and made it accessible for all learners. This is all part of our effort to embrace universal design for learning in the Planetarium and throughout the Museum.”
The show begins on Oct. 21 and will be part of the Chaffee Planetarium’s regular schedule. Subatomic can also be reserved for school groups and field trips. Planetarium shows are $4 with general admission and $5 for planetarium only. Museum members receive free admission to planetarium shows.
For additional information on the Chaffee Planetarium or to view the full schedule, visit grpm.org/planetarium.
One of the wonders of poetry is the potential for the intricacies of ordinary life to be described in extraordinary ways.
Patricia Clark, Writing Department chair, said this is exactly what audiences can expect to hear during this year’s Fall Arts Celebration poetry night at Grand Valley State University with acclaimed authors Jane Hirshfield and Dan Gerber.
“An Evening of Poetry and Conversation with Jane Hirshfield and Dan Gerber” will take place Thursday, Oct. 26, at 7:30 p.m., on the 2nd floor of the Eberhard Center, located on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus. The reading will be followed by a reception and book signing.
Jane Hirshfield (Photo by Curt Richter)
“Jane’s vision is informed by her extensive knowledge of international poetry, so her poems take on an incandescence with the ability to layer steady affirmation with, at times, an underlying humor, and compassion for the sorrows, losses and inconsistencies of life,” said Clark.
Hirshfield has penned many collections of poetry and prose, including The Beauty, Come Thief, The Lives of the Heart, The October Palace and Given Sugar, Given Salt. Her book, After, was shortlisted for England’s T.S. Eliot Prize and named a “best book of 2006” by the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle and London Financial Times.
In 2012, Hirshfield was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and in fall 2004, she was awarded the 70th Academy Fellowship for distinguished poetic achievement by the academy, which is an honor formerly held by Robert Frost, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams and Elizabeth Bishop.
Gerber, a native of Fremont, is the author of a dozen books of poetry, fiction and essays. His most recent books of poems include Particles: New & Selected Poemsand Sailing through Cassiopeia. His work has received ForeWord Magazine’s Gold Medal Award, a Mark Twain Award for distinguished contribution to Midwest literature, a Michigan Author Award and a Michigan Notable Book Award. He is also the co-founder of the literary magazine Sumac.
Clark said Gerber’s poems provide a clear vision of the natural world and the “inner life.”
“Dan studies what’s at hand: an old dog, a fox he glimpses on a walk, a starry night, or a cabin in the woods,” she said. “Often, he, like Jane, begins a poem with something near at hand and then uses that object to find a deeper significance, perhaps about the past, family or life.”
For more information about Fall Arts Celebration, visit gvsu.edu/fallarts.
A sure sign of fall, in addition to those changing colors and chilly mornings, is the beginning of the musical seasons at the St. Cecilia Music Center — a season each of chamber music masters, acoustic singer/songwriter folkies, and jazz lions young and older.
Judy Collins (Supplied)
First up on the 2017-18 calendar is the center’s Acoustic Café Series and a visit from acoustic guitar legend Leo Kottke on Thursday, Oct. 26 — with a Café visit by the incomparable Judy Collins already set for early next year and more of the series to be announced.
The opening acts of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center series, and the Jazz Series for the 2017-18 season begins in November.
David Finckel, left, will be one of the featured performers at the St. Cecilia Music Center concert. (Supplied)
First up next month is a chamber music program on Nov. 2, Essential String Trios, with CMS co-artistic director and cellist David Finckel performing with violinist Arnaud Sussman and violist Paul Neubauer. The program will include the works of Beethoven and Mozart, but also a less well known modern work by Krzysztof Penderecki — Trio for Violin, Viola and Cello (composed in 1990-91).
The Jazz Series — titled the “Encore Series” as all performers will be making their return visit to St. Cecilia — begins Nov. 16 with Grammy-winning bassist Christian McBride and his trio, and continues Nov. 30 with pianist Brad Mehldau and his trio.
McBride’s visit may well be “the concert” of the St. Cecilia season, for any of the series; okay, maybe just behind Collins. But back to the opener, and Kottke.
“To see Leo Kottke perform is one of the most memorable music experiences of my life,” Cathy Holbrook, St. Cecilia executive director said in supplied material. “He is truly one of the best folk performers we have seen at St. Cecilia Music Center. His sold-out performance with us in April 2016 was so good that we wanted to bring him back for an encore.
“In addition to Leo Kottke, we are excited to bring the renowned and beloved singer Judy Collins to the intimate Royce Auditorium stage,” Holbrook added.
Kottke has gained Grammy nominations, a Doctorate in Music Performance by the Peck School of Music at the University of Wisconsin, and — in typical Kottke humor, a Certificate of Significant Achievement in Not Playing the Trombone from the University of Texas at Brownsville with Texas Southmost College (according to supplied material!).
More than 25 years after the release of his debut recording, in 1968, Kottke collaborated with jam band Phish bassist Mike Gordon for an album titled “Sixty Six Steps”, and he continues to reinvent himself while always being true to his guitar.
The Acoustic Café Series is a now-5-years-old partnership between St. Cecilia and the syndicated Ann Arbor based radio show Acoustic Café and its host Rob Reinhart.
The Acoustic Café radio show is syndicated to more 100 commercial and non-commercial stations throughout the country and airs locally in Grand Rapids on WYCE on Friday mornings. The Acoustic Café series at SCMC presents the opportunity for a live taping with the artists and Reinhart while they are visiting St. Cecilia.
St. Cecilia Music Center is located at 24 Ransom Ave. NE, Grand Rapids. For tickets and more information on all the series’ concerts, call 616-459-2224 or visit scmc-online.org.
Breathtakingly beautiful photos of Alaska, and of a lone black wolf that made his home below the Mendenhall Glacier for almost a decade–John Hyde tracked and recorded the activities of Romeo, a very unusual wolf. Orphaned, but able to live in the wild (the author’s scat analysis showed a diet of mostly deer, lemming and beaver), he was very fond of dogs–as in “playing with dogs”.
An Alaskan Wolf is a very large, powerful creature, with jaws twice the strength of a German Shepherd, yet Romeo became accepted by the townspeople as a winter visitor each year, enamored of their dogs. His canine dominant status is clearly apparent in shots of his romping with the town’s pets, and yet he’s acting as silly as a puppy, getting them to chase him. He towers over the Labs and Boxers he’s shown scamperingwith, and you almost feel like yelling to the unseendog owners “no, no–this won’t end well!”,but of course Hyde wouldn’t have produced “Romeo” if there wasn’t an exceptional story to tell.
Kim Elton, Dir. Of Alaska Affairs, U.S.D.I., says of the book, “If wolves can’t inspire awe, what wild creature can?”, and Farley Mowat adds, “I envy John Hyde as I have never envied another human being.”
Over 80 amazing photos will tempt you to book that cruise to Alaska.
Nice commentary too, with echoes of Aldo Leopold, and other naturalists, who continue to share their vision of the necessity of wilderness for all of us.
The cast of “A Kurt Weill Cabaret” with Michael DeVries.
The legacy of composer Kurt Weill can still be heard today by audiences in concert halls and theaters, and Grand Valley State University students will honor that legacy when GVSU Opera Theatre performs a selection of Weill’s greatest hits.
“A Kurt Weill Cabaret” will focus on the music of Weill (1900-1950), and the many lyricists who collaborated with him during his life and career.
Performances will take place Oct. 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m., and Oct. 22 at 2 p.m. at the Betty Van Andel Opera Center, 1320 Fulton St. SE, Grand Rapids. To purchase tickets, call 616-451-2741. Tickets are $14 for adults, $12 for seniors and Grand Valley faculty, staff and alumni, and $6 for students.
“Because his music is being performed in both a popular and classical context, no composer in the 20th century had a more wide-ranging influence than Kurt Weill,” said Dale Schriemer, Opera Theatre stage director. “Indie artists, rock musicians, metropolitan opera stars and jazz greats have all adopted his music because of its broad appeal.”
Drawing on classical and popular styles, Schriemer said Weill’s works have been performed by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Michael Bublé, Judy Garland, David Bowie, and The Doors. His most famous works include three operas (“Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny,” “The Threepenny Opera,” “Street Scene”), three musicals (“One Touch of Venus,” “Knickerbocker Holiday,” “Marie Galante”), and a plethora of individual songs and concert pieces.
Fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933, Weill, a Jewish composer, traveled to France and subsequently the U.S. while writing in a variety of musical styles that reflected whatever culture he found himself in.
During performances of “A Kurt Weill Cabaret,” each of the 14 students in the ensemble will be featured in both solos and small group numbers. Schriemer said the 70-minute performance will be a blend of funny, satirical and poignant songs, as well as songs of beauty and power.
“This show will differ from traditional music theater productions and opera because while it may take an entire evening to tell a single story, cabaret performers tell many different stories with each song because each song is in its own universe,” said Schriemer.
The students received expert guidance during rehearsals in September from guest artist Michael DeVries, who has appeared in major productions on Broadway, such as “Wicked,” “Hello, Dolly,” “Secret Garden,” “Grand Hotel” and “Cats.” He has also appeared as a series regular on TV shows such as “Law and Order,” “Sex and the City” and “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.”
“Quite often, young performers are distracted by achieving technical expertise in the midst of storytelling,” explained Schriemer. “Michael brought them back to the basic questions performers must ask themselves: ‘Who am I speaking to?’ ‘What do I want?’ and ‘Why is this story important?’ The intensity of this experience is a brilliant way for our students to become more skilled artists because it develops confidence and pride of accomplishment.”
For more information about “A Kurt Weill Cabaret,” contact Schriemer at schriemd@gvsu.edu.
Nau Kim, Balloon Pop, digital image (photo supplied)
By Matthew Makowski, Grand Valley State University
This exhibition continues the collaboration between Grand Valley State University and Seoul National University of Science and Technology (SeoulTech) that was started in 2008. It features 40 photographs of artwork by SeoulTech art students, while a similar number of photographs by GVSU art and design students were sent to South Korea for a partner exhibition.
Exhibition Dates: September 29-December 8
Location: Red Wall Gallery, Lake Ontario Hall (first floor), Allendale Campus
By Tim Gleisner, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main
Every so often, I feel compelled to suggest a book solely not only for the skill of the author’s writing ability, but for its social importance as well. The book, A Stronger Kinship by Anna-Lisa Cox is just such a one.
A true story set in the town of Covert,Michigan during the latter half of the nineteenth century, A Stronger Kinship tells the tale of the town’s unique population. Covert is a small town of roughly 1,000 people in Van Buren County just outside of South Haven — a typical rural community in Southwest Michigan. People settled the area because the land was plentiful and could provide an income. Agriculture, in various forms, has sustained this community from the very beginning — first lumber then fruit farming. Families went to church, school, formed businesses; all in all a community within the norm of American life.
The quality that set this town apart was that the population of Covert was integrated at a time when America was not.
Building on the lives of runaway slaves, freed blacks, and abolitionist New Englanders the reader encounters a group of people who felt that one was equal regardless of color. This attitude was nurtured while the Midwest was experiencing racism in various forms. Families lived on farms side-by-side, as well as within the town. You learn of the first elected African-American official, of the town’s business leaders who came from both sides of the color line, and from families that were integrated and accepted by the populace as a whole.
What is remarkable is that to this day this community has stayed true to the original conviction of the pioneer generation. It conveys the sense that intentional community is not always impossible, and that ones morals can be lived out in ordinary life.
Anna-Lisa Cox is the recipient of numerous awards for her research. She is an active historian, writer, and lecturer on the history of race relations in the nineteenth-century Midwest.
The music of Bach, Handel and Vivaldi are well known, but many more composers flourished in the 17th and early 18th century.
England was in turmoil for decades in the middle of the 17th century. King Charles I was deposed and beheaded, and Oliver Cromwell took power as Lord Protector until his death ended the military dictatorship and ushered in the restoration of the monarchy under King Charles II.
The “merry monarch,” one of the most popular ever to rule England, loved a good time. He favored French music, but he also encouraged the development of English composers who flourished under his patronage.
British violinist and conductor Garry Clarke joins the Grand Rapids Symphony to open the its Crowe Horwath Great Eras series at 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 20, with “Charlie’s Angels: The Baroque Concert” in St. Cecilia Music Center in Grand Rapids.
The program also will be repeated at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21 at the Jack H. Miller Center at Hope College in Holland.
Highlights from those concerts, featuring music of Henry Purcell, Jean-Baptiste Lully and others, will be performed at 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 20 for the Porter Hills Coffee Classics, a one-hour version of the Great Eras concert, held without intermission. Doors open at 9 a.m. for coffee and donuts.
For more information about this performance or other Grand Rapids Symphony performances, visit www.grsymphony.org.
When artist Robert Oliver brutally attacks a painting at the National Gallery of Art, psychiatrist Andrew Marlow, an artist himself, is called in to get to the bottom of Oliver’s motives.Oliver refuses to speak, however, except to offer a cryptic explanation: “I did it for her.”
Marlow’s assignment has him traveling the world in search of “her.”Is the mystery woman Oliver’s ex-wife? The art student with whom he falls in love?
Oliver maintains his silence, communicating only by painting a beautiful, dark-haired woman whom no one seems to recognize.Breaking his own rules, Marlow digs deeper than he ever has in the life of a patient and finds himself at the center of a story that goes far beyond the mind of a disturbed artistic genius.
TheSwan Thieves is a beautifully written story about art, obsession and the mind of a genius.
Jim Pestka, university distinguished professor of food science and human nutrition, Melissa Bates, Ph.D student and Jack Harkema, university distinguished professor of pathobiology, work at the microscope on Tuesday August 30, 2016. (Photo supplied)
The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) just announced a new exhibit, TheLife of the Mind, opening Saturday, October 21, telling the story of mental health treatment from the late 18th century through to today.
The Life of the Mind explores the evolution of mental health care based on an increase in knowledge of how the brain and mind works and on society’s changing perspectives of mental illnesses.
Featured artifacts from the GRPM’s extensive Collections provide fascinating evidence about the progression of medical intervention for mental illness from radical treatments of the 19th and 20th centuries, to the more research-based therapies of present-day practice.
This new exhibit will accompany the traveling exhibition Brain: The World Inside Your Head offering visitors a deeper dive and local angle on the subject matter.
“The Museum continuously works to add a Grand Rapids component to all of our experiences for the community. With the Brain exhibit, it’s a natural tie to the topic of mental health, and is a collaboration with local students at Calvin College,” said Dale Robertson, President & CEO of the GRPM. “The exhibit is unique as it tells the story of nationwide changes to mental health treatments over time using Grand Rapids artifacts.”
Many artifacts featured in The Life of the Mind were generously donated to the GRPM by Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Hospital where they had been originally used. Established in 1910, Pine Rest is one of only a handful of private, independent, free-standing behavioral healthcare institutions that remains in the United States, and is one of the largest with 198 inpatient beds.
The Life of the Mind exhibit was developed by GRPM staff, based on a student project from Calvin College, where Historical Research and Writing students presented the concepts of a mental health exhibit to tell of the technological and societal changes in advancement of mental health care. The GRPM has worked with the History Department at Calvin College since 2011 in various capacities, including provided Collections access for several classes.
This exhibit is running in conjunction with the Museum’s current traveling exhibit Brain: The World Inside Your head. Both exhibits are included with the cost of general admission to the Museum, and run through January 7, 2018.
Brain: The World Inside Your Head
Brain literally takes you inside the head to probe the geography of a giant brain and stand in the midst of the brain’s constant electrical brainstorm as thoughts and sensations are generated.
Upon entry into the exhibit, visitors walk through a shimmering tunnel of flashing fiber-optics that illuminates networks of neurons firing and communicating. From this dynamic beginning, Brain invites guests deeper into the brain to discover its basic workings. Trace this brain’s development from infancy through old age, learn the evolution of scientists’ understanding of the brain’s physiology and study the re-created skull of Phineas Gage — a man who survived after his brain was pierced by a metal rod.
For audiences of all ages, the experience-based exhibit employs innovative special effects, 3D reproductions, virtual reality, hands-on learning activities and interactive technology to delve into the inner workings of the brain, including its processes, potentials and mysteries.
For more information about The Life of the Mind or other exhibits and activities at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, visit grpm.org.
Firefighters from the Grand Rapids Fire Department’s Bridge Street station and New Holland Brewing head pub brewer Jon Boer (front, in the grey shirt), in the production area in The Knickerbocker where a special beer was brewed. (Supplied)
By K.D. Norris
ken@wktv.org
New Holland Brewing’s Westside Grand Rapids location, The Knickerbocker, and the city fire department’s Bridge Street fire station have joined together to produce a locally crafted beer — aptly named “Hose ‘er Down” — of which partial sales proceeds will benefit the Great Lakes Burn Camp.
Beer lovers, fire department supporters and those who wish to help raise funds for the burn camp can get “hosed down” this week.
According to supplied information, the Great Lakes Burn Camp exists to provide a unique experience that promotes healing, self-esteem, confidence, and general well-being for burn injured children. The camp operates entirely on donations and fundraisers. These donations allow the campers to come for a week of summer camp and a four-day winter camp with no out-of-pocket expense to their parents.
The collaboration between The Knickerbocker and the Bridge Street fire station will raise funds to allow Great Lakes Burn Camp to operate and continue to support as many burn injured children as possible.
The beer itself, named by the Bridge St. Fire Station, is a red pale ale which is described by the brewery as “an easy-drinking pale ale with balanced, hop-forward flavor and a fiery red hue.”
On Wednesday, Oct. 11, at The Knickerbocker, there will be a launch party for the beer. $1 from every Hose ‘er Down sold (as long as the beer is on tap), plus 10 percent of food sales the day of the launch party, will go toward Great Lakes Burn Camp. Those who come to the release also have the opportunity to meet and mingle with local firefighters and learn more about the burn camp.
Rockford Brewing Company announced Oct. 7 that the brewery and two of its beers had been honored recently at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colo. According to its Facebook page, the brewery won the 2017 Small Brewpub and Small Brewpub Brewer awards.
In addition, the brewery won a silver medal for its Sheehan’s Stout and a bronze for its Rogue River Brown — my usual choice when sitting on the downtown Rockford brewpubs deck while watching the parade of people on the White Pine Trail bike and walking/running path.
Brewery Vivant to release new brew, host Halloween party
East Grand Rapids’ Brewery Vivant, this month, will have something special for beer lovers and Halloween fans alike as the brewery will “hop” up to a new brew and lay down its plans for a Halloween party later in October.
The brewery announced this week the release of “Hop Field”, described in supplied information as “an IPA following the brewery’s farmhouse roots while honoring Michigan’s love of hops.”
Later in the month, on Sunday, Oct. 29, the pub will host a “Stranger Things” themed Halloween party featuring the release of an exclusive small batch beer, which will only available for one night. Details on the party and brew will be coming soon, but you may as well mark your beer calendar.
