Grand Valley State University students will put their composing skills to the test when they create original pieces of music for an upcoming competition inspired by the current Art Gallery exhibition “Comfortably Numb.”
The one-minute compositions will be performed by Grand Valley’s award-winning New Music Ensemble in rapid succession and judged by a guest panel and the listening audience for various prizes.
The competition will take place Friday, March 17, from 7:30-9:30 p.m., in the Art Gallery (room 1121), located in the Performing Arts Center on the Allendale Campus.
“Comfortably Numb,” created by Nayda Collazo-Llorens, combines more than 2,000 pieces of clippings from various magazines and other printed materials, and stands nine feet high and spans across 45 feet of wall space. Collazo-Llorens, the Art and Design Department’s Padnos Distinguished Artist-in-Residence, said the piece spotlights media overload in today’s world.
Jack Sligh, a senior majoring in music composition, said he approached his two composition submissions in very different ways.
“One is a straightforward interpretation of media overload during which the instruments all start to blur together into a mess,” he said. “The other is a stylistic subversion of the whole idea based on the title in a jolly style as an old-timey folk tune. If we are in fact comfortably numb to all of this daily media exposure, then we’re left with something completely normal.”
The exhibition serves as one of the culminating projects of Collazo-Llorens’ residency as the Stuart and Barbara Padnos Distinguished Artist-in-Residence. Her residency will conclude at the end of the 2016-2017 academic year.
“Comfortably Numb” will be on display through March 31. For more information about the composition competition or the exhibition, visit gvsu.edu/artgallery.
A woman who survived the Holocaust and escaped imprisonment will give a presentation at Grand Valley State University on March 15, as part of Women’s History Month.
In 1944, Magda Brown, from Hungary, was sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland, where she was separated from her family. She spent time at a work camp before escaping with several other prisoners during a march to Buchenwald. They were discovered and liberated by American soldiers. Brown, now 89 years old, moved to the U.S. in 1946. She is a great aunt of Samantha Murray, a Grand Valley student who is president of the university’s Hillel chapter.
Brown’s presentation will take place from 7-9 p.m. in room 2250 of the Kirkhof Center on the Allendale Campus.
Magda Brown at a younger age.
Hillel member Robin Hutchings said Brown’s presentation will be recorded and donated to Grand Valley’s archives for future campus community members to watch.
“Magda loves presenting to university students because she feels we have a great ability to make change in our societies,” said Hutchings.
Brown was united with her brother, Miklos Brown, in 1962. For 40 years, Brown worked in a physician’s office as a certified medical assistant. She is an active member and past president of the American Association of Medical Assistants, Illinois Society. She is also a member of the Speaker’s Bureau of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. Learn more about Brown at www.magdabrown.com.
Interested in attending the author lectures, or meeting the author? Anand Giridharadas will be giving two public lectures:
March 22, 7 pm, Herrick District Library in Holland, Michigan
March 23, 7 pm, Grand River Room, Kirkhof Center, GVSU Allendale campus
Grand Valley State University’s Community Reading Project is a signature program of Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies. Each year, the project selects one book to explore through discussion, co-curricular programming, classroom study and hands-on experiences in the Grand Rapids community. The year culminates in a visit from the author.
This year’s selection is The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas, by Anand Giridharadas.
Imagine that a terrorist tried to kill you. If you could face him again, on your terms, what would you do? The True American tells the story of Raisuddin Bhuiyan, a Bangladesh Air Force officer who dreams of immigrating to America and working in technology. But days after 9/11, an avowed “American terrorist” named Mark Stroman, seeking revenge, walks into the Dallas minimart where Bhuiyan has found temporary work and shoots him, maiming and nearly killing him. Two other victims, at other gas stations, aren’t so lucky, dying at once.
The True American traces the making of these two men, Stroman and Bhuiyan, and of their fateful encounter. It follows them as they rebuild shattered lives—one striving on Death Row to become a better man, the other to heal and pull himself up from the lowest rung on the ladder of an unfamiliar country.
Ten years after the shooting, an Islamic pilgrimage seeds in Bhuiyan a strange idea: if he is ever to be whole, he must reenter Stroman’s life. He longs to confront Stroman and speak to him face to face about the attack that changed their lives. Bhuiyan publicly forgives Stroman, in the name of his religion and its notion of mercy. Then he wages a legal and public-relations campaign, against the State of Texas and Governor Rick Perry, to have his attacker spared from the death penalty.
Ranging from Texas’s juvenile justice system to the swirling crowd of pilgrims at the Hajj in Mecca; from a biker bar to an immigrant mosque in Dallas; from young military cadets in Bangladesh to elite paratroopers in Israel; from a wealthy household of chicken importers in Karachi, Pakistan, to the sober residences of Brownwood, Texas, The True American is a rich, colorful, profoundly moving exploration of the American dream in its many dimensions. Ultimately it tells a story about our love-hate relationship with immigrants, about the encounter of Islam and the West, about how—or whether—we choose what we become.
Watch the author’s TED talk here to get an overview of the events of the book and their connection to present day issues:
You can participate in a virtual book discussion led by GVSU Brooks College alum Ashley Nickels here.
Check out the author’s most recent article, connecting the events of True American to the tragic shootings of two Indian immigrants in Kansas here.
A new publication spotlights the life and artistic works of Mathias J. Alten, who called the city of Grand Rapids his home. Grand Valley State University owns the largest known single public collection of Alten’s works and papers in the world.
The book, entitled “Mathias J. Alten: An Evolving Legacy,” is a hard cover monograph that includes color illustrations and scholarly essays exploring Alten’s artistic legacy.
Grand Valley’s George and Barbara Gordon Gallery currently displays 96 pieces of Alten’s work. His vast résumé of creations has also been exhibited widely at major American art institutions, and many can be seen in various buildings around Grand Rapids.
Stacey Burns, Galleries and Collections program manager, said the book celebrates the ongoing gifts to the university of Alten paintings by individuals from around the U.S., and by lead donors George and Barbara Gordon.
“The book demonstrates Grand Valley’s commitment to active scholarship and visual learning,” she said. “The Gordon’s underwrote the production of this book and share in the Art Gallery’s ambition of enriching the quality of life for students and the community through direct engagement with original works of art.”
A native of Germany, Alten immigrated to Grand Rapids as a teenager. Often referred to as the “Dean of Michigan Painters,” Alten spent his career painting in Europe and across the U.S., but always returned to Grand Rapids, his professional base of operations and home until his death in 1938.
The book will make its public debut during a special community open house Friday, March 3, from 3 – 5 p.m. in the Gordon Gallery, located in Building E of Grand Valley’s DeVos Center on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus.
“We planned the open house to be a respite from winter where educators, students, the regional museum community and the public could visit the gallery and share experiences, ask questions and explore ideas,” said Burns.
“Mathias J. Alten: An Evolving Legacy” will be available for purchase at Grand Valley’s Laker Store beginning March 3.
To RSVP for the community open house, contact the Art Gallery at (616) 331-2563 or gallery@gvsu.edu. More information can also be found at gvsu.edu/artgallery.
Authors Vievee Francis and Matthew Olzmann are the next featured writers for the Grand Valley Writers Series set for Mon. Feb. 27.
The presentation will take place at the Grand Valley State University’s Pew Campus in downtown Grand Rapids. There will be a craft talk from 6 – 7 p.m. at the DeVos Center in room 203 E and then a reading and book signing from 7:30 – 8:50 p.m. at the University Club in the DeVos Center.
Francis is the author of three books of poetry, Blue-Tail Fly, Horse in the Dark and the recently released Forest Primeval, which was a finalist for the PEN Open Book Award. She is the recipient of the Rona Jaffe Prize and a Kresge Fellowship. Francis’ work has appeared in numerous publications including Best American Poetry, Poetry Magazine, and Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry, among others. She is currently an associate professor of English at Dartmouth College and an associate editor for Callaloo.
Matthew Olzmann
Olzmann is the author of Mezzanines, selected for the Kundiman Prize. His second book, Contradictions in the Design, was released in 2016. Olzmann received scholarships and fellowships from Kundiman, the Kresge Arts Foundation and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. His poems, stories and essays have appeared in Kenyon Review, New England Review, Necessary Fiction, Brevity, Southern Review and elsewhere. He teaches in the Master of Fine Arts program for writers at Warren Wilson College.
Valentine’s Day may be over, but there are still plenty of fun things to do in the month of February, all of which are free and open to the public. Grand Valley State University has a number of options to fill up the month. Here is a sampling.
GVSU Choral Concert – “Songs of Love”
Feb. 21, at 7:30 p.m.
Cook-DeWitt Center, Allendale Campus
This concert, which is free and open to the public, will feature the Cantate Chamber Ensemble and Select Women’s Ensemble, under the direction of Ellen Pool, and the University Singers, under the direction of Shirley Lemon. The concert will feature songs of love from many different genres, including jazz, spirituals and folk songs.
GVSU Symphonic Wind Ensemble Concert
Feb. 24, at 7:30 p.m.
Louis Armstrong Theatre, Performing Arts Center, Allendale Campus
Great American Voices Series Collaboration Concert
February 25 and 26, at 7:30 p.m.
Park Church (10 E Park Pl NE, Grand Rapids)
Building on the success of the February 2015 Collaboration Concert at Park Church, this year’s collaboration will include the GVSU University Arts Chorale, Park Church Chancel Choir, and West Michigan’s Holland Chorale. The concert will begin with Patrick Coyle, Park Church minister of music, conducting the Park Chancel Choir and the Holland Chorale, accompanied by the GVSU Chamber Orchestra, in a performance of Haydn’s “Lord Nelson Mass.” The evening will conclude with two sections of Alexander Borodin’s powerful opera, “Prince Igor.” The GVSU Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Henry Duitman, will present the rousing “Overture” and then the three choirs, 120 voices strong, will join the orchestra for the opera’s exhilarating “Polovetsian Dances.” Proceeds from the offering will benefit string scholarships at Grand Valley.
GVSU Concert Band Performance
Feb. 27, at 7:30 p.m.
Louis Armstrong Theatre, Performing Arts Center, Allendale Campus
GVSU Jazz Concert
March 2, at 7:30 p.m.
Louis Armstrong Theatre, Performing Arts Center, Allendale Campus
The GVSU Large and Small Jazz Ensembles will perform during this free concert that is open to the public.
The 39th season of Grand Valley State University’s Arts at Noon concert series continues Wednesday, Feb. 22, when the Hildegard Singers come to the Allendale campus.
Based in Grand Rapids, the Hildegard Singers are three professional vocalists who were convened in 2011 to celebrate the beautiful and timeless music of Hildegard of Bingen, a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, and Christian mystic. The ensemble, comprised of Diane Penning, Lisa Walhout and Barbara McCargar, also perform other medieval vocal music treasures, including Gregorian chant, Spanish and French pilgrimage music, and French, German and English motets and carols.
All Arts at Noon concerts during the 39th season of the popular series will take place in the Cook-DeWitt Center on the Allendale Campus, begin at noon, and last approximately one hour. Every concert is free and open to the public.
Robbie Bell has dreamed of working for the Walt Disney Company since his childhood.
“Ever since I discovered my true passion for theater, I decided that I could combine the two,” he recalled. “I would love to be a show designer or director for one of the Walt Disney theme parks, or maybe even Disney on Broadway.”
Bell, a senior majoring in theater, is taking one step closer to achieving his dream by sitting in the director’s chair for the first time for the Theater Department’s upcoming production of “Detroit.”
The production is a part of the department’s annual Performance Studio Series, which gives upper-level theater students the opportunity to use the practical skills they have learned in the classroom. During P.S. Series productions, students have creative control over directing, acting, backstage production, set design and costume design.
“Detroit,” a play written by Lisa D’Amour that, ironically, has nothing to do with Detroit, depicts Mary and Ben living in a suburb near an unnamed mid-sized city. Mary and Ben are hosting new neighbors, Sharon and Kenny, who live next door in a rented house, for a friendly backyard barbecue. The gathering spirals into a deliriously dangerous revelry when themes of suburban troubles related to upward mobility, spousal relationships and economic anxiety take over.
Bell said he chose “Detroit” because it takes place in the unique and intimate setting of a backyard, but also for its message.
“I love this play because it is genuinely funny, but, most importantly, I chose ‘Detroit’ for its message that everyone has a secret struggle that they’re dealing with,” he explained. “This is what I believe makes us all the same on some level, and you really cannot judge a book by its cover for this reason.”
“Detroit” will not be Hannah Frank’s first time acting as stage manager for a Grand Valley production. She filled the same production role for 2016’s “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” and 2015’s P.S. Series production of “Café Murder.”
Frank said she enjoys “Detroit” for its dynamic cast of characters.
“I love the complexity of ‘Detroit.’ You think you know who the characters are, but by the end of the show, you’re questioning them,” said Frank, a senior majoring in theater. “I love how crazy the characters are and how much they contrast against each other.”
Performances of “Detroit” will take place Friday, Feb. 17, at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 18, at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 19, at 2 p.m. in Louis Armstrong Theatre in the Performing Arts Centers on the Allendale Campus. Tickets are $6 for general admission. For more information, call the Louis Armstrong Theatre box office at (616) 331-2300.
Helping senior citizens “age in place” longer and successfully will be the topic of the February Health Forum of West Michigan held at Grand Valley’s Pew Grand Rapids Campus.
“Aging in Place” is set for Friday, Feb. 3, from 8-9:30 a.m. in the DeVos Center, 401 W. Fulton St. A light breakfast will begin at 7:30 a.m.
Panelists are Julie Alicki, social work consultant with West Michigan Area Agency on Aging, and Dementia Friendly Grand Rapids; Dr. Iris Boettcher, geriatrics, Spectrum Health Medical Group; Mina Breuker, CEO and president of Holland Home; and Richard Kline, senior deputy director of the State of Michigan Aging and Adult Services Agency. Rebecca Davis, professor of nursing, Kirkhof College of Nursing, will serve as moderator.
The event is free and open to the public; RSVP online at www.gvsu.edu/vphealth. Free parking is available in Grand Valley’s Seward Street lot.
Discussion will focus on area programs and resources that help seniors age in place, and the support that’s needed. Kline will discuss the state’s plan to provide services for this population.
Benjamin Barker is a barber unjustly imprisoned for years by a corrupt judge. He returns to London bent on revenge under the guise of Sweeney Todd.
GVSU Opera Theatre presents the darkly hilarious and indiscriminately dangerous “Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” Feb. 2 – 5 and 10 – 12 at Grand Valley State University’s Performing Art sCenter, located on the GVSU Allendale campus. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays.
Tickets are $14 for adults; $12 for alumni, seniors, faculty and staff and $6 for students and groups.
For more information, contact the Louis Armstrong Theatre Box Office at 616-331-2300.
Astronauts (left to right) Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, pose in front of Launch Complex 34 which is housing their Saturn 1 launch vehicle. The astronauts died ten days later in a fire on the launch pad. (NASA/photographer unknown – NASA [1] Great Images in NASA Description, Public Domain)By Joanne N. Bailey-Borosma
Whether you have traveled the road, visited the planetarium, or seen the American legion post in your travels through Wyoming, there is a good chance you have seen or heard the name Roger B. Chaffee.
And for some the question during those travels may have been who was Roger B. Chaffee?
Chaffee was one of the first NASA astronauts, who tragically never made it to the stars. On Jan. 27, 1967, there was a fire in the Apollo 1 capsule during a training exercise killing Chaffee and his two crew mates, Virgil “Gus” Grisson and Edward H. White II, who was the first person to perform a space walk.
The inside of the Apollo 1 capsule after the fire. (NASA/photographer unknown – NASA [1] Great Images in NASA Description, Public Domain)This Friday, fifty years to the date of the accident, the Wyoming Roger B. Chaffee American Legion Post 154 will host a dinner and memorial ceremony at the post, 2327 Byron Center Ave. SW. The dinner is at 6 p.m. and the ceremony is at 7 pm.
“From what I know, his father was a member of the post and they asked if they would name it after him,” said Jerry Smith, an adjunct with the post. American Legion posts have a tradition of bringing named after a local veteran.
Chaffee was a Navy officer before being accepted to the NASA program, said Glen Swanson, a Grand Valley State University physics professor who worked for NASA in Houston as the Johnson Space Center’s chief historian. Swanson credits some of his love for space from Chaffee’s parents, Donald and Blanche Chaffee. In their later years, the couple had moved to the city of Wyoming and Swanson would bike over to visit them and talk about NASA and the space program.
A photo of Don and Blanche Chaffee with their daughter after the Apollo 1 accident. The photo is in the ‘Roger That!’ exhibit.
“Don and Blanche were huge supporters of the space program even after their son’s death,” Swanson said, adding the couple would visit area schools to talk about NASA and space and Don Chaffee even wrote a book.
The Chaffee family was from Greenville. Due to Don Chaffee having scarlet fever, Blanche Chaffee was forced to stay with relatives in Grand Rapids until Roger was born. The family later moved to Grand Rapids and Roger attended Central High School.
After graduation, Chaffee would attend Purdue to pursue his passion of flying and earned a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering. He joined the Navy and in 1962 applied for the astronaut training program. He wold be one of 14 out of a pool of more than 1,800 to be chosen for the Astronaut Group 3, all of who would be part of the Apollo program.
In January 1966, Chaffee was selected for the first Apollo mission, which was a surprise, Swanson said, adding that Chaffee had no previous flight experience unlike his crew mates Grissom and White. None would make it into space as the following year, the fire happened.
The accident also happened shortly after the move of the then Kent County Airport, which was located in Wyoming, formerly Paris Township. The landing strip was being paved and it was decided to name the road Roger B. Chaffee Boulevard.
“There was the local connection and since it was the former runway, it probably made sense,” Swanson said, adding that there was some debate on naming the airport after Chaffee but eventually it would be named after the former president and is now called the Gerald R. Ford International Airport.
The ‘Roger That!’ exhibit will be up through Mar. 31 at the GVSU Eberhard Center in downtown Grand Rapids.
Wanting to remember Chaffee’s contributions to the space program, Swanson help put together a photo exhibit, “Roger That!,” on the West Wall Gallery at the GVSU Eberhard Center in downtown Grand Rapids.
“We didn’t want to focus just on the tragedy of what happened, but rather on his life and accomplishments,” Swanson said. The exhibit will be up through Mar. 31.
There was plans to host an event on the actual anniversary, but since family members were booked for the NASA event this week in Florida, GVSU officials instead worked with the Grand Rapids Public Museum to plan a two-day conference and celebration in February, which was Chaffee’s birth month. On Feb. 10, there will be a conference featuring discussions on a variety of space-related topics including science, society, and the arts. The event concludes with a ticketed dinner with Chaffee’s wife and daughter, Martha and Sheryl Chaffee, and the planetarium show “Dark Side: The Light Show.”
On Feb. 11, Brother Guy Consolmagno of the Vatican Observatory and winner of the Carl Sagan Medal for excellence in public communication in planetary sciences will present at 11 a.m. at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, 272 Pearl St. NW. This is a ticketed event. For more on the Roger That! activities, visit www.gvsu.edu/rogerthat.
Swanson said he hopes the activities will not only remind people of who Chaffee was, but encourage others to follow in his footsteps by pursuing their passion whether it be space or something else in the great beyond.
The Grand Valley Writers Series, which brings award-winning authors from around the world to campus each year, continues for the winter season with a two-for-one showcase of works by two Grand Valley faculty members: Amorak Huey and Caitlin Horrocks.
Grand Valley Writers Series presents Amorak Huey and Caitlin Horrocks Tuesday, Jan. 31, from 6 – 8 p.m., Cook-DeWitt Center located on the Grand Valley State University’s Allendale campus.
Huey, assistant professor of writing at Grand Valley, is the author of the poetry collection Ha Ha Thump (2015) and the chapbook The Insomniac Circus (2014). His poetry and essays have appeared in The Best American Poetry 2012, The Southern Review, Brevity, Poet Lore, The Collagist, The Cincinnati Review, and many other print and digital journals. The written works of Huey recently received prestigious validation when he was one of 37 authors out of a pool of 1,800 to be awarded a Creative Writing Fellowship in poetry from the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA). Huey said the $25,000 fellowship grant will provide him with the time and space needed to create, revise, conduct research and connect with his readers. Before coming to Grand Valley, Huey worked for more than a decade as an editor and reporter for newspapers in Florida, Kentucky and Michigan, including serving as assistant sports editor for Grand Rapids Press.
Caitlin Horrocks
Horrocks, associate professor of writing, is a writer of fiction and creative nonfiction. Her debut story collection, This Is Not Your City, was named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, a Barnes and NobleDiscover Great New Writers selection, and one of the best books of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle. Her stories and essays have appeared in anthologies, such as The Best American Short Stories, The PEN/O, Henry Prize Stories, and True Stories, among others. Horrocks’ works have also appeared in journals, such as The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, and One Story. She also currently serves as the fiction editor of The Kenyon Review while crafting a novel and a second story collection.
Health care providers continuously strive to meet the needs of those they serve, and the problem-solving process of design thinking is becoming an integral part of developing those solutions.
This idea will be explored during “Design Thinking in Health Care Services” at Grand Valley State University, presented by Ryan Armbruster, vice president of innovation, research and development at Optum, a UnitedHealth Group company.
“Design Thinking in Health Care Services” will take place Jan. 23, from 6-7 pm, in Loosemore Auditorium located in the DeVos Center on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus.
In his role at Optum, Armbruster leads a design group that is focused on designing health services that provide better value and experiences for people.
Prior to his position at Optum, Armbruster co-founded and served as chief experience officer of Harken Health, a health care organization designed to provide a caring environment to health care services and experiences. He also created enterprise-wide programs to improve innovation while serving as vice president of innovation at UnitedHealth Group, including creating and leading its Design Studio. In addition, he created and directed the SPARC Design Lab at Mayo Clinic, a center for innovation in health care services.
For the past decade, Armbruster has taught health care service design and innovation at the University of Minnesota, where he earned a master’s degree in health care administration.
For more information about this event, contact John Berry, director of Grand Valley’s Design Thinking Initiative, at berryjr@gvsu.edu.
Two nationally known speakers will highlight Grand Valley State University’s commemoration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Kevin Powell is an activist, author and president of BK Nation, a national organization based in New York City centered on grassroots activism, pop culture, technology, and social media to spark projects and campaigns. He has written 12 books, the most recent is “The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy’s Journey into Manhood.”
Powell will be the keynote speaker on Monday, Jan. 16, at 1:30 p.m. in the Fieldhouse Arena on the Allendale Campus.
Kimberlé Crenshaw is a professor of law at UCLA and Columbia law schools. She coined two terms — critical race theory and intersectionality — that have proved foundational in many areas of study. She is a leading voice in calling for a gender-inclusive approach to racial justice interventions, having spearheaded the Why We Can’t Wait Campaign and co-authored “Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected,” and “Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women.”
Crenshaw will be the keynote speaker on Wednesday, Jan. 18, at 4:30 p.m. in the Kirkhof Center, Grand River Room, Allendale Campus. This presentation will be simulcast to an audience in the DeVos Center, Loosemore Auditorium, on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus.
Both events are free and open to the public.
Many free events are planned on the Allendale Campus for Jan. 16, which marks the fifth year that classes have been canceled on the national King holiday, allowing more students, faculty and staff members to participate in events. Visit www.gvsu.edu/mlk for details.
Commemoration events continue Tuesday, Jan. 17, when the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies will host “Race and the American Dream” at 7 p.m. in the Eberhard Center. Nikole Hannah-Jones, staff writer at the New York Times Magazine, will join Jason Riley, columnist and editorial board member at the Wall Street Journal, for a dialogue on the progress that has been made since the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, as well as the challenges that continue to exist. It is free and open to the public; RSVP online at www.hauensteincenter.org/RSVP.
Grand Valley will close its week of events on Saturday, Jan. 21, when hundreds of students will volunteer their time in the community by working at different locations.
Grand Valley State University (GVSU) senior capstone students present their thesis assignments focusing on how films impact children in matters of healing, coping with illness or understanding their world.
The moderator is therapist Ms. Janna Buskirk, who utilizes cinema therapy with her child patients.
There will be plenty of time for questions and reflections.
GRCC’s and GVSU’s French programs both received a grant to put together the Tournées Film Festival which begins next week and will take place on both campuses — at GVSU’s Loosemore Auditorium and GRCC’s Wisner-Bottrall Applied Technology Center Auditorium, Room 168, ATC. Films may contain adult content.
Admission for all films is FREE.
Here’s the lineup:
Valley of Love (2015) Wed., Oct. 26, 6:15 pm, GVSU Loosemore Auditorium
Phantom Boy (2015) Thurs., Oct. 27, 7 pm, GVSU Loosemore Auditorium — Meet the director!
Le Grand Homme (2014), Fri., Nov. 4, 7 pm, GRCC ATC Auditorium
Tournées Film Festival is made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the
French Embassy in the U.S., the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée (CNC), the French American Cultural Fund, Florence Gould Foundation and Highbrow Entertainment.
All participants are welcome. Those in need of accommodations for films showing at GRCC, please contact Language and Thought at 616.234.3544; for films showing at GVSU call Modern Languages and Literatures at 616.331.3203.
At the age of 23, Grand Rapids native Leighton Watson is striving to leave a legacy that matters, and he is confident that his life path is on target to achieve that goal.
Watson was in Grand Rapids Sept. 26 to share with Grand Valley State University students the importance of finding solutions to social injustice within each community. The former student body president of Howard University was the keynote speaker for a presentation called ‘The Power of Student Voices,’ a component of GVSU’s Student Assembly Week. The purpose of the assembly was to encourage students to actively engage in conversation about social and political issues and have their voices heard.
Leighton Watson
Although he is active in addressing the issues of Civil Rights and social injustice, Watson says he doesn’t think of himself as an ‘activist.’
“I’d rather be called a human being,” he said. “Everyone wants to put you in a box and label you. I’m an American.”
Watson’s current life path crystallized during his senior year of college, around the time of the Ferguson riots. Deeply disturbed by the increasing civil unrest and injustice, he gathered fellow students for a photo, ‘Hands Up’ (as in ‘don’t shoot’). He also traveled to Ferguson to see the situation firsthand.
“You can’t prescribe a remedy for a situation you don’t know about,” Watson said.
Meanwhile, the ‘Hands Up’ image rapidly went viral on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and CNN took notice. The station invited him to the studio to share his views and possible remedies for civic unrest.
“We don’t have to wait until we get to the point of Ferguson,” he said. “A lot of the same symptoms are happening now in other cities, but people don’t realize it until things blow up. If America was what it’s supposed to be, what it says on paper, you’d never have the movement, women’s rights, etc. I still think that there is a gap and that means there’s work for me and us to close that gap.”
Watson and POTUS
After seeing Watson’s CNN appearance — and impressed with his proactive approach to identifying solutions (rather than simply pointing out the problems) — the White House invited him to Washington to be a part of a task force on policing.
“The President asked me what I wanted him to do about Ferguson,” said Watson. “There is no national solution to this issue. It’s something that must be addressed state by state, local government by local government — it has to happen on a local level.”
Since then, Watson has kept busy visiting communities across the country to talk to school children and organizations, discussng concerns and organizing movements. He stresses the importance of preparation and solution-finding, even at the middle school level.
“And I say to middle-schoolers, ‘You have to be prepared to answer the question. Preparation is an ongoing process; you must be prepared to meet the president in that moment.'”
Watson addressing GVSU students (Photo courtesy of GVSU
Watson learned the importance of legacy from his grandfather, who started the Section 8 Housing Authority in South Bend, Indiana. Years after his death, people remember and speak very highly of him.
“I was about four years old when he died,” said Watson. “My grandpa taught me that achievement is not a resting place, it’s a trampoline.
“Fifty years from now, history will have written about this time, that these police shootings happened. The question I’ll have to answer my grandchildren is, ‘Grandpa, where were you when this happened?’ And I’ll want to answer that question confidently, that I did do something about it.
“Legacy is important. What you do with your time is important,” said Watson. “I want to look back on my life and be confident about what I did with my time.”
The Maker Faire brings all ages together to talk about new ideas and collaborations.
Maker Faire is once again taking over the Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) and Grand Valley State University’s (GVSU) John C. Kennedy Hall of Engineering on Aug. 20 and 21 for its third year. Visitors will experience a traditional science fair combined with innovation and engineering for hands-on learning and fun!
The Faire will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 20 and from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 21. Grand Rapids Public Museum is located at 272 Pearl St NW and with the GVSU’s John C. Kennedy Hall of Engineering located next door on the university’s Pew Campus, 401 W. Fulton St.
Part science fair, part county fair, and part something entirely new, Maker Faire gathers all-ages to learn and teach about new ideas and collaborations. Interactive stations and inventions will be showcased by tech enthusiasts, crafters, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, artists, students and commercial exhibitors. All of these “makers” come to Maker Faire to show what they have made and to share what they have learned. Visitors to this year’s Grand Rapids Maker Faire can expect to see and interact with more than 100 maker booths.
Part science fair, part county fair, the Maker Faire allows visitors to explore what local people are creating.
Tickets for a single day pass are $8 for adults, $7 for seniors and $3 for children. For a two-day pass, tickets are $14 for adults, $12 for seniors and $5 for children. Purchase by Friday, August 12 and receive $2 off each ticket.
GRPM Members are free, but tickets are required and recommend to reserve ahead of time. Tickets can be purchased or reserved at MakerFaireGR.com or by calling 616.929.1700.
The Grand Rapids Mini Maker Faire is being organized by the GR Makers, The Geek Group, Grand Rapids Community College, Grand Valley State University and the Grand Rapids Public Museum.
Makers can still sign up to be a part of this annual Faire at MakerFaireGR.com to showcase what they have made and share what they have learned.
The third annual Grand Rapids Mini Maker Faire is sponsored by Tekton Tools, Cascade Engineering, Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Wood News Radio, WGVU Public Media and Connections Academy.
“Comfortably Numb,” created by Nayda Collazo-Llorens, combines more than 2,000 pieces of clippings from various magazines and other printed materials, and stands nine feet high and spans across 45 feet of wall space. Collazo-Llorens, the Art and Design Department’s Padnos Distinguished Artist-in-Residence, said the piece spotlights media overload in today’s world.
