Fall 2019 Schedule At A Glance

Fall 2019

U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo
Thursday, September 26, 2019, 7 PM
Reng Student Union Auditorium

"…raw and honest… Harjo is the Muscogee/Creek word meaning reckless in battle, or crazy brave. It is a good name and one she has earned. --Jack Shakely, Los Angeles Review of Books. < /br> On June 19, 2019, Joy Harjo became the first Native American to be named U.S. Poet Laureate. Joy’s work draws on First Nation storytelling and histories, as well as feminist and social justice poetic traditions. She once commented, “I feel strongly that I have a responsibility to all the sources that I am: to all past and future ancestors, to my home country, to all places that I touch down on and that are myself, to all voices, all women, all of my tribe, all people, all earth, and beyond that to all beginnings and endings. In a strange kind of sense [writing] frees me to believe in myself, to be able to speak, to have voice, because I have to; it is my survival.” She is a creative polymath, deeply grounded in her ancestry, an activist on indigenous people’s rights, a musician, and an engaging speaker. Please join us for this historic event for our campus! .

With generous funding support from College of Liberal Arts and Communication and the Department of English and Philosophy.

Black ‘n da Blues: Stories and Songs from the Arkansas Delta: 1919-2019
Friday, September 27, 2019, 7:30 PM
Grand Hall, Fowler Center

Remembering the victims and tragedy of the 1919 Elaine, Arkansas Massacre

The Delta Cultural Center, the Remember2019 Collective, the Elaine Legacy Center, and the Boys, Girls, Adults, Community and Development Center in Marvell, present their third tour of “Black ‘n da Blues: Stories and Songs from the Arkansas Delta. The concert will feature blues singer and high-stepper James “Gone for Good” Morgan, guitarist Marcus Mookie Cartwright, and gospel singer and Elaine, Arkansas native Vera White. These fabulous blues artists will present blues, spirituals and R & B, which tell the story of the last 100 years of Phillips County, Arkansas’ cultural heritage and race history. The Remember2019 Collective is funded by the JKW Foundation, as well as several other nationally recognized funding sources.

With generous funding support from College of Liberal Arts and Communication and the Heritage Studies Ph.D. Program.

Acclaimed Tubist Mike Forbes
Tuesday, October 1, 2019, 7:30 PM
Fine Arts Recital Hall

…an outstanding tubist with a solid, colorful tone, terrific technical skills, and dramatic flair - American Record Guide
An artist of widely diverse musical talents, Mike Forbes can be heard on his two solo albums on Summit Records. His Forbes Plays Koetsier features all seven works for solo tuba by Dutch composer, Jan Koetsier. His more recent release, Forbes Plays Forbes features his own compositions for tuba. Mike has been a featured tubist with the Guy's All Star Shoe band on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keiller and also gave the first ever solo tuba recital on Wisconsin Public Radio’s popular broadcast, Live from the Chazen. He has very recently collaborated with European Tuba Phenom, Sérgio Carolino in a new group called the Trans-Atlantic Tuba Connection and their new recording Full Tilt featuring many of his new works for tuba duo and drums was recently released.

With generous funding support from College of Liberal Arts and Communication and the Department of Music.

Dramatic Tenor Vocalist Brad Perry
Monday, October 7, 2019, 7:30 PM
Fine Arts Recital Hall

Brad Perry is a dramatic tenor, opera singer and educator and is the Resident Tenor for the TOCCATA Tahoe Symphony Orchestra. Brad recently joined the faculty of Sierra Nevada College and is the Owner/Operator of Village Music a Private Music School in Incline Village, NV. In what will no doubt be a delightful, emotionally engaging concert, expect some of the most beloved selections of opera literature including arias and songs by Puccini, Verdi, Capurro, Leoncavallo, Schubert, and Beethoven.

With generous funding support from College of Liberal Arts and Communication and the Department of Music, and The A-State Choirs.

Greenfield Lecture: Africa I: Zodwa Dlamini
Monday, October 14, 2019, 7 PM
Reng Student Union Auditorium

The Greenfield Lecture is funded through an endowment established by Drs. Rosalee and Raymond Weiss to honor her mother, Corinne Sternheimer Greenfield, who was born in Jonesboro in 1896 and whose family was among the first to support the state agricultural school that is now Arkansas State University.
The story every student needs to hear! As teachers at a South African farm school, Zodwa Dlamini’s parents emphasized to her that education was the key to escaping the clutches of apartheid. Driven by a strong desire to improve the lives of those in her community, she committed herself to hard work and an education that she would later harness to effect positive change, reigniting hope for her South African community. Zodwa received a PhD in Social Foundations in 1992 from the University of Iowa where she researched the education of homeless children in South Africa. Zodwa returned to South Africa in 1994 to vote in the first non-racial democratic election. She later became head of the Northern Cape Province Education Department and Chief Delegate for the Lesotho Highlands Water Commission. Her exceptional hard work motivated by the desire to end the injustice and discrimination she experienced as a child is a story that will deeply touch and inspire many. This is the first event of a three-part subseries concerning Africa.

This presentation is funded by Drs. Rosalee and Raymond Weiss of Teaneck, New Jersey, in memory of her mother, Corinne Sternheimer Greenfield, through an endowment supporting an annual lecture in the College of Liberal Arts and Communication.

Author and Historian Alan McPherson
October 16, 2019, 5 PM
HSS1028

Alan McPherson is the director of Temple University’s Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy and a historian of U.S.-Latin American relations and global activism. He is an award winning author who has written widely on U.S. interventions in Latin America but also on the advocacy of rock band U2. His most recent book, Ghosts of Sheridan Circle: How a Washington Assassination Brought Pinochet’s Terror State to Justice (2019) discusses the assassination of Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier, killed in Washington, DC, on September 21, 1976 by a car bomb. The US government was hesitant to blame Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, a Cold War ally. McPherson proves that Pinochet had ordered the murder, providing a definitive account of this assassination that forever changed the course of counterterrorism and democracy in the western hemisphere.

With generous funding support from College of Liberal Arts and Communication, Department of History, and Department of Political Science.

The Innovative Juggler, Greg Kennedy: Science, Engineering and Art: A Juggler’s Perspective”
Thursday, October 24, 2019, 7:30 PM
Riceland Hall, Fowler Center

Kennedy’s pieces have a kinetic beauty, a thrill in the precarious balance of objects in motion.--Shaun Brady, Philadelphia City Paper.
Originally trained as an engineer, Greg Kennedy uses the principles of geometry and physics to create groundbreaking work with original apparatus. As a young juggler, he quickly made a name for himself in the juggling community not only by his mastery of traditional juggling technique, but also for creating entirely new forms of manipulation. He is now renowned for his many original contributions to juggling as an art form. Jugglers know him for his award-winning creativity; audiences know him for his entertaining performance, making visual spectacles by combining art and science. Science, Engineering & Art gracefully transitions between inspirational, real-world anecdotes, and kinetic creations while providing the audience with perspective on how science and art unite.

With generous funding support from The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi and the Arkansas Science Festival.