Poetry: Jim Magill featured reader Thursday

Jim Magill will be the featured reader for the River Poets on Thursday, April 4, at 7:30 pm at the Bloomsburg Public Library, Market Street. Magill's writing has received, and continues to garner, some national attention. A sample of his writing can be accessed at his web site: http://romonxassociatedartists.com/profile/JamesMagill. This will be an interactive event, audience participation requested.

Folk/pop charmers to play Carver

In the market for some low-key folk/pop? Sheila Carabine and Amanda Walther of the group Dala will perform Friday, April 5, at 7:30 p.m. at BU's Carver Hall, Kenneth S. Gross Auditorium.

The duo has been nominated for a JUNO Canadian Music Award and were winners of the Canadian Folk Music Award for Vocal Group of the Year. They're toured North America, performing at the New Orleans Jazz Festival and California’s Strawberry Festival and Mariposa.

Tickets for the Celebrity Artist Series show in the fairly intimate Gross Auditorium are $29.50 for adults, $16.50 for children, and $14 for BU students.

For tickets or more information, visit www.bloomu.edu/CAS or call the box office at (570) 389-4409.

Upcoming Celebrity Artist Series shows include:

• Kathy Mattea – Friday, April 26, at 8 p.m. in the Haas Center for the Arts, Mitrani Hall. Tickets: $34.50 
• Nai-Ni Chen with the Ahn Trio – Saturday, May 11, at 8 p.m. in the Haas Center for the Arts, Mitrani Hall. Tickets: $34.50 

Miscellanea: Poetry, prose, justice and the Arctic

Poetry:

PNC Television will air  "A Gathering of Laureates" Wednesday and Thursday, March 27 and 28, at 11:05 pm. The program features past and present laureates of Perry, Berks, York, Harrisburg, and Montgomery counties, including Melanie Simms of Sunbury — a familiar face in the Bloomsburg poetry community.

Prose:

Puerto Rican writer Marta Aponte Alsina will give a talk "We Had Never Seen Such People Before: Puerto Rican Literature and the Writing of Other" on Thursday, March 28, from 7 to 8 pm in Kehr Union, Multipurpose Room B. In connection to that lecture, there will be a series of talks related to diversity throughout that day.

• Paul Loomis, faculty, "Student Life in South America" (1:20-1:50 pm)
• Tom Aleto, faculty, "Carnival in San Martin Tilcajete, Oaxaca, Mexico: A Ritual of Inversion² (2:00-3:00 pm) 
• Kendal Arthur, international student, "St. Lucia: French and British Culture" (3:00-3:20 pm) 
• Marthe Beauvais, student, "Once Upon A Time, Haiti" (3:20-3:40 pm) 
• Iker Omar Belsaguy (exchange student, Mexico), "The Importance of Learning a Foreign Language. Experiences on Chinese language" (3:45-4:00 pm) 
• Study Abroad Panel (China, Germany, France, Haiti, Panama, Peru, Spain): 4:05-5:00 pm 

Justice: 

Terrence Roberts, one of the Little Rock Nine, will speak on Lessons from Little Rock, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 2 in Bloomsburg University’s Kehr Union, Ballroom. Roberts was a 15-year-old 11th-grader when he joined eight other African-American students in 1957 and entered all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. Roberts’ presentation, open to the public free of charge.

The Arctic:

Arctic scientist Martin Jeffries will speak on "The Arctic Report Card: On the State of an Environmental System in Rapid Transition" on Wednesday, April 3, at 7:30 pm in BU’s Hartline Science Center, Kuster Auditorium. Jeffries, currently on leave from a faculty position with the University of Alaska/Fairbanks, is program officer and arctic science adviser for the Ocean, Atmosphere and Space Research Division at the Office of Naval Research, Arlington, Va. His talk is sponsored by the Green Campus Initiative and open to the public free of charge.

Students exhibiting in Haas

BU students are exhibiting their work in the Haas Gallery through Tuesday, April 9. Approximately two dozen students are exhibiting about 40 pieces in a variety of media. An artists' reception will be held Friday, March 29, from 7 to 9 pm.

Upcoming shows at Haas Gallery include:

• An exhibit of works by Toshiko Takaezu from April 17 to May 1. The show of works by the late, internationally-renowned  ceramicist is being organized by the museum exhibition class. Takaezu was a close personal friend of BU professor emeritus Karl Beamer and she contributed many works to the university.
• The BU senior exit show will open May 8 and run to May 18.

Lecture: Climate expert sees note of optimism

Internationally acclaimed glaciologist and climate scientist Richard Alley, professor of geosciences at Penn State University and a member of the Penn State Ice and Climate Exploration Group, will speak at Bloomsburg University Wednesday, March 27, at 7:30 pm in Hartline Science Center, Kuster Auditorium, room 134.

Alley studies the flow and stability of ice sheets, the relationships between ice and climate change, and has testified about climate change before congress.  His talk, "Energy and the Environment: The Surprisingly Optimistic Big Picture," is sponsored by the BU Campus Green Initiative.

Columbia County celebrates 200 years

Columbia County will celebrate its bicentennial Saturday, March 23, with several events (in addition to the magic show mentioned below).

There will be a Bicentennial 5K Run/Walk at noon beginning at the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds Race Track and finishing at the Bloomsburg Hospital parking lots, where the top three finishers of male and female participants will be given awards.

There will be a parade starting at 2 pm at the Geisinger- Bloomsburg Hospital/Bloomsburg University parking lots and continuing to the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds grandstand entrance.

From 11 am to 9 pm the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds Arts and Crafts Building will be open with exhibits of local businesses, churches, historical societies and other organizations showcasing their years of service. There will also be live entertainment from noon to  6 pm. The celebrate will be capped off when the Bicentennial Time Capsule will be displayed and sealed at 7 pm followed by a firework show at the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds.

Kid's stuff: Magic time

Moreland the Magician will give two performances on Saturday, March 23. A special "free preview" performance at the Columbia County Bicentennial Celebration at the Arts & Crafts Building on the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds at noon, and a full "pay what you wish" performance at 6 pm at the Alvina Krause Theatre, 226 Center Street, Downtown Bloomsburg.

Called "extremely entertaining" and "a laughing good time" the "March Magic" show features audience participation, classic and original tricks, and is appropriate for all ages. Tickets for the general admission show are pay what you wish, meaning patrons will be asked for any donation in exchange for admission. Moreland the Magician is donating his performance to BTE, and all proceeds will benefit Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble.

Books: To read, or not to read

I have a very wise mother-in-law who once told me that "there comes a time in life when you don't have time for bad books."

And sometimes it's hard to find time to read good books. Which makes pruning the collection on the shelves to donate to a book sale feel a little like a defeat. You're acknowledging that you just don't (and won't) have time to read these books. Which makes it much harder than it should be to begin the donation box for the Friends of the Bloomsburg Library Book Sale. — EGF. 

The Friends of the Bloomsburg University Library Association (FOBULA) will be holding their 13th Annual Book Sale from Saturday, April 6 to Monday, April 8 in the Andruss Library Schweiker Room. The book sale is their largest fundraiser, bringing in $25,000 in the first twelve years, which has gone toward a number of special projects, two of which are the digitization and preservation of local and university historic materials and providing textbook scholarships to deserving students. Donations of books, CDs, DVDs, video tapes, cassettes and even records are still needed and can be brought to the Andruss Library Circulation Desk.

The group asks you to hold off on items that don't sell well ... like pre-2000 textbooks, magazines, journals, encyclopedias (oops I think I've got one in my box) and Reader's Digest condensed books.

A highlight of what to expect at the sale: 1000 history books, including well over 100 on the Civil War, have been generously donated.

There will be a pre-sale for members only Saturday, April 6, from noon to 1 pm, with the regular sale from 1 to 5. If not a member of the Friends, you can join at the door ($30 for 3 years, cheap).

Spain and Cuba: Guitar and Piano

Guitar and piano duo Evan Drummond and Orlay Alonso will give a concert (and master class) at BU on Wednesday, March, 27, in Carver Hall, Kenneth S. Gross Auditorium. The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m.; the master class will begin at noon. Both events are free and open to the public.

After graduating from Yale University, Drummond and Alonso combined their musical talents to explore virtuosic Spanish and Cuban music from the last 150 years. With Drummond on guitar and Alonso on piano, the duo performs their own arrangements of works by well-known composers. Drummond has been a featured performer throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Pianist Alonso has performed at Carnegie Hall’s Wiell Recital Hall and Yale University’s Sprague Memorial Hall with the Manhattan School of Music Orchestra, Ossia Symphony Orchestra and the Bronx Arts Ensemble Orchestra. For information, contact Matthew Slotkin, assistant professor of music, at mslotkin@bloomu.edu.

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The second annual Big Band Dance, hosted by BU’s Center for Visual and Performing Arts, will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, at the Moose Exchange, downtown Bloomsburg. The event will begin with a demonstration of basic dance styles, such as the samba, cha-cha and tango, followed by music for dancing performed by BU’s Jazz Ensemble. The free event is supported by BU’s College of Liberal Arts. For information, contact Julie Petry, assistant professor of theater and dance, jpetry@bloomu.edu.

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BU students will exhibit their artwork from March 26 to April 9 in Haas Gallery of the Arts. A reception for the artists will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, March 29, in Haas Gallery. The exhibit is open free of charge from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday and noon to 2 p.m. Saturday.

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The film Milk will be shown Tuesday, March 26, at 6:15 pm in Hartlines Science Center, room G42, as part of BU’s Constitutional Freedoms Film Series. Sean Penn stars as Harvey Milk, a politician and gay rights activist who was assassinated in 1978. The film screening, sponsored by the Frederick Douglass Institute and the American Democracy Project, is open to the public free of charge.

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BU’s LGBTA Commission is hosting the fifth annual It’s Time fundraiser on Tuesday, March 26, from 5 to 7 pm at The Barn at Boone’s Dam, Bloomsburg. The event includes a light reception, awards presentation and silent auction featuring items from artists, restaurants and local businesses. Tickets, at $25 each, cover appetizers and beverages. Checks payable to the BU Foundation may be sent to the LGBTA Resource Center, Warren Student Services Center, room 226.

Flood Stories continue

Performances of “Flood Stories, Too” continue Thursday through Sunday at the Alvina Krause Theatre downtown on Center Street.

Related to the Flood — BU's Institute for Culture & Society is sponsoring two programs this week (light refreshments provided):

• Tuesday, March 12, 5:30 – 8:30 pm, Moose Exchange, Grille Room
  Panel 1) Jennifer Whisner, PhD, asst. professor of environmental, geographical and geological Sciences, presents “Climate Change and Flooding”
  Panel 2) Rita Inklovich, Red Cross; Kathy Lowe, Agape; & Lee Sokoloski, chief of police, Bloomsburg, present “The Role of Response Services to the 2011 Flood” 
  
• Thursday, March 14, 6:30 – 7:45 pm, Hartline Rm 108 (Auditorium)
  “Psychological Responses to Natural Disaster: Stress, Community, Resilience” — James Dalton, PhD, professor of psychology; William R. Harrar, PsyD, BU director of counseling; Joseph G. Tloczynski, PhD, professor of psychology; Jennifer M. Yarnell, MCAT, PhD, instructor of psychology and private practitioner; Jodi Weiskerger, LSW, private practitioner; Moderator: Nancy D. Giles, PhD, assistant professor of psychology

A view of Africa

BU students are showing photographs taken during their study abroad experience in Ethiopia and Cameroon this January at the Haas Gallery of Art. There will be a reception and readings by the students Wednesday, March 13, from 11 am to 1 pm.

This exhibit presents a selection of photographs made for the course, "Photography in the Field: Working in a non-Western Culture," introduced students to challenges of making photographs of unfamiliar people and places with both respect and sensitivity. The exhibition will be on view through March 31. For any questions, please contact Ekema Agbaw at sagbaw@bloomu.edu or Vera Viditz-Ward at vviditz@bloomu.edu.

Recitals — guitar, poetry, prose

BU student Shane Nesmith will present a guitar recital Tuesday, March 12, at 7 pm in Carver Hall, Kenneth S. Gross Auditorium. The concert is free of charge.

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Students from BU's Creative Writing Program will read from their original works on Wednesday, March 13, at 6:30 pm at the Moose Exchange, 203 W. Main Street, Bloomsburg. Offering a mix of poetry and prose, the students are part a writing seminar for graduating seniors. In addition to working with creative writing faculty professors Jerry Wemple and Claire Lawrence, the students have been coached by David Miller, theater professor, on ways to present their work. The event, sponsored by the College of Liberal Art’s Center of Visual and Performing Arts, is free and open to the public.

Reminder: Empty Bowls banquet Sunday

The Empty Bowls Banquet to benefit the Bloomsburg Food Cupboard will be held Sunday, March 10, from 11 am to 1:30 pm in BU's Kehr Union, Ballroom. The minimum donation for unlimited soup is $10 for adults, $5 for students age 5 and older and free for children under 5.

Sibelius for Sunday

The Bloomsburg University Chamber  Orchestra will perform Sunday, March 10, at 2:30 pm at St. Matthew Lutheran Church, 123 N. Market St.

The program will be:

• Sibelius: Finlandia
• Beethoven: Symphony No. 8 
• Beethoven: PIano Concerto No. 3

The guest artist is pianist Cathal Breslin. Mark Jelinek directs. And the show is free.

Reception for Larry Ney at Artspace

There will be an artists' reception for Larry Ney II Saturday, March 9, from 6 to 8 pm at Artspace Gallery, 221 Center Street.

I love Ney's work. He goes big, abstract, bold. He uses color very powerfully. But to me eye, there's an additional beauty in his brushwork, which seems simultaneously spontaneous and controlled. For me, it recalls Japanese Sumi-e ink painting with a bolder palette.  — EGF.

Flood Stories, Too

The Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble and the Bloomsburg University Players are staging Flood Stories, Too from March 7 to 17. Shows are pay what you wish.

More details from BU's College of Liberal Arts blog.

Written and directed by Gerald Stropnicky, Emeritus member of Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, Flood Stories, Too. is a collection of personal narratives and stories of local residents’ experiences with the flood, artfully crafted into a two-act play. 

“You’ll see through different monologues that almost all of the actual events are taken from stories that people have given us,” said Phil Czekner, Bloomsburg University student and actor in the production. 

Many stories were gathered by Mary Reinsburrow, another Bloomsburg University student and actress in the production. Characters featured in the multitude of stories range from unconcerned students to victims themselves to volunteers, even including Mayor Dan Knorr and Bloomsburg University’s President, Dr. David Soltz.

In addition to the play, there are a series of events related to the events scheduled in the town and university as well.

Friday, March 8^th, 5:00 – 6:30 pm, McCormick 1303

Arlene Goldbard, nationally-recognized author/speaker/activist, presents “Tell It! How Shaping Our Stories Shapes Our Lives and Communities”

Saturday, March 9^th, 4:30 pm, Alvina Krause Theatre (AKT)

Arlene Goldbard, nationally-recognized author/speaker/activist, & Gerard Stropnicky, director/writer of BTE’s Flood Stories, Too., present

"What Happens When Communities Participate in Telling Their Own Stories"

Sunday, March 10^th, 12:30-2:00 pm, Moose Exchange, Grille Room

Gerard Stropnicky presents “Flood Stories, Too.: Context and Process”

Tuesday, March 12^th, 6:00 – 8:30 pm, Moose Exchange, Grille Room

Panel 1) Jennifer Whisner, PhD, Asst. Professor of Environmental, Geographical & Geological Sciences, presents “Climate Change and Flooding”

Panel 2) Rita Inklovich, Red Cross; Kathy Lowe, Agape; & Lee Sokoloski, Chief of Police, Bloomsburg, present “The Role of Response Services to the 2011 Flood”

Thursday, March 14^th, 6:30 – 7:45 pm, Hartline Rm 108 (Auditorium)

“Psychological Responses to Natural Disaster: Stress, Community, Resilience”

Paula Closson Buck featured River Poets reader

The featured reader for the River Poets on Thursday, March 7, is Paula Closson Buck, the author of two books of poems, The Acquiescent Villa (1998) and Litanies Near Water (2008), both from Louisiana State University Press. Readings begin at 7:30 pm in the Bloomsburg Public Library, followed by an open reading. MC is Dick Brook.

She has published poems in such journals as Agni, Denver Quarterly, Gettysburg Review, Shenandoah, and Southern Review and has been the recipient of three individual artist fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. In addition to teaching at Bucknell University as professor of English, for eleven years she edited West Branch, the nationally distributed literary magazine published out of Bucknell’s Stadler Center for Poetry.

Illustration by Sarah Foster.

A celebration of Gloria Cohen-Dion

Bloomsburg University's College of Liberal Arts will celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Gloria Cohen-Dion, political science professor, who passed away recently. The event will be Thursday, March 7, from 6 to 8 pm in the Kehr Union, Ballroom.

Dr. Cohen-Dion was the wife of Sam Dion, a wonderful artist, and man, whose unmistakable work graces many public spaces in Bloomsburg.

Miscellanea: Kids, soup and a movie

BU’s SOLVE Volunteer Office will host the annual Kids Fun Carnival from 1 to 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 3, in the Nelson Field House. BU student organizations will offer games, crafts and activities free of charge for local children.

The movie Amistad will be shown Wednesday, March 6, at 6:15 pm in Hartline Science Center, room G42. The film is based on an 1839 incident involving a group of slaves who took over their ship, the Amistad. The film screening, sponsored by the Frederick Douglass Institute and the American Democracy Project, is open to the public free of charge as part of BU's Constitutional Freedoms Film Series.

The Empty Bowls Banquet to benefit the Bloomsburg Food Cupboard will be held Sunday, March 10, from 11 am to 1:30 pm in Kehr Union, Ballroom. The minimum donation for unlimited soup is $10 for adults, $5 for students age 5 and older and free for children under 5. For information, contact BU’s SOLVE volunteer office, (570) 389-4788 or stvolser@bloomu.edu. 

Recital season is upon us

Euphonium. Photo by Hidekazu Okayama

Bloomsburg will be alive with music during the coming week.

The week starts with three student recitals in Carver Hall, Kenneth S. Gross Auditorium.

• Brittany Baselice, clarinet — Sunday, March 3, 2 pm
• Casey Carroll, trumpet — Sunday, March 3, 3:30 pm
• Andrew Grippe, guitar —Tuesday, March 5, 7:30 pm

Bloomsburg faculty member Tracey Schmidt-Jaynes will give a flute recital Wednesday, March 6, at 7 pm in Carver Hall, Kenneth Gross Auditorium. She will be accompanied by Reuben Councill on flute and Ron Stabinsky on piano.

On Thursday, March 7, one of the elite brass soloists of the world, euphonium player Adam Frey is will give a recital with BU professor Charisse Baldoria on the piano. The concert will be at 7:30 p.m. in Gross Auditorium, Carver Hall. More information on this one at bloomuliberalarts.blogspot.com.

And the Bloomsburg Chamber Orchestra will perform Sunday, March 10, at 2:30 pm at St. Matthew Lutheran Church, 123 Market St. That performance will feature noted pianist Cathal Breslin.