Have ten minutes? See a play, or maybe several.

The Bloomsburg University Players will perform a concert reading of 5 original 10-minute plays written and directed by students. Performances will be April 1, 2, 6, and 7 at 7:30 pm in the Theatre Lab (Located at the back of the University Bookstore Building). The plays are:

• The Compliment by Bry Kifolo – Directed Chris Creyer 
• Legacy by Titus O’Neil – Directed by Bry Kifolo 
• Pastime by Will Olsen – Directed by Kate Mochnacz 
• The Opposition by Courtney Dunn – Directed by Titus O’Neil 
• Dink by Titus O’Neil – Directed by Kate Mochnacz

More information here: www.bloomu.edu/buplayers-current and

here: buplayers.blogspot.com/

African refugee to speak at BU

Bloomsburg University will host a political refugee who was national coordinator of both Zimbabwe’s AIDS education program and its program to bring primary education to rural schoolchildren in developing countries.

Clement A. Jumbe After political strife in Zimbabwe led to threats, harassment, intimidation and separation from his family, Clement A. Jumbe fled to Canada as a refugee. He will tell his story in “My Journey to Safety… and the Help that I Received from the Scholars at Risk Networks” at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 31, in Carver Hall, Kenneth S. Gross Auditorium.

Jumbe has more than two decades of experience in education as a high school principal and district education officer in Zimbabwe. After starting a new career as national director for UNICEF’s HIV/AIDS Education Program and the national coordinator of the Commonwealth Education Fund, Zimbabwe was expelled from the Commonwealth of Nations for human rights abuses. The government branded the education program as a threat to national interests, leading to a lack of security for Jumbe and his family. In Canada, he was supported by the Scholars at Risk Program at Massey College of the University of Toronto, which provided him with room and board, contacts, speaking engagements and opportunities to teach again.

This event is sponsored by the International Faculty Association and the office of the provost at BU. For information, contact Amarilis Hidalgo de Jesus, International Faculty Association president and professor of Spanish at BU, at ahidalgo@bloomu.edu.

Fiction writer to give reading at Greenly Center

Crystal Wilkinson, short fiction writer and a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets, will read from her work Thursday, April 2, at 6:30 p.m. on the first floor of the Greenly Center, 50 E. Main Street. The reading is free and open to the public.

 Wilkinson helped found the Affrilachian Poets Society in 1991. The society embraces a multicultural influence, a spectrum of people who consider Appalachia to be their home or identify strongly with the trials and triumphs of being of the Appalachian region.

Wilkinson has published a number of works and has received several awards for her writing. Her story, “Blackberries, Blackberries,” won the 2002 Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature and “Water Street” was a finalist for the United Kingdom’s Orange Prize for fiction and Hurston/Wright Legacy Award.

In addition, Wilkinson won the Danny Plattner Award for Poetry from Appalachian Heritage Magazine and the Sallie Bingham Award from the Kentucky Foundation for Women for the promotion of activism and artistic expression.

 Wilkinson’s visit marks the first event to be held in the new Greenly Center in downtown Bloomsburg. Other cultural events, including art exhibits and gallery receptions, are expected to follow. The reading is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and the Department of English. For more information, contact Jerry Wemple, professor of English, at jwemple@bloomu.edu.

Documentary highlights hunger in US

Bloomsburg University will screen A Place at the Table, a documentary film revealing hunger problems in the U.S. on Monday, March 30, at 7 p.m. in Carver Hall’s Kenneth S. Gross Auditorium. It is free and open to the public.

Fifty million U.S. citizens don’t know where their next meal is coming from, an issue caused not by food scarcity but by poverty. This poses economic, social and cultural implications for the nation.

A Place at the Table tells the stories of people, young and old, struggling with food insecurity in the U.S. Through these stories coupled with insights from experts, teachers and activists, the film proposes that healthy food can be available and affordable to all citizens.

The film screening is sponsored by BU’s Green Campus Initiative. For more information contact Tim Pelton, civic engagement coordinator, at tpelton@bloomu.edu.