BEREA COLLEGE CONVOCATIONS STEPHENSON

MEMORIAL CONCERT SERIES

2018–2019 Season 8:00 p.m. • Phelps Stokes Auditorium • Berea, KY

ALL OF THESE EVENTS ARE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AND FREE OF CHARGE

Villalobos Brothers Corey Ledet The Villalobos Brothers masterfully blend SEPT and his FEB Zydeco Band elements of jazz, rock, classical and Mexican 13TH 14TH folk music to deliver a powerful message of Zydeco love, brotherhood and social justice. musician Corey Ledet remains true to his roots while infusing old and new styles into his own unique and versatile sound.

Omer Quartet OCT Distinctive among today’s young string quartets, 4TH the award-winning Omer Quartet enthralls audiences with a wide range of classical repertoire from Beethoven to Schumann.

Dervish An icon of traditional Irish music, Dervish have been enchanting audiences around the world MAR with their passionate vocals and dazzling 14TH instrumentals for many years.

Farah Siraj NOV APR Red Molly Jordanian Celebrated for their virtuoso 15TH 11TH beautiful harmonies, Farah Siraj Red Molly skillfully weave fascinates together the various global threads of American audiences with music—from folk her original roots to bluegrass compositions, and from fusing Middle heartbreaking Eastern music, ballads to flamenco, jazz, honky Bossa nova and tonk. pop with lyrics in Arabic, Spanish and English. BEREA COLLEGE CONVOCATIONS

B erea College students are expected to attend seven convocations each term except during their term of graduation and are also expected to familiarize themselves with the Convocation rules published in the Student Handbook. Convocations take place in Phelps Stokes Auditorium on Thursdays, unless otherwise indicated beforehand. As events are subject to cancellation, please refer to email announcements or the Convocation website for a notice of change. Dress up is appropriate at evening events. Visitors are always welcome.

FALL 2018 EVENTS SPRING 2019 EVENTS 9 daytime, 3 evening 8 daytime, 3 evening AUG•30 PRES. LYLE ROELOFS Berea Stories. It has been said that Berea consists of 1600 ZEB HARRISON & THE SOUNDS OF PRAISE What Real Horns Are JAN•21 3:00 great stories, stories of challenge, accomplishment and triumph. That is certainly true— Made Of!!! This brass ensemble features a big band sound that moves 3:00 every Berea student has a compelling story—as do all other Bereans, faculty, staff, between New Orleans style music and contemporary gospel with a splash of Seabury Monday Center alumni, and retirees, who together constitute our wonderful community. Opening jazz. While not a Mardi Gras band, the ensemble uses the same Convocation 2018 is a celebration of all those stories and how they connect and instruments—trombones, sousaphones, and euphoniums. The addition of reinforce one another. First-year and senior students will process, as will faculty and staff. drums and keyboards creates their signature sound. Co-sponsored with the Special music will be performed by the combined Berea College choirs. Black Cultural Center, Carter G. Woodson Center, African and African- American Studies, CCC, and President’s Office. Martin Luther King Jr. SEPT•6 VIEN TRUONG Leadership Towards a Just and Equitable Future. Policy expert and Memorial Convocation. 3:00 strategist Truong, CEO of the social justice organization Dream Corps, addresses intensifying climate catastrophes and increased global wealth inequalities. Truong PROF. MICHAEL ERIC DYSON Title and description will be announced JAN•31 advocates for lifting people out of poverty while creating an equitable, green at a later date. Please check the Convocations website for updates. 3:00 economy, stressing the importance of considering race, class, and income inequality whenever addressing environmental health and sustainability issues. REV. DEREK TERRY True to our God, True to our Native Land. Rev. Terry, FEB•7 SEPT•13 VILLALOBOS BROTHERS Mexican Folk Music Meets Jazz and Classical Music. an activist, writer, renowned lecturer, and pastor of St. Peter’s United 3:00 8:00 The Villalobos Brothers use their violins and voices to redefine contemporary Church of Christ in Cincinnati explores how Christianity has been used to Mexican music. Their original compositions masterfully blend elements of jazz, rock, support white supremacy. He also addresses how Christianity can serve to classical and Mexican folk music to deliver a powerful message of love, brotherhood liberate oppressed populations and encourages his audience to learn from and social justice. Stephenson Memorial Concert. Black liberation theology. Carter G. Woodson Memorial Convocation.

SEPT•20 PROF. MICHAEL KLARMAN The Framers’ Coup: The Making of the U.S. COREY LEDET & HIS ZYDECO BAND Standing on Faith. Following FEB•14 3:00 Constitution. Harvard law professor Klarman will discuss his recent book, The Framers’ in the footsteps of Clifton Chenier, “King of Zydeco,” Texas-born Ledet was 8:00 Coup, the first comprehensive account of the background, drafting, and ratification of heavily influenced by southwest Louisiana’s Creole and Cajun culture and the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Klarman addresses how the Framers music. Staying true to the roots of Zydeco, he has incorporated many other managed to write a nationalist and democracy-constraining constitution, and how influences, such as blues, funk, reggae, R&B, gospel, and pop to create his they convinced ordinary Americans to approve such a constitution. Begley-Van Cleve unique style. Stephenson Memorial Concert. Lecture. RACHEL BROWN Words to Action: How Communication is Catalyzed for FEB•21 SEPT•27 DR. DIANE WHITE-CLAYTON Jesus, the Ultimate Rebel with a Cause. When Violence and for Peace. Brown, Executive Director of Project Zero, will 3:00 3:00 asked to describe Jesus, few choose the word rebellious. Often depicted as frail and discuss the role of communication in inter-group conflict, exploring how a tender-hearted, the defiant, the trouble-maker Jesus who never allowed rules to dictate lack of clear communication can lead to divisions, and even violence. Brown His path, is overlooked. In the story of Berea College, whose rebellious beginnings will suggest actions we can take to use communication as a powerful tool to directly defied the times’ societal norms, chapters remain to be written of new rebels prevent violence and create resilient peace. Sponsored by the CCC. Robbins who, through faith and determination, will change the world. Sponsored by the Willis Peace Lecture. D. Weatherford, Jr. Campus Christian Center (CCC). Accent on Christian Faith. LOOKING FOR LILITH THEATRE COMPANY Defining Infinity. This FEB•28 OCT•4 OMER QUARTET Invigorating Classical Music. Distinctive among today’s young feminist ensemble theatre company is dedicated to lifting up unheard and 3:00 8:00 string quartets, the Omer Quartet has performed classical repertoire, from Beethoven “underheard” stories. Defining Infinity, an original play, explores individuals’ to Schumann, with renowned artists around the world, winning prestigious music stories about the spectrums of both gender and sexual orientation. prizes in Italy, Norway, and France. Stephenson Memorial Concert. Enlightening, thoughtful, and powerful, the play shares experiences of queer folks from all along both of these spectrums. Co-sponsored with Women’s OCT•11 DR. FRANCES JENSEN The Unique Strengths and Vulnerabilities of the Teenage and Gender Studies. 3:00 and Young Adult Brain. Dr. Jensen, M.D., University of Pennsylvania Professor and author of The Teenage Brain uses recent research findings to highlight the period of DERVISH Classical Irish Music. Steeped in the music of northwest Ireland, MAR•14 adolescence and young adulthood as a unique brain stage. As a neurologist, Dervish is renowned for dazzling live performances with stunning 8:00 neuroscientist and recent parent of teenagers, Dr. Jensen will discuss how interpretations of traditional songs. The band includes Shane neuroscience can explain many of the challenges teens and young adults face, as well Mitchell (accordion), Liam Kelly (flute, whistle), Brian McDonagh as opportunities present during this developmental window. Woods Lecture. (mandola, mandolin), Michael Holmes (bouzouki), Cathy Jordan (vocals, bodhran) and Tom Morrow (fiddle). Stephenson Memorial Concert. OCT•20 DR. MAE JEMISON Pursuing the Extraordinary. Dr. Jemison, M.D., the first 3:00 woman of color in space, now focuses on facilitating human interstellar travel. She DR. MELISSA ZOOK From Good Girl to Street Doc: Mistakes, Misguided MAR•21 Saturday will share her experience as a space voyager and her plans for her new Endeavour, the Adventures and Light Bulb Moments. Family physician Dr. Zook practices 3:00 100-Year Starship, a global initiative to make human travel to another star possible cradle-to-grave medicine in London, KY and provides care for persons living Seabury Center within the next 100 years. Providing a platform for radical leaps, innovation, with HIV, hepatitis and substance use disorders. Her path to becoming a technology and human systems, Dr. Jemison believes pursuing an extraordinary 21st century country doctor wasn’t exactly what she imagined when she tomorrow builds a better world today. Berea College Science Lecture. graduated from a college much like Berea. She will discuss how mistakes along the way have strengthened her and continue to form the person she OCT•25 KIESA KAY Love Makes a Home: The Life of Rebecca Boone. In Kay’s historical play, has become. Co-sponsored with LJAC. Appalachian Lecture. 3:00 Rebecca, the main character, a trail-blazing midwife, shares her memories from 1811. Rebecca didn’t have a home to keep, but her adventures with her husband, GLADYS WASHINGTON From Segregation to Social Justice: One Black MAR•28 legendary American frontiersman Daniel Boone, made up for what was missing. Old Woman’s Lifelong Quest for Equity. Washington’s childhood was divided 3:00 time fiddler Bruce Greene will perform tunes from the area crossed by the Boones. between the Virgin Islands and the segregated South, where her Co-sponsored with the Loyal Jones Appalachian Center (LJAC). grandmother taught her to advocate unapologetically for herself and her community. Washington, Deputy Director of the Babcock Foundation, has NOV•1 DR. GAIL STERN The Canary in the Coal Mine. This presentation takes a critical carried lessons learned into a lifelong passion for fighting for social and 3:00 look at identifying and interrupting the ways culture and the media sanction sexual economic justice. Sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Learning violence. Created and presented by Dr. Stern, the presentation includes research from through Service (CELTS) and the CCC. Service Convocation. both civilian and military environments and considers the steps necessary to meaningfully address the impact of rape culture on our communities. VANCE BLACKSMITH The History and Culture of the Lakota. APR•4 Blacksmith, who teaches at the Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge 3:00 NOV•8 JASON NEZ Conflict at the Confluence: Native American Cultural Values and Co- Reservation in South Dakota, is an expert in the history, culture, philosophy, 3:00 Operation in a Time of Resource Development. Diné archaeologist Nez discusses and spirituality of the Lakota people. He will discuss core concepts of the conflicts around development projects and their impact on managing native lands origin and the afterlife according to Lakota philosophy; Lakota Star outside current Native American jurisdictions. Recently, Native American land users Knowledge; the power and symbolism of the Medicine Wheel; and concepts and other groups joined forces to defeat the proposed development of a tramway into of synchronicity. The Hutchins Library will exhibit Lakota artifacts in the Grand Canyon from the Arizona Navajo reservation that would have desecrated a conjunction with this talk. place held sacred by many tribes. Co-sponsored with Peace and Social Justice Studies. RED MOLLY One for All and All for One. Known for beautiful harmonies, APR•11 NOV•15 FARAH SIRAJ World Peace Music. Named Jordan’s Musical Ambassadress, virtuoso infectious songwriting, and captivating stage presence, Red Molly weaves 8:00 8:00 Farah Siraj performs original compositions, fusing influences of Middle Eastern together the threads of American music—from folk roots to bluegrass, from music, flamenco, jazz, Bossa nova and pop with lyrics in Arabic, Spanish and English. heartbreaking ballads to barn-burning honky-tonk—as effortlessly as they A humanitarian, she has toured many countries, spreading a message of peace blend their lovely voices into their signature three-part harmonies. through her music. Stephenson Memorial Concert. Stephenson Memorial Concert.

PURPOSES OF THE CO-CURRICULAR CONVOCATIONS CONVOCATIONS Berea students can receive up to a total of three Convocation credits during the academic year for attending one A significant part of students’ educational experience at theatre event, one musical event, and one dance event chosen from among the seven groups below. Qualified events Berea College is offered through lectures, concerts and occur only on the dates below for the Berea College Theatre Laboratory (Jelkyl Drama Building) or for dance and the performing arts. These events enliven the musical performances. To receive Convocation credit, the Berea student ID must be scanned upon leaving the venue. intellectual, aesthetic and religious life and perform an important educational role. Convocations also provide Dates for musical ensemble performances are subject to change. Please see email announcements or postings on the common experiences for students, faculty, and staff leading Convocations website to confirm the date, time, and location of the performance. toward the establishment of a supportive and challenging academic community. Theatre Laboratory. Black Music Ensemble. Wind & Jazz Ensembles. Spring Visit www.berea.edu/convo for information concerning The Seagull by Anton Chekhov. Fall Concert. Emmanuel Stokes, Concert. James Dreiling, director. Tue., the speakers and performing artists in the Convocation series, Deborah Martin, director. Wed. and director. Sat., Nov. 17, 1:30 p.m. Apr. 16, 7:30 p.m. Presser Hall, Gray including links to homepages and other sites with related Fri., Nov. 14 and 16, 8:00 p.m. Union Church. Auditorium. information. Any changes in the calendar schedule will be Disgraced, by Ayad Akhtar. Adanma posted as soon as possible. Barton, director. Wed. and Fri., Feb. Country Dancers. Deborah Modern Dance. Kinetic Expressions 20 and Feb. 22, 8:00 p.m. Thompson, director. Wed., March 13, ’19. Wed. and Thur., April 17 and 18, For nearly 100 years, Berea College Convocations has made She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen. 8:00 p.m. Seabury Center, Upper Gym. 8:00 p.m. Jelkyl Drama Center, McGaw lectures and the performing arts available without charge to Shawn Bruce, director. Wed. and Fri., Theatre. Tickets required. Berea College students and the public. Persons wishing to assist April 10 and April 12, 8:00 p.m. Concert Choir and Chamber in the continuation of this tradition are invited to contact the All productions in McGaw Theatre, Singers. Spring Concert. Stephen Bluegrass Ensemble. Al White, Development Office, CPO 2216, Berea College, Berea KY Jelkyl Drama Center. Tickets Bolster, director. Sun., Apr. 14, 3:00 director. Sat., April 20, 8:00 p.m. Phelps 40404. required. Box Office: 859.985.3300. p.m. Presser Hall, Gray Auditorium. Stokes Auditorium.