Pitt-Bradford Announces Spectrum Series Offerings

The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford’s fall Spectrum arts series will offer area residents fine arts, funk and even horror. Spectrum is the university’s oldest art series. Artists are selected by Pitt-Bradford faculty to enhance the arts curriculum.

Events are open to the public and free unless otherwise noted. For more information or tickets, contact the Bromeley Family Theater box office at 814-362-5113 or www.upb.pitt.edu/TheArts.

 The first event of the season will be an art exhibition celebrating America’s National Parks Centennial by local artist Denise Drummond. The show will take place from Sept. 6 through Oct. 2 in the KOA Gallery in Blaisdell Hall. Gallery hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. A reception will take place at noon Sept. 9. Drummond will share a collection of drawings and paintings inspired by years of travel to the National Parks across the United States, from Acadia to the Redwoods to Florida’s Everglades. Drummond works in graphite and watercolor to create nature scenes and has a special love for national parks and wilderness areas.

 The first musical offering of the year will be a piano trio of Susan Waterbury, violin, Elizabeth Simkin, cello, and Miri Yampolsky, piano, at noon Sept. 23 in the Studio Theater in Blaisdell Hall. The program will showcase favorites from the heart of the classical repertoire.

  October will begin with a visit from unjustly imprisoned former death row exoneree Anthony Ray Hinton, who is one of the subjects of civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson’s book “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.” Hinton’s story was also featured on the television show “60 Minutes.” “Just Mercy” will be read by students in freshman seminar, writing, criminal justice and economics classes at Pitt-Bradford. The book is the Bradford Area Public Library’s One Book Bradford selection as well. Hinton will speak at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 4 in the Bromeley Family Theater in Blaisdell Hall. 

Wyoming artist Rebecca G. Weed will open an art exhibition, “No Over Night Parking: A Field Guide,” with a reception at noon Oct. 7 in the KOA Art Gallery and KOA Speer Electronics Lobby in Blaisdell Hall. The exhibition will continue through Nov. 4. On Oct. 14, Family FUNKtion and the Sitar Jams, a trio of brothers on sitar, bass and drums, will bring a psychedelic musical experience to the studio theater at noon as the second installment in the Noon Tunes series. The Padmanabha brothers play a fusion of rock, funk and Indian classical and folk styles.

 During the Halloween season, Dr. Kevin Ewert, professor of theater, will direct “Apparition: An Uneasy Play of the Underknown,” a play of the horror genre by Anne Washburn. The student production will have four showings – three at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 27-29, and a special late-night 10:30 p.m. performance Oct. 28, all in the Studio Theater. The cost for the public is $6. The cost for all students is $2.

Writer Crystal Wilkinson (pictured), the author of “The Birds of Opulence,” “Blackberries, Blackberries” and “Water Street” will read from her work at noon Nov. 1 in the Mukaiyama University Room of the Frame-Westerberg Commons. Her short stories, poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including most recently in the Oxford American and the Appalachian anthology “Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean.” She currently teaches at Berea College, where she is the Appalachian Writer in Residence.

 The final event of the semester will be a Noon Tunes holiday concert by the Vocal Arts ensemble at noon Dec. 6 in the KOA Speer Electronics Lobby. For disability needs related to Pitt-Bradford Arts events, contact the Office of Disability Resources at 814-362-7609 or clh71@pitt.edu.

All Bonaventure Reads Selection ‘Just Mercy’ Explores Themes of Justice, Redemption

St. Bonaventure has chosen the nonfiction book “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson as its common read for 2015-2016. This All Bonaventure Reads selection explores the inequity embedded in the U.S. criminal justice system.

“Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption” was released in October and focuses mainly on the work of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala., a legal practice Stevenson founded as a young lawyer that is dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need.

“Each year, All Bonaventure Reads committee members search for selections guided by descriptors such as ‘engaging,’ ‘contemporary,’ and ‘thought provoking.’ We nailed all three with ABR 2015’s ‘Just Mercy’ selection,” said Jean Trevarton Ehman, chair of the ABR Committee.

“We at St. Bonaventure University pride ourselves in fostering thinking forums in which each student’s opinion is valued; ‘Just Mercy’s’ emotional narrative is ripe with thought-provoking topics. This memoir probes historical and current biases and injustices that cross curricula, and we hope our ‘Just Mercy’ programming engages our freshmen in life-long soul searching based on Franciscan values,” Ehman said.

One of Stevenson’s first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. It transformed the lawyer’s understanding of mercy and justice forever and illustrates numerous ongoing challenges in work advocating for social justice.

Chris Brown, director of the university’s First-Year Experience program, said “Just Mercy” is a timely selection for the campus at large, especially given the ongoing national conversation about race and criminal justice.

“Tensions involving race have been in the forefront of the national media, and the importance of racial justice extends into the day-to-day lives of our student body. We have taken steps in the Bonaventure community to address injustices, and we want to make sure our students are exposed to the need for continued action on the local and national level,” Brown said.

First-year students will receive copies of “Just Mercy” during orientation in July and are asked to read the book prior to the start of the fall semester. Students are engaged in conversations about the book’s themes in their University 101 course and various campuswide events during the upcoming academic year. In addition to the ABR committee and FYE office, numerous academic departments and the Student Affairs Division are already planning opportunities to unpack the themes of this book.

“I am excited to partner with my colleagues across campus to engage the entire Bonaventure community in the All Bonaventure Reads program. We look forward in the fall to announcing a series of events that will address the important topics of racism and equality in the criminal justice system and in society at large,” added Brown.

Stevenson has won relief for dozens of condemned prisoners, argued five times before the Supreme Court, and won national acclaim for his work challenging bias against the poor and people of color. He has received numerous awards, including the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant. In addition to serving as executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, he is a professor of law at New York University School of Law.

“Just Mercy” has won praise from notable authors including John Grisham and Tracy Kidder.

“Bryan Stevenson … is doing God’s work fighting for the poor, the oppressed, the voiceless, the vulnerable, the outcast, and those with no hope,” said Grisham.

Learn more about the book and the Equal Justice Initiative at bryanstevenson.com.

Campus programming will be announced at www.sbu.edu/ABR as events are confirmed.

https://twitter.com/AnneSBU

Anne’s Book Club on Facebook

Anne's Book Club on Pinterest