Kalamazoo reigns as ‘Fretboard Capital’Every string will be attached and they will all pass over fretboards in a musical
way when the Kalamazoo Valley Museum hosts its fifth annual Kalamazoo Fretboard Festival March 19-21.
Free to the public and nothing to fret about, the annual salute to the community’s legacy of “pickin’ ‘n’ singin’” will feature concerts, workshops, hands-on activities for children, vendors, and presentations over the three days.
The trio Four Finger Five will kick off the festival on Friday (March 19) with a pair of concerts at 6:30 and 8 p.m. in the museum.
The celebration of Kalamazoo's history of stringed-instrument design, manufacture and performance continues on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. with a full day of concerts and workshops. Sunday, designated as Family Day, runs from 1 to 4 p.m. with three hours of hands-on crafts for children, workshops and more performances.
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Participants can meet instrument designers, learn about their trade, watch some of them in live performances, and pick up some tips on how to play the guitar, mandolin, banjo, and other fretboard instruments.
It is sponsored by the Kalamazoo Valley Community College Foundation. The concerts and events will be held in both the downtown-Kalamazoo museum on the first floor and the college’s Anna Whitten Hall next door.
Following the opening-night music of Four Finger Five, among the other performers for this mecca of string instrumentalists on Saturday and Sunday will be:
♫ Brothers Kalamazov, one of whose members, Jay Gavan, originated the first festival while a member of the museum staff – 4:15 p.m. on Saturday.
♫ Portage-based Joel Mabus, the nationally known fretboarder and veteran of past festivals with his alluring repertoire of bluegrass and folk originals – 4:45 p.m. on Saturday.
♫ Patricia Pettinga with Bill Willging and Friends, who specialize in traditional blues and folk music – 12:45 p.m. on Saturday.
♫ The duo of String Cheese with Ali Haraburda and Diana Ladio on the fiddle and cello – 3 p.m. on Sunday.
♫ Gerald Ross of Ann Arbor, a virtuoso on the traditional Hawaiian steel guitar – 3 p.m. on Saturday.
♫ Ren Wall and Friends (Richard Butler, Don Bradford, Rod Wall and James Bradford) – 11 a.m. on Saturday
♫ Celtic Roots – 11:30 a.m. on Saturday. ♫ Mark Sahlgren and Friends – 6 p.m. on Saturday.♫ Two Track Mind – 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.♫ Kalamazoo Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra – 1 p.m. on Sunday.♫ Mockingbird – 1:15 p.m. on Saturday.♫ Red Beans & Rice – 2:30 p.m. on Sunday.The new wrinkle for the 2009 festival – and repeated for the fifth – was a “play-
in” competition in which local musicians vied for a chance to perform as part of the festival line-up of concerts. The “play-in” was held March 5 at the museum and the winner, Small Town Son, will play at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Mabus and several other performers will double up as leaders of workshops on their specialty instruments, including the dulcimer, banjo, acoustic bass, Hawaiian steel guitar, electric bass, bottleneck slide guitar, mandolin and classical guitar.
In between workshops, performances and demonstrations, visitors will be able to view exhibits. Among those sharing their knowledge and their wares will be professionals who make brands of stringed instruments such as the Big Bend, Mark Ferenc Guitar, Swavson, Charters, and Bloom’s Old Time banjos.
At 11:15 a.m. on Saturday, the museum’s Tom Dietz will speak about “Kalamazoo’s Musical Heritage” as he brings back to life the community’s early bands and orchestras and the founding days of the Kalamazoo Symphony.
The documentary, “Buck Lake Ranch: Nashville of the North,” will be shown at 2 p.m. on Sunday in the Stryker Theater. Created by Mike VanBuren, a member of The Hoot Owls, it captures the history of this popular entertainment venue in northern Indiana from its opening in 1947 through its 60th anniversary in 2007.
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The first festival in May of 2006 attracted about 800. It was switched to a March date in 2007 to avoid competing with the Kalamazoo Animation Festival International and future conflicts with the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival.
The 2007 turnout that packed the museum and Anna Whitten Hall led to the decision to move to being a two-day event. Now expanded to three days, the festival has tripled its attendance.
Participants are also invited to bring their instruments for some impromptu jamming with others who appreciate the genres of music created by fretboard instruments.
For more information and events scheduled for the fifth Kalamazoo Fretboard Festival, call (269) 373-7990 or visit this website: www.kalamazoomuseum.org. Information is also available at the festival’s Facebook page.
Keynoter, ‘How I Got Here’ panel part of 7th ‘Diversity’The keynote speaker for KVCC’s seventh annual Diversity Conference has shared
stage and microphone time with such luminaries as First Lady Michelle Obama and “The Fonz” from “Happy Days.”
In addition to remarks from Greg Forbes Siegman, the Friday (March 26) billing includes an entertainment package that delivers a message and a panel discussion.
Under this year’s theme of “Educating Ourselves and Others,” attendees from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. can listen to the perspectives of keynoter Siegman (8:15), enjoy, a performance by Portage’s Kinetic Affect (9:45), and take part in a panel discussion entitled “How I Got Here” (11 a.m.).
The latter will address family structures, how people grow up, the culture/environment of each person’s childhood, experiences with education, and the challenges and obstacles facing people as they try to move forward when it comes to tolerance.
Among those presenters will be: Bruce Kocher, vice president for academic services, who will talk about
how, while raised in a single-parent home, he moved ahead in life. KVCC data-base analyst Jolene Osei, who was born in Zimbabwe. David Hernandez, Puerto Rican from Chicago who is majoring in
international studies at KVCC.Free and open to the public, the conference events will be held in the Dale Lake
Auditorium on the Texas Township Campus. Sponsoring the conference are the Educational Community Credit Union, Eaton Corp., Borgess Health, and the L. Perrigo Co.
Siegman’s book, “The First Thirty,” chronicles the first 30 lessons Siegman said he learned in his life that blossomed from college reject to honored graduate to substitute teacher to young philanthropist helping other overlooked students get to college.
The lessons revolve around such issues as community service, diversity, leadership and dealing with setbacks. It is a story of redemption and determination.
A major setback came as an 18 year old when Siegman was rejected by every college to which he applied. Given a chance by a school in Louisiana, he transferred with two years of passing grades to a college closer to his Midwest roots and graduated as a top scholar. He even served a Capitol Hill internship in Washington.
Already sensing more of a mission aimed at community service than material gains, Siegman chose to become a substitute teacher and created a mentoring program to break down racial, cultural and social barriers.
Within 18 months, he had established The 11-10-02 Foundation to help other overlooked students get to college as they encountered heartache, shut doors, and closed minds. In all, he spent eight years in the front of classrooms.
In 2005, he was honored by Princeton University as one of the nation's top social entrepreneurs under 40 for his dedication to speak before diverse groups of people and interests.
He has shared lectern duties with Nobel Peace Prize honoree Elie Wiesel, President Obama’s spouse, Nebraska athletic icon Tom Osborne, and actor Henry Winkler.
His writings have explored the impact of labels and stereotypes, the wisdom of grandparents, how to talk to students about the ramifications of 9-11, and the internal strength of those who deal with physical obstacles.
Siegman has coordinated and hosted hundreds of events to bring people of different races, cultures and backgrounds together in cities throughout the United States, Canada and Africa.
With the arrival of the new millennium, “Good Morning America” buried a time capsule that included a video narrated by Diane Sawyer about Siegman’s efforts to bring people together of different races, cultures and backgrounds.
As he strives to stay mentally, culturally and socially fit, he pays equal attention to physical fitness as a competitor in triathlons, quite an accomplishment for someone who has had four operations on his feet.
“People don’t remember how you were treated,” he says. “They remember how you respond.” It is this attitude that he says has helped him convert barriers into bridges.
The community of Enfield, Conn., in 2005 used “The First Thirty” as its version of Kalamazoo’s “Reading Together” program, which led to him delivering the commencement address at Suffield High School and to a presentation at Asnuntuck Community College where students were reading the book.
The Portage-based Kinetic Affect, the duo that won the recent “Kalamazoo Has Talent” competition, are two spoken-wordsmiths who joined forces in the summer of 2007 after being fierce competitors at local poetry slams. Gabriel Giron and Kirk Latimer have created a new kind of verbal experience.
Giron’s Latino background and hip-hop influences collide on stage with Latimer’s Native American heritage and academic nature. Despite apparent differences, they exhibit similarities. They challenge beliefs, push boundaries, embrace differences, and seek to increase awareness of local and global issues.
Giron admits to a difficult and angry past, vacillating from class bully to class poet. After lazily making his way through high school, he felt oddly drawn to the military. Eight months into his enlistment, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer and underwent cycles of chemotherapy and several surgeries over three years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
The cancer-free Giron said days spent wondering whether he would live or die gave him a new-found perspective on life. He is majoring in film and creative writing at Western Michigan University.
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His reflection on cancer survival, military experience, and family relationships enabled him to write on topics with unique vulnerability not commonly explored or spoken by others. By sharing his stories and commenting on what he sees around him, others can be inspired to share their stories, making poetry real, honest, and accessible regardless of age, class or gender.
Now dressed in slacks, dress shirt and tie, Latimer had a history of fighting both inside and outside the ring. He turned his anger from his color-trunked opponents toward himself, resulting in his arrest at the age of 16. He continued a cycle of vengeance and retribution until his senior year of high school when five of his friends and classmates committed suicide. It took him nearly six months to change his approach to life.
Once on the right path, Latimer transformed from a violent boxer to a highly awarded English/education major at Western Michigan University where he began to write poetry. His style of writing evolved from his dedication to academics, the explosive power required of a boxer, and the unique juxtaposition of a prankster loving nature.
An acting coach and an English teacher in high school, Latimer discovered a way to convert his inner turmoil and aggressiveness into a passionate and impacting learning experience. Through sharing himself and past experiences, he seeks to change minds and hearts, while also challenging what he regards as an outdated educational system.
The former poetry-slam competitors challenge stereotypes and provide a forum to individuals who have become too comfortable with allowing their voices to remain silent. Their first production entitled “Word Weavers” confronted male stereotypes, such as the need for men to portray themselves as a dominant force that must remain independent and refrain from overly expressing emotions of love and sadness.
More information is available by visiting the KVCC Diversity Committee’s web site at http://diversity.kvcc.edu . People should register in advance for the 2010 Diversity Conference on the college’s home page.
Down-home Kentucky music is documentary topicThose who have been energized by the fifth annual Fretboard Festival can get
another dose of down-home music when the Kalamazoo Valley Museum rekindles its series of free Saturday-afternoon showings of documentaries and films.
The March 27 billing in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater at 1 p.m. is “The Rhythm of My Soul,” a PBS production that features rare performance footage of Loretta Lynn, Ricky Skaggs and Bill Monroe, chronicles Kentucky's roots in bluegrass, mountain, country and gospel music, and showcases regional fiddle, mandolin, banjo and dulcimer players.
Free and open to the public, these Bluegrass State musicians illustrate and illuminate Kentucky's rich musical heritage. More famous country stars were born and raised in southern and eastern Kentucky than in any other place in America.
“The Rhythm of My Soul: Kentucky Roots Music” also features a 77-year-old mountain banjo picker, an 80-year-old fiddle maker, and a gospel group made up of retired black coal miners.
Sunday-afternoon jam sessions are also part of the museum's musical attractions. The K'zoo Folklife Organization will gather at 1:30 p.m. on May 2, while the Kalamazoo Valley Blues Association takes over on April 18 and May 16.
These begin at 1:30 p.m. and are free. Concerts and workshops are on the billing, while musicians are invited to bring in their instruments for a bit of impromptu jamming.
Here is the rest of the documentary schedule: “Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown” at 1 p.m. on April 10 “Paper Clips” at 1 p.m. on April 17 “The Hidden Child” at 3:30 p.m. on April 17 Films that are applicable to the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival at noon
May 3-6 A two-weekend festival dedicated to film versions of Jane Austen classics –
“Persuasion” at 10 a.m. and “Mansfield Park” at 1 p.m. on May 15; “Miss Austen Regrets” at 10 a.m. and “Northanger Abby” at 1 p.m. on May 22.
Poet Tom Lynch talks about writing this weekA funeral director whose poetry explores the mysteries of life and death is
the final attraction in the college’s “About Writing” series for the 2009-10 academic year.Thomas Lynch, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire,
Newsweek, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Times of London, will be on the Texas Township Campus on Monday and Tuesday, March 22-23.
The “About Writing” presentations in the Student Commons are free and open to the public. He’ll talk about the craft of writing at 10 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. on Monday (March 22) and do a 2:15 p.m. reading on Tuesday (March) 23. Lynch teaches in the graduate program in creative writing at the University of Michigan, lives in Milford, and has been a funeral director since 1974. His commentaries have broadcast by the BBC and NPR. His wordsmithing has been assisted by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Michigan Council for the Arts, the Michigan Library Association, and the National Book Foundation.
Lynch has brought his message to audiences throughout Europe, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. He is a regular presenter at conferences that target funeral directors, hospice workers, medical-ethics professionals, members of the clergy, and educators. That has also garnered exposure on C-SPAN, “The Today Show,” and Bill Moyers’ series on PBS, “On Our Own Terms.”
The author of three collections of poems and three books of essays, Lynch has two other publications due this year – a book of stories, “Apparition & Late Fictions,” and a new collection of poems, “Walking Papers.” His work has been the subject of two documentaries. PBS Frontline's “The Undertaking,” aired nationwide in 2007, won the 2008 Emmy for “Arts and Culture Documentary.” Cathal Black's film, “Learning Gravity” and produced for the BBC, was featured at the 2008 Telluride Film Festival and the sixth Traverse City Film Festival in 2009 where it was awarded the Michigan Prize by Michael Moore. Lynch keeps an ancestral cottage in and in Moveen, County Clare, Ireland. It was the home of his great-great-grandfather, which was given as a wedding gift in the 19th century. He traveled to that country for the first time in 1970.
“The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade” was a winner of an American Book Award and finalist for the National Book Award. It is a chronicle of small-town life and death told through the eyes of a poet who is also an undertaker.
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"Every year I bury a couple hundred of my townspeople” is the opening line. Most poets seem inspired by death, but Lynch, unlike others, is also hired to bury the dead or to cremate them, and to tend to their families in a small Michigan town.
In the conduct of these duties, he has kept his eyes open, his ear tuned to the indispensable vernaculars of love and grief. In 12 pieces, his is the voice of both witness and functionary.
Lynch, as poet to the dying, names the hurts and whispers the condolences and shapes the questions posed by this familiar mystery. There is homage to parents who have died and to children who shouldn't have. He talks about the lessons for life that mortality teaches.
His “Bodies in Motion and at Rest” offers a reflection on time and its treasures, on love and its power, and on birth, death, and, most importantly, what comes in between.
The New York Times hailed him as "a cross between Garrison Keillor and William Butler Yeats” as he offers glimpses of ordinary people and the ways they approach their own mortality. Lynch, born in Detroit in 1948, guides his readers from the womb to the tomb with a brand of wit and humor. He graduated from Brother Rice High School in Bloomfield Hills and then mortuary school, taking over his father's funeral home in Milford. He is the father of La daughter and three sons.
For more information about “About Writing,” contact English instructor Rob Haight at extension 4452 or at [email protected].
She lets her fingers do the talking, actingTrix Bruce, a deaf storyteller who features visual-gesture movements in her stand-
up and theatrical performances, will offer her distinct style of creativity on Friday (March 19) at Kalamazoo Valley Community College’s Texas Township Campus.
Bruce’s show will begin at 7 p.m. in the Dale Lake Auditorium. General-admission tickets for adults are $7 if purchased prior to Thursday (March 18) and $10 at the door. Admission is $5 for children under 12, for students, and for those over 65. Tickets are on sale in the KVCC Bookstore.
Patricia “Trix” Bruce, who hails from Seattle, Wash., and who has been profoundly deaf since she was six months old, is regarded as one of the most talented ASL performers on today’s scene.
Her KVCC presentation, “Tales of a Mad, Mad, Mad ASL World,” artistically demonstrates the spectrum of ASL skills through audience interaction.
Through her creative storytelling, Bruce brings into play various handshakes, 3-D representations, personification, and role shifts.
It is described as a “roller-coaster ride through ASL poetry, storytelling and folk tales.”
As a child, she experienced oral, mainstreaming classes for the deaf and later online education training.
Bruce has been involved in the performing arts since 1980 that has taken her to roles in films and national stage productions of “West Side Story,” “Carousel,” Macbeth, “The Wizard of Oz,” “Snoopy and His Friends,” and “The Miracle Worker.”
Bruce has taken part in the annual Michigan Story Festival, crafting a performance about the experiences of a deaf person in a hearing world.
Earlier in the day, she will be conducting a storytelling workshop titled “ASL (American Sign Language) Role Shifting: He Said, She Said” for current and past ASL students from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Room 4380.
Sponsoring Bruce’s performance and workshop are the Instructional Development Advisory Committee at KVCC and Kalamazoo chapter of the American Sign Language Honors Society.
For more information about Bruce’s appearance in Kalamazoo, contact KVCC instructor Su Cutler at (269) 488-4482 or [email protected].
Jorgensen Quintet in Lake Saturday nightIf you don’t have a clue as to what American gypsy jazz is, the Sherlock Holmes
of that genre of home-grown music is coming to Kalamazoo to shed light on the mystery.The John Jorgenson Quintet, whose Grammy-winning guitarist leader is regarded
as a pioneer of that jazz style, will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 20, in Kalamazoo Valley Community College’s Dale Lake Auditorium.
Tickets for the fivesome’s concert are $15 and are available at the college’s bookstores on the Texas Township Campus and in downtown Kalamazoo’s Anna Whitten Hall.
Artists Forum is co-sponsored by KVCC and the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation of Kalamazoo. The series began with the 1987-88 academic year.
The college’s two-concert Artists Forum series for 2009-10 will conclude with an April 17 performance by instrumentalist Darrell Scott, who has composed chartbuster songs for Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Keb Mo, Garth Brooks, Travis Tritt and The Dixie Chicks.
Formed in 2004, the quintet also features jazz violinist Jason Anick, rhythm guitarist Doug Martin, bassist Simon Planting, and percussionist Rick Reed.
Gypsy jazz was made famous by French guitarist Django Reinhardt. In the 2005 movie “Head in the Clouds” that featured Reinhardt’s music and starring Charlize Theron and Penelope Cruz, Jorgenson, who also plays the clarinet, portrayed the Frenchman.
Jorgenson was a six-year member of Elton John's band. Artists ranging from Barbra Streisand to Bonnie Raitt to Earl Scruggs have sought out Jorgenson's guitar work that has been described as “dazzling.”
Whether playing his own compositions or classic standards, Jorgenson and his musical mates John make music that is “equally romantic and ecstatic, played with virtuosity and soul.” Jorgenson’s articles and lessons on gypsy jazz have appeared in prominent guitar magazines. He has given master classes around the country, and has performed with some of the most respected European proponents of this style. His “After You've Gone” CD is a collection of Reinhardt- and Benny Goodman-styled 1930s swing.
Growing up in Southern California, Jorgenson was playing both the piano and the clarinet by age 8. At 12 he got his first guitar and practiced voraciously while continuing to study classical music on woodwinds. By age 14, he was playing professionally.
Learning first to play rock guitar, Jorgenson absorbed other guitar styles as quickly as he discovered them. This broad musical palette has enabled him to play with artists as diverse as John, Luciano Pavarotti, Raitt, and Goodman.
Jorgenson first came to national prominence in the mid-1980s with the Desert Rose Band, which he co-founded. The band earned five No. 1 singles and Jorgenson won the Academy of Country Music’s "Guitarist of the Year" award three consecutive times.
Following the Desert Rose Band, he formed another award-winning group, the virtuosic guitar trio The Hellecasters. Originally conceived as a "one off" gig for fun, the group went on to produce three CDs and a live video, winning both "Album of the Year" and "Country Album of the Year" from the readers of Guitar Player Magazine in 1993.
In 1994, British rock legend John called and invited Jorgenson on an 18-month world tour. The 18 months stretched into a six-year period that included not only sold-out world tours, but also recordings, television appearances, and collaborations with many other artists including Sting and Billy Joel. In addition to acoustic and electric guitars, the Californian was also featured on saxophone, mandolin and vocals.
Although well-renowned in the pop, country and rock world, gypsy jazz is the style of music closest to his heart. His “Franco-American Swing” is full of infectious gypsy jazz music and co-features the Nashville Chamber Orchestra from Jorgenson’s home port in Tennessee.
In addition to gigs up and down all of California, the Jorgenson fivesome has taken part in “Jammin’ Java” in Vienna, Va., has played with the Les Paul Trio in New York City, been booked into the Hilton Hotel in “The Big Apple, and been the headline act for the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts in Anchorage.
Upon leaving Kalamazoo, the quintet will head for booking in Philadelphia, Boston, Germany, Scotland and London. Jorgenson describes himself as “a proud patron of the only dedicated gypsy-jazz venue in the world” in London.
‘Human Race Machine’ can ‘change’ your ethnicityA week’s stay of the Human Race Machine on the Texas Township Campus will
complement the college’s seventh annual Diversity Conference this week.From Monday through Friday (March 22-26) in Room 4380, the magic of
computer software will allow people to see what they would look like if they were of a different race. Participants will use their own image to gain a sense of their appearance as a member of six different races.
The exhibit is based on the scientific finding that the DNA of any two humans is 99.97 identical and that there is no gene for race, adding substance to the premise that in a foxhole everybody is the same color – red.
In addition, throughout the week in the exhibit area, there will be showings of the PBS documentary, “The Illusion of Race.”
As with a similar format for the sixth conference in 2009, this experience is open to the public because KVCC’ers have stepped forward to serve as volunteers to monitor the exhibit in one-hour shifts from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The volunteer “watchers” are:Nancy Taylor, Gail Fredericks, Kristine Goolsby, Rob Kilkuskie, Candy Horton,
Lynne Morrison, Jean Snow, Deb Bevis, Robyn Robinson, Anora Ackerson, Carol Head, Ken Barr Jr., Russ Panico, Dan Maley, Sue Hills, Janet Alm, Jackie Howlett, Melissa Farris, Karen Steeno van Staveren, Ruth Baker, Colleen Olson, Joyce Tamer;
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Marie Rogers, Bonita Bates, Mary Johnson, Kate Ferraro, Laura Cosby, Mike Collins, Kandiah Balachandran, Leona Coleman, Marion Melville and Marylan Hightree have committed to helping the college open this experience to the public.
Some have signed up for multiple stints.
‘Techno teaching’ topic of Faculty Success Center“The Appropriate and Inappropriate Use of Instructional Technology” is this
month’s topic in the ongoing series of presentations organized by the Faculty Success Center.
The new initiative is operating under the auspices of Grant Chandler, dean of the Arcadia Commons Campus, to assist the college community in focusing time, energy, and conversations on high-quality teaching and learning.
This month’s presentations are slated for Tuesday (March 23) from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., Wednesday (March 24) from 2 to 3:30 p.m., and Saturday, March 27, from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
All sessions are held in the lower level of the Center for New Media. Those who wish to attend can e-mail [email protected]. Refreshments will be provided.
Chandler can be contacted by extension 7849 or [email protected] “Talking About Teaching” program will wrap up the 2009-10 academic year
with “Designing Appropriate Learning Activities and Lesson Planning” on April 20, April 21, and April 24.
The Faculty Success Center has also scheduled a new series of presentations about instructional practices at KVCC that is under way.
Chemistry instructor Kim DeClerq will discuss “Inquiry-Based Instruction” on Thursday (March 25) at 2 p.m. in the lower level of the Center for New Media.
The other sessions, instructors and topics booked for the Center for New Media’s lower level are:
Marie Rogers (nursing), “Small-Group Discussion,” Tuesday, March 30, at 2 p.m.
Theresa Shane and Renee Mielke, “Panapto,” April 7 at 1 p.m. Philipp Jonas (economics), “Learning Teams,” April 17 at 3 p.m. Karen Matson (graphic arts), “Project-Based Instruction,” April 23 at 10
a.m.Serving on the new center’s advisory team are Chandler, fellow co-chair Schauer,
Lynne Morrison, Bill deDie, Jonas, Fran Kubicek, Jan White, Kevin Dockerty, Al Moss, Ron Cipcic, Theo Sypris, and Joe Brady.
Employee-wellness assessments are under waySue Avery, a registered nurse assigned to KVCC by Holtyn and Associates, is
conducting free wellness screenings and counseling through Friday, April 16, for full-time KVCC employees and their spouses who are both new to the college’s program or continuing participants.
KVCC’ers and spouses can booked their own appointments through their own computer instead of making a telephone call. This can be done by going to the Holtyn website: www.holtynhpc.com. and following the directions.
Appointments span 30 minutes, meaning the available time slots are on the hour and half hour.
Here are the Texas Township Campus dates and times, all in Room 6044 in the Student Commons:
Monday (March 22), Tuesday (March 23), Wednesday (March 24), and Thursday (March 25) -- 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Friday (March 26) – 8:30 a.m.to 3:30 p.m. Monday, March 29; Tuesday, March 30, and Wednesday, March 31 – 9
a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 1 – noon to 6 p.m. Monday, April 5; Tuesday, April 6, and Wednesday, April 7 – 9 a.m. to
4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 8 – 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Avery will be at the Arcadia Commons Campus for employees in Anna Whitten Hall, the Kalamazoo Valley Museum and the Center for New Media on these dates:
Monday, April 12 – 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 13 – 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 14 – 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Friday, April 16 – 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
For those appointments, Avery will be based in 325 Whitten Hall.While payoffs in the past have focused on one’s personal and individual health, it
is now starting to pay off in the pay checks of employees.The one-on-one appointments include a glucose analysis, an HDL and cholesterol
evaluation, a blood-pressure check, a body-composition reading, an assessment of cardio-respiratory fitness, an overall health survey, an individual fitness assessment, and a personal consultation.
The 30-minute screenings can be done on work time. For more information, contact Avery at (269) 267-3712 or [email protected]. She can be contacted for assistance in enrolling in the wellness program for the first time and in registering spouses.
All full-time staff, faculty and administrators – and their spouses -- are encouraged to sign up for this college-sponsored program, even if previous screenings had not identified any health risks.
Participants should wear comfortable, loosely fitting clothing. Short-sleeve tops are recommended. Fasting is not required, but it is advised not to consume caffeinated beverages two hours prior to the assessment and to refrain from smoking.
The testing is paid for by the college.
Income-tax-filing aid still available for staff, studentsWith the deadline looming for Americans to make good their income-tax IOUs to
Uncle Sam, free return-preparation assistance is being made available at KVCC for students and staff whose individual or family incomes were $49,000 or less for 2009.
Working in conjunction with the Kalamazoo County Tax Counseling Initiative’s “Helping You Keep Your Money” program, the college's Student Success Center is hosting the assistance that is supported by the Internal Revenue Service, which provides the software, training, and certifications needed to operate these sites.
As of Jan. 15, people could dial 211 on their telephones to get details on items and information to bring, the locations throughout Kalamazoo County including KVCC, assistance in setting up an appointment, and tax-preparation times.
The tax assistors will be on the Texas Township Campus from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on these Fridays: March 26, April 2 and April 9.
Another way to schedule an appointment is to go online at www.gryphon.org and click on “tax calendar.” That will take the user a list of locations, dates, times, and items to bring.
The service is provided by IRS-certified community volunteers from the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. E-filing will be available at all locations.
In addition to KVCC, partnering with the Kalamazoo County Tax Counseling Initiative are:
The American Association of Retired Persons, Bowers Manufacturing, Goodwill Industries, the Greater Kalamazoo United Way, Guardian Finance and Advocacy Services, Gryphon Place, the Kalamazoo County Community Action Agency, the Kalamazoo County Department of Human Services, the Kalamazoo Public Library, the Volunteer Center of Greater Kalamazoo, and the W. E. Upjohn for Employment Research.
Among what must – or should – be brought to an appointment to assist in the process are a copy of the 2009 return, a photo ID, Social Security card for the filer and dependents, all W2s and/or 1099s (Social Security), and information about student loans. A full list of documentation is available on the web site.
Mars, 2 other planetarium shows to end runTime is running out to experience the three shows that were booked to welcome
to the Kalamazoo Valley Museum the new, full-color planetarium technology of the Digistar 4.
With the arrival of the first week in April, there will be three new planetarium shows, while the Friday-night attraction of the music of U2 will end on March 26. It will be replaced by a laser show featuring the sounds of Pink Floyd.
There is a $3 fee for planetarium shows, although admission to the museum and its exhibitions are free.
The show “Invaders of Mars” makes it easier to accept that none of us will ever make it to that planet because, thanks to the Digistar 4 technology, we’ve already been there.
“’Invaders of Mars’ is the featured program through April 2,” says planetarium coordinator Eric Schreur. “Mars reached opposition in late January and, while it shines at its brightest, the planetarium show will reveal the discoveries made through telescopes and the space probes that have orbited and landed on the next planet out from the sun.”
“Invaders of Mars” is shown daily at 3 p.m. It is a 25-minute program that offers up-close-and-personal looks at great chasms, canyons and volcanoes from orbiting spacecraft. The robotic landers explore the icy caps and dust storms that sweep across the Martian surface. It will be replaced by “Secrets of the Sun” on April 3.
The planetarium’s family program through the first three months of 2010 has been a converted version of a regular feature, “Sky Legends of the Three Fires.”
Southwest Michigan Native American storyteller Larry Plamondon explains how a coyote scattered the stars into the sky, how a turtle race resulted in the Milky Way, and how a bear hunt resulted in The Big Dipper.
This feature is shown weekdays at 11 a.m., on Saturdays at 1 p.m. and on Sundays at 2 p.m. Taking its place on April 3 will be “Bear Tales.”
A program about finding constellations and planets in the winter nights is shown on Saturdays at 2 p.m. This backyard-stargazing presentation is titled “Winter Nights.” Effective April 3, it will be replaced by a show focusing on star gazing in the spring.
More information is available at the museum’s web site at www.kalamazoomuseum.org.
‘Peanuts’ team in spring training at museumWhile the 1962 New York Mets (40-120) and the 1996 Detroit Tigers (53-109)
rate as two of the worst baseball teams in Major League history, the hands-down, no-doubter in that category is coming to the Kalamazoo Valley Museum.
It’s Charlie Brown’s “nine, a bunch of hitless wonders, hands-of-stone fielders and throw-it-and-duck pitchers assembled by the general managership of legendary cartoonist Charles Schulz.
“Peanuts at Bat” is playing its games of fun and frolic in the museum’s first-floor “stadium” through May 1, just in time for spring training for the 2010 baseball season.
To complement the exhibit, the museum’s spring-break, hands-on happenings for youngsters the week of March 29-April 2 from 1 to 4 p.m. will focus on the fun and health aspects of all sports.
The April 11 edition of the “Sunday Series” of presentations will be “Play Ball! – Baseball in Kalamazoo,” a look at the community’s longtime affinity for the national pastime. On April 10, there will be a free screening of a Charlie Brown film at 1 p.m. in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater.
The creation of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, Calif., “Peanuts at Bat” illustrates the foibles of the Hall of Shame squad that is comprised of a motley crew of uninspired ball players with a dog—Snoopy—as shortstop.
Every year for nearly 50 years during baseball season, Schulz sent this hapless team out to lose game after outlandish game, and entertained millions of readers in the process.
The games, as reported in the cartoon strip, were based, to a large extent, on Schulz’s childhood experiences playing sandlot baseball. Baseball was Schulz’s favorite sport, even though he remembered losing a game once 40 to 0.
That particular game, he said, gave him the idea for Charlie Brown’s string of losses. Schulz’s passion for baseball continued into adulthood. He played pickup games as often as he could, on baseball diamonds he had built at his home and near his studio.
Schulz rabidly followed Major League Baseball and was a keen admirer of Willie Mays, regarded as the greatest all-around player in the history of the American pastime.
“Peanuts at Bat” showcases some of Schulz’s most memorable baseball-themed comic strips. Forty-three digital prints from the original Schulz drawings will be on display, taking the visitor through five decades of the cartoonist’s famed characters engaged in America’s game.
Included in the exhibition are vintage baseball memorabilia and such diamond trappings as bobble-head dolls, banners, and a board game.
Also on display are a Louisville Slugger Joe Shlabotnik bat and an over-sized Snoopy doll decked out in his favorite team uniform. Shlabotnik is Charlie Brown’s favorite —underperforming—player, who’s never actually seen in the strip.
With the approach of each baseball season, “Peanuts” readers could look forward to no victories and tales of the game that were in turn whimsical, thoughtful, hilarious, and full of pathos.
The exhibition also features 47 high-resolution reproductions of Peanuts strips, three text panels that include photographs of Schulz, four large-size baseball quotes by Schulz, and one eight-foot-wide Peanuts strip mounted on Plexiglas.
Final deadline for KVCC Foundation grant requestsThe KVCC Foundation has one last funding-request deadline for internal grant
proposals for the 2009-10 academic year.Those faculty and/or administrators seeking financial support must submit their
proposals by April 23, with a decision coming May 7 by the KVCC Foundation Board of Trustees.
For more information, contact Steve Doherty, KVCC director of development and foundation executive director, at extension 4442 or [email protected].
Thanks to a KVCC Foundation grant of $2,200, dialogues on race, diversity and teaching at the community-college level are under way.
It is co-funding a three-hour workshop for faculty on “What the Best College Teachers Do to Promote Inclusion.” Instructor Jan White is leading those sessions at 4 p.m. in the lower level of the Center for New Media with the next one booked for April 20.
The grant also led to the purchase of 50 copies of Beverly Tatum’s book titled “Can We Talk About Race?” Instructor Marie Rogers is leading those talks according to the following schedule:
Wednesday (March 24 ) at 7 a.m., in Room 7334 on the Texas Township Campus
Thursday (March 25) at noon in the lower level of the Center for New Media
Thursday (March 25) at 3 p.m. in Room 7334 on the Texas Township Campus
April 14 at 7 a.m. in Room 7334 April 15 at noon in the lower level of the Center for New Media April 15 at 3 p.m. in Room 7334. April 16 at noon in Room 7334.
KVCC’ers interested in participating in the “Can We Talk About Race?” sessions can obtain a copy of the book through Nancy Taylor.
All these discussions orchestrated by the Faculty Success Center will help lay the groundwork for the Kalamazoo Valley Museum hosting a major exhibition on race in the fall of 2010.
The exhibit will be the focal point for a communitywide examination of the racial issues that too often tarnish the nation’s democracy and Constitution.
Germany, Austria in spotlight as series continuesStudents, faculty, staff and the public will be able to get a passport full of
information about 11 nations, their people, cultures and food without leaving the community during the second half of the 2010 winter semester.
The KVCC program in international studies has booked a series of presentations about the countries featuring presenters who have been there for a variety of reasons – as citizens of the country, as students, as visitors, or as workers.
All of the presentations will be held in either Room 4370 or 4380 off of the cafeteria on the Texas Township Campus.
All are free and open to the public. Here is the itinerary, the dates, times and the presenters:
Germany and Austria – Wednesday, March 24, 2 p.m.; Nick Goodman. Palestine – Wednesday, March 31, 1 p.m. – Shadia Kanaan. Latvia – Wednesday, April 7, 11:30 a.m.; Svetlana Stone. Rwanda and Tanzania – Thursday, April 8, 11:30 a.m.; Barbara Ciufa. Ecuador – Monday, April 12, 2 p.m.; Jarek Marsh-Prelesnik. Russia – Wednesday, April 14, noon; Theo Sypris, director of the KVCC
program in international studies. Haiti – Monday, April 19, 3:30 p.m.; KVCC biology instructor Jack Bley. The West African nation of Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire) – Monday,
April 26 at 1 p.m.; Julien Kouame. Vietnam – Wednesday, April 28, 12:15 p.m.; Huan Le and Thuc Thi
Tran.Earlier in the semester, Turkey, China, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Argentina
were “visited.” Forums on internment, court decisions set for ‘Cedars’
Timed to coincide with a fall major exhibit on race booked for the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, one of the most acclaimed books about prejudice is the Kalamazoo Public Library’s 2010 Reading Together selection.
“Snow Falling on Cedars” by David Guterson was the winner of the 1995 PEN/-Faulkner Award for Fiction and the 1996 American Booksellers Association Book of the Year.
Scores of special events/programs are being held to promote discussion about the book and its themes.
“Cedars” is set against the backdrop of a courtroom drama in the Pacific Northwest when a Japanese-American man is charged with the murder of a local white fisherman. It is steeped in the World War II forced internment of these citizens, an interracial love story, and post-war politics.
Among the upcoming events are presentations by two university professors who were initially interned in the camps for Japanese Americans and later served in the U. S. military, a look at the U. S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the legality of interning U. S. citizens of Japanese heritage, and a presentation about how what happened to these citizens seven decades ago can steer this nation on the right path toward equality and diversity.
Here is the schedule of events:
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“For the Sake of the Children” -- Through April 14 in the Kalamazoo Central Library. This photography exhibit documents four generations of Japanese-American life on Bainbridge Island in Washington and inspired Guterson to write the book. Exhibit hours – Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m.; Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Fridays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“Go for Broke” – Through April 14 in the Kalamazoo Central Library. This photograph exhibit from the National Archives contains images of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. The largest Nisei unit during World War II, the 442nd is the most decorated combat unit of its size in the history of the U. S. Army. Its story has been told in several Hollywood movies. Exhibit hours – Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m.; Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Fridays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Toward Wholeness and Community – Sundays through March 28 from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 212 S Park St. Throughout history, great literature has contributed to change in society. What can the themes of “Snow Falling on Cedars” teach about living peacefully in a community?
Book Discussion – Friday (March 19) at 6:30 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Library in central Van Buren County.
Understanding Diverse Cultures – Sunday (March 21) at 2 p.m. in the Portage District Library. “Snow Falling on Cedars” isn’t alone. In round-table discussions, area book groups will talk about additional titles that continue to spark spirited conversations about multiculturalism, ethnicity, and diversity. Attendees may visit each table to hear book groups’ suggestions. This is co-sponsored by the Southwest Michigan Black Heritage Society.
Origami – Monday (March 22) at 7 p.m.at the Kalamazoo Public Library. This is a family-friendly, hands-on program that will teach the basics of the Japanese art of folding paper into beautiful creations. It is already full.
Book Discussion – Tuesday (March 23) at 7 p.m. in the Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1515 Helen in Portage.
Kendo: The Way of the Sword – Tuesday (March 23) at 7 p.m. in the Kalamazoo Public Library. The Battle Creek Kendo Club will demonstrate the moves of this martial art that was mentioned in the book. It is suitable for families.
Book Discussion – Wednesday (March 24) at noon in the Bernhard Center’s WMU Faculty Dining Room on the Western Michigan University campus.
Imprisoned at Home: Internment Stories – Thursday (March 25) at 7 p.m.in the Kalamazoo Public Library. Two retired Michigan State University faculty members, anthropologist Iwao Ishino and professor of art Sadayoshi Omoto will share their experiences about being housed in an internment camp and in serving in military intelligence during World War II. In 1942, the U/ S. government ordered more than 110,000 men,
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women, and children to leave their homes and incarcerated them in remote, military-style camps. On March 24, the Army issued its first Civilian Exclusion Order for Bainbridge Island—the real-life model for San Piedro Island in “Snow Falling on Cedars” Forty-five families had just one week to prepare for forced relocation to a War Relocation Authority (WRA) camp. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, Japanese-American men were categorized 4C (non-draftable enemy alien). But in 1943, the government reversed its decision on Japanese Americans serving in the armed forces. The Army then recruited volunteers from the camps. Takashi Yoshida, Western Michigan University professor of history, will moderate the discussion.
Chanoyu: The Way of Tea – Saturday, March 27, at 2 p.m. in the Kalamazoo Public Library. This Japanese ceremony will illustrate the preparation and presenting of tea. It will be complemented by a showing of Japanese kimonos.
Korematsu v. U. S. – The Constitution’s Darkest Hour – Wednesday March 31, at 7 p.m. in the Kalamazoo Public Library. The American Civil Liberties Union’s Southwest Michigan Branch presents Mark S. Hurwitz, associate professor of political science at Western Michigan University to discuss the internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War II, the landmark decision of the U. S. Supreme Court upholding that internment, and Fred Korematsu’s courage and ultimate vindication, culminating with his award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
How the Past Can Help Us Live in the Now – Thursday, April 15, at 6:30 p.m. in the First Baptist Church, 315 W. Michigan Ave. What can history teach about solving today’s conflicts? Presenting his thoughts will be Frank Kitamoto, president of the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community BIJAC). Bainbridge Island’s Japanese American residents, many of them U.S. citizens, were the first to be incarcerated in War Relocation Camps by the federal government. Kitamoto was a toddler when his family was sent to internment camps...Kitamoto suggests that “lessons from the past help us not just to survive, but to come alive in a multi-cultural community...diversity, equality and humanism are the true strengths that make the United States of America so special and admired in the eyes of the world.” Following Kitamoto’s presentation will be a performance of Japanese-style drumming by Kalamazoo College’s Taiko Drumming Troupe. This Reading Together wrap-up event is co-sponsored by the WMU Race Exhibit Initiative.
KVCC’s Jim Ratliff is a member of the 24-member, communitywide committee that makes the choice of a Reading Together volume.
This year’s book selection was driven in part by a request from the Race Exhibit Initiative of Southwest Michigan, which asked the library to choose a book that could help foster discussions about race in advance of an October 2010 unveiling of the traveling exhibition “Race: Are We so Different?”
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The exhibition features photographs, movies and interactive displays — all of which explore the history of race in America, the biology of race and experiences of living with race. It will be on display at the museum from Oct. 2 to Jan. 2, 2011.
“What I like about the book is that many people, when they talk about race, focus on black and white issues,” Zarinah El-Amin Naeem, coordinator of the Race Exhibit Initiative that is housed in Western Michigan University’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion, told The Kalamazoo Gazette. “Because this book brings in a segment of Asian-Americans, it helps to broaden the discussions by moving it outside of the discussions of black and white.”
Naeem said Kalamazoo will be the smallest community to host the exhibition, and organizers hope that it can “be a catalyst for social transformation in Kalamazoo and southwestern Michigan as a whole rather than an exhibit that just comes and goes.”
Previous “Reading Together” titles were: “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury in 2003; “Nickel and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich in 2004; “The Color of Water” by James McBride in 2005; “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien in 2006; “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon in 2007: “Animal Dreams” by Barbara Kingsolver in 2008; and New York Times columnist Rick Bragg’s trio of memoirs this year.
Reading Together invites people of all ages from all walks of life to read and then discuss important issues raised by a selected book. Thousands of county residents have participated in seven previous Reading Together programs.
The Kalamazoo Public Library leads Reading Together with the collaboration of libraries, educational institutions, health and social service agencies, cultural, civic and religious organizations, businesses, the news media, and local governments throughout Kalamazoo County.
The Kalamazoo Community Foundation helped the library launch Reading Together with funding for the first three years with grants from it Better Together initiative. The library now provides major support for the program. Foundation grants, gifts and contributions from collaborating organizations make it possible to offer Reading Together to all of Kalamazoo County. The Fetzer Institute has stepped forward to help support this year’s edition. Fret concert is ‘Friday Night Highlight,’ ‘Star Trek’ is next
The opening-night concert of the three-day Kalamazoo Fretboard Festival is the March 19 “Friday Night Highlight” at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum.
The trio Four Finger Five will kick off the festival on Friday (March 19) with a pair of concerts at 6:30 and 8 p.m. in the museum. It and all of the festival events are free.
The March 26 attraction is “Star Trek Generations,” the seventh full-length movie in the anthology that uses space-age scenarios to focus on life-on-earth woes and issues.
Tickets to that 7:30 p.m. showing in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater are $3. Also part of the "Friday Night Highlights" agenda is an 8:30 p.m. showing of the
planetarium show featuring the music of U2. That has a $3 admission fee. With a laser-light show in full color streaming across the planetarium's 50-foot
dome, the 35-minute production will feature the classic hits of the Dublin, Ireland, combo that has earned 22 Grammys, sold 146 million albums, and warranted induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in its first year of eligibility.
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The U2 show will continue at the planetarium through March when it will be replaced by a similar presentation featuring the music of Pink Floyd.
The 1994 production features just about all of the “Star Trek” favorites with the exception of Spock, “Bones,” Uhura and Sulu. William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent “Data” Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael “Worf” Dorn, James “Scotty” Doohan, Walter “Chekov” Koenig, and Whoopi Goldberg headline the cast.
In the late 23rd century, the gala maiden voyage of the third Starship Enterprise carries many of the crew of the first, most of them now retired from Starfleet service. But the junket turns to disaster as the unprepared and not-completely-finished ship is forced to rescue two transports from a mysterious energy ribbon. The Enterprise manages to save a handful of the ships' passengers and barely makes it out intact, but at the cost of Captain Kirk's life as the legendary leader is swept out into space.
Seventy-eight years later, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D find themselves at odds with the renegade scientist Soren, who is destroying entire star systems. Only one man can help Picard stop Soren's scheme, and he's been dead for 78 years.
As the plot develops and the evil Soren continues on his path of destruction, Picard ends up in the “mysterious energy ribbon” where – “Surprise, surprise” as Gomer Pyle used to say – he finds the time-warped Captain Kirk alive and well.
Picard approaches Kirk as one Starfleet officer to another, and convinces him to return to Picard's present to help stop Soren. Though initially apathetic and distracted by the flood of memories, Kirk eventually agrees. Together, they are able to distract Soren long enough to lock a missile in place, causing it to explode on the launch pad, killing Soren.
However, Kirk is mortally wounded from the encounter, and as he dies, Picard assures him that Kirk helped to make a difference. Picard buries Kirk before traveling to the wreckage of the saucer section and reuniting with his crew as they are evacuated from the planet.
Here is the “Friday Night Highlights” schedule of movies, concerts by local combos, and special events through the first third of 2010:
April 2: “Terminator.” April 9: Embarr in a concert of Celtic music April 16: The pop/rock music of We Know Jackson. April 23: Performer Rob Vischer and his California style April 30: Concert by Waverland (topic/acoustic/alternative). May 7: The 1979 movie “Battlestar Galactica May 14: The rock and blues music of Branden Mann and the Reprimand May 21: The 1984 comedy “Ghostbusters.” May 28: The improv comedy of Just Panda.
Invite students to take part in ‘Strengths Week’With winter semester moving on at break-neck speed, KVCC instructors should
be alerting their enrollees about the Student Success Center events that are designed to energize academic accomplishments and expand educational horizons.
March 22-26 is designated as “Strengths Week” during which students can identify their individual talents and strengths, develop them, and learn how to use them as they strive toward their educational and training goals.
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“Strengths Week is both a celebration of the concept and an opportunity to spread the word to others about the StrengthsQuest and the Student Strengths Development Office,” said the unit’s director Ken Barr Jr.
To assist in the venture, KVCC staff members are urged to display their “Top 5 Strengths” and wear apparel related to them.
Instructors are requested to quiz their students as to whether they know their strengths and to invite students to visit tables in the cafeteria and in the hallway by the Office of Admissions, Records and Registration during the week.
That’s where the students can schedule an appointment to take StrengthsQuest and gain insights in their inner talents.
“Lunch ‘n’ Learn” discussions will be scheduled throughout the week. Participants will learn how fellow students are using their strengths to succeed.
Featuring free lunches for participants and giveaways, these dialogues will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Student Commons Forum.
Here is the schedule and lunch offerings: Monday (March 22) – the strength of “responsibility – sliders Tuesday (March 23) – “woo” – pizza Wednesday (March 24) – “competition” – tacos Thursday (March 250 – “achiever” – sub sandwiches
Also scheduled is a workshop designed to take students through a step-by-step process in applying for admission into a four-year institution and how-to techniques involving scholarships.
That session is set for Tuesday (March 23) at 5 p.m. in the Student Commons Forum.
As part of Women in History Month, the blockbuster movie of its time – “Cleopatra” starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton – will be shown on Tuesday (March 23) at 2 p.m. in the Student Commons Forum
Other “Women in History” presentations are slated for Wednesday (March 24) at 12:30 p.m. in the Student Commons and for Monday, March 29.
On the April calendar are workshops on making a good first impression and on strategies to use in a job search. The annual Student Art Show is slated for April 5-16. Career roundtables under way at Texas Township Campus
KVCC students are invited to a month-long series of “Career Roundtables” being organized by the Student Success Center’s Career and Employment unit.
Career adviser Joyce Tamer is leading the discussions that are continuing on each Tuesday throughout March from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in the Student Commons Forum.
Instructors are urged to inform their students about these sessions that will cover topics related to exploring careers of interest and mapping a path toward such a career.
“The purpose is to have an informal setting with minimal structure to allow the students to explore career issues that are of concern to them,” Tamer said.
In addition to conversations about a variety of careers, the participants will also learn about of value of networking and keys to finding and keeping a job.
Sampling life in 15 nations is fair’s missionKVCC students and the public will be able to get a passport full of information
about 15 countries, their people, cultures and food without leaving the community.
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On Wednesday, March 31, from 2 to 4 p.m., an International Fair will be hosted in the Texas Township Campus cafeteria by the Student Success Center.
With the participation of the college’s program in international studies, the event will illustrate what life is like in these nations:
Kenya, the Dominican Republic, Zimbabwe, Colombia, Egypt, Nepal, Lebanon, Uganda, Brazil, Ecuador, Ukraine, India, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Indonesia.
Part of the attraction will be performances of ethnic music and dance that originate in some of the featured nations. Booths will also help showcase these countries, their traditions, historical landmarks and art.
A demonstration of aerobic dance known as zumba is set for 2 p.m. African drumming and dancing takes the stage at 3:15 and Brazilian martial arts is the billing at 3:40 p.m.
For more information, contact LaJoyce Brooks, the advocate coordinator for the Student Success Center, at extension 4685 or [email protected]. The story of the Kalamazoo Ladies Library Association
The Sunday Series spotlight will be on “The Ladies Library Association” on March 28 in the next installment of the Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s focus on the history of the Kalamazoo area.
A flashback to this aspect of community history begins at 1:30 p.m. in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater. All presentations are free.
While the elegant home of the Kalamazoo Ladies Library Association on Park Street is a National Historic Site, the building itself is symbolic of a cultural movement led by women, to promote literacy and intellectual life in 19th-century Michigan.
The presenter will be Sharon Carlson, director of the Western Michigan University Archives and Regional History Collections.
During the 19th century, subscription libraries provided many communities with circulating book-distribution services.
Michigan’s ladies library associations existed as one variation of this form of library.
White middle-class women participated in library associations as a moderate reform and exercised deliberate choices about the evolutionary path of these organizations.
More than 100 of these organizations existed in Michigan. Kalamazoo’s Lucinda Hinsdale Stone, the acknowledged "mother of clubs," directly assisted in the formation of many of these libraries that existed in other states but in lesser numbers.
Ladies library associations brought women into the public arena as they organized, raised funds, constructed buildings, and ultimately contributed to the formation of public libraries.
Carlson will focus on the evolution of the Kalamazoo Ladies Library Association and briefly touch on some of the other associations in southwestern Michigan.
Here are the “Sunday Series” programs through spring: “Play Ball! – Baseball in Kalamazoo” – April 11 “Kalamazoo’s Musical Heritage” – April 25.For further information, contact Tom Dietz at 373-7984.
New duties in Financial Services
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Two personnel shifts are now in place in the college’s Office of Financial Services.
With the retirement of Carol Mallinson, Mary Lawrence has taken on the controller’s responsibilities.
Meily Lightcap has taken on the duties of the financial-services manager that will include special-funded programs.
KVCC’ers in the newsNursing instructor Helen Palleschi has been appointed one of the Kalamazoo
Russian Festival’s co-directors.Since 2002, she has been serving as secretary of the Kalamazoo-Pushkin
Partnership’s annual salute to that nation’s cultural history. She will retain her secretarial duties.
The 14th Russian Festival was held last November at Western Michigan University. Palleschi has been involved in the event since the partnership since it was formed in 1992. The other co-director is Michael Stoline, a professor of statistics at WMU.
Pushkin is Kalamazoo’s sister city in Russia. The 15th festival is scheduled for Nov. 13.
And speaking of that particular sector of the health-care industry, the KVCC Student Nursing Association has been nominated to receive a STAR Award for its service to the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission.
STAR stands for Sharing Time And Resources. The annual awards ceremony is set for April 22. The STAR venture is co-sponsored by the Volunteer Center of Greater Kalamazoo and The Kalamazoo Gazette.
Byron Foster, who serves as an advocate in the Student Success Center, was profiled in the Sunday, March 14, Business Section in The Gazette.
Foster’s working career includes assignments for such major enterprises as The Kellogg Co., Target, United Technologies, Motorola and Merck.
Born in New York City, Foster served in the Air Force during the Korean War. He attended Howard University and earned a degree in business management from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Commenting on his current duties, Foster told The Gazette:“KVCC is meeting the challenges that are facing the economies of both Michigan
and the nation. It is doing so by providing an affordable means for quality education to a broad cross-section of students. Students ranging from recent high school graduates to individuals with extensive years of work experience are requiring preparation for available new careers.
“The Student Success Center has the team and resources capable of helping students through meaningful support systems to navigate through the college experience. The surprise is that there are several students who do not take full advantage of the multiple services available to them.”
In addition to his career duties, Foster has put in volunteer time for the Douglass Community Association, Goodwill Industries of Southwest Michigan, the Kalamazoo Human Resources Management Association, the Borgess Medical Center, and the National Society of Black Engineers.
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‘Dress for Success’ coming to Whitten ThursdayStudents in Valerie Jones’ marketing class at the Arcadia Commons Campus are
staging a “Dress for Success” event for their peers at KVCC.They have been assigned to a variety of teams that are working together to
organize and present the program from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday (March 25) in Room 128 of Anna Whitten Hall.
“The objective is to help students understand the importance of proper dress as it relates to interviewing and business situations,” says Student Success Center career adviser Diane Finch, who is helping to organize the initiative.
She cites surveys by the National Association of Colleges and Employers in which 92 percent of those surveyed state that “a candidate’s overall appearance influences an opinion of that candidate. Even if students are very skilled in their field, if they don’t make a good first impression, it could cost them the job.”
“Dress for Success” will include presentations on learning the importance of proper attire, dressing tips for men and women, how to make a good first impression, and interviewing strategies.
Among the presenters will be Brian Parson and Wilma Wilder of the Goodwill Career Academy, while J. C. Penny will be providing clothing for student models.
Finch can be contacted at extension 7864 or [email protected] for more information.
Kalamazoo’s early hostelries are TV topic A flashback to the early days of Kalamazoo County’s hospitality industry is the
March installment of the Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s TV show. Tom Dietz, the curator of research at the museum, will talk about the hostelries
and inns that welcomed visitors to the community in the 19th and early-20th centuries. The episode will be aired by the Public Media Network (formerly the Community
Access Center) on Channel 22 on the Charter cable system at 7 p.m. on Sundays, 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, 6:30 p.m. on Fridays, and 11 a.m. on Saturdays.
Hotels provided a variety of important services in Kalamazoo during the 19th century. The Kalamazoo House, built in 1832, was a center of fevered activity during the boom days of the western Michigan land speculation of the mid-1830s.
“Anxious buyers crowded every square inch of floor space to sleep while they climbed through windows to buy meals in the hotel’s dining room,” Dietz says.
Other prominent 19th-century hotels included the Exchange Hotel, the American Hotel, and the Burdick House. They hosted travelers, traveling salesmen and physicians peddling their wares and services from a temporary office, and provided meeting places for clubs and organizations.
Dances and other social functions were staged in their ballrooms. Several hotels offered public-bathing facilities for those who lacked full bathrooms in their homes.
Dietz discusses the 19th-century hospitality industry, exploring not only these well-known establishments but lesser known hotels including the International Hotel, Burke’s Hotel, and the Sheridan House. He will talk about the men who owned, built, and operated these facilities as well as the many purposes that the hotels served.
Hotels were often located where travelers would arrive, notably around the several railroad depots. The River House was located near the bridge over the Kalamazoo River, hoping to attract arrivals coming via the old Territorial Road.
The Burdick House, which opened in 1854, stood on Main Street (now Michigan Avenue), where the Radisson Plaza Hotel and Suites now stands, making that block the site of at least one hotel for more than 150 years.
When the Burdick House went up in flames on an arctic-like, bone-chilling evening in 1909, it earned a distinction that remains to this day – one of Kalamazoo’s greatest disasters.
Originally known as the Cosmopolitan Hotel, what burned that night opened its 80 to 100 rooms, which could accommodate up to 150 guests, in the spring of 1853. The contractor was Frank Dennison and he attached bathing salons to the four-floor, brick building that had dimensions of 100-by-70 feet.
Dennison didn’t launch the project. Work was started in August of 1850 by Alexander J. Sheldon, a shaker-and-do’er who is given credit for literally lifting the village out of the mud by installing the first planked walkways.
In June of 1855, the hostelry, built for $12,000, became the Burdick House -- named for Gen. Justus Burdick, an influential early settler.
Known for its “elegant arches,” one was described as “magnificent. . .(sitting) like a majestic queen with her children ranged on either side.” Broad “winding, spirally” stairs took guests to the upper floors.
A 45-foot “elegantly finished” tower on the roof reached for the sky, while the window sills were white marble from Vermont. An arcade of shops eventually filled the ground level. It was heralded as the “largest and best constructed hotel in western Michigan.”
Flames took their first crack at the Burdick House in October of 1855 when wooden buildings in an adjacent block caught fire. While fast work by fire fighters saved the day, the hotel did sustain damage to furnishings because water was thrown into rooms to prevent any kind of ignition.
As the village’s social hotspot and one of the finer inns in the region, the Burdick added stables to serve the transportation medium of most guests. The barn that could house up to 200 horses cost $3,000. Flames consumed it in 1876, but the main structure was again spared.
Not so in December of 1909 when the then half-century-old building was reduced to rubble, looking like the results of a World War II bombing.
Future of Michigan newspapers in the spotlightWith too many newspapers shrinking, going bankrupt, or going digital, a March
27 “Conference on the Future of Michigan Newspapers and Society” in Kalamazoo will open a dialogue about what may be regarded as a crisis for the essence of a democracy.
Slated to be held on that Saturday in the Fetzer Center on the campus of Western Michigan University, the conference will feature a slate of presentations and will begin at 8:30 a.m.
“This conference is probably the first of its kind in the nation,” said Andrew Targowski, the event’s chairman and a staff member of WMU’s Center for Sustainable Business Practices. “We hope it will serve as a model for similar forums at other universities and colleges in the state.”
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With a subtitle of “Can an Educated Society be Sustained Solely by Digitalization?” the keynoters and the titles of their presentations are:
• “Credibility, Incredibility, and the Demise of Objectivity, Civility and Wisdom” - Cal Samra, a former Associated Press and newspaper reporter
• “Digital Media and News: Reinventing the Newspaper Future” - Richard Gershon of the WMU School of Communication
• “Saving Paper Papers” - Cheryl Kaechele, president of the National Newspaper Association
• “Can Democracy Survive in the Google Age?” - Thomas Kostrzewa of the WMU Department of Political Science
• “The Future of Reason in the Digital Civilization” - Targowski.“Newspapers are a national treasure,” Samra said. “A paper paper is the glue that holds a community together. Newspapers survived the Great Depression. They survived radio and television. They survived shoppers. But can they survive the Internet?”
Members of the public, as well as current, former and future journalists, are invited to take part in dialogues that will address such questions as:
• Can paper papers be saved?• Should newspapers give themselves away free on the Internet, or should
they charge for Internet access to their daily or weekly editions?• Are we entering a new era of digital journalism?• Is there a place for both paper and digital media?The conference will also explore ideas aimed at improving editorial and business
practices at newspapers, and promote communications between journalists and technologists.
Additional information on the conference and registration are available at http://www.wmich.edu/business/sustainability/newspapers.
The $20 fee includes lunch.The co-sponsors are the National Newspaper Association, the WMU Haworth
College of Business, the WMU Center for Sustainable Business Practices, the WMU College of Arts and Sciences, and the Haenicke Institute for Global Education.
KVCC’s Tom Thinnes has been asked to assist in the staging of the event. Warning: E-mail can be L-mail, as in libel
Surfing the Internet and the worldwide webs of the planet can be as invigorating for the mind as riding Hawaii's Bonzai Pipeline is for the body, but there is potential for peril in what you communicate.
E-mail is publishing and broadcasting in the broadest definitions of those terms. As such, E-mail is subject to the laws of libel that restrain newspapers and television news. In other words, the E in e-mail can stand for “evidence.”
When you communicate via E-mail, it just doesn't zip out into cyber space and is lost forever. It can be captured, saved, printed, and distributed to somebody who may not like what you are communicating.
Case in point:When a surfing college professor learned via E-mail that a group of colleagues
were bound for London and were looking for reasonable housing while there, he read some of the suggestions coming in from all over the world. He E-mailed his comments,
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urging them not to stay at a certain hostelry for various reasons. When that hostelry read the assessment, it contacted a law firm that demanded an E-mail apology, or else.
What this all means goes back to what your parents used to advise: If you can't say something nice about somebody or something, don't say anything at all. . .especially via E-mail.
And, if you don’t want to see it in print, don’t keyboard it on to your screen. And finally. . .
A person was driving and saw the flash of a traffic camera.The driver figured that a photo had been taken for exceeding the limit
even though there was no speeding apparent. Just to be certain, the driver went around the block and passed the same
spot, moving even more slowly. Again the camera flashed.Thinking this was quite funny, the driver retraced the route even slower.
Voila! The traffic camera flashed. What great fun! A fourth and fifth trek at a snail’s pace delivered the
same results. Two weeks later, the driver received five tickets in the mail for driving
