The Harbinger

February 19, 2007

 

Experimental filmmaker Richard Myers is artist-in-residence

 
Avant-garde filmmaker Richard Myers, whose film Akran Chicago movie critic Roger Ebert termed “so radically original, it is beyond our previous experience,” will spend a week in residency at Hiram College, teaching and discussing his work.

 
Myers will be on campus February 20 – 23 and will participate in three campus-wide events. They are:

 

  • Convocation, Tuesday, Feb. 20, 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m., Frohring Art  5: Myers, who taught art at Kent State University prior to his retirement, will discuss his background – he has lived all his life in Massillon and Kent – the history of experimental film, and how he developed his independent films using dreams and autobiography.

  • Screening of Akran, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 7 p.m. – 9 p.m., Frohring Art 5: Amos Vogel in his book titled Film as a Subversive Art, said Myers’ 1969 film “creates a Joyce-like, dense and somber mosaic of memory and sensory impressions, a texture instead of a plot, a dream-like flow of visually induced associations.”

  • Open Studio, Thursday, Feb. 22, 6 p.m. – 10 p.m., Frohring Art 5: Screening and discussion of Jungle Girl. Jungle Girl is Myers’ tribute to Frances Gifford and Republic Studios’ 1940s serial genre in which Gifford played the title role. In the Los Angeles Times, Sheila Benson said the film is “a gentle work of haunting beauty, and as original as Cocteau.”

 

An independent filmmaker since 1960, Myers taught film in the Kent State University art department before his retirement. Two of his films are part of the Kent State Department of Special Collections and Archives, including Confrontation at Kent State, a documentary about the May 4, 1970, shootings at Kent, and Allison, a memorial film about Allison Krause, one of the four killed by Ohio National Guard gunfire.

 

Myers’ films have been exhibited at film festivals in San Francisco, Chicago, Richmond, Virginia, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Bowling Green, Ohio, and elsewhere. He has presented shows at more than 100 colleges and universities in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

 

The filmmaker’s work also has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and he has received grants from the Guggenheim Fellowship for Filmmaking (1969, 1971), the American Film Institute (1970, 1982, 1984), the National Endowment for the Arts (1975, 1982), and the Ohio Arts Council (1975, 1979, 1982, 1985).

 
Myers’ visit is funded by the Hiram Community Trust, a local grants organization.

 

Professor Dennis Taylor to discuss Cuyahoga River cleanup as environmental model
Event hosted by Friends of the Hiram College Library

In 1969, the Cuyahoga River was so heavily polluted by debris and industrial waste that a portion of it caught fire. That fire was not the first on the river, and that river was not the only one in the nation to burn during the twentieth century. Yet, the Cuyahoga became a symbol of environmental degradation caused by industrial pollutants. The attention paid to the condition of the river signaled a philosophical shift in the mind of the American public about the importance of water quality.

 

On Sunday, February 25, Professor of Biology Dennis Taylor will discuss the effect the Cuyahoga River had on the state and national environmental movements. He will deliver a presentation titled, “Streams of Clean Water, Streams of Flowing Knowledge – Ohio’s Undervalued Contributions that Improve the Lives of Citizens of the Globe.”

 

Taylor’s presentation will explore how, contrary to perception, the clean water movement in Ohio is a bellwether for the rest of the world.

 

Professor Taylor’s presentation will begin at 2 p.m. in the Pritchard Room of the Hiram College Library. The program is part of a series coordinated by the Friends of the Hiram College Library. For more information, please contact Terri Foy at foytm@hiram.edu or 330.569.5354.

 
This program is free and open to the public.

 

Simeon Ilesanmi to lead 2007 ethics symposium

 
Simeon Ilesanmi will be the guest speaker at the 2007 ethics symposium at Hiram College scheduled for February 26 and 27. Ilesanmi is an associate professor in the Department of Religion at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. His fields of expertise include comparative ethics (Christian, Islamic, and philosophical), African studies, religion and law, just war theory, and international human rights.

 
The symposium will feature informal conversations with Ilesanmi on February 26. He will deliver a convocation on Tuesday, February 27 in the Kennedy Center Ballroom. The convocation will begin at 12:30 p.m.

This symposium is coordinated by Foote Chair in Ethics and Professor of Religious Studies Jonathan Moody.

 

Study abroad interest meeting: Nicaragua: Children of the Dump

At the city dump at Chinandega, Nicaragua, there are children living on garbage, looking for scraps of food and sellable items buried among the disease-infested rubble. They compete for survival with flies, dogs, scavenging birds, and destitute adults.

 
Over 2,000 children have been removed from this dump. They have been placed in school, given clean school uniforms, and provided with meals while attending school, and their parents have been provided with housing and vocational training.


“Children of the Dump -- Nicaragua: A Study in Overcoming Poverty through Grassroots Entrepreneurship” is a fall 2007 3-week course that addresses the factors which contribute to world poverty, such as changes in government, natural disasters, and United States foreign policy. Concentrating on the Chinandega, Nicaragua, area, students on this trip will explore one successful model for overcoming such despair. Hiram students will assist in training the indigenous population in entrepreneurial skills suitable to the area. They will study the various family social and cultural roles and how they change as poverty is overcome.

 
Learn more at an interest meeting tomorrow, February 20. The meeting begins at 4:30 p.m. in Bowler Lounge.


Display in Teachout-Price recognizes endowed chairs


In conjunction with the Endowed Chairs Installation Ceremony in January, the College has installed in Teachout-Price Hall a display recognizing the Hiram College Endowed Chairs.

 
The wall, located between the Alan G. & Nancy H. Brant Student Services Suite and the Admission Office and across from the James Kirby Martin Alumni Heritage Room, is a high traffic area for current and prospective students and also attracts faculty, staff, and visitors to the area.

 
Below the lettering – Hiram College Endowed Chairs – plaques are displayed, one for each of the College’s endowed chairs – the John S. Kenyon Chair in English, the Howard S. Bissell Chair of Liberal Arts, the George & Arlene Foote Chair in Ethics, the Herbert L. & Pauline Wentz Andrews Chair in Biomedical Humanities, and the Edward J. Smerek Chair in Mathematics, the Sciences, and Technology.

 
Each plaque contains a description of how the chair was endowed and by whom. The name of current and past holders of each chair is included on the lower portion of the plaque, along with spaces for future holders of the chairs.

 
A smaller shadow box similar to the plaques but with additional personal information has been created for each professor who holds or has held a chair.

 

Please visit Teachout-Price and visit the wall honoring Hiram’s endowed chairs.





Lunch and Learn to address GIS


Valerian Anderson will speak on Geographical Information Systems (GIS) at the next Lunch and Learn @ the Library at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 22. Seating is limited, so to ensure that you have a seat (and a slice or two of pizza) please make your reservation by noon on February 21 by contacting Terri Foy at foytm@hiram.edu or x5354.

Anderson’s presentation is titled “Geographical Information Systems (GIS): What is it, and what can it do for me?” He will explore the fast-moving field of Geographical Information Systems (GIS), which focuses on computational systems that manage, analyze, and display geographic knowledge. The technology is useful in any discipline that uses spatial data, from the sciences to the humanities. The talk will introduce GIS capabilities and give examples from several disciplines.

Anderson is the director of the Center for Educational Technology at Hiram.

 

Thursday: GAIA Gender Studies Reading Group

In celebration of Black History Month, the GAIA Gender Studies Reading Group will be discussing African American Feminist (Womanist) Theology and the significant contribution of black women (and especially Alice Walker) to theology. The discussion will include a viewing of a short video clip explaining Womanist theology by Emily Townes, and a clip by Regina Walker reading a short section from The Color Purple. Conversation will be open to a number of topics but will particularly focus on “doing” theology from a particular social context and what that might mean to all of us.


For more background on the subject, please read this short article: http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=445. 


The reading group will meet at noon on Thursday, February 22, in the Fisher Chapel. All are welcome to participate.

 

Baroque and Irish music performance, February 23

 
The Dreisbach Ensemble and Friends, featuring the Celtic group Top o’ the Hill (pictured left), will present a concert of Baroque and Irish music on Friday, February 23, at 7:30 p.m. in Frohring Recital Hall.


Early music performers will be Tina Dreisbach, baroque flute; Dawn Dreisbach, violin; Paul Dreisbach, baroque oboe; Amanda Cagle, harpsichord; Janet Winzenburger, viola da gamba; and Stephen Toombs, lute and baroque guitar. 


Top o’ the Hill features the Dreisbachs on Irish flute, fiddle, and pennywhistle; Dale Lacan, guitar; Ellen Eckhouse, Celtic harp; Annie Stroud, fiddle; and Joe Overton, bodhran. The concert is free and open to the public, and a reception will follow. 

 

Swords and Sausages on the Hayden stage


Dispel your winter blues with some hearty gut-laughs. Go see the performance of Swords and Sausages: An Adventure in Commedia Dell’ Arte courtesy of Hiram’s Department of Theatre Arts.

 
There will be three shows this weekend, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Pre-performance entertainment begins at 7:15 p.m., and the show starts at 7:30 p.m. Seating is on the Hayden stage in Hayden Auditorium. Seating is limited and reservations are not available, so be sure to arrive early!

 




This Week at Hiram


Monday, February 19

  • Open Christianity chapel service
    5 p.m., Fisher Chapel

Tuesday, February 20

  • Convocation by filmmaker Richard Myers
    12:30 p.m., Frohring Art 5
     
  • Men’s basketball @ NCAC Quarterfinals (v. Wittenberg University)
    7:45 p.m., Springfield, Ohio


Wednesday, February 21

  • Ash Wednesday Service
    4 p.m., Fisher Chapel
     
  • Clinical psychology candidate presentation
    4:30 p.m., BI room of library
     
  • Akran film screening with filmmaker Richard Myers
    7 p.m., Frohring Art 5 

 

Thursday, February 22

  • GAIA Gender Studies Reading Group
    Noon, Fisher Chapel
     
  • Lunch & Learn with Valerian Anderson
    12:30 p.m., Library Instruction Room
     
  • Open studio with filmmaker Richard Myers
    6 p.m., Frohring Art 5
     
  • Swords & Sausages: An Adventure in Commedia Dell’ Arte
    7:15 p.m., Hayden Auditorium 

 

Friday, February 23

  • Biomedical Humanities Senior Seminar
    4:15 p.m., Gerstacker 123
     
  • Swords & Sausages: An Adventure in Commedia Dell’ Arte
    7:15 p.m., Hayden Auditorium
     
  •  Dreisbach Ensemble and Friends, featuring the Celtic group Top o’ the Hill
    7:30 p.m., Frohring Recital Hall

 

Saturday, February 24

  • Swords & Sausages: An Adventure in Commedia Dell’ Arte
    7:15 p.m., Hayden Auditorium

 

Sunday, February 25

  • Friends of the Library presentation by Professor Dennis Taylor
    2 p.m., Pritchard Room

 

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