Linfield to host Oregon Humanities Conversation Project
Linfield College will host a series of Conversation Projects, sponsored by Oregon Humanities, on various topics of diversity this spring.
“Northwest Mixtape: Hip Hop Culture and Influences” will be led by journalist and author Donnell Alexander on Monday, April 4, at 4:30 p.m. in 219 T.J. Day Hall. The Oregon Humanities Conversation Project brings Oregonians together to discuss their differences, beliefs and backgrounds about important issues and ideas.
Alexander will focus on the complex relationship that the Pacific Northwest has with hip hop culture and how its influences have affected language, fashion, art and local life in ways that are not always recognized by mainstream audiences. He will touch on what makes Pacific Northwest hip hop unique, provide context for the history that brought mainstays such as Sir Mix-A-Lot, Cool Nutz and Macklemore into being, and explore how hip hop has influenced social, artistic and political life in the region.
Alexander is a storyteller and editor who coproduced the 2009 animated short, “Dock and Ellis & the LSD No-No” and authored the memoir, “Ghetto Celebrity” in 2003 as a personal, elongated addition to the 1997 essay, “Cool Like Me: Are Black People Cooler than White People?” He has served as a staff writer at LA Citybeat, ESPN: The Magazine, LA Weekly, the San Francisco Bay Guardian and the Chico News & Review.
This event is the second in a three-part series of Conversation Projects hosted at Linfield this spring. The first event, “White Out? The Future of Racial Diversity in Oregon,” was held in February. The final event, “Mind the Gaps: How Gender Shapes our Lives,” will take place on Wednesday, May 4, at 4:30 p.m. in 219 T.J. Day Hall.
The discussions are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, Linfield Professor of English, at 503-883-2485 or rdutt-b@linfield.edu.
Admission hosts Spring Visit Days
The Office of Admission will host two Spring Visit Days for admitted high school seniors and transfer students and their families — Monday, April 4, and Friday, April 15.
This will be the last glimpse into life at Linfield before students make their final enrollment decisions. Many students will stay overnight on Sunday and guests will lunch in Dillin from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Monday. Linfield community members are invited to join guests for lunch to share their Linfield experiences.
The registration form and agenda is available at www.linfield.edu/springvisitdays. For more information, contact the Office of Admission at 503-883-2213.
Kathleen Dean Moore reading to bring the wild to Linfield
Acclaimed nature writer Kathleen Dean Moore will present a reading on Wednesday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m. in the Austin Reading Room of the Jereld R. Nicholson Library.
Moore, distinguished professor of philosophy at Oregon State University, will read from work, largely set in the coastal hills, goose swamps, mossy rainforests and tidal flats of the Pacific Northwest. She will discuss the anguish of a nature writer trying to find her way in a time of extinctions. Her love for and close observation of nature combine with a keenly philosophical mind; Moore’s work questions the power of celebration, point of elegy, and asks if it is possible to open readers’ hearts without breaking them. Her work has been praised by the Chicago Examiner, Utne Reader, Orion Magazine and E Magazine.
Moore is best known for award-winning books of essays about wet, wild places – “Riverwalking,” “Holdfast,” “Pine Island Paradox” and “Wild Comfort.” A naturalist and moral philosopher, her love for the reeling world has led her to a new life of climate writing and activism. Her most recent book, “Great Tide Rising: Toward Clarity and Moral Courage in a Time of Planetary Change,” follows her pivotal anthology “Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril.” Moore’s nature writing returns to the wild-weather coast in her novel, “The Piano Tide,” to be published in the fall. She writes from Corvallis, and from a small cabin where two creeks and a bear trail meet a tidal cove in Alaska.
This reading, part of the “Readings at the Nick” series, is sponsored by the Linfield Nicholson Library and the Linfield English Department. For more information, contact Susan Barnes Whyte at 503-883-2517 or swhyte@linfield.edu.
McGlynn talk to focus on future of scientific discovery
Terry McGlynn, professor of biology at California State Dominguez Hills, will present “Unknown Unknowns and the Future of Scientific Discovery” during the iFOCUS Science Colloquium Lectures Series on Thursday, April 7, at 4:15 p.m. in 100 Graf Hall.
The lecture will be live streamed for those unable to attend.
McGlynn is an ecologist with a long history of research in the new world tropics. He shares his knowledgeable and experience about regional and global environmental issues in a blog, “Small Pond Science.” In addition to posts about pursuing research in a non-R1 academic setting, he also posts about life in academia generally, gender and other societal issues in the sciences and academia, pedagogy and more.
The talk is sponsored by the Hearst Foundations. For more information, contact gcastill@linfield.edu or visit www.linfield.edu/science-colloquium.html
Linfield Concert Choir hosts sixth annual choir clinic
The Linfield College Concert Choir will host the sixth annual Choir Clinic for Yamhill County elementary and middle school students, grades 3-8, Friday, April 8, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Vivian A. Bull Music Center.
A public concert for students to showcase what they have learned will be held at 4:30 p.m. in the Richard and Lucille Ice Auditorium in Melrose Hall.
Participants will work with college students and Professor Anna Song in small and large groups to improve musicianship through rhythm activities and games, learn new music, make new friends and share their love of music with students from other area schools.
Clinic fee is $25, $15 if regular fee poses a financial burden, and includes lunch and snacks. Registration deadline is Tuesday, April 5. Proceeds will benefit the Linfield Choir fund.
For more information, contact Song at 503-883-2406 or the Linfield Music Department at 503-883-2275.
Linfield Concert Band to perform ‘The Elements: Part II’
The Linfield College Concert Band will present its spring concert, “The Elements: Part II,” on Tuesday, April 12, at 7:30 p.m. in Ice Auditorium.
Under the direction of Joan Haaland Paddock, professor of music and director of instrumental activities, the band will perform a variety of pieces that explore this year’s Linfield PLACE theme: “Air, Water, Earth and Fire: The Ancient Elements on a Changing Planet.” Pieces will include “Flashing Winds” by Jan Van der Roost, “Sheltering Sky” by John Mackey, “Earth Dance” by Michael Sweeney and “Fuego del Alma” by Carl Strommen. Student conductors Ana Ramirez, Jamie Bostock and Sophia Reinhardt will lead the band in three movements from the “Petite Symphony” by Brian Balmages. The concert will close with musical highlights from the Disney/Pixar movie “Frozen” by Christophe Beck, arranged by Stephen Bulla.
Paddock, at Linfield since 1994, is the first woman to receive a doctorate in trumpet performance from Indiana University and she also received the Emmy Award from the National Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Performer’s Certificate from Indiana University. She was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to Norway and studied at the Norwegian State Academy of Music. She is a trumpeter with Halcyon Trio Oregon and holds memberships in the College Band Directors National Association, National Association for Music Education and Oregon Band Directors Association, among others. She is also on the Fulbright Senior Specialist roster for the Council of International Exchange Scholars.
The Linfield Concert Band is comprised of nearly 40 members including music majors and minors and non-majors from across all disciplines, as well as local community members. Six graduating seniors will be recognized during the concert: Katie van Dyk, flute; Quillan Bourassa, Andrea Pakula and MacKenzie Smith, clarinet; Daniel Bradley, tenor saxophone; and Gregory Moses, trumpet.
The concert is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Linfield College Department of Music. For more information, call 503-883-2275 or visit linfield.edu/arts.
Harlem Quartet to perform at Linfield College
Celebrated New York musicians, the Harlem Quartet, will present a jazz-inspired string performance on Wednesday, April 13, at 7:30 p.m. in Ice Auditorium.
A “Meet the Musicians” event will also be held earlier that day at 1:30 p.m. in the Delkin Recital Hall in the Vivian A. Bull Music Center.
The performance, “Jazzing It Up,” will feature jazz favorites that have been creatively adapted for the string quartet. The program will include “At the Octoroon Balls” by Wynton Marsalis, “A Night in Tunisia” by Dizzy Gillespie, “The Girl from Ipanema” by Antonio Carlos Jobin and other selections.
Members of the Harlem Quartet include Ilmar Gavilán and Melissa White on the violin, Jaime Amador on the viola and Felix Umansky on the cello.
The Harlem Quartet is a New York-based group that has been praised for its panache by “The New York Times.” The quartet’s mission is to advance diversity in classical music, engaging young and new audiences through the discovery and presentation of varied repertoire that includes works by minority composers. The group debuted in 2006 at Carnegie Hall and since has performed for President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House, and has appeared in France, the U.K., Belgium, Panama, Canada and South Africa. The quartet was also featured on “Corea’s Hot House” album, which won Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Album and Best Instrumental Composition.
Gavilán, a native of Cuba, has studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, the Reina Sofia School of Music in Spain and the Manhattan School of Music in New York. He is currently the concertmaster of the Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and performs as a regular substitute musician for the New Jersey Symphony.
White is a founding member of the Harlem Quartet. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in performance from the Curtis Institute of Music as well as a master’s degree in performance and a graduate diploma in professional quartet studies from the New England Conservatory of Music.
Amador was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and began his studies in the String Program for Children at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music. He was accepted to The Juilliard School and later continued his studies at the Manhattan School of Music.
Umansky is a frequently sought-after recitalist, chamber musician and pedagogue. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center, the Krannert Center and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Umansky received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and an artist diploma from Yale University.
This performance is sponsored by the Linfield College Department of Music and the Linfield Lively Arts music series, in collaboration with Friends of Chamber Music. The Linfield Lively Arts music series features guests in concerts and in outreach activities, including master classes, open rehearsals and “Meet the Musicians” events.
Tickets for the evening performance are available at the door and are $10 for general admission and free for Linfield students with current ID and students K-12. The “Meet the Musicians” event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 503-883-2275 or visit linfield.edu/arts.
Community News
Anna Song, associate professor of music and director of choirs, participated in concerts with In Mulieribus, a female vocal ensemble in March. The performances were featured in Oregon Artswatch.
Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, professor of English, was recently featured on Late Night Debut. In the podcast, Dutt-Ballerstadt discusses Shobha Rao’s debut short story collection, An Unrestored Woman, published by Flatiron Books.
Linfield College has earned honors for admission publications by the Higher Education Marketing Report 31st Annual Educational Advertising Awards. More than 1,000 colleges and universities submitted publications. Linfield earned gold for admission fall magazine; silver for travel postcard, intro view book and high school poster; and bronze for admitted student handbook.
Campus calendar
MONDAY, APRIL 4
Today: Spring Visit Day
4:30 p.m.: Donnell Alexander, “Northwest Mixtape: Hip Hop Culture and Influences,” 219 T.J. Day Hall
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6
6 p.m.: Baseball at Pacific
7:30 p.m.: Kathleen Dean Moore reading, Austin Reading Room, Nicholson Library
THURSDAY, APRIL 7
4:15 p.m.: Terry McGlynn, “Unknown Unknowns and the Future of Scientific Discovery,” 100 Graf Hall
FRIDAY, APRIL 8
10 a.m.: Choir Clinic for Yamhill County youth, Vivian A. Bull Music Center
11:30 a.m.: Blood Pressure Screening Clinic, Cook Hall lobby
SATURDAY, APRIL 9
Today and tomorrow: Men’s and women’s golf at NWC Spring Classic
10 a.m.: Track and field at Rich Allen Classic, George Fox
Noon: Baseball at Whitman
Noon: Women’s lacrosse vs. Pacific
Noon: Softball vs. Puget Sound
1 p.m.: Women’s tennis vs. Pacific Lutheran
1 p.m.: Men’s tennis at Pacific Lutheran
SUNDAY, APRIL 10
Today: Men’s tennis at Willamette
11 a.m.: Women’s tennis vs. Willamette
Noon: Baseball at Whitman
Noon: Softball vs. Puget Sound
