Category: Events

“Spaceman of Bohemia” Author Visits K

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Students new to Kalamazoo College will take an important first step in connecting with each other and with faculty and staff when the 2019 Summer Common Reading author visits campus on Friday, Sept. 13.

Spaceman of Bohemia bookcover
Jaroslav Kalfař, the author of the science-fiction novel Spaceman of Bohemia, will discuss his 2017 book and answer questions from students in a colloquium Friday, Sept. 13, at Stetson Chapel.

Jaroslav Kalfař, the author of the science-fiction novel Spaceman of Bohemia, will discuss his 2017 book and answer questions from students in a colloquium at Stetson Chapel. Kalfař’s appearance will cap the class of 2023’s experience with K’s Summer Common Reading program which joins the Kalamazoo College community in conversations about their book. Frequently, the author returns in four years to speak at the class’s Commencement.

Spaceman of Bohemia tells the story of orphan Jakub Procházka, who becomes Czechoslovakia’s first astronaut, after being raised by his grandparents. His dangerous solo mission to Venus offers him a chance to be a hero while atoning for his father’s sins as a Communist informer.

As he’s alone in space, Jakub befriends a possibly imaginary giant alien spider. The two conduct philosophical conversations about love, life and death, forming an emotional bond, helping Jakub through clashes with Russian rivals in attempting to return to Earth.

Kalfař was born in 1988 in the Czech Republic, moving to the U.S. at age 15. He earned an M.F.A. from New York University, where he was a Goldwater Fellow and a nominee for the first E.L. Doctorow Prize. He is a recipient of the 2018 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship. Spaceman of Bohemia is his first novel and the book was a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, The Arthur C. Clarke Award Science Fiction Book of the Year and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

The Summer Common Reading program is a key component of K’s first-year experience program, which ties hands-on experiential learning, advising, first-year forums and seminars, assistance from peer leaders and Residential Life to guide new students through their transition to college.

The first-year experience program helps K students achieve academic success, identify and pursue passions, connect with Kalamazoo College and the greater community, develop intercultural understanding and build a purpose-filled life.

Convocation to Open Academic Year

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Kalamazoo College will welcome 398 first-year students and their families to the 2019-20 academic year at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11, during Convocation.

Faculty walking to open convocation 2018
Kalamazoo College will welcome 398 first-year students and their families to the 2019-20 academic year at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11, during Convocation.

The ceremony, serving as the first of two bookends to the K experience with the other being graduation, will take place on the Lower Quad. The ceremony’s rain site will be Stetson Chapel.

K’s first-year students include 29 degree-seeking international students, plus 10 transfer students and 19 visiting international students. New students will attend K from 29 states including Illinois, California, Texas and Minnesota, and 15 countries including Jamaica, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. Students of color from the U.S. make up about 36 percent of the incoming class. Twenty-four percent of the incoming class will be the first in their families to attend college.

President Jorge G. Gonzalez, Provost Danette Ifert Johnson, Vice President for Student Development and Dean of Students Sarah Westfall, Chaplain Elizabeth Candido ’00, faculty, staff and student leaders will welcome new students and their families. Convocation will conclude with new students signing the Matriculation Book.

Martin Acosta ’97, the founder and CEO of Inalproces and Kiwa, will deliver this year’s keynote address. Acosta was an international student from Ecuador who studied economics and business at K, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. After receiving a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science and an M.B.A. from INSEAD, he became an entrepreneur, professor and business consultant.

In 2009, Acosta and his wife, Natalie, wanted to make a difference for the people of Ecuador. In 2009, they launched Kiwa. Kiwa works directly with farmers in Ecuador and northern Peru to turn native vegetables like Andean potatoes and beets into snack foods for a worldwide market, helping these farmers escape poverty. Today, Kiwa is a global brand of premium vegetable chips sold in more than 30 countries. Kiwa has won international awards for innovation and corporate social responsibility as it strives to fulfill its mission to provide quality, innovative snacks that are friendly to the environment and beneficial to everyone.

Convocation will be available through a live stream. There will also be a reception after the ceremony behind Stetson Chapel on the Upper Quad. The reception’s rain site will be the Hicks Student Center.

Festival Playhouse to Amplify Women’s Voices in 56th Season

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Kalamazoo College’s Festival Playhouse will celebrate its 56th season by honoring a tradition of empowering women through a community of theatre.

Festival Playhouse cMUMMA Twelfth Night
The Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College produced “Twelfth Night” last spring in its 55th season addressing assumption and confusion. Its 56th season will amplify women’s voices with Spitfire Grill, Silent Sky and Water by the Spoonful.

Under a theme of “HERstory: Forgotten Female Figures,” the three main stage plays will provide a realistic and meaningful look at women whose voices aren’t always heard—let alone amplified—and will reflect the work the Playhouse strives to accomplish offstage.

In the fall production of the musical Spitfire Grill by Fred Alley and James Valcq, parolee Percy Talbott tries to forge a new place for herself in the small town of Gilead, Wisconsin, as she combats town gossip, mostly about herself. In addition to female empowerment, the production’s themes include redemption, the economic problems of small towns, and the plight of Vietnam War veterans. The show will run Nov. 7-10.

Silent opens in the darkest months when the stars are brightest and runs Feb. 27-March 1. The play by Lauren Gunderson honors astronomer Henrietta Leavitt for the discoveries she made without recognition in her lifetime. In 1900, she has the opportunity to work at Harvard College Observatory, but is denied he opportunities of her male counterparts. Regardless, she enthusiastically begins tracking changes in Cepheid stars, leading to scientific discoveries that have long-term implications in the field of astronomy.

The season will conclude May 14-17 with the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes. The play follows Odessa Ortiz, who uses the screen name Haikumom to moderate a chat room that ministers to those struggling with addiction as her own family life falls apart.

All three shows will be produced at the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors 65 and older, and $5 for students in the general public. Tickets are free to patrons who present a Kalamazoo College ID. Tickets will be available  beginning Sept. 16 at festivalplayhouse.ludus.com or by calling the box office at 269.337.7333.

Visit the Festival Playhouse website for more information on the upcoming theatre season and additional student productions.

2019 Commencement Slated for Sunday

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Kalamazoo College’s 2019 Commencement will take place at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 16, on the campus Quad. A total of 300 members of the class of 2019 are expected to participate in the ceremony with biology, psychology and business representing the most popular majors.

2019 Commencement cMUMMA Commencement 2018 0143
The 2019 Commencement ceremonies are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 16.

Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez will welcome graduates along with about 2,000 family members and friends, faculty, staff, trustees, alumni and community members. A livestream of the ceremony will be available.

This year’s class includes:

  • 174 Michiganders;
  • students from 26 states including Illinois and California;
  • students from eight countries including China and India; and
  • 117 double majors and one triple major.

Rain Location

If inclement weather forces the ceremony indoors, it will take place at Anderson Athletic Center, where tickets will be required for entry. Each senior will receive six tickets that will be distributed at the mandatory senior rehearsal at 4 p.m. Thursday, June 13. Some additional tickets will be available at the rehearsal if students need more. If events are forced indoors, graduating students will receive an email Sunday with that information. Such an announcement would also be made at K’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

2019 Commencement Parking

All faculty, staff and student parking lots will be available to families and guests. Click the link with the title of each lot below to see its location on our interactive map.

Vehicles must be parked in marked stalls. Permits are only required for handicapped spaces. If you choose to park in a surrounding neighborhood, please note all posted regulations, which are maintained by the City of Kalamazoo.

Handicapped Guests and Parking

Limited handicapped parking spaces are clearly marked and available throughout campus, both on streets near campus buildings and in campus lots. Handicapped spaces are reserved for vehicles with a state permit.

Due to limited handicapped parking, a designated drop-off area will be available on Campus Drive in front of Hoben Hall, accessible from Academy Street. Families may drop off guests for barrier-free access to the Quad before finding parking elsewhere on campus.

A designated seating area will be available for guests in wheelchairs on the northeast side of the Hicks Center. Families with guests in wheelchairs who would like to reserve seating in this area should contact Kerri Barker at 269.337.7289 or kerri.barker@kzoo.edu. Guests in wheelchairs who wish to sit with their entire party elsewhere on the Quad may do so.

Barrier-free restrooms are available at Olds Upton Hall at the south side of the building, near the main entrance at the Hicks Center, and in Stetson Chapel at the south side of the building.

Keynote Speaker

Kenneth G. Elzinga, Ph.D. ’63 will serve as the Commencement keynote speaker. Elzinga is the Robert C. Taylor Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia and a leading authority on antitrust policy, writing for numerous journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Law and Economics, and the Harvard Law Review. He has served as a special economic advisor to the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and has testified in several precedent-setting cases including three U.S. Supreme Court cases.

Elzinga has co-authored murder mysteries under the pen name Marshall Jevons. His books feature a sleuth who solves crimes using economic theory. The books Murder at the Margin, The Fatal Equilibrium, A Deadly Indifference and The Mystery of the Invisible Hand were written with the late Trinity University professor William Breit.

K awarded Elzinga with an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in 2000.

Honorary Doctorate

Author Leslie Jamison will receive an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. Jamison wrote the 2014 book The Empathy Exams, which the graduating class read as first-year students for the summer common-reading program. The book involves a collection of essays that ask how people should care about each other as she reflects on her own experiences of illness and injury.

Jamison — a Washington, D.C., native raised in Los Angeles — also wrote a novel titled The Gin Closet (2010) and a nonfiction book titled The Recovering: Intoxication and its Aftermath (2018). She is a 2004 graduate of Harvard College and currently serves Columbia University as an assistant professor and the head of its nonfiction concentration. Her next book of essays, titled Make it Scream, Make it Burn, is due out in September.

Student Speaker

The 2019 Commencement student speaker is Angelica Rodriguez, who is graduating with majors in biology and critical ethnic studies. She studied abroad in Budapest, Hungary, and her Senior Individualized Project focused on using critical ethnic studies theories and frameworks to analyze biomedical research practices and explore both her majors. While at K, Angelica was involved in many activities, including the West African Percussion Ensemble and working at the Writing Center.

Senior Awards Ceremony

The Senior Awards Ceremony will be at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Stetson Chapel. The awards include honors in all academic divisions, prestigious scholarships and special non-departmental awards.

Baccalaureate

Baccalaureate, a non-denominational service with student and faculty speakers and musical performances, will be at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 15, at Stetson Chapel. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

Renowned Professor, Mystery Writer to Serve as 2019 Commencement Speaker

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Kalamazoo College will welcome Kenneth G. Elzinga, Ph.D. ’63 as its 2019 Commencement speaker on Sunday, June 16.

2019 Commencement Speaker Kenneth Elzinga
Kenneth Elzinga, Kalamazoo College’s 2019 Commencement speaker, has taught economics to more than 47,000 students at the University of Virginia.

Elzinga, the Robert C. Taylor Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia, is a renowned teacher and a leading authority on antitrust policy, writing for numerous journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Law and Economics, and the Harvard Law Review. He has served as a special economic advisor to the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and has testified in numerous precedent-setting cases, including three U.S. Supreme Court cases.

At the University of Virginia, Elzinga has taught economics to more than 47,000 students. In 2017, an endowed chair was named in his honor, celebrating a career that’s been recognized through many awards, including the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Outstanding Faculty Award and the University of Virginia’s highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson Award. The Southern Economic Association’s annual teaching award is also named after Elzinga.

In addition to his distinguished teaching career, Elzinga is known for co-authoring murder mysteries under the pen name Marshall Jevons, featuring a sleuth who solves crimes using economic theory. The books Murder at the Margin, The Fatal Equilibrium, A Deadly Indifference, and The Mystery of the Invisible Hand were written with the late Trinity University professor William Breit, with whom he also co-edited The Antitrust Casebook: Milestones in Economic Regulation. The novels have been translated into seven languages and have appeared on the reading lists of many college courses.

Elzinga graduated from Kalamazoo College in 1963 and went on to earn his Ph.D. in economics from Michigan State University in 1967, joining the University of Virginia faculty that year. He has also taught at MSU, Pepperdine, Cambridge and Trinity Universities. In 2000, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Kalamazoo College.

“Ken Elzinga represents the best of where a liberal arts education can lead you,” said Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez. “Born in a working-class neighborhood in Kalamazoo, he embraced his time at K and went on to achieve phenomenal success in economics, teaching and writing—blending his passions in creative ways that have inspired students for more than 50 years. We are honored to welcome him back to campus as our Commencement speaker.”

The 2019 Commencement at Kalamazoo College is scheduled for 1 p.m. June 16 on the College Quad.

World-Famous Cellist Performing with Philharmonia

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World-Famous Cellist Amit Peled
Amit Peled, a world-famous cellist, will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday with the Kalamazoo Philharmonia at Light Fine Arts.

The Kalamazoo Philharmonia will welcome a world-famous cellist in one of two concerts taking place this weekend at Kalamazoo College.

Amit Peled, an Israeli musician acclaimed for his profound artistry and charismatic stage presence, will perform with the Philharmonia at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 1, in Dalton Theatre at Light Fine Arts. The concert, titled “True Virtuosity,” features Strum for String Orchestra by contemporary composer Jessie Montgomery, and Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski’s folk-inflected piece, Concerto for Orchestra.

The Philharmonia, directed by Kalamazoo College Associate Professor of Music Andrew Koehler, is an orchestra of Kalamazoo College and the community. The group brings together students, faculty, and amateur and professional musicians. The group won the 2014 American Prize Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award for Orchestral Programming and has produced several CDs. It also has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, and collaborated with the Bach Festival Chorus, as well as many renowned soloists.

Tickets for the Philharmonia concert will be available at the door. They cost $5 for adults and seniors, and $2 for students. Kalamazoo College students are admitted free.

The College Singers will also perform this weekend in a free concert titled “America: WTF,” exploring freedoms, fears and fairness as they relate to American democracy. The performance is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Sunday at Stetson Chapel. Admission is free.

The choir will sing a variety of songs ranging from selections predating American colonists, to a modern rhythm-and-blues selection from Janelle Monae titled Americans. The program, while weighty, entertains and informs, through the group’s 32 singers. Songs such as Thomas Tallis’ Audivi vocem di caelo will be performed in four-part polyphony interspersed with a chant to question concepts such as Manifest Destiny. Musical theatre repertoire from Jason Robert Brown’s New World, one of his earliest works, is also presented in a quartet of K seniors.

The College Singers is led by Assistant Music Professor Chris Ludwa, who is also the director of the Kalamazoo Bach Festival. The ensemble includes music majors and non-music majors alike, offering a different approach to choral singing.

For more information on either concert, email Susan Lawrence in the Music Department or call 269-337-7070.

Day of Gracious Giving Honors the Lasting Legacy of Mentorship

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Kalamazoo College alumni near and far will have an opportunity to honor their K mentors—and have their gifts matched dollar for dollar—on the Day of Gracious Giving.

Day of Gracious Giving Card Says Celebrate Your K Mentors
Kalamazoo College alumni near and far will have an opportunity to honor their K mentors and have their gifts matched dollar for dollar on the Day of Gracious Giving.

“We are encouraging all alumni to remember those who have played formative roles in their lives and consider making a gift in their honor,” said Laurel Palmer, director of the Kalamazoo College Fund. An anonymous group of donors will challenge more than 1,000 alumni, parents and friends to make a gift to K by offering a $230,000 matching pool.

“Alumni often tell us that the relationships they forged with faculty, coaches and other mentors are among the most cherished outcomes of their K experience,” said Palmer. “This is a great way for alumni to thank their mentors and foster the same opportunities for current and future students.”

As usual, the event will coincide with the Day of Gracious Living and the date will be a surprise. The announcement for #KGraciousGiving will be made via email and on the Kalamazoo College Facebook and Twitter pages.

In 2018, while students enjoyed a gracious class-free day, 1,013 alumni from the classes of 1947-2017 gave an astonishing $226,270. This year’s goal aims to surpass that record and raise $230,000 from 1,040 donors.

All contributions make it possible for Kalamazoo College to attract, retain and support talented students regardless of economic need. All donors—including alumni, parents and friends—can choose to support scholarships, faculty resources or the K experience. To explore the opportunities and make a gift, visit the Kalamazoo College Fund online.

Holocaust Survivor to Speak at K

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Irene Butter — a Holocaust survivor, author and University of Michigan professor emerita — will visit Kalamazoo College on Monday, May 13.

Holocaust Survivor Irene Butter
Holocaust survivor Irene Butter will visit Kalamazoo College to talk with students at the Book Club Cafe and speak at Stetson Chapel.

Butter will discuss her experiences in two concentration camps, how they changed her life and why it’s important to keep telling stories about the Holocaust in an appearance sponsored by the Jewish Studies Department, the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, the Religion Department and Hillel, the organization for Jewish students at K.

Butter’s schedule will include conversations with students over coffee from 1:15 to 3:15 p.m. in the Book Club at Upjohn Library Commons, and her main speaking presentation at 4:30 p.m. in the Olmsted Room at Mandelle Hall, which is open to the entire K community. Her book, Shores Beyond Shores: From Holocaust to Hope, My True Story, will be available for $20 in the Book Club and can be paid for in cash or by check.

Butter was born Irene Hasenberg in 1930 in Berlin, Germany, and grew up as a Jewish child in Nazi-occupied Europe, where she lived with her parents, John and Gertrude; and her brother, Werner. She had friends in common with Anne Frank after moving to Amsterdam in 1937 when her dad accepted a job with American Express. There, her family felt safe from the growing threat of Nazis until Germany invaded in 1940.

Holocaust Survivor Irene Butter and Her Brother as Children
Holocaust survivor Irene Butter and her brother, Werner, as children.

Her grandparents, who were still in Germany, were taken to Theresianstadt concentration camp in 1942 and Butter never saw them again. Her immediate family was rounded up in 1943. She survived Camp Westerbork and Camp Bergen-Belsen before coming to the U.S., arriving in Baltimore in 1945.

Upon arrival, Butter was told not to talk about her experiences, so she focused on high school, graduating from Queens College in New York City, and becoming one of the first women to earn a Ph.D. in economics from Duke University. She married Charlie Butter and both became professors at the University of Michigan.

“I didn’t ask to go through the Holocaust,” she says on her website, “but I was saved through the miracles of luck and the love and determination of my Pappi (father). I owe it to him and everybody who suffered to talk about what I learned because suffering never ends, so our work must continue.”

Academy Street Winds, Jazz Band to Perform Spring Concerts

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The Academy Street Winds will put the zoo in Kalamazoo with a spring concert titled “Animal Crackers” at 8 p.m. this Friday. It’s one of two Kalamazoo College music ensembles scheduled to perform this weekend in Dalton Theater at Light Fine Arts.

Academy Street Winds Spring Concert
Music Professor Tom Evans will lead the Academy Street Winds in one of two spring concerts scheduled for this weekend.

This spring concert will feature pieces about animals, from Eric Whitacre’s The Seal Lullaby to Lion King Highlights by Elton John. Music Professor Tom Evans, serving as the ensemble’s conductor, will weave the animal world together from sky to land and sea to convey that animals provide us with great benefits we would otherwise miss in our lives.

The Academy Street Winds provides a performance outlet for woodwind, brass and percussion students. Community musicians joined the ensemble in winter 2016 to expand the group’s sound and capabilities.

The group performs one concert each term, playing exciting arrays of challenging band music. The ensemble is a favorite of audiences as the programs are coordinated around diverse themes, which allow for performances of much-loved pieces, both classic and contemporary.

A second ensemble, known for encouraging audience members to dance and twist at performances, will invoke a theme of “Dizzying” this weekend.

K’s Jazz Band will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday. This band, also directed by Evans, pulls together an eclectic collection of contemporary and classic jazz arrangements to provide both the student performers and the audience with an electric experience.

Evans, in an International Jazz Day interview, said the band’s play list will include some early jazz, swing, bop, fusion, funk and Latin varieties. Hear past performances through the music department’s Jazz Band website.

For more information on either spring concert, please contact Susan Lawrence in the Music Department at 269.337.7070 or susan.lawrence@kzoo.edu.