arts

Student Shines as Peace Corps Volunteer

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Megan Barnes
Megan Barnes ’10

Megan Barnes ’10 is featured in the March 21, 2012 issue of Harbor Light newspaper, published in her hometown of Harbor Springs, Mich.

Megan is a Peace Corps volunteer in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. Working in small communities of 10 to 100 homes, she trains community members to pass along preventive health information to their neighbors and families on topics that range from basic illness and care to more complex skills and issues, such as midwifery, first aid, mental health, and domestic violence.

While at K, Megan studied art history with a concentration in classical civilization. She played tennis for the Hornets, was a member of student commission, and studied abroad in Rome. She also assisted migrant farm workers during her senior year, was a mentor at a local elementary school, and completed a Senior Individualized Project on repatriation of artifacts, following a few months of interning at the de Young Museum in San Francisco.

Institute of Arts Exhibits Kalamazoo College Rare Book Collection “Birds of a Feather”

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AudubonThe Kalamazoo Institute of Arts has gone to the birds with a new exhibition, Birds of a Feather: John Costin and John James Audubon, featuring works loaned by the A.M. Todd Rare Book Collection at Kalamazoo College.

The exhibition is open from March 24 to June 24 and pairs images of species featured in Michigan native Costin’s recent “Large Florida Birds” project with corresponding work created in the 1830s by Audubon, still America’s most famous ornithologist.

Student and Mentor Receive Pierce Cedar Creek Institute for Environmental Education’s Nature in Words Fellowship

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Kate Belew ’15 and Di Seuss, English, have received the Pierce Cedar Creek Institute for Environmental Education’s Nature in Words Fellowship for the summer of 2012.

Following Fellowship guidelines, students apply with a mentor from one of the consortium institutions.  Kate proposed that she will write a collection of poems inspired by Professor Emeritus of English Conrad Hilberry’s object poems in his chapbook The Fingernail of Luck. (Hilberry was a formative influence on the poetic career of Seuss, whom he first encountered as a high schooler in Niles, Michigan, and who graduated from “K” in 1978.)  In Kate’s poems, she will observe objects in the natural world, do research on their origins and characteristics, and then write in their voices, finding the intersection between the natural world and her own emotional and spiritual evolution.

She will be provided with housing at the Institute and will be given a stipend to support her work.  Di will meet with Kate throughout the summer to mentor her through the experience, and Di also have the opportunity to work on my own writing project at Pierce Cedar Creek. Said Di, “Many students from the region apply for this fellowship.  It is a significant achievement that Kate has been selected.”

Teju Cole Wins 2012 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award

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Teju Cole
Author Teju Cole. Photo Credit: AP

Obayemi Onafuwa ’96, who writes under the pen name Teju Cole, has won the 2012 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for a distinguished first book of fiction for Open City. Cole will receive a $10,000 prize from the Hemingway Foundation and PEN New England, as well as a residency in The Distinguished Visiting Writers Series at the University of Idaho’s MFA Program in Creative Writing.

The Hemingway award was founded in 1976 by Mary Hemingway, widow of Nobel Prize-winning writer Ernest Hemingway. Patrick Hemingway, the writer’s son, will present the prestigious literary award to Cole on April 1 at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

Past recipients of the award include Edward P. Jones, who received an honorary degree from Kalamazoo College in 2011.

Cole is a writer, art historian, and street photographer. Born in the United States to Nigerian parents, he was raised in Nigeria and currently lives in Brooklyn. He received his B.A. in studio art and art history from Kalamazoo College; his M.A. in African art history from the University of London; and his M.Phil. in 16th-century northern European visual culture from Columbia University, where he is working on his Ph.D.

Alum John Davies Writes, Directs, and Produces the Play “Phunny Business: A Black Comedy”

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Phunny Business: A Black Comedy, produced, written, and directed by John Davies ’75 debuted Thursday, February 23, on Showtime.

The documentary chronicles the rise and fall of All Jokes Aside, a Chicago-based comedy venue considered by many to be the preeminent black comic showcase in America throughout the 1990s. The club provided early exposure to major talent like Steve Harvey, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Jamie Foxx, MoNique, Bernie Mac, D.L Hughley, Cedric The Entertainer, and others.

Davies’ documentary includes footage of these stars “back in the day,” as well as current interviews with them discussing the importance of the venue to their careers. The documentary will air throughout March and April.

Canasta Chamber Pop Group Plays Mongolia

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Usually if you wanted to hear the chamber pop group Canasta (featuring “K” alums Matt Priest ’97 and Elizabeth Lindau ’97) you’d drive to Chicago. But attending a concert in early February would have meant a longer trip…to Mongolia. Canasta members trekked to the Far East country as part of the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs’ Arts Envoy Program. The group’s latest album is titled “The Fakeout, the Tease, and the Breather.”

“K” Art Professor Exhibits Sculptures in Bellevue Art Museum

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Sarah Lindley, Associate Professor of Art, will participate in three upcoming art shows.

Lindley and her husband, sculptor Norwood Viviano, are among 35 artists invited to exhibit in “Push Play: The 2012 NCECA Invitational” to be held Jan. 19 through June 17 at the Bellevue Art Museum in Seattle, Wash., in conjunction with the 46th Annual Conference of The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, taking place March 26 through 31 in Seattle.

Their work is also included in the show “Tracing Lines,” a multi-faceted exhibition involving photographic works, paintings, and sculptures held Jan. 10 through March 24 at the Ohio State University Urban Arts Space in Columbus.

Lindley will exhibit her own sculptures as one of seven artists working in a variety of media participating in “Acts of Recognition” held Feb. 20 through March 17 at Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University in Grand Rapids.