The Kalamazoo College Symphonic Band presents its Fall 2013 concert: SPIN CYCLE: A Concert of Theme and Variations. The concert takes place on Friday, November 15, at 8 PM in the Light Fine Arts Dalton Theatre on the Kalamazoo College Campus. The event is free and open to the public. The Symphonic Band is directed by Professor of Music Thomas Evans and functions as a beloved creative outlet for woodwind, brass, and percussion students. The Symphonic Band holds one concert each quarter playing exciting arrays of band music both challenging and simple but–as Dr. Evans attests–never “simple-minded.” The band is a great favorite for both its members and its audiences, as the programs are usually coordinated around greatly diverse themes that allow for performances of much-loved pieces, both classic and new. SPIN CYCLE selections include Fantasy on Yankee Doodle (Mark Williams), Pachelbel’s Canon (Calvin Custer), Variations on a Korean Folk Song (John Barnes Chance), Themes from Green Bushes (Percy Grainger), Variations on Scarborough Fair (Calvin Custer), Variations on a Shaped Note Tune (Johnnie Vinson), First Suite in E-flat (Gustav Holst), and Joyful Variations-Ode to Joy (Brian Beck). The concert is sponsored by the Kalamazoo College music department.
students
Music Down in My Soul
The Kalamazoo College Singers and Women’s Ensemble presents the choral composition, Music Down in My Soul, on Sunday, November 17, at 3 p.m. at Stetson Chapel on the Kalamazoo College campus. The concert is free and open to the public. Music Down in My Soul was arranged by Moses Hogan, an African-American composer and arranger of choral music best known for his settings of spirituals. The concert also features selections by Benjamin Britten, Anders Edenroth, Joan Szymko, Randall Stroope, and Eric Whitacre. The songs evoke a spiritual theme within oneself–understanding the emotions within and celebrating them through music. The Kalamazoo College Singers and Women’s Ensemble consists of some 60 students and under the direction of Professor of Music James Turner. The event is sponsored by the K music department.
REGENERATION Features Four Last Songs
REGENERATION, the Kalamazoo Philharmonia’s Fall 2013 concert, features soprano Rhea Olivaccé, whose work as a concert and recital soloist has been widely recognized for her versatility of repertoire and medium. REGENERATION occurs Saturday, November 16, at 8 PM in the Light Fine Arts Dalton Theatre on the Kalamazoo College campus. Tickets are $5 general admission and $2 for students. The concert is free to Kalamazoo College students. Olivaccé and the Philharmonia will perform the Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss. The content of Four Last Songs features a solo soprano voice given remarkable soaring melodies against a full orchestra, and all four songs have prominent horn parts. The combination of a beautiful vocal line with supportive brass accompaniment references Strauss’s own life. His wife, Pauline de Ahna, was a famous soprano and his father, Franz Strauss, a professional horn player. The Kalamazoo Philharmonia will also perform Mahler’s First Symphony, referred to as “The Titan.” The symphony lasts around just under an hour, making it one of Mahler’s shortest symphonies. The Kalamazoo Philharmonia is under the direction of Associate Professor of Music Andrew Koehler. The event is sponsored by the Kalamazoo College music department.
Honors Day 2013
Congratulations to the following Kalamazoo College students, who received awards during the Honors Day Convocation, November 1, 2013, in Stetson Chapel. The awards include all academic divisions, prestigious scholarships, and special non-departmental awards.
FINE ARTS DIVISION
THE BRIAN GOUGEON PRIZE IN ART, awarded to a sophomore student who, during his or her first year, exhibited outstanding achievement and potential in art.
Lucy MacArthur
Emily Walsh
THE LILLIAN PRINGLE BALDAUF PRIZE IN MUSIC, awarded to an outstanding music student.
Geon-Ah Shin
Alexandra Szeles
THE FAN E. SHERWOOD MEMORIAL PRIZE, awarded for outstanding progress and ability on the violin, viola, cello or bass.
Rina Fujiwara
THE MARGARET UPTON PRIZE IN MUSIC, awarded each year to a student designated by the Music Department Faculty as having made significant achievement in music.
Kieran Williams
THE COOPER AWARD, for a junior or senior showing excellence in a piece of creative work in a Theatre Arts class: film, acting, design, stagecraft, puppetry, speech.
Jane Huffman
THE SHERWOOD PRIZE, given for the best oral presentation in a speech-oriented class.
Emily Stillman
THE THEATRE ARTS FIRST-YEAR STUDENT AWARD, given to a sophomore for outstanding departmental efforts during the first year.
Esprit Autenreith
Emily Walsh
FOREIGN LANGUAGES DIVISION
THE LEGRAND COPLEY PRIZE IN FRENCH, awarded to the sophomore who as a first-year student demonstrated the greatest achievement in French.
Jennifer Cho
Stephanie Heard
Alexandra N. Smith
THE HARDY FUCHS AWARD, given for excellence in first-year German.
Muyang Sun
THE MARGO LIGHT AWARD, given for excellence in second-or third-year German.
Emily Walsh
THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT PRIZE IN SPANISH, awarded for excellence in the first year in Spanish.
Keith Garber
Michael Lindley
Nadia Torres
THE CLARA H. BUCKLEY PRIZE FOR EXCELLENCE IN LATIN, awarded to an outstanding student of the language of the ancient Romans.
Kaitlyn Greiner
THE PROVOST’S PRIZE IN CLASSICS, awarded to that student who writes the best essay on a classical subject.
Taylor Hartley
HUMANITIES DIVISION
THE O. M. ALLEN PRIZE IN ENGLISH, given for the best essay written by a member of the first-year class.
Mallory McClure
THE JOHN B. WICKSTROM PRIZE IN HISTORY, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in history.
Isabelle Ciaramitaro
THE VOYNOVICH COMPETITIVE SCHOLARSHIP, awarded to a first-year, sophomore or junior who writes the most creative essay based on a selected topic in the alternating areas of Religion and Science.
Tessa Moore
THE L.J. AND EVA (“GIBBIE”) HEMMES MEMORIAL PRIZE IN PHILOSOPHY, awarded to that sophomore who in the first year shows the greatest promise for continuing studies in philosophy.
Brian Dalluge
Sarah Werner
THE DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY PRIZE, awarded for excellence in any year’s work in philosophy.
Riley Cook
Charles Davis
Morgan Jennings
NATURAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS DIVISION
THE WINIFRED PEAKE JONES PRIZE IN BIOLOGY, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in biology.
Reid Blanchett
Lucy Mailing
Elizabeth Penix
THE DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY PRIZE, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in chemistry.
Matthew Kuntzman
THE FIRST-YEAR CHEMISTRY AWARD, awarded to a sophomore student who, during the first year, demonstrated great achievement in chemistry.
Katherine Cebelak
Nadia Torres
THE LEMUEL F. SMITH AWARD, given to a student majoring in chemistry pursuing the American Chemical Society approved curriculum and having at the end of the junior year the highest average standing in courses taken in chemistry, physics, and mathematics.
Sara Adelman
THE COMPUTER SCIENCE PRIZE, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in computer science.
Natalie Davenport
Fayang Pan
THE FIRST-YEAR MATHEMATICS AWARD, given annually to the sophomore student who, during the first year, demonstrated the greatest achievement in mathematics.
Paige Maguire
Sarah Manski
THE THOMAS O. WALTON PRIZE IN MATHEMATICS, awarded to a member of the junior class for excellence in the work of the first two years in mathematics.
Tibin John
Philip Mulder
Fayang Pan
THE COOPER PRIZE IN PHYSICS, given for excellence in the first year’s work in physics.
Sarah Manski
SOCIAL SCIENCES DIVISION
THE DEPARTMENTAL PRIZE IN ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY, awarded for excellence during the first and/or second year’s work.
Annaliese Collier
Gabriel Frishman
Shannon Haupt
Brandon Siedlaczek
THE C. WALLACE LAWRENCE PRIZE IN ECONOMICS, awarded annually to a pre-business student who has done outstanding work in the Department of Economics and Business during the sophomore year.
William Cagney
David Personke
Lilian Taylor
Thomas Verville
THE IRENE AND S. KYLE MORRIS PRIZE, awarded for excellence in the first year’s courses in the Department of Economics and Business.
Spencer Kennedy
Bo Gyoung Lee
THE WILLIAM G. HOWARD MEMORIAL PRIZE, awarded for excellence in any year’s work in political science.
Audra Hudson
THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY FIRST-YEAR STUDENT PRIZE, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in psychology.
Elizabeth Penix
THE MARSHALL HALLOCK BRENNER PRIZE, given by family and friends in memory of Marshall Hallock Brenner (Class of 1955), to be awarded to an outstanding junior for excellence in the study of psychology.
Ian Good
PHYSICAL EDUCATION DIVISION
THE DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION PRIZE, awarded to those students who as first-year students best combined leadership and scholarship in promoting athletics, physical education and recreation.
Jacob Lindquist
Lucy Mailing
THE MAGGIE WARDLE PRIZE, awarded to that sophomore woman whose activities at the College reflect the values that Maggie Wardle demonstrated in her own life. The recipient will show a breadth of involvement in the College through her commitment to athletics and to the social sciences and/or community service.
Mallory McClure
NON-DEPARTMENTAL AWARDS
THE GORDON BEAUMONT MEMORIAL AWARD, awarded to the deserving student who displays qualities of selflessness, humanitarian concern, and willingness to help others, as exemplified in the life of Gordon Beaumont.
Paula Dallacqua
Roxann Lawrence
THE HENRY AND INEZ BROWN PRIZE, awarded in recognition of outstanding participation in the College community.
Jessie Owens
THE VIRGINIA HINKELMAN MEMORIAL AWARD, awarded to a deserving student who displays a deep concern for the well-being of children, as demonstrated through career goals in the field of child welfare.
Raven Fisher
THE F. W. AND ELSIE L. HEYL SCHOLARSHIP to Kalamazoo College provides tuition, room, and books for select students who are graduates of Kalamazoo Public Schools or the Kalamazoo Area Mathematics and Science Center and who are majoring in the Sciences or Mathematics.
Robert Brice Calco
Quinton Colwell
Andrew Kaylor
Madison McBarnes
Colleen Orwin
Graeme Timmeney
Eric Thornburg
Raoul Wadhwa
THE POSSE SCHOLAR PROGRAM provides leadership scholarships for public high school students from Los Angeles, California with extraordinary academic and leadership potential. Students are selected for their intrinsic leadership abilities, their skill at working in a team setting, and their motivation and desire to succeed.
Erin Byrd
Kaitlyn Courtenay
Moises Hernandez
Richard Hernandez
Emily Kowey
Francisco Lopez
Jose Lopez
Jessica Magana
Aaron McKay
Phylicia Samuel
Yaneli Soriano
JOHN T. WILLIAMSON SCHOLARS – This scholarship fund was founded in recognition of the work and efforts of John T. Williamson to further the growth of education for our youth. The J.T. Williamson is awarded to black and Hispanic students for their outstanding academic achievements.
Isabela Agosa
Lucas Arbulu
Nathan Arcienega
Alberto Ayala
Maribel Blas-Rangel
Vanessa Boddy
Sarah Bragg
Viola Brown
John Clark
Caitlyn Cook
Quincy Crosby
Amanda Crouch
Bianca Delgado
Olivia Finkelstein
Samantha Gleason
Marlon Gonzalez
Janelle Grant
Brenden Groggel
Mireya Guzman-Ortiz
Fatoumata Hanne
Kyle Hernandez
Jordan Hessbrook
Natalie Hettle
Allia Howard
Yohana Iyob
Janay Johnson
Kourtney Johnson
Siani Johnson
Ebone Jones
Bryan Lara
Gabriela Latta
Jaime Lazcano
Gabriel Lind
Bailee Lotus
Malikah Mahone
Blanca Moreno
Gabriel Ovsiew
Stephany Perez
Nicholas Polzin
Joshua Robison
Rogelio Ruiz
Kaylah Simmons
Kylah Simmons
Oyindamola Sunmonu
Benjamin Toledo
Carmen Torrado-Gonzalez
Natalie Vazquez
THE ENLIGHTENED LEADERSHIP AWARDS are merit-based scholarships created to enhance and reflect the spirit, culture and values of our campus community. As a college with a rich history of excellence, we award students each year who show personal dedication and involvement in the following areas: Social Activism and Community Engagement, Creative Expression, International Activism, Sustainability and Environmental Activism.
Kyle Lampar
Vethania Stavropoulos
Ian Williams
Helena Marnauzs
Chiara Sarter
Katherine Ballew
Gwendolyn Balogh
Bianca Delgado
Valentin Frank
Hannah Lehker
Kelan Gill
Gabriela Latta
Dallas Pallone
Stephany Perez
ALPHA LAMBDA DELTA is a national honor society that recognizes excellence in academic achievement during the first college year. To be eligible for membership, students must earn a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 and be in the top 20 percent of their class during the first year. The Kalamazoo College chapter was installed on March 5, 1942.
Ayaka Abe
Reid Blanchett
Francisco Cabrera
Willina Cain
Kathryn Callaghan
Olivia Cares
Isabelle Ciaramitaro
Annaliese Collier
Brian Cunningham-Rhoads
Susmitha Daggubati
Miranda Doepker
Rachel Dranoff
Marie Fiori
Joshua Foley
Angela Fong
Keith Garber
Evan Gorgas
William Gribbin
Nora Harris
Stephanie Heard
Pornkamol Huang
Audra Hudson
Jessica Kehoe
Spencer Kennedy
Bo Gyoung Lee
Elizabeth Lenning
Madeline LeVasseur
Jacob Lindquist
Riley Lundquist
Madeleine MacWilliams
Lucy Mailing
Sarah Manski
Mallory McClure
Molly Meddock
Gabrielle Montesanti
Chloe Mpinga
Yunpeng Pang
Elizabeth Penix
Jung Eun Pyeon
Emily Salswedel
Cameron Schwartz
Lauren Seroka
Alexsandra Siems
Alexandra Smith
Mira Swearer
Nadia Torres
Alexander Townsend
Elizabeth Tyburski
Sarah Wallace
Emily Walsh
Jared Weeks
THE NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARS are chosen based on their abilities, skills, and accomplishments as evaluated through student’s academic record, information about the school’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’s curricula and grading system, test scores, a high school recommendation, information about the student’s activities and leadership, and an essay.
Liam Lundy
MIAA TEAM AWARDS – These 12 teams earned the 2009-10 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Team GPA Award for achieving a 3.3000 or better grade point average for the entire academic year.
Men’s Basketball
Men’s Cross Country
Men’s Golf
Men’s Soccer
Men’s Swimming and Diving
Women’s Basketball
Women’s Cross Country
Women’s Golf
Women’s Soccer
Women’s Softball
Women’s Swimming & Diving
Women’s Tennis
MIAA ACADEMIC HONOR ROLL – The Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association each year honors students at MIAA member colleges who achieve in both the classroom and in athletic competition. A student must be a letter winner in a varsity sport and maintain at least a 3.5 grade point average for the entire school year.
Abby Anderson
Giancarlo Anemone
Alexander Armstrong
Nicholas Beam
Tyler Benmark
Nicholas Bolig
Amanda Bolles
Travis Braun
Kelly Bresnahan
Erran Briggs
Aaron Bunker
Rayanne Burl
Francisco Cabrera
William Cagney
Olivia Cares
Edward Carey
Cody Carr
Brandon Casto
Kathryn Chamberlain
Taylor Clements
Holly Cooperrider
Brock Crystal
Rebecca Cummins-Lanter
Rachel Dandar
Abigail DeOchoa
David DeSimone
Miranda Doepker
Benjamin Dueweke
Trenton Dykstra
Taryn Edsall
Kristen Ellefson
Alan Faber
James Frye
Keith Garber
Jared Georgakopoulos
Mark Ghafari
Cierra Gillard
Ian Good
Evan Gorgas
Alexandra Gothard
Emily Gray
Virginia Greenberger
Alexandra Groffsky
Guilherme Guedes
Dagan Hammar
Stephen Hanselman
Sally Harrison
Kenneth Heidel
Jordan Henning
Robert Hilliard
Jacob Holloway
Benjamin Hulbert
Tibin John
Evan Johnson
Katherine Johnston
Daniel Karn
Grace Kelley
Spencer Kennedy
Michael Korn
Rory Landis
Colin Lauderdale
Elizabeth Lenning
Jacob Lenning
Jacob Lindquist
Emily Lindsay
Christopher Lueck
Shane MacDonald
Dane Macdonell
Lucy Mailing
Megan Malish
Sarah Manski
Scott Manski
Megan Martinez
Gina Massari
Caitlin McCarthy
Mallory McClure
Quinn McCormick
Adam McDowell
Megan McLeod
Molly Meddock
Jordan Meeth
Bradley Merritt
Matthew Mills
Alexander Minch
Michael Minkus
Gabrielle Montesanti
Kelsey Moran
Alexandra Morris
Alexander Numbers
Michael Paule-Carres
Bronte Payne
Adam Peters
Margaux Reckard
Maria Rich
Sophie Roberts
William Roberts
Ryan Rohatynski
Connor Rzeznik
Kira Sandiford
Lauren Seroka
Aaron Schoenfeldt
Cameron Schwartz
Dylan Shearer
Jacqueline Short
Charlotte Steele
Alexandra Stephens
Sarah Sullivan
Nicholas Sweda
Emerson Talanda-Fisher
Brett Thomas
Allison Thompson
Alexander Townsend
Elizabeth Tyburski
Stephanie Verbeek
Samantha Voss
Cameron Wasko
Loren Weber
Jared Weeks
Clayton Weissenborn
Joseph Widmer
Cheryl Zhang
Agron Ziberi
Marc Zughaib
Posse at K Turns Four; Nationally, 25
Kalamazoo College graduated its first group of Posse students in June 2013, its four-year orange-and-black anniversary in a national program that, in November, celebrates its silver anniversary.
K was the first Michigan school to partner with the Posse Foundation (with the organization’s Los Angeles chapter). The program finds students with academic and leadership potential who might otherwise be overlooked by traditional admissions metrics, gives them several months of training, and sends them off to elite undergraduate institutions in groups of 10 to 12 other students from the same city. The program also provides support for the students once they are on campus. Seeing K’s first 10 Posse graduates and their parents—and their tears—at K’s 2013 commencement, says Jon Stryker ’82, was very moving. “It’s not often you can give a gift that changes a life.” Stryker made a gift to K to support the first five years of the program. Posse at K will persist beyond those five years, and support for the program is a focus of K’s fundraising effort, “The Campaign for Kalamazoo College.”
In late October, the Chronicle of Higher Education published an article about the Posse Program’s 25th anniversary (“A Quarter-Century of ’’Posses’’ Underscores the Power of the Cohort,” by Libby Sander). The article quotes Kalamazoo College President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran.
Dream Approaches
Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College performs August Strindberg’s A Dream Play in the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse in November. The show opens on Thursday, November 7, at 7.30 PM (“pay-what-you-like-night”). A brief talk-back will follow Thursday’s performance. Additional evening performances are on Friday and Saturday, November 8 and 9, at 8 PM; a matinee concludes the run on Sunday, November 10 at 2 PM. Tickets are $5 for students with an ID, $10 for seniors, $15 for other adults. A Dream Play is part of the Festival Playhouse’s Golden Anniversary season.
The play explores fundamental questions: Why do we exist, and why is life so difficult? The plot surrounds the daughter of the Hindu god, Indra, who leaves heaven to visit humans on earth. In living with humans as a human herself, her mission is to determine why humans suffer. Director Ed Menta says the production will attempt to create a theatre poem by interweaving Strindberg’s text with Festival Playhouse’s staging, performance, and design.
Senior David M. Landskroener, who serves as composer and music producer for the production, says that “creating live sound effects is such an interesting experience because I’m making sound to accompany a dream. Many times while tinkering around with effects I reject my initial thoughts about a certain sound in a scene and try out multiple options that may not at first sound completely congruent with the action onstage, but reflect the idea of associative links found in a dream.”
Before 1901, plays may have contained a dream sequence, but Strindberg created a new genre with a play that is entirely a dream. In the play’s foreword Strindberg wrote: “Everything can happen, everything is possible and probable. Time and place do not exist; on an insignificant basis of reality, the imagination spins, weaving new patterns; a mixture of memories, experiences, free fancies, incongruities and improvisations.”
Given such source materials, one can understand why “It has been a challenge to make all of the 30+ characters come to life,” according to K senior Michael Wecht, assistant director for A Dream Play. “It is my goal, through movement coaching and exercises emphasizing physicality, to help the cast discover each of their roles. This is especially pertinent because most of the actors are playing multiple roles.”
For reservations or more information about Festival Playhouse’s Golden Anniversary season (stay tuned for The Firebugs and Peer Gynt) call 269.337.7333.
Jazz Band Concert Honors Freddie Hubbard
The Kalamazoo College Jazz performs a concert titled “A Tribute to Freddie Hubbard” on Saturday, November 2, at 8 PM in Dalton Theatre, located in the Light Fine Arts building on the Kalamazoo College campus. The concert is free and open to the public. Hubbard (1938-2008) was an American jazz trumpeter whose musical career spanned 50 years.
The 18-member Kalamazoo College Jazz Band will perform selections composed by Hubbard and by other jazz greats with whom he played. Included are: “A Nasty Bit of Blues,” “Ready Freddie,” “Little Sunflower,” “Povo,” “Alianza,” “Red Clay,” and “Out of the Doghouse.” The Kalamazoo College Jazz Band is directed by Professor of Music Tom Evans. Featured performers include Jon Husar ’14, trombone; Ian Williams ’17, piano; Riley Lundquist ’16, tenor sax; Kieran Williams ’16, trumpet; Chris Monsour ’16, drums; and Curtis Gough ’14, bass.
Phi Beta Kappa Lecture on K’s Campus
David Forsythe will deliver the annual Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Lecture at 8 PM on Tuesday, November 5, in the Mandelle Hall Olmsted Room at Kalamazoo College. The title of his address is “The United States and Torture after 9/11.” The event is free and open to the public.
Forsythe is University Professor and Charles J. Mach Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Emeritus at the University of Nebraska (Lincoln). His work focuses on international human rights, international law and organization, American foreign policy, and international relations.
His books include The Humanitarians: The International Committee of the Red Cross, Human Rights in International Relations; The United Nations and Changing World Politics; American Foreign Policy in a Globalized World; and The Politics of Prisoner Abuse. He is the general editor of The Encyclopedia of Human Rights and the recipient of many awards for scholarship. In 2008 he held the Senior Fulbright Distinguished Research Chair for Human Rights and International Studies at the Danish Institute for International Studies.
Since 1956, the Phi Beta Kappa Society’s Visiting Scholar Program has been offering undergraduates the opportunity to spend time with some of America’s most distinguished scholars. The purpose of the program is to contribute to the intellectual life of the institution by making possible an exchange of ideas between the Visiting Scholars and the resident faculty and students. The 13 men and women participating during 2013-2014 will visit 100 colleges and universities with chapters of Phi Beta Kappa, spending two days on each campus to meet informally with students and faculty members, participate in classroom discussions and seminars, and give a public lecture open to the entire academic community.
Kofi Awoonor, Ghanaian Poet, Diplomat, and K Visiting Professor Killed in Nairobi Mall Attack on Sept. 21
Shortly after the first news reports of an attack by armed assailants on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya on Saturday Sept. 21, Kalamazoo College administrators received word from the resident director of the K study abroad program at The University of Nairobi that all eight K students in the program were safe and had been instructed to shelter in place with their host families. The students had been in Nairobi for about five weeks at that time.
Two days later, as the mall attack continued, the College offered its students three options: continue the program in Kenya, as scheduled; return to the U.S. immediately and enroll in winter quarter classes at K in January; or return to Kalamazoo immediately and enroll in classes for the fall quarter that had begun Sept. 16. Three students chose to return to K and are now enrolled in fall courses. Five students chose to remain in Nairobi and continue with the program.
K currently has two visiting international students from Kenya on campus for one year. With help from the College, these students were able to contact their immediate family members and learn they were safe and unharmed. K’s longtime resident program director in Nairobi, Lillian Owitti, reported that her family was also safe. She and the visiting students from Kenya, however, have extended family members and friends that were killed, injured, or lost their livelihoods when the mall burned and collapsed.
This senseless and violent attack on innocent civilians has thus far claimed the lives of nearly 70 people, and the livelihoods of countless more. The entire Kalamazoo College community mourns this tragic loss.
The K community also mourns the death of Kofi Awoonor, Ph.D., a lecturer and visiting professor at K in the early 1970s, who was killed during the opening moments of the mall attack.
A teacher, poet, author, and former Ghanaian diplomat, Awoonor was attending the Storymoja Hay literary festival in Nairobi when he visited the Westgate Mall with his son, Afetsi, shortly before the attacks. Afetsi was wounded, but is recovering.
“Kofi Awoonor was a statesman, a poet, and a man of great courage,” said Kalamazoo College President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran who became familiar with Awoonor and his work in 1970 when she studied at the University of Ghana in Legon where Awoonor taught.
“African poetry has lost an elder statesman, a role model and mentor to so many.” Wilson-Oyelaran read an excerpt from Seamus Heaney’s poem “The Cure at Troy” in Awoonor’s honor at the all-faculty meeting on the K campus two days after his death.
Awoonor visited Kalamazoo several times in the early 1970s, lecturing and teaching at both Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College. He taught a course on African literature at K.
“That course changed my life,” Gail Raiman ’73 said recently, upon learning of Awoonor’s death. “It was rich with strange and scintillating imagery and a profoundly different approach to writing and to life.”
Awoonor’s book of poems Night of My Blood and his novel This Earth, My Brother (both published in 1971) were especially memorable, according to Raiman.
“None of us previously had this informed and incredible access to African literature, nor the benefit of having one of Africa’s top literary figures as our teacher. We had no idea how lucky we were.”
Raiman said she followed Awoonor’s career after he returned to Ghana, where he was imprisoned by the country’s military government and, after his release, became a diplomat, continuing to write and inspire.
“It was with profound sadness that I learned of his death,” she said. “May we continue to be challenged and inspired by his many gifts.”
Two other writers with strong connections to Kalamazoo College were also in Nairobi attending the same Storymoja Hay Festival during the attacks.
Writer and photographer Teju Cole ’96 wrote in a Sept. 26 blog post for The New Yorker that he was on stage at the festival taking questions from the audience during the first hour of the mall siege, unaware of what was taking place about a mile away. Two days later, Cole attended an impromptu memorial for Awoonor and read Awoonor’s short poem, The Journey Beyond.
“The most resonant moment of the evening was the least anticipated,” wrote Cole about the memorial. “Someone had made an audio recording from the master class that Awoonor had given at the Festival on Friday.” Cole wrote that the audience listened to Awoonor talking “with both levity and seriousness” about death and dying.
“At seventy-nine, you must know—unless you’re an idiot—that very soon, you should be moving on. An ancient poet from my tradition said, ‘I have something to say. I will say it before death comes. And if I don’t say it, let no one say it for me. I will be the one who will say it.’”
Also attending both the Storymoja Hay festival and the memorial gathering for Kofi Awoonor was Ghanaian born Jamaican poet and writer Kwame Dawes. Dawes was a cousin to Awoonor and series editor of the African Poetry Book Fund which is set to publish Awoonor’s latest collection, Promises of Hope: New and Selected Poems in 2014.
Like Awoonor in the early 1970s, Kwame Dawes was a visiting lecturer at both WMU and K, in 2008.
He filed his report on Awoonor’s life and death on the Wall Street Journal website on Sept. 22, the day after Awoonor’s death. In it, he wrote:
“Those who will carry the heaviness of loss will be his immediate family beginning with his son who was shot and wounded in the Mall and who had traveled to Kenya to be with his father and to support him. There are other siblings, other cousins, other extended families, thousands of past students, and a Ghanaian nation that will mourn his death deeply.”
Kofi Awoonor earned a B.A. from University College of Ghana, an M.A. from University College, London, and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from State University of New York at Stony Brook. His books of poetry also include Rediscovery and Other Poems (1964), Ride Me, Memory (1973), The House by the Sea (1978), The Latin American and Caribbean Notebook (1992), and Until the Morning After (1987).
Drawing on his Ewe heritage, Awoonor translated Ewe poetry in a critical study titled Guardians of the Sacred Word and Ewe Poetry (1974). Other works of literary criticism include The Breast of the Earth: A Survey of the History, Culture, and Literature of Africa South of the Sahara (1975).
In addition to teaching at Kalamazoo College in the early 1970s, Awoonor served as chairman of the Department of Comparative Literature at SUNY Stony Book. After returning to Ghana in 1975 to teach at University College of Cape Coast, he was imprisoned without trial for his suspected involvement in a coup d’état. After his release, he wrote about his time in jail in The House by the Sea and resumed teaching.
Awoonor went on to serve as Ghana’s ambassador to Brazil and Cuba during the 1980s, and as ambassador to the United Nations from 1990 to 1994. He published Ghana: A Political History from Pre-European to Modern Times in 1990 and Comes the Voyager at Last: A Tale of Return to Africa in 1992.
Seniors Present Chemistry Research
Three Kalamazoo College seniors presented their Senior Individualized Project (SIP) research at the Midwest Symposium on Undergraduate Research. The event took place at Michigan State University on Saturday, October 5. The students, their presentation titles, and where they did their SIP:
Sara Adelman’s poster (see photo) won the Outstanding Poster Award for Biochemistry. It was titled “Effects of Copper Bipyridine Catalysed Alkaline Hydrogen Peroxide Pretreatment on Lignocellulostic Biomass in the Ethanol Production Process.” Adelman did her research with Professor Eric Hegg ’91 at Michigan State University.
Geneci Marroquin presented a poster titled “Reactions of Cobalt(II) and Nickel(II) Complexes Containing Binucleating Macrocyclic and Pyridine Ligands with Carboxylic Acids: Formation of Binuclear Co(II), Co(II)Co(III), and Ni(II) and Tetranuclear Co(II) and Ni(II) Complexes.” Her research was done in the laboratory of Professor Thomas J. Smith at Kalamazoo College.
Kendrith Rowland conducted his research in the laboratory of Professor Catherine Murphy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Rowland’s poster was titled “High Sensitivity Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) Nanoplatform Based on Gold Nanoparticle Aggregates.”
Kalamazoo College Professor of Chemistry Jeffrey Bartz gave an invited talk at the symposium. That talk, “Detecting Cartwheels and Propellers by Velocity-Mapped Ion Imaging,” highlighted the SIP work of Ryan Kieda ’09, Masroor Hossain ’12, and Nic West ’12, as well as the research of Amber Peden ’11, Aidan Klobuchar ’12, Kelly Usakoski ’14, Braeden Rodriguez ’16, and Myles Truss ’17.