Scholar to Address Sexuality and Religion in the U.S.

Professor Tanya Erzen of Ohio State University will deliver a free public lecture, “Queer Conversions: The Sexual Politics of the Christian Ex-Gay Movement,” April 2 at 7:30 p.m. in the Hatfield Room on the second floor of the Mark O. Hatfield Library at Willamette University.

She also will give a free lecture at 11:30 a.m. that day in Cone Chapel for University Convocation. Erzen’s visit is sponsored by Willamette’s Center for Religion, Law and Democracy and The Teagle Foundation.

Erzen is an associate professor in the department of comparative studies at Ohio State University. Her scholarly interests include American and comparative religion with a focus on Evangelicalism; religion, gender and sexuality; social movements and politics; political theory; and the Christian Right. She is the author of the award-winning 2006 book, Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement.

Straight to Jesus is an ethnographic study and cultural history of the ex-gay movement, an international network of religious ministries that attempt to change and convert gay men and lesbians to non-homosexual Christian lives through psychological, self-help, therapeutic and biblical approaches. The book, which focuses on the everyday lives of men and women at a residential ex-gay program in California, analyzes conservative Christian politics around sexual transformation and identification, evangelical conversion and testimony, and alternative forms of kinship.

For more information, contact Reyna Meyers with the Center for Religion, Law and Democracy at (503) 370-6046.

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Willamette University Chamber Players Team with Violist Danny Seidenberg

The Willamette University Chamber Players will perform with guest violist Danny Seidenberg Wednesday, March 18, at 7:30 p.m. in Hudson Hall in the Mary Stuart Rogers Music Center at Willamette. The concert is free and open to the public.

The program features Beethoven’s “Sonata Opus 12, No. 3 in E-flat Major,” “Serenade Opus 25 in D Major,” and Brahms’ “Trio, Opus 40 in E-flat Major.”

The chamber ensemble includes Willamette faculty Daniel Rouslin, violin; Anita King, piano; Sarah Tiedemann, flute; and Michael Hettwer, horn.

Guest violist Seidenberg has enjoyed an eclectic musical career, moving between classical, jazz and pop styles as a performer, composer, arranger and educator. He is probably best known for his 12 years as the violist for the Turtle Island String Quartet. He has been in Oregon since 2007 and has been performing with the Portland Opera, Eugene Symphony and the Oregon Mozart Players. Danny’s latest recording, ‘Alto Logic,’ with his trio, the Unbande (two violas and a Chapman Stick), is available at CD Baby.

Violinist Daniel Rouslin is concertmaster of the Salem Chamber Orchestra and has toured in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, South America, China and Japan as a soloist and member of the Delos Quartet, Trio Northwest and Trio Oregon.

Pianist Anita King performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician and has collaborated with such artists as the Ridge String Quartet and the Zephyros Wind Quintet. She is the founder and director of the Grace Goudy Distinguished Artists Series.

Flutist Sarah Tiedemann has appeared as a chamber musician, orchestral performer and soloist throughout North America, Europe and Australia. She is principal flute for the Salem Chamber Orchestra and second flute with Portland’s Columbia Symphony.

Horn player Michael Hettwer plays principal horn with the Portland Opera and the Salem Chamber Orchestra, and third horn with the Oregon Ballet Theatre. He is a member of the Festive Brass, the Oregon Brass Ensemble and the Northwest Horn Orchestra.

For more information call Diane Trevett at Willamette University Music Department, (503) 370-6255.

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Ancient and Medieval Lamps on Display at Hallie Ford Museum of Art

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University will present an exhibition of ancient and medieval lamps March 14 through May 17 in the Study Gallery.

Organized by Willamette Art History Professor Ann Nicgorski and Yale University Art Gallery curator Lisa Brody, From Hestia’s Sacred Fire to Christ’s Eternal Light will feature about 84 oil lamps from the Bogue Collection at the Middle East Studies Center at Portland State University.

Brody will deliver a free lecture, “Illuminating Art: The Study of Ancient Lamps,” March 18 at 7:30 p.m. in the Paulus Lecture Hall (Room 201) at the Willamette University College of Law. Her lecture is co-sponsored by the Salem Society of the Archaeological Institute of America. A full-color brochure on the Bogue Collection will also accompany the exhibition.

Oil lamps were essential objects of daily life in ancient and medieval times, and every household would have owned several to illuminate their interior spaces. Like other ceramics, the simplest oil lamps were plain and purely functional, while others contained ornamental and figural relief scenes, often taken from mythological or religious contexts.

The lamps in the exhibition will reflect a diversity of cultures and a wide variety of materials and techniques. The lamps, which range in date from 3,000 BCE to the Medieval/Arab periods, were acquired by Robert Bogue when he worked for the World Health Organization in Egypt. He gave them to the Middle East Studies Center at Portland State in 1962.

The exhibition is supported by grants from the Center for Ancient Studies and Archaeology at Willamette University, the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy Tax funds and the Oregon Arts Commission.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information call (503) 370-6855.

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University Hosts Seventh Annual Social Powwow

Willamette University will host the Seventh Annual Social Powwow Saturday, March 14, in Cone Field House at Sparks Athletic Center. The free event, which is open to the public, begins with a Grand Entry at 4 p.m.

The event will include Native arts and crafts, food, dancers, drum groups, a raffle for a Pendleton blanket and a men’s Grass Dance contest. The master of ceremonies is Bob Tom, the arena director is David West and the host drum is Steiger Butte.

The powwow is sponsored by Willamette’s Native American Enlightenment Association and the Office of Multicultural Affairs. For more information call (503) 370-6265.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Brings Activist Spirit to Willamette

The U.S. has good environmental laws in place, but these laws are often not enforced, environmental activist and attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a group of students Friday during a visit to Willamette University.

“Environmental crime is real crime,” he said during an informal meeting with environmental science and politics students before delivering the Dempsey Lecture on Environmental Issues Friday night. “Oftentimes, federal agencies don’t treat it like real crime. They call it ‘white collar mischief,’ and then they don’t do anything about it.”

Kennedy showed students his fiery brand of activism as he described the history of Hudson Riverkeeper, for whom he is chief prosecuting attorney. Riverkeeper — started in the 1960s by small commercial fishermen who were upset about “corporate entities robbing them of the Hudson River” that had long been their resource — led a successful fight to restore the river by tracking down polluters and prosecuting them under the law.

“We’re a law enforcement organization,” Kennedy said. “When people are violating the law by polluting public waterways, we step in to act. The waterways in Oregon and elsewhere are not owned by the governor, the legislature or the fisheries people. They’re owned by the public. You have the right to go out to the river, pull a fish out and take it home to feed your family. If someone is polluting the river so it’s not safe for you to take that fish, that’s an act of theft against you.”

Kennedy is known for his aggressive approach against entities whose policies accelerate pollution. His 2004 book, Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals are Plundering the Country and Hijacking our Democracy, calls into question the environmental policies of the U.S. He is also a clinical professor and supervising attorney at the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University School of Law, and co-host of Ring of Fire on Air America Radio.

During his evening lecture, Kennedy took on everything from the recent Bush administration to corporate media to the coal industry as he touted the possibilities of alternative energy and urged government to invest in environmental policies.

"We don't have to choose between good environmental policy and good economic policy — it's a false choice," he said. "What's happening now in Washington, D.C., is some of the most exciting stuff I've seen in the 25 years I've been involved with these issues, because there's an understanding in the new administration that the path out of the recession is a new green energy future."

Kennedy also noted the importance of protecting the planet because "we understand that nature enriches us."

"My advocacy has not been about saving the birds and the fishes, but about recognizing we're protecting nature because nature is the infrastructure of our communities."

Kennedy's appearance was sponsored by the Dempsey Foundation and the Center for Sustainable Communities at Willamette University (www.willamette.edu/centers/csc/).

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