Hip Hop Show Brings Regional Acts to Salem

The Willamette Hip Hop Congress presents its third annual concert, Conscious Overdose 2008, Saturday, April 12, at 8 p.m. at Cone Field House at Willamette University.

Gift of Gab, of the critically acclaimed Bay area group Blackalicious, will headline the show. Also performing are underground sensation Pigeon John, super DJ group Ill-Insanity, Braille Brizzy and The Garden. “This is the biggest underground hip hop show in Oregon,” said Willamette student Jason Gundlach.

The Willamette Hip Hop Congress promotes social change and cultural awareness through hip hop music.

General admission (for ages 18 and over) is $15 at the door or free with Willamette ID. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. For more information contact wuhiphopcongress@gmail.com.

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Willamette Hosts Annual Powwow

Willamette University will host the Sixth Annual Social Powwow Saturday, March 8, 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 and drum groups. Prizes will be awarded in a Fancy Shawl Dance contest, and there will be a raffle to win a Pendleton blanket and other prizes. The master of ceremonies is Bob Tom, arena director is David West and host drum is Four Directions.

This year’s powwow is in honor of Warm Springs tribal elder Warren “Rudy” Clements and his daughter Trudee Clements, both of whom passed away in recent years. Rudy Clements was the leader of economic development and longtime public face for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. For three decades, he lent his political and governmental awareness, leadership skills and unique speaking style to addressing the concerns of the Indian people living in western Oregon. His daughter, a drummer and singer, was a champion Fancy Shawl dancer.

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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Puttin' on the Ritz Invites Community to the Dance Floor

Put on your best dress or tuxedo and your dancing shoes and enjoy an evening of big-band music Feb. 29 and March 1 at Willamette University’s 13th annual Puttin’ on the Ritz.

The event starts both nights at 6:30 p.m. with appetizers, followed by dinner and dancing from 7 to 11 p.m. The Cat Cavern in Putnam University Center will be decorated for an evening of swing-style dancing. Bon Appetit will provide the meal, and the Willamette Jazz Ensemble and the Willamette Singers will perform music from the 1940s and ’50s.

“This event fills an oft-mentioned void in the Salem community for an upscale evening where dancing is encouraged and the music is timeless,” said Choral Director Wallace Long.

Tickets are $34.50 per person, $138 for a table of four and $260 for a table of eight. Proceeds will help the Willamette Singers travel to Vancouver, B.C., to perform at the American Choral Directors Association Northwest Regional Convention. Call Susie Thompson-Drain at (503) 370-6214 to reserve tickets.

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Community Invited to Celebrate Africa Week

Willamette University will host its third annual celebration of Africa with a series of free events during the week of Feb. 18–22.

In previous years, Willamette hosted one day of Africa-related events, but with growing interest among students and faculty, the program was expanded to an entire week. All events are free and open to the public.

The film “Blood Diamond” will be shown at 9 p.m. Feb. 18 in Smith Auditorium. The film will be accompanied by a discussion of the historical forces that triggered the actual events depicted in the film and will contextualize the film within current geopolitics.

Jan Haaken, Portland State University psychology professor and author of “Speaking Out: Women, War, and the Global Economy,” will lead a workshop at 1 p.m. Feb. 19 in the Hatfield Room of Hatfield Library. The workshop will explore why and how African countries are often mired in social unrest.

Willamette students and faculty will unveil Oregon’s first mammoth puzzle map of Africa Feb. 20 at 3:30 p.m. in Cat Cavern. In addition to a puzzle competition and activities, students will display educational posters for each of Africa’s 54 countries. Festivities will include African music and snacks.

That evening at 6 p.m. in Cat Cavern, attendees can watch “Africa Dreaming,” four 25-minute short films produced by African filmmakers about love, family and relationships in Namibia, Tunisia, Mozambique and Senegal.

On Feb. 21, four Willamette students will show slides and share experiences from their time studying abroad in South Africa, Uganda and Ghana. This event is at 11:30 a.m. in Cone Chapel.

The week culminates Feb. 22 with an all-day African market in Putnam University Center and Goudy Commons. Come shop for jewelry, crafts, drums, clothing, baskets and artwork while supporting humanitarian projects in Africa and local entrepreneurs in Oregon.

African cuisine will be served throughout the week in Goudy Commons, Cat Cavern and the Bistro. Also that week is an exhibition of West African Yoruba sculpture on display at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art.

For more information about any of these events, contact Willamette’s anthropology department at (503) 370-6615.

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Christmas in Hudson Celebrates Season

Willamette University presents Christmas in Hudson Thursday, Dec. 6, and Friday, Dec. 7, at 8 p.m. in Hudson Hall.

Featured are the Willamette University choirs, carols sung by the audience, and sacred readings and seasonal poetry read by Professor Jeanne Clark. Hudson Hall is beautifully decorated for this sell-out event.

“This long running tradition is seen by many as the official beginning to the holiday season in Salem,” said Choral Director Wallace Long. “We invite you to take part in a Willamette and Salem tradition, and be moved by the music of the season.”

Doors open at 7:15 p.m. Tickets are $8 (open seating) for all ages and can be purchased 10 a.m.–2 p.m., Monday–Thursday, at the Music Office in the Rogers Music Center at Willamette, or you may charge by phone, (503) 370-6255. Tickets go on sale Monday, November 12.

Contact: Wallace Long, (530) 370-6320

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Community Invited to World AIDS Day Summit

The Willamette University chapter of the Student Global AIDS Campaign will host a two-day summit Nov. 29–30 on campus in honor of World AIDS Day.

Community members of any age are invited to attend the events, which begin with a free educational panel about the AIDS pandemic at 7 p.m. Nov. 29 in the Hatfield Room of the Hatfield Library. Events on Nov. 30 include a rally at noon in Jackson Plaza, and a dance-a-thon from 8 p.m. to midnight in Sparks Athletic Center to raise money for Partners in Health, a global health organization with a proven track record of preventing the spread of HIV and delivering life-saving health care to those in need.

This is the second year Willamette’s Student Global AIDS Campaign has hosted a summit for World AIDS Day, which is Dec. 1. SGAC is a national grassroots movement, the largest student network committed to ending the HIV and AIDS crisis worldwide.

All events are free, although those wishing to participate in the dance-a-thon are asked to register their fundraising efforts at www.willametteworldaidsday2007.weebly.com. For more information, call (503) 370-6593.

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Willamette University Sends Off Class of 2007

Libby Appel, longtime artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, will deliver the Willamette University College of Liberal Arts commencement address Sunday, May 13.

Appel also will be awarded an honorary doctor of fine arts degree. Other honorary degree recipients are Mercy Corps founder Dan O’Neill, honorary doctor of humane letters; physicist and Professor Carl E. Wieman, honorary doctor of science; and Cao Jianming, vice president of the People’s Supreme Court in China, honorary doctor of laws.

The College of Law commencement speaker is Steven T. Wax, federal public defender for the District of Oregon, and the Atkinson Graduate School of Management speaker is Tim Boyle, president and CEO of Columbia Sportswear Company.

The College of Liberal Arts will award 489 bachelor’s degrees, the College of Law 156 JD and LLM degrees, Atkinson 57 MBA degrees, and the School of Education 92 MAT degrees.

The College of Liberal Arts and School of Education will hold commencement at 3 p.m. on the Quad. The College of Law ceremony is at 11:30 a.m. on the Quad. Atkinson Graduate School of Management’s commencement is at 9 a.m. in Hudson Hall.

College of Liberal Arts
Commencement speaker Libby Appel is the first woman to hold the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s top artistic post. For 15 seasons, she has served as artistic director on numerous plays, including The Winter’s Tale, Bus Stop, Richard III, Richard II, Macbeth, The Trip to Bountiful, Three Sisters, King Lear and Henry VI Parts One, Two and Three, for which she also was co-director. She has directed more than 50 plays at more than 20 professional theatre companies, and has served as dean and artistic director at the School of Theatre at the California Institute of the Arts, and head of the acting program at California State University, Long Beach. Appel wrote Mask Characterization: An Acting Process, created and produced the video Inter/Face: The Actor and the Mask, and is co-author of two plays, Shakespeare’s Women and Shakespeare’s Lovers.

Honorary degree recipient Dan O’Neill founded Mercy Corps in 1981, and since then the agency has generated more than $1 billion in humanitarian aid in more than 81 countries, assisting children and families through emergency relief projects, self-help development programs and civil society initiatives. O’Neill has authored award-winning books and articles and his editorials have appeared in national and international publications.

Honorary degree recipient Carl E. Wieman, a 2001 Nobel Prize recipient, is a physicist at the University of British Columbia who in 1995 produced the first true Bose-Einstein condensate. In 1998 he was awarded the Lorentz Medal, which highlights important contributions to theoretical physics, and he also has received the National Science Foundation’s highest honor for excellence in both teaching and research.

Honorary degree recipient Cao Jianming is a well-known international trade and economic law scholar and serves as justice and executive vice president of the People’s Supreme Court in China. He has numerous honors in international law, and he spent most of his career at East China University of Politics and Law serving as professor, associate dean, dean of the international law department, vice president and president.

College of Law
Commencement speaker Steven T. Wax is the federal public defender for the District of Oregon. He is a frequent writer and speaker on federal criminal issues, and has been the attorney in a number of high-profile cases, including several involving Guantanamo Bay detainees. Wax is admitted to practice in the U.S. District Court for the Districts of Oregon, Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second and Ninth Circuits, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Atkinson Graduate School of Management
Commencement speaker Tim Boyle is the president and CEO of Columbia Sportswear Company, one of the largest outerwear brands in the world and the leading seller of skiwear in the U.S. Boyle oversees operations of the company from its Portland headquarters. In 1992, he and his mother, Columbia Chairwoman Gert Boyle, were co-recipients of Inc. Magazine’s Northwest Entrepreneur of the Year award. Boyle is a board member of Widmer Brothers Brewing Company, Northwest Natural and Oregon Trout.

For more information about Willamette University’s commencement, call (503) 370-6209 or go online to www.willamette.edu/events/commencement/schedules.

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Holocaust Survivor Visits Willamette University

Holocaust survivor Rachella “Chella” Kryszek will recount her life story in a free event Tuesday, April 17, at 7 p.m. in the Montag Den at Willamette University.

Kryszek was born in The Hague, Holland, in 1928. In 1940 the Nazis invaded Holland, and soon after the invasion, Kryszek and her family went into hiding. At the age of 15, the Gestapo captured Kryszek and her family. For one and a half years, she and her sister endured seven different concentration camps, including Auschwitz.

Kryszek’s story echoes the story of Anne Frank — same age, same country, same trauma — but Kryszek survived to personally tell her story.

She is deeply committed to the lessons that came out of the Holocaust and she is devoted to the belief that the voices of the Holocaust should never be silent or fall on deaf ears. For more than 25 years, Kryszek has traveled extensively throughout the Northwest, speaking to schools and groups about her experience. Kryszek’s story is represented in books, audio tapes and video tapes, which have been placed in Holocaust resource centers and libraries around the country.

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Films Document GM Foods and Portland Bike Art

Two documentaries will be shown Friday, April 20, at 6:30 p.m. at Salem’s Grand Theatre as part of Willamette University’s sustainability conference. “The Future of Food” focuses on unlabeled, genetically engineered foods in U.S. grocery stores, and “Martinis in the Bike Lane” takes a look at the unique bike lane markings in Portland, Ore. Tickets are $5 at the door for the general public. Refreshments will be provided by LifeSource Natural Foods, a wind-powered store that sells a large selection of local organic produce.

Shot on location in the United States, Canada and Mexico, “The Future of Food” examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what people eat. The film focuses on farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been impacted by genetically modified (GM) food technology, and explores health implications, government policies and alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, pointing to organic and sustainable agriculture as solutions to the farm crisis.

“If you eat food, you need to see ‘The Future of Food,’” wrote Newstarget.com. The Telluride Daily Planet wrote, “This stylish film is not just for food faddists and nutritionists. It is a look at something we might not want to see: Monsanto, Roundup and Roundup-resistant seeds, collectively wreaking havoc on American farmers and our agricultural neighbors around the world. In the end, this documentary is a eloquent call to action.” The film was named Best Documentary in Willamette’s 2007 Mid-Valley Video Festival.

“Martinis in the Bike Lane” is a documentary short that looks at Portland’s bike art and infamous bike lane stencil characters, and what it is about Portland that seems to nurture the quirky art form. The film won Best Documentary Short in the Mid-Valley Film Festival.

The Grand Theatre is at 187 High St. NE in Salem, Ore. The event is sponsored by LifeSource and Willamette University. For information call Lori Beamer at (503) 361-7973 or (503) 910-6435 or visit www.willamette.edu/events/sustainability/.

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Earth Day Celebration

A free Earth Day celebration Sunday, April 22, from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. at Salem’s Riverfront Park will feature food, music, information booths and activities for children. There will be opportunities to browse children’s books with sustainability themes and learn about sustainable lifestyles. Native plants will be given away by the Willamette University student organization ECOS (Ecological Community Outreach Society), along with planting tips. Call Andy Myer for information at (503) 602-0392.

The celebration will close out Willamette University’s sustainability conference, “Creating Synergies: Community, University and Business.” Visit www.willamette.edu/events/sustainability/ for conference information.

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Pacific Northwest Sustainability Conference Unites Advocates

The Center for Sustainable Communities at Willamette University will host a sustainability conference, “Creating Synergies: Community, University and Business,” April 20 and 21 in Salem, Ore.

Registration is free for all conference attendees thanks to a generous gift. Attendees who have sent in a registration fee will receive a full refund. A limited number of student scholarships are available to defray the cost of travel and lodging. To apply for a scholarship, note interest on the registration form.

The conference will provide a forum for business leaders, professionals, scholars, students and activists from throughout the Northwest to share experiences, network and explore opportunities for collaboration. All are welcome.

Presentations and discussion panels will address the “four E's” of sustainability: environment, equity, economics and education. Topics will include sustainable business management, designing sustainable spaces, green legislation in Oregon, the religious movement for social justice, sustainable forest practices, sustainability and the law, student sustainability scholarship, sustainable supply chains, social justice, pesticide-free gardening, faith perspectives, and business perspectives on sustainability in Salem, Ore.

There are still openings for presenters. Please complete the online submission form at www.willamette.edu/events/sustainability/.

Saturday field trips will include visits to businesses and communities that are guided by sustainable principles, including LifeSource Natural Foods, a wind-powered store that sells 100 percent organic produce; Pringle Creek Community, a neighborhood guided by principles of community-oriented planning, earth-friendly construction and energy-efficient practices; and the Oregon Garden, which offers more than 20 specialty gardens on 80 acres in historic Silverton. A guided hike in the Cascade Mountains will also be available.

A free Earth Day celebration Sunday, April 22, at Salem’s Riverfront Park will feature food, music, information booths and activities for children. There will be opportunities to browse children’s books with sustainability themes and learn about sustainable lifestyles. Native plants will be given away by the Willamette University student organization ECOS (Ecological Community Outreach Society), along with planting tips.

Two documentaries will be shown Friday night at 6:30 at Salem’s Grand Theatre as part of the conference. “The Future of Food” focuses on unlabeled, genetically engineered foods in U.S. grocery stores, and “Martinis in the Bike Lane” takes a look at the unique bike lane markings in Portland, Ore. The films are free to conference participants and Willamette students and staff with ID. Tickets for the general public are $5 at the door. Refreshments will be provided by LifeSource Natural Foods.

Conference partners offer hotel accommodations within walking distance of Willamette University. Salem is served by shuttle service from Portland International Airport, Amtrak and Greyhound Bus Lines. Attendees are encouraged to help make the conference a carbon neutral event by purchasing carbon credits at TerraPass, at www.terrapass.com/. (Carbon credits fund renewable energy projects that reduce greenhouse gases, offsetting carbon dioxide emitted when people drive or fly.) Directions and campus maps are available online.

Visit www.willamette.edu/events/sustainability/ or contact Joe Bowersox at (503) 370-6220 for information.

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University Hosts Urban Earth, Art and Music Festival

The ninth annual Wulapalooza, Willamette University’s free music, art and Earth festival, will be held Saturday, April 28, on Brown Field.

The festival, sponsored by Associated Students of Willamette University, begins at noon, with the main music stage opening at 5 p.m. This year’s featured bands are The Long Winters from Seattle, Viva Voce from Portland, Cloud Cult from Minneapolis, and Taphabit from Bellingham, Wash. Other stages will feature performances from local and student-organized bands, an art booth and exhibit, a film show and many other activities.

Each year, Wulapalooza includes a fundraiser for a local charitable foundation, and this year, the event will sponsor the Marion-Polk Food Share. The festival also seeks to provide a venue for community members to mesh with Willamette’s campus, familiarize themselves with student organizations and be the university’s guests for a day of music, art and entertainment.

For more information, go to www.wulapalooza.org or call the Office of Student Activities at (503) 370-6463.

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Seattle Groups Headline Hip Hop Show

Conscious Overdose 2007, Oregon’s second annual hip hop show, will be held Saturday, April 14, in Cone Field House at Willamette University. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $8 at the door, with no pre-sale tickets available.

Two Seattle-based groups, Blue Scholars and Common Market, will headline. Garden Entertainment, a local hip hop group; the Goonies, a student dance group; and the Tokyo International University of America break dancers will perform between acts.

The show is produced by the Willamette University Chapter of the Hip Hop Congress, formed in 2005 as the first chapter in the Pacific Northwest. The national congress utilizes hip hop culture to inspire young people to get involved in social action, civic service and cultural creativity. There are more than 40 chapters worldwide.

“The congress is the product of a merger between artists and students,” said event organizer Andrew Gibbs. “It pulls together music and community.”

Blue Scholars has performed more than 100 shows in the last two years and has produced one self-released LP. Geologic, an emcee and poet, and Sabzi, a former punk/ska drummer and jazz-trained pianist, formed the duo in 2002. Their rhymes are both political and personal.

“Blue Scholars has emerged as one of the torchbearers for the greater Pacific Northwest hip-hop scene,” Gibbs said.

Common Market’s debut album has garnered praise in Seattle Weekly, which named the duo the 2006 Best New Artist. They have performed throughout the Northwest.

Garden Entertainment is a Salem hip hop crew featuring the Kid Espi, Hot in Pursuit, Cool Table and Cross the MC. They have shared the stage with national acts and will soon open for E-40 and Twista.

For information contact Gibbs at (503) 602-9171 or casper999@gmail.com.

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Pacific Northwest Sustainability Conference to Create Synergies

The Center for Sustainable Communities at Willamette University will host a sustainability conference April 20 and 21 in Salem, Ore.

“Creating Synergies: Community, University and Business” will provide a forum for business leaders, professionals, scholars, students and activists from throughout the Northwest to share experiences, network and explore opportunities for collaboration. All are welcome.

Sustainability advocates are invited to offer individual or group presentations, discussion panels, information tables, vendor booths or poster projects that address the “four E's” of sustainability: environment, equity, economics and education.

Organizers are particularly interested in presentations that highlight curricular reform, dialogue between educators and business leaders, sustainability research, social justice and sustainable communities, student activism, green building, launching and managing sustainable businesses, the green ecumenical movement, alternative energy and sustainable agriculture. Please complete the online submission form by March 21.

Saturday field trips will include visits to businesses and communities that are guided by sustainable principles, including LifeSource Natural Foods, a wind-powered store that sells 100 percent organic produce; Pringle Creek Community, a neighborhood guided by principles of community-oriented planning, earth-friendly construction and energy efficient practices; Kettle Chips, a natural snack food manufacturer; and the Oregon Garden, which offers more than 20 specialty gardens on 80 acres in historic Silverton. A guided hike in the Cascade Mountains will also be available.

A free Earth Day celebration Sunday, April 22, at Salem’s Riverfront Park will feature food, music, information booths and activities for children. There will be opportunities to buy plants, browse children’s books with sustainability themes, and learn about sustainable lifestyles.

Online conference registration begins March 20. Registration is $30, and free for all students. A limited number of student scholarships are available to defray the cost of travel and lodging. To apply for a scholarship, note interest on the registration form.

Conference partners offer hotel accommodations within walking distance of Willamette University. Salem is served by shuttle service from Portland International Airport, Amtrak and Greyhound Bus Lines. Attendees are encouraged to help make the conference a carbon neutral event by purchasing carbon credits at TerraPass, www.terrapass.com/. (Carbon credits fund renewable energy projects that reduce greenhouse gases, offsetting carbon dioxide emitted when people drive or fly.) Directions and campus maps are available online.

Visit www.willamette.edu/events/sustainability/ or contact Joe Bowersox at (503) 370-6220 for information.

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Award-Winning Film Animator Visits Willamette University

Bill Kroyer, animator and award-winning director who has worked on computer-animated short and feature films such as Tron and FernGully: The Last Rainforest, will give a free public presentation March 9 as part of a weekend residency at Willamette University.

Kroyer will discuss “Animation and the Death of Fantasy,” a provocative look at new computer-based techniques and their relation to and influence on traditional animation and storytelling. The lecture is at 7:30 p.m. in the Montag Den, located in the Montag Center at the northeast end of campus.

Trained in classic hand-drawn animation, Kroyer was one of the first to move to computer animation with work on Disney’s 1982 feature Tron. In 1992, he directed FernGully: The Last Rainforest. He is currently senior animator at Rhythm and Hues Studio in Los Angeles, where he supervises animation for theatrical films and directs animation in commercials, including the Coca-Cola ads featuring the polar bears. He serves on the executive board of the animation branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Kroyer’s residency is sponsored by the W. M. Keck Foundation Arts and Technology grant and Willamette University. For more information, call Cheryl Cramer at (503) 370-6122.

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Ecopoetry Reading to Support Focus the Nation

Ronault Latang Sayang Catalani and Alicia Cohen will be featured at a free ecopoetry reading to support Focus the Nation March 13 at 7 p.m. in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University.

Ecopoetry is a form a poetry that focuses on ecology. Focus the Nation is an educational initiative coordinating teams at colleges, universities and high schools across the U.S. to engage in an interdisciplinary discussion about global warming solutions. The reading is free and open to the public, and a reception will follow in the lobby of the museum.

Catalani, a veteran activist and attorney, performs djatung, a rhythmic essay style. He is the Green World Project Manager for Focus the Nation and a 1983 graduate of Willamette University’s College of Law. Catalani has organized civil rights and cultural defense impact litigation for more than 20 years in three West Coast states, is a human rights advocate and political asylum attorney in Southeast Asia, and is an essayist for The Asian Reporter, El Hispanic News, Oregon Public Broadcasting and Wisconsin Public Radio. He has been an International Court of Justice Fellow at Hague Institute for Human Rights and a William Stafford Fellow at the Oregon Literary Arts Council.

Cohen is a poet who writes about the intersection of poetry and ecology. She lives in Portland, where she helped establish the artist-run gallery and show space Pacific Switchboard in 2000. Her book of poems, bEAR, was published by Handwritten Press, and she recently wrote, directed and produced a multimedia opera and gallery installation titled “Northwest Inhabitation Log.” Her work has recently appeared in Ecopoetics, How2, Bird Dog and Traverse. She has shown her installation, video and performance work nationally, and she teaches at Portland State University.

The reading is sponsored by Willamette University Department of English and the Center for Sustainable Communities. For more information, call 503-370-6026, email ksand@willamette.edu or visit www.willamette.edu/~ksand/ecopoetics.html.

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March 2007 Atkinson Lecture Is One of a Kind

Two of the nation’s most gifted writers, one a poet and the other a playwright, will share the stage in Smith Auditorium at Willamette University March 20 where they will discuss the nexus of art and politics in America.

Former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky and Pulitzer Prize recipient Tony Kushner will share the evening that closes out the 2006-07 Atkinson Lecture Series at Willamette.

Tickets will be available for faculty, students and staff at the Information Desk in University Center beginning March 1. The first ticket is free; subsequent tickets are $10 each. (Because we expect this lecture to sell out, we are not making tickets available to the general public.)

Tony Kushner’s plays are as complex as his own beginnings. The gay, Jewish socialist, raised in Louisiana and educated at Columbia University and New York University, says he enjoys addressing audiences that are receptive to ideas for change and progress. And his ideas have earned him high praise.

His plays include A Bright Room Called Day, Angels in America, Homebody/Kabul, and Caroline or Change. He wrote the screenplay for the Mike Nichols film of Angels in America and Steven Spielberg’s Munich.

Among his many accolades, Kushner is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, two Tony Awards for Best Play, three Obie Awards for playwriting, the Evening Standard Award, a Whiting Writer’s Fellowship, an Arts Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and an Emmy. In 1998, London’s National Theatre selected Angels in America as one of the “ten best plays of the 20th century.”

Pinsky, U.S. Poet Laureate from 1997-00, has dedicated his career to identifying and invigorating poetry’s place in the world. He is the author of six acclaimed collections of poetry, most recently Jersey Rain. His collection, The Figured Wheel, was a Pulitzer Prize nominee and received the Lenore Marshall Award and the Ambassador Book Award of the English Speaking Union.

He was elected in 1999 to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and his poems appear in magazines such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Threepenny, American Poetry Review and frequently in the Best American Poetry anthologies.

Pinsky teaches in the graduate writing program at Boston University.

The Atkinson Lecture series has welcomed world leaders, authors, actors, scientists and educators to campus since its founding in 1956.

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Willamette University Social Pow Wow Kicks Off

The Fifth Annual Social Pow Wow will be held Saturday, March 17, at the Cone Field House at Willamette University. The free event will begin with the Grand Entry at 4 p.m. and last until 10 p.m. The public is welcome.

Drum groups from throughout the Pacific Northwest will be in attendance, and the event will feature traditional dances, native food, crafts and raffles. Prizes are offered in the Round Bustle Dance Contest, a traditional favorite. The host drum will be Richard Sam and the Umatilla Intertribal. Bob Tom will emcee and David West is the arena director.

The event is presented by the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Associated Students of Willamette University. For more information call 503-370-6265.

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'A Most Unlikely Hero' Depicts Hidden Racism in Military

A new documentary, “A Most Unlikely Hero,” will be shown Sunday, Feb. 18, at 4 p.m. in the Hatfield Room in the Hatfield Library at Willamette University. This free event will include a conversation with filmmaker Steve Okino and Bruce Yamashita, who battled injustice in one of America’s most powerful institutions.

Hawaiian native Yamashita never intended to be an activist, but he was bewildered when he ran into a relentless barrage of racial slurs and attacks after signing up for the United States Marine Corps. Yamashita waged a lonely five-year “fight to get my dignity back,” unexpectedly uncovering evidence of widespread discrimination. In a case that rocked the Corps and the nation, military officers eventually admitted to disparate treatment of minority Marines.

“Yamashita’s long battle for justice revealed a strong pattern of discrimination in America and transformed him from an everyday citizen to an unlikely hero,” said Gordy Toyama, director of Multicultural Affairs at Willamette University.

The case eventually resulted in fundamental reforms in the Marine Corps.

“The film should convince anyone who believes that America has become a color-blind society that race still remains the principal barrier of exclusion for non-whites, even highly accomplished ones like Bruce Yamashita,” said Toyama. “Okino has produced a powerful film that captures Yamashita’s determination and courage in defending people of color.”

The film has been shown on public television stations and campuses throughout the U.S. For more information see www.unlikelyhero.org or call 503-370-6265.

The event is sponsored by Willamette’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Portland chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League and Alpha Zeta Nu, a Willamette student organization.

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Willamette Student Group Presents The Vagina Monologues

Willamette University’s Strength, Health, Equality (SHE) Club presents two performances of The Vagina Monologues Feb. 14 for V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls.

This Obie Award-winning play by Eve Ensler — based on interviews with 200 women about their views on sex, relationships and violence against women — will be performed at 7:30 and 10 p.m. in Smith Auditorium at Willamette University, 900 State St. Tickets are $10, or $5 for Willamette students, and are available starting Feb. 7 at the Putnam University Center information desk. Proceeds will go to a local organization dedicated to ending violence against women and children.

Other activities for V-Day at Willamette include information tables in Putnam University Center Feb. 7 to 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and a red shirt campaign Feb. 14 that asks everyone on campus who has been affected or knows someone who has been affected by sexual or domestic violence to wear red. A silent art auction with a theme of “What Is a Woman?” will be held in Smith Auditorium Feb. 14 from 7 p.m. to midnight, along with the play performances.

V-Day raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues. In 2006, more than 2,700 V-Day events were held in 1,150 communities and colleges worldwide. To date, V-Day has raised more than $35 million to aid efforts to end violence against women. The V-Day College Campaign strives to empower women to find their collective voices and demand an end to the epidemic levels of violence and abuse on their campuses, in their communities and around the world.

For more information, contact the Willamette University information desk at (503) 370-6300.

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High School Students Invited to Computing Career Event

High school students interested in learning about careers in computer science and technology are invited to a free event Feb. 10 at Willamette University.

“Future Potential in Computing” is from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Cat Cavern, on the second floor of Putnam University Center. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m., with refreshments available.

Experienced academic and industry professionals will talk about careers, debunk myths about the profession and describe their day-to-day experiences working in the field. A panel made up of college faculty, industry representatives, current students and recent graduates will answer audience questions about topics such as career choices, what classes to take, and internships.

The event is sponsored by Microsoft, Google, IBM, HP, and the Northwestern region of the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges. Students who register and attend will be entered into a drawing for a Zune digital media player, an HP digital camera and other prizes.

For more information and to register, visit http://www.willamette.edu/~gorr/outreach/ or contact Jenny Orr at gorr@willamette.edu or (503) 375-5314.

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Columbia River Tribal Leaders to Speak at Willamette on Founders Day

Tribal leaders Carol Craig of the Yakama Nation and Louis Pitt of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation will speak Thursday, Feb. 1, at Willamette University about “Ancestral Rights and Responsibilities.”

This free public event is at 7 p.m. in the Mary Stuart Rogers Music Center and is preceded by a 6 p.m. reception. The dialogue takes place on Willamette’s Founders Day and is part of the Indian Country Conversations series.

Craig and Pitt will offer an introduction to the history of Columbia River tribes and the treaties negotiated with the U.S. government in the 19th century. They will discuss the ongoing responsibilities — shared by the tribes, the federal government and the public — implied by these treaty rights, particularly to protect salmon habitat.

Craig is the public information manager for the Yakama Nation Fish and Wildlife Resource Management Program in Washington. In 2002, she was one of four finalists for Portland-based Ecotrust’s Buffet Indigenous Leadership Award in recognition of her efforts to educate the public and tribal communities about native people’s traditions, cultures and treaty rights. That same year, she was given the Spirit of the Salmon Award from the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission for her public outreach education throughout the Pacific Northwest. Craig has been widely recognized for her achievements in Native American journalism and public affairs.

Pitt is the director of government affairs and planning of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon. He works with state and federal officials and is on the communications team for the proposed Bridge of the Gods casino project. A former Columbia River Gorge commissioner, Pitt has served as a tribal appellate judge, as a member of Gov. John Kitzhaber’s transition team, and on the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Committee.

This event is on Willamette’s Founders Day, recognizing the university’s founding by Jason Lee and other Methodist missionaries who came to the Willamette Valley in 1834 to open an Indian mission school. In 1842, Lee and the missionary community established a school for children of settlers called the Oregon Institute; this marked the founding of what is now Willamette University. Two years later, the original Indian Manual Labor School was closed.

On Founders Day 2005, Willamette held a Ceremony of Renewal with regional tribes to acknowledge its Indian mission legacy and begin a new chapter in the mutual history of Oregon’s tribal communities and the university. At the ceremony, President M. Lee Pelton announced the establishment of a lecture series to bring guests from Indian country to the campus and the broader Willamette Valley for dialogue, teaching and learning.

The Indian Country Conversations series is sponsored by the President’s Office and the College of Liberal Arts dean, and is coordinated by associate professor of anthropology Rebecca Dobkins in consultation with the university’s community-based Native American Advisory Council.

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Community Invited to Star Trees Lighting

The Salem community is invited to the tenth annual Star Trees Lighting Saturday, Dec. 2, at Willamette University. The free program begins at 6:30 p.m., in front of Waller Hall on 900 State Street, across from the State Capitol Building. A family holiday concert will follow at 7 p.m. at Smith Auditorium on the Willamette campus.

Prior to the event, Bon Appetit will provide an all-you-can-eat holiday dinner from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at Goudy Commons on the Willamette campus. The cost is $7.50 for adults and $4 for children six years of age and younger.

The tree lighting event will include music, a welcome from University President Lee Pelton and former Salem First Citizen George Puentes, and hot chocolate and cookies, provided by the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. A drawing will be held for a boy and girl to flip the switch that lights the trees. They will also receive $100 savings bonds from MaPS Credit Union and $50 gift certificates from the Willamette Store on campus. Beta Theta Pi advises attendees to dress warm, and invites community members to bring coats or contributions for their annual Penny Coat Drive.

Planted in 1942, the five giant Sequoias at Willamette are the tallest trees on any U.S. campus. They are referred to as “Star Trees” because the view from the center looking upward creates a beautiful star-shaped view of the sky. Campus lore says that if two people kiss under the Star Trees they are destined for true love. (Numerous couples have tested this premise, but no statistical follow-up survey has been conducted.)

Sponsors include Willamette University, Dick and Linda Carney (CFP Inc.), Elwood’s Tree Service, MaPS Credit Union and Bon Appetit. For more information call 503-375-5304.

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Victorian Christmas with John Doan

“A Victorian Christmas with John Doan,” a holiday tradition in its 20th season, comes to Willamette University Sunday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m. The concert, in Willamette’s Smith Auditorium, re-enacts what it might have been like to celebrate Christmas a century ago.

“The show explores how Victorians invented many Christmas traditions we remember and quite a few we have forgotten,” the Willamette associate professor of music said. “The aim is to recapture the feeling of a time before radio and TV when our ancestors provided most of their own musical entertainment at home, especially during the holidays.”

Doan will play more than a dozen turn-of-the-century instruments once popular in American parlors, on vaudeville stages and in mandolin orchestras. The 20-string harp guitar, classical banjo and ukelin are a few of the original instruments to be featured. Doan explains their history in an entertaining and often zany fashion, shows slides of old catalogs and archival photographs, and leads the audience by singing or whistling many of our most beloved American carols.

Doan is a touring and recording artist who has appeared on radio and television across the country. The festive Christmas program is a live version of Doan’s Emmy-nominated Oregon Public Broadcasting television special.

Advance tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for seniors and children under 12 and are available at Willamette’s Music Department or by phone at 503-370-6255. Willamette University students, faculty and staff may acquire free tickets up to one week prior to the event, but tickets are limited. For more information see www.johndoan.com.

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An Evening with Lewis Nordan

Critically acclaimed author Lewis Nordan will give a free reading Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. in the Hatfield Room of the Mark O. Hatfield Library at Willamette University.

Nordan is emeritus professor of creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh. His publications include almost 100 short stories in various journals and anthologies and seven books of fiction, including two collections of short stories and five novels. He also published a memoir. Olympia Vernon, Willamette’s Hallie Brown Ford Chair of Creative Writing, is sponsoring the event.

Nordan, born in 1939, grew up in Itta Bena, Miss., a small town in the Mississippi Delta. After high school, he attended Delta State College for one year before going into the Navy. He served aboard several ships, including the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, where he worked as a journalist.

Publishers Weekly wrote that “Nordan’s engaging, wise, delightfully wry stories sound a melodious, bittersweet yawp, pulsating with love, grief, rage and a thirst for redemption.” Nordan’s novel “Music of the Swamp” was cited by the American Library Association (ALA) as Notable Book of the Year and won a Best Fiction award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. The book includes ten stories focusing on a boy growing up in a Mississippi Delta town and his love for his alcoholic father.

Nordan’s novel “Wolf Whistle” is based on the murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy killed for whistling at a white woman in 1955 in Mississippi. It won the ALA Notable Book Award, the Mississippi Authors Award for Best Fiction, the New York Public Library Award for Best Book for the Teen Years, and the Southern Book Critics Circle Award for best book. Library Journal wrote that “‘Wolf Whistle’ displays some of Faulkner’s lyricism and Flannery O’Connor’s surreal humor ... [Nordan] emerges as a unique and powerful Southern storyteller in his own right.”

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Starting Local, Thinking Global: Students Host AIDS Summit

Two representatives from Willamette University’s chapter of the Student Global AIDS Campaign quickly discovered a problem last spring when they attended the organization’s national conference in Washington, D.C.: They didn’t meet any college students there from the West Coast.

They were alarmed by the lack of involvement from their region, and though the Willamette group had just formed, the members’ commitment to social justice made them realize that being the only Pacific Northwest university chapter was something they needed to change — especially as AIDS continues to take an enormous toll worldwide, killing 8,200 people every day.

To build momentum among Pacific Northwest high schools, colleges and universities, the students are hosting a regional summit Dec. 1 from 1 to 8 p.m. at Willamette in honor of World AIDS Day. They have secured a visit by Adam Taylor, a well-known Washington, D.C.–based social justice activist who co-founded the Student Global AIDS Campaign while a student at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. The event also will include dance-a-thon from 8 p.m. to midnight to raise money for Partners in Health, a global health organization with a proven track record of preventing the spread of HIV and delivering life-saving health care to those in need.

“We want to spread this movement to the rest of the Pacific Northwest,” said Sarah Zerzan, a junior biochemistry major. “We’re one of the only groups in the West, and that’s a problem. We want to make Willamette a leader on this issue.”

Currently only one other Pacific Northwest chapter exists, at Olympia High School in Washington. The Willamette group members see their event as a way for students to learn how they can start a chapter and work together to address the problem. They plan to bring in speakers from groups such as disaster relief organization MercyCorps, Oregon Health & Science University, Cascade AIDS Project and Jubilee USA Network, an alliance working toward debt cancellation for impoverished countries.

The Student Global AIDS Campaign is a national grassroots movement, the largest student network committed to ending the HIV and AIDS crisis worldwide. The fledgling Willamette group already has a national leader in Will Nevius, a sophomore politics major who is a member of the campaign’s national steering committee, a group of 11 students who plan and implement the organization’s nationwide advocacy efforts.

The Willamette students also have a nationally recognized global AIDS expert, Joyce Millen, as their faculty mentor. Millen, an assistant professor of anthropology at Willamette, is the former director of the Institute for Health and Social Justice at Harvard Medical School. She co-edited and authored the critically acclaimed book “Dying for Growth: Global Inequality and the Health of the Poor,” and she co-authored “Global AIDS: Myths and Facts,” a guidebook to help students fight the pandemic.

Nevius said the organization wants young people to realize that AIDS is a different issue globally than it is in the U.S., with different factors contributing to the spread of the disease in other countries. To mobilize Willamette students, chapter members made presentations in residence halls, held a campus rally and used a campus showing of the film “Rent” as a chance to discuss differences between AIDS treatment in the U.S. and other countries. They also got more than 60 students to participate in an AIDS awareness walk in Portland in September.

They know there is not much time to attract people to their summit Dec. 1, but they think they can tap into the youthful idealism of students everywhere to build a movement that goes far beyond one event.

“University students have to understand the role we play on a national scale,” Nevius said. “We do have a voice and the power to prompt change.”

For information about the summit at Willamette, including how to register, go to www.willamette.edu/events/aids. For more on the national Student Global AIDS Campaign, visit www.fightglobalaids.org.

Please Note: The above press release has been updated. The original time listed for this event was from 1 to 6 p.m. and the dance-a-thon from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. the following morning. The event is now scheduled for 1 to 8 p.m. and the dance-a-thon will end at midnight. (November 13, 2006)

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Willamette University Hosts Hunger Awareness Banquet

The Office of Community Service Learning at Willamette University will host its annual Hunger Banquet from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Nov. 15 in Cat Cavern at the Putnam University Center.

Students at this global hunger simulation will experience firsthand the inequities that result from food shortages. When people arrive, they are placed in a category that determines how much food they will receive at the banquet. Ten percent of students will be granted a full meal, 30 percent will only receive a partial meal and the remaining 60 percent will receive an even smaller portion.

The focus of this year’s event is the lack of food and emotional support in war zones and refugee camps. Guest speaker Fidel Nshombo will talk about his experiences as a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Students also will have the opportunity to discuss what they experienced during the meal and how it relates to the problem of world hunger. The goal is to give students a better sense of the physical and emotional hunger refugees experience.

The event is mainly geared toward Willamette students, although the public is invited. The cost is $6, and non-student guests must RSVP by Nov. 10 to Amy Johnson at adjohnso@willamette.edu.

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Joan Didion Opens Atkinson Series at Willamette

Novelist, essayist and screenwriter Joan Didion will deliver the fall 2006 Atkinson Lecture at Willamette University Friday, Nov. 10, at 8 p.m. in Smith Auditorium.

Tickets for University students, faculty and staff are available Oct. 16 at the University Center. The first ticket is free with a University ID, and subsequent tickets are $10. Tickets for the general public are $10 and will be available at the University Center on campus beginning Oct. 26.

In May 2005 Didion received the Gold Medal for Belles Lettres from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which is the highest honor the academy awards to a writer and is given once every six years. She was awarded the 1996 Edward MacDowell Medal and the 1999 Columbia Journalism Award. In 2005 she won the National Book Award for The Year of Magical Thinking, which is now in its 20th printing.

Didion’s novels include Run River (1963), Play It as It Lays (1970), A Book of Common Prayer (1977), Democracy (1984), and The Last Thing He Wanted (1996). Her nonfiction includes Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968), The White Album (1978), Salvador (1983), Miami (1987), After Henry (1992), Political Fictions (2001), and Where I Was From (2003).

Didion and her late husband, John Gregory Dunne, co-authored the screenplays The Panic in Needle Park (1971), Play It as It Lays (1973), A Star Is Born (1977), True Confessions (1982), Hills Like White Elephants (1990) and Up Close and Personal (1995). She has lectured at colleges and universities across the country including the University of California at Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, Bard, Yale and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

Didion currently lives in New York and is a contributor to The New York Review of Books and The New Yorker. Her latest book, The Year of Magical Thinking, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in October 2005. She is now adapting the book for Broadway.

She was born in Sacramento and earned her undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley.

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Willamette University Coffee Shop Celebrates 20 Years

Wanting a fun place to hang out on campus, in 1986 two Willamette University students approached then-President Jerry Hudson about opening a coffee shop. Twenty years later, the Bistro is thriving as the ultimate place for students, faculty, staff and even community members to sip a latte, talk with friends, listen to music or meet for a class.

The Bistro, located on the first floor of Putnam University Center, will celebrate its 20th anniversary Sept. 29 and 30 with a series of reunion activities. Alumni who have worked there over the years will return to share their memories. Some will even hop behind the counter from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 29 to relive their days of serving up joe. Folk band Garett Brennan and the EbGbs will perform a free concert that evening from 7:30 to 11 p.m. Brennan is a Willamette alumnus whose college band was a fixture at the Bistro in the early 2000s.

Other alumni visitors will include John Donovan and Eric Friedenwald-Fishman, the students who started the shop. As freshmen at Willamette, they decided students needed a late-night place to meet for coffee. They spent much of their sophomore year presenting various coffee shop plans to the college president. After getting approval, they spent a work-filled summer getting the place ready to open.

Donovan and Friedenwald-Fishman, both Portland residents, went on to start Metropolitan Group, one of the country’s leading social issue marketing firms.

“Whenever I walk into the Bistro, there are people studying together, tables of students and faculty interacting or people playing music,” Friedenwald-Fishman said. “It seems like it still draws a diverse group of students from all parts of campus who might not have otherwise interacted.”

Since its opening, the Bistro has become a meeting place for the campus community. Many faculty members stop by in the morning for a scone or coffee, and some hold classes there and have specific chairs they call their own. Students often hang out there, and regular concerts and open-mic nights also bring in community members looking for live music.

Students who work at the Bistro prepare all the food themselves — including cookies, scones, burritos and sandwiches, often based on family recipes passed down from former employees. They also run the entire business themselves, giving them experience in entrepreneurship, said Bob Hawkinson, dean of campus life and the Bistro’s first faculty advisor.

“The Bistro is a central meeting place, and it’s a place to relax,” Hawkinson said. “It meets a need of students, faculty and staff for a nice, friendly, cohesive coffeehouse atmosphere.”

For more information about the reunion, go to www.willamettealumni.com/bistroreunion.

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Willamette University Celebrates Africa Day

Willamette University students, faculty and staff will honor Black History Month by holding the school’s first Africa Day Celebration Feb. 23. The Salem community is invited to eat African food, dance to live African music, shop in an African market, listen to African stories, view an African film and participate in a panel discussion on Africa today. Campus activities will run from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Festival highlights include a panel discussion about Africa in Cone Chapel in Waller Hall from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Presenters include West African medical anthropologist Louise Badiane; Mamadou Toure, an Imam at Portland’s Muslim Community Center and co-host of the TV show, “Al-Islam in focus”; and Daniel Dau, one of the “lost boys of Sudan” who fled from his war-torn homeland to a refuge camp, before coming to America.

The award-winning film, “Pièces d'identités,” will be screened at 6:30 p.m. at Cat Cavern on the second floor of the University Center. The film tells the story of an old African king who goes to Brussels in search of his daughter. With twists of irony and comedy, the film explores the complicated questions of colonialism, class and cultural identity. Pièces d'identités will be introduced and discussed by Mbye Cham, a film professor from Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Baba Wagué, a storyteller from Mali, will share his stories from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Goudy Commons. Anansi Beat, from Ghana, will perform from 4 to 6 p.m. in Cat Cavern. African food will be available for purchase at 11:30 a.m. in Goudy Commons.

The celebration marks Willamette University’s growing interest in the continent of Africa. All events are free and open to the public. For more information call Amadou Fofana at 503-370-6298 or Joyce Millen at 503-370-6593.

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Puttin’ on the Ritz at Willamette University

The Willamette University music department presents the 11th annual Puttin’ on the Ritz big band dinner and dance event Friday, March 10 and Saturday, March 11, from 7 to 11 p.m. in the Putnam Student Center on the Willamette campus. Tickets are $34.50 per person or $260 for a table of eight. They may be purchased by calling the Willamette music office at 503-370-6214.

Puttin’ on the Ritz provides an evening of elegant dining and dancing to the music of the Willamette University Jazz Ensemble and the Willamette Singers, Willamette’s nationally recognized vocal jazz ensemble. Ritz is an evening filled with great food, excellent jazz music and dancing.

“The ballroom dance craze is taking America by storm and the Ritz provides an opportunity to return to an era of elegant dress and the type of dancing where people actually hold each other,” said Wallace Long, director of choral activities and producer of the Ritz.

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Fourth Annual Pow Wow at Willamette University

The Fourth Annual Pow Wow, sponsored by Willamette University’s Native American Enlightenment Association, is Saturday, March 11, from 4 to 10 p.m. in Cone Field House, Sparks Athletic Center, Willamette University.

Admission is free and the public is invited. Native arts, crafts and refreshments will be sold.

Master of ceremonies is Bob Tom, and arena director is David West. Events include a jingle dress contest and additional contests with prizes.

The event honors the late Craig Whitehead, former arena director.

For details, call the University Office of Multicultural Affairs at 503-370-6265.

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Willamette University Hunger Banquet Raises Awareness of Global Issues

The Community Service Learning Office of Willamette University will host its annual Hunger Banquet Friday, Jan. 27, from 5 to 7 p.m. in Cat Cavern at the Putnam University Center.

The Hunger Banquet is an event that explores issues surrounding world hunger and what the students of Willamette University can do to actively make a difference. The program will feature a speech given by anthropology Professor Joyce Millen, a “meal” that simulates the discrepancy in global food distribution and an open-ended discussion.

Those who partake in the meal will be divided into one of three groups, designated from the card they are given at random as they enter the dining area. The card, designed in the method used by many Oxfam Hunger Banquets, will have a short description of an individual living in the global society who comes from either a first-, second- or third- world country.

Twenty percent of the students will receive a first-world card, and will receive full meals. Thirty percent of the group will receive second-world cards and will represent individuals in second-world countries. They will have a simple meal away from the table. Fifty percent of the group will receive third-world cards, and sit on the floor and receive a meal of plain white rice. It will be up to the participants in the event to decide what to do with the situation at hand—whether to maintain their position, share food between the groups or come up with a number of alternatives. This interaction and the speech by Millen will give rise to an interesting discussion, as students share their thoughts and ideas about what they experienced during the meal and how this simulation relates to the global issue of world hunger.

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Willamette University Celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Grammy-award winning a capella group, Sweet Honey in the Rock, will appear in concert Friday, Jan. 20, at 7 p.m. in Smith Auditorium at Willamette University as part of a week-long celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Tickets are available to the public at the Putnam University Center Information Desk from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 18; from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Jan. 19, and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 20. If available, tickets may be purchased the night of the event at the Smith Auditorium box office beginning at 6 p.m. Tickets are $5 with a four-ticket per person limit.

Other events open to the general public include a Willamette University Convocation Thursday, Jan. 19, from 12:45 to 1:45 p.m. in the Hatfield Room of the Hatfield Library. The event features the PBS documentary “Sweet Honey in the Rock—Raise Your Voice!” Admission is free.

The public is also invited to the Thursday, Jan. 19, “Raising My Voice for Justice” forum in the Bistro from 3 to 6 p.m. Members of the University community will share their ideas for justice through speech, poetry and other expressions. Refreshments will be served. For details, call Paula Sams-Ingle at 503-370-6103.

Four additional events are for Willamette University students, faculty and staff only.

• Signing the Birmingham Pledge, Monday, Jan. 16, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in University Center, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 5 to 7 p.m. in Goudy Commons. The pledge encourages people to make a personal commitment to racial harmony.
• Raise Your Voice luncheon Friday, Jan. 20, from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in