Grinnell College Public Events Concert Series

04/19/2024

Michael Londra and the Grinnell Symphony Orchestra

Saturday April 20, 2024
7:00pm
Herrick Chapel

Sponsored by: Public Event Series and Grinnell College Music Department

Performance is free and open to the public.

04/17/2024

Scholar Convocation
Thursday April 18, 2024
11:00 am
JRC 101

Ruha Benjamin

In this talk, Ruha Benjamin draws on the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic and introduces a micro-vision of change—a way of looking at the everyday ways people are working to combat unjust systems and build alternatives to the oppressive status quo. Born of a stubborn hopefulness and grounded in social analysis, Dr. Ruha Benjamin offers a pragmatic and poetic approach to fostering a more just and joyful world. In so doing, she explores how the humanities in action invites us to cultivate a “poetics of living” that entails creative care and attention to how we treat and value one another.

Ruha Benjamin is the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, and author of the award-winning book Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code, among many other publications. Her work investigates the social dimensions of science, medicine, and technology with a focus on the relationship between innovation and inequity, health and justice, knowledge and power. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Marguerite Casey Foundation Freedom Scholar Award and the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton. Her most recent book, Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want, winner of the 2023 Stowe Prize, was born out of the twin plagues of COVID-19 and police violence and offers a practical and principled approach to transforming our communities and helping us build a more just and joyful world. Ruha’s forthcoming book Imagination: A Manifesto will be released in February 2024.

04/15/2024

Public Events Series
The Man Without a World

A silent film with live music composed and performed by pianist Donald Sosin and violinist Alicia Svigals.

Tuesday April 16, 2024
JRC 101 @ 7pm

This event is free and open to the public.

03/13/2024

No Plans for the evening - join us @ Grinnell College tonight.
7:00pm
Herrick Chapel

Join Us Tonight!
Tord Gustavsen Trio
7:00pm @ Herrick Chapel

This event is free and open to the public.

With the release of his first recording in 2003 entitled Changing Places, Norway’s Tord Gustavsen came forth with a new sound by applying elements of American jazz to the classical, church, and folk music of his youth. The result was an immediately identifiable, Norwegian kind of jazz, a descendant of the original fresh with new sources of inspiration that has won the hearts of music lovers worldwide and established Gustavsen as Scandinavia’s leading jazz artist.

Tord Gustavsen, piano and electronics

Steinar Raknes, double bass and electronics

Jarle Vespestad, drums

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AlghsoLSeFJZhkCyP-tn2NKUojj0?e=VznxaA

03/13/2024

Join Us Tonight!
Tord Gustavsen Trio
7:00pm @ Herrick Chapel

This event is free and open to the public.

With the release of his first recording in 2003 entitled Changing Places, Norway’s Tord Gustavsen came forth with a new sound by applying elements of American jazz to the classical, church, and folk music of his youth. The result was an immediately identifiable, Norwegian kind of jazz, a descendant of the original fresh with new sources of inspiration that has won the hearts of music lovers worldwide and established Gustavsen as Scandinavia’s leading jazz artist.

Tord Gustavsen, piano and electronics

Steinar Raknes, double bass and electronics

Jarle Vespestad, drums

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AlghsoLSeFJZhkCyP-tn2NKUojj0?e=VznxaA

03/06/2024

Scholar Convocation
Benjamin Madley

Thursday March 7, 2024
11:00am
HSSC Auditorium

"An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873"

Benjamin Madley is an historian of Native America, the United States, and colonialism in world history. Born in Redding, California, he spent much of his childhood in Karuk Country near the Oregon border where he became interested in relations between colonizers and Indigenous people. Educated at Yale and Oxford, he writes about Native America as well as colonialism in Africa, Australia, and Europe. Madley has authored or co-authored twenty journal articles and book chapters. They have appeared in journals ranging from The American Historical Review to The Western Historical Quarterly. Yale University Press published his first book, An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873. This book received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History and a host of other prizes. According to former California Governor Jerry Brown, “Madley corrects the record with his gripping story of what really happened: the actual genocide of a vibrant civilization, thousands of years in the making.” Madley also co-edited The Cambridge World History of Genocide, Volume 2: Genocide in the Indigenous, Early Modern, and Imperial Worlds, 1535-1914. His current research explores Native American migration and labor in the making of the United States.

03/06/2024

Met Opera
Saturday March 9, 2024
10:55am
Grinnell College - Harris Center

La Forza del Destino

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Verdi’s grand tale of ill-fated love, deadly vendetta, and family strife, with stellar soprano Lise Davidsen following a string of recent Met triumphs with her role debut as the noble Leonora, one of the repertory’s most tormented—and thrilling—heroines. Director Mariusz Trelinski delivers the company’s first new Forza in nearly 30 years, setting the scene in a contemporary world and making extensive use of the Met’s turntable to represent the unstoppable advance of destiny that drives the opera’s chain of calamitous events. The distinguished cast also features tenor Brian Jagde as Leonora’s forbidden beloved Don Alvaro, baritone Igor Golovatenko as her vengeful brother Don Carlo, mezzo-soprano Judit Kutasi as the fortune teller Preziosilla, bass-baritone Patrick Carfizzi as Fra Melitone, and bass Soloman Howard as both Leonora’s father and Padre Guardiano. For the final three performances, soprano Elena Stikhina and mezzo-soprano Maria Barakova take over as Leonora and Preziosilla.

03/04/2024

TONIGHT!
Join us in Bucksbaum, Sebring-Lewis @ 7:00pm

Public Event Series
Des Moines Metro Opera
Beauty and the Beast

Monday March 4, 2024
7:00 p.m.
Bucksbaum Sebring-Lewis

This event is free and open to the public.

In the world premiere tour of Grétry and Borths' Beauty and the Beast, the characters of Belle’s world are obsessed with how they are perceived by the world around them. The Prince was the worst example of this until the Spirit of the Rose cursed him so that his body would reflect his soul, and everyone would see him for the beast he truly was. With the help of Belle, the Spirit of the Rose, and a magic mirror, the Beast will try to change his heart and break the curse.

02/27/2024

Scholar Convocation/ Grinnell Lecture
Thursday February 29, 2024
11:00am
JRC 101

Peter-Michael Osera
"Automating Soul: What Does Computation Unveil about the Things We do?"

In Peter-Michael’s lecture, which is entitled, "Automating Soul: What Does Computation Unveil about The Things We Do?," he will use insights from his own research on program synthesis—the automatic generation of computer programs from specification—to help both experts and non-experts navigate the strengths and weaknesses of tools like ChatGPT and how they will evolve in the future. Ultimately, this lecture will invite us to consider the “soul” of what we do at Grinnell and how we can respond positively to how computing automation may affect our work and the world.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://grinnellcollege.zoom.us/j/88401813930?pwd=0EwV42ayYBICazvenTv6Me9oyhcKDi.1

Meeting ID: 884 0181 3930

Passcode: Grinnell

02/20/2024

Public Event Series
Des Moines Metro Opera
Beauty and the Beast

Monday March 4, 2024
7:00 p.m.
Bucksbaum Sebring-Lewis

This event is free and open to the public.

In the world premiere tour of Grétry and Borths' Beauty and the Beast, the characters of Belle’s world are obsessed with how they are perceived by the world around them. The Prince was the worst example of this until the Spirit of the Rose cursed him so that his body would reflect his soul, and everyone would see him for the beast he truly was. With the help of Belle, the Spirit of the Rose, and a magic mirror, the Beast will try to change his heart and break the curse.

02/20/2024

Scholar Convocation
Luis Fabiano de Assis
Thursday February 22, 2024
11:00 a.m. - JRC 101

Empowering Action: Human-Centric, Data-Driven Pathways for Multidisciplinary Solutions to Social Challenges—The Cases of Human Trafficking and Child Labor in Brazil

The presentation will provide an overview of the case study, highlighting the prevalence of human trafficking and child labor in Brazil. It will emphasize the vital role played by human-centric, data-driven solutions and examine the process of fostering multidisciplinary collaboration within a complex multi-stakeholder environment. We will delve into the development of effective data strategies for addressing social challenges and showcase notable success stories and achievements. Additionally, the presentation will explore the existing challenges and outline future directions. Finally, we will discuss the potential for these data-driven pathways to succeed on a global scale.

02/14/2024

Squatters on Red Earth
by- Mary Swander
preformed by - Rip Russell

A peaceful encounter between the Meskwaki and the Amanas in the midst of the U.S. white settler land grab

Friday February 23, 2024
Bucksbaum, Sebring-Lewis
7:00pm

This event is free and open to the public.
Sponsored by Public Events and The Center for Prairie Studies

02/12/2024

Scholars Convocation
Gaile Pohlhaus

Thursday February 15, 2024
11:00am - JRC 101

In “The Ethics of Uncle Tom’s Children” Tommie Shelby notes that an ethics of the oppressed needs to attend to at least two aspects of living under conditions of oppression: first, resisting and overturning the unjust conditions that constitute oppression and second, sustaining a livable life despite injustice, so that one might, so to speak, live to fight another day. In this talk I consider whether the same is true for an epistemology of the oppressed. By “epistemology of the oppressed” I mean a philosophical account of epistemic life from the perspective of those who are systematically subject to unjust infringements on their epistemic agency. Despite a growing amount of literature on epistemic injustice, it strikes me that much of this literature does not yet fully contribute to an epistemology of the oppressed (but instead is geared toward an epistemology of “how oppressors oppress and how oppressors could do better”). Of the literature that does contribute to an epistemology of the oppressed, most of it seems to contribute to the first aspect identified by Shelby, resisting and overturning unjust conditions. Is there also room for thinking about what it means to flourish, epistemically speaking, when one faces epistemic oppression? Or is all epistemic flourishing under such conditions reducible to epistemic resistance so that the conditions that impede one’s epistemic flourishing begin to be overturned?

02/06/2024

Scholar Convocation
Dr. Irma McClaurin '73

JRC 101, Thursday February 8 @ 11am

"A Life Worth Archiving - Excerpts from a Memoir"

Dr. Irma McClaurin, class of ‘73, has lived in 8 different states. She holds the MFA in English, the MA and PhD in Anthropology, and a has 2023 Honorary Doctorate of Social Studies from Grinnell. Some have called her an “academic entrepreneur” who has worked as the president of a university, given up tenure twice, managed a $10.8M dollar portfolio at the Ford Foundation, founded the Africana Women’s Studies Program at Fiak University, and received awards for her writings as an academic and free-lance columnist. As the founder of the Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archive, located in the Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives at her graduate alma mater, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Dr. Irma, who calls herself a “born-again” anthropologist and was the first to describe “Black Feminist Anthropology” as a real thing, will share “bits and pieces” of a memoir in progress (sprinkled with personal photographs and poetry) on how she has lived a “life worth archiving.”

01/30/2024

Scholar Convocation
Ilana Gershon
HSSC Auditorium
Thursday February 1, 2024
11:00am

"Being a Pandemic Citizen in the American Office"

Americans these days learn their political imagination in the workplace. This talk explores what it means to learn your political imagination in what is typically a profit-making organization that lies somewhere on a continuum between democracy and autocracy. I turn to a moment in the pandemic to explore this because the pandemic in the US made everyone much more concerned about how workplaces make decisions. It unsettled so many decisions that had sedimented over decades. The pandemic also forced people to worry about how economic security and health were being pitted against each other in these workplaces. All of a sudden, fish began to notice the water they were swimming in.

01/25/2024

MET OPERA LIVE
Saturday January 27, 2024
Harris Center, Grinnell College
Start time: 12:05pm

The Met begins the New Year with a vital new production of one of opera’s most enduringly powerful works. Acclaimed English director Carrie Cracknell makes her Met debut, reinvigorating the classic story with a staging that moves the action to the modern day and finds at the heart of the drama issues that could not be more relevant today: gendered violence, abusive labor structures, and the desire to break through societal boundaries. Dazzling young mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina leads a powerhouse quartet of stars in the complex and volatile title role, alongside tenor Piotr Beczala as Carmen’s troubled lover Don?José, soprano Angel Blue as the loyal Micaëla, and bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen as the swaggering Escamillo. Daniele Rustioni conducts Bizet’s heart-pounding score. Later in the season, another cast of world-class singers takes over, with mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine reprising her captivating portrayal of the title role, tenor Michael Fabiano as Don José, soprano Ailyn Pérez as Micaëla, bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as Escamillo, and Diego Matheuz making his company debut on the podium.

Comments:

01/25/2024

This Saturday!

Edith Renfrow Smith book launch Event
Saturday January 27, 2024
11am - 1pm
Pioneer Bookstore

01/03/2024

Met Opera - Live in HD
Giuseppe Verdi's "Nabucco"
Saturday, January 6 @ 11:55am
Harris Center Cinema

Ancient Babylon comes to life in a classic Met staging of biblical proportions. Baritone George Gagnidze makes his Met role debut as the imperious king Nabucco, alongside soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska reprising her thrilling turn as his vengeful daughter Abigaille. Mezzo-soprano Maria Barakova and tenor SeokJong Baek, in his company debut, are Fenena and Ismaele, whose love transcends politics, and bass Dmitry Belosselskiy repeats his celebrated portrayal of the high priest Zaccaria. Daniele Callegari conducts Verdi’s exhilarating early masterpiece, which features the ultimate showcase for the great Met Chorus, the moving “Va, pensiero.”

12/06/2023

8th Ave. Newgrass
Saturday, December 9 @ 3:00pm
Herrick Chapel

Join Grinnell student band, 8th Ave. Newgrass, in Herrick Chapel this Saturday for an afternoon of bluegrass, jazz, and more! The show will begin at 3pm, and all are welcome. If you have any questions, concerns, or accommodation needs, please email [email protected]. We hope to see you there!

12/04/2023

Met Opera - Live in HD
Daniel Catán's "Florencia en el Amazonas"
Saturday, December 9 @ 11:55am
Harris Center Cinema

Sung in Spanish and inspired by the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez, Mexican composer Daniel Catán’s 1996 opera tells the enchanting story of an opera diva who returns to her native South America to perform at the legendary opera house of Manaus—and to search for her lost lover, who has vanished into the jungle. The Met premiere stars soprano Ailyn Pérez as Florencia Grimaldi, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium to lead a spellbinding new production by Mary Zimmerman that brings the mysterious and magical realm of the Amazon to the Met stage. A distinguished ensemble of artists portray the diva’s fellow travelers on the river boat to Manaus, including soprano Gabriella Reyes as the journalist Rosalba, bass-baritone Greer Grimsley as the ship’s captain, baritone Mattia Olivieri as his enigmatic first mate, tenor Mario Chang as the captain’s nephew Arcadio, and mezzo-soprano Nancy Fabiola Herrera and baritone Michael Chioldi as the feuding couple Paula and Alvaro.

11/13/2023

Met Opera - Live in HD
Anthony Davis's "X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X"
Saturday, November 18 @ 11:55am
Harris Center Cinema

Anthony Davis’s groundbreaking and influential opera, which premiered in 1986, arrives at the Met at long last. Theater luminary and Tony-nominated director of Slave Play Robert O’Hara oversees a potent new staging that imagines Malcolm as an Everyman whose story transcends time and space. An exceptional cast of breakout artists and young Met stars enliven the operatic retelling of the civil rights leader’s life. Baritone Will Liverman, who triumphed in the Met premiere of Fire Shut Up in My Bones, sings Malcolm X, alongside soprano Leah Hawkins as his mother, Louise; mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis as his sister Ella; bass-baritone Michael Sumuel as his brother Reginald; and tenor Victor Ryan Robertson as Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad. Kazem Abdullah conducts the newly revised score, which provides a layered, jazz-inflected setting for the esteemed writer Thulani Davis’s libretto.

Content Advisory: X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X contains strong language.

11/13/2023

Danforth Lecture
Scholars' Convocation: Richard Robinson
Nanoparticles 101: Small Particles, Big Impact!
Thursday, November 16 @ 11am
JRC 101

Imagine a world where tiny particles can cure diseases, create new forms of energy, and revolutionize the way we live and work. Nanoparticles -- tiny particles that are smaller than 100 nanometers in size -- have opened new worlds in science. Before their discovery, no one could have guessed that a material’s properties could radically change when it is shrunk down to the nanosize, but that’s exactly what happens: nanoparticles assume new, novel properties not seen in normal materials. Today, quantum dots are used in many applications, including televisions, LED lamps, and biochemistry. These materials have made such an impact that in 2023, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three scientists for their work on quantum dots. This talk discusses the history of quantum dots and explores their remarkable properties.

11/06/2023

Scholars' Convocation: David White '90
Fighting the World's Fight in a World Gone Mad: A Conversation about Philosophy, Politics and Economics in the Modern Age
Thursday, November 9 @ 11am
JRC 101

A Rhodes Scholar, David White '90 is a graduate of Grinnell College and Stanford Law School. His accomplished career includes being the CEO of the Screen Actors Guild, the Chair of a Federal Reserve Bank, and a former Chair of Grinnell College trustees. White currently runs an executive coaching and strategy consulting firm. His convocation will challenge us to expand our ideas about "fighting the world's fight," and how to employ our liberal education to positively impact business and society.

10/31/2023

HALLOWEEN SCAROLS ORGAN
TONIGHT @ 8:00pm
Herrick Chapel

Join us for an evening of spooky organ music sure to send shivers down your spine!

Grinnell College Organist Michael Elsbernd and student organists will perform a creepy but fun Halloween concert.

Event is free and open to the public.

10/30/2023

Scholars' Convocation: Jarvis Givens
Black Reconstructions: Archival Assembly and the History of African American Education
Thursday, November 2 @ 11am
JRC 101

Professor Givens will explore why the violence of the archive is a pressing matter for the field of education research. He will also discuss his work on reconstructing the life-worlds of African American teachers and students during the 19th and 20th centuries, while focusing particularly on what he calls "archival assembly," a methodological approach he employs to disrupt racialized gaps and silences in the historical record. This mode of black (historical) study is essential for achieving a more expansive vision of the educational past and futures.