The Digest
What’s Happening at KVCC
What’s below in this edition
ü ‘About Writing’ (Pages 1-3) ü ‘Honors’ deadline (Page 11)
ü About Gandhi (Page 3) ü ‘Dalai’ dialogue (Page 11)
ü Cougar spikers (Pages 3/4) ü Cemeteries (Pages 12/13)
ü Festival of Arts (Page 4) ü Ecuador (Page 13)
ü ‘Stitches for Charity’ (Pages 4/5) ü Ireland in art (Page 14)
ü Get on the ball (Page 5) ü Getting fit (Page 15)
ü Balkan jazz (Pages 5/6) ü Thanks to you (Pages 15/16)
ü Movies at museum (Pages 6-8) ü Last chance (Page 16)
ü Campus concert (Pages 8/9) ü Feed the hungry (Page 16)
ü ‘Day of the Dead’ (Page 9) ü ‘People’ seminars (Pages 16/17)
ü ‘Louie, Louie’ (Pages 9/10) ü Blood clinic (Pages 17/18)
ü Trick or treat (Pages 10/11) ü Retiring? (Page 18)
ü And finally (Pages 18/19)
☻☻☻☻☻☻
Author Sanders here for KVCC writing series
Indiana-based author Scott Russell Sanders, whose latest book “A Private History of Awe” is called a coming-of-age memoir, love story, and spiritual testament, is coming to KVCC for a series of discussions and a reading next month.
Part of instructor Rob Haight’s series “About Writing,” the programs are free and open to the public.
The trio of one-hour discussions with faculty and students will be held in the Student Commons on: Wednesday, Nov. 8, at 10 a.m., and at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 9.
Sanders’ reading is scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday (Nov. 8) in the Commons.
Sanders, a professor of English at the main Indiana University campus in Bloomington, has published 11 books of non-fiction, eight works of fiction, eight children’s books, and scores of articles and essays. He has been the recipient of the Lannon Literary Award and the Great Lakes Book Award.
A review in The Boston Globe had this to say about Sanders’ way with words: “In the tradition of Montaigne, Thoreau, Wendell Berry and Annie Dillard, Sanders has established himself as one of the few masters of the personal essay.”
Born in Memphis, Tenn., in 1945, Sanders targets much of his writing to humanity’s relationship to nature, issues of social justice, the character of community, and the impact of science on the lives of people. Much of that can be traced to his parents. His father came from a family of Mississippi cotton farmers. His mother was the daughter of an immigrant physician in Chicago.
Sanders, who also spent some of his school years in Ohio, majored in physics and English at Brown University, graduating in 1967. He earned his doctorate in English at Cambridge University four years later and joined the Indiana University faculty that same year — 1971.
His hobbies include hiking, carpentry, gardening, nature study and travel. He and his wife, Ruth, a biochemist, are the parents of two grown children. Among his 19 books are eight works of fiction, including “Fetching the Dead,” “Hear the Wind Blow,” “The Engineer of Beasts,” and “The Invisible Company.” Non-fiction works include “The Paradise of Bombs” and “Secrets of the Universe.” Many of his essays and stories are set in the Ohio River Valley.
About “A Private History of Awe,” Sanders said:
“I never thought I would make such a book, wary as I am of memoirs and spirit-language. For years I shied away from writing about religious experience, in part because of the hostility that many literary readers show toward all references to spirituality, in part because these matters have always seemed to me better left private. Yet the questions I’ve kept returning to in my adult life are essentially religious ones, and I found myself unwilling to abandon that terrain to the televangelists and fundamentalists.”
He said his ethics were formed in conversation with the Midwestern landscape, the Bible, rural Methodist churches, science, literature, and family, all of which inspired him to read the words of Tolstoy, Thoreau, Gandhi, Einstein, Rachel Carson, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Buddha.
“During the writing of this book,” Sanders said, “I spent many hours caring for my mother, as she suffered physical and mental decline, and caring for my first grandchild, as she launched into life with the marvelous energy and beauty natural to all healthy children. Together, the dwindling elder and burgeoning youngster made their way into the book, adding their twin stories of painful departure and exuberant entrance to the narrative of my own formative years.
“The resulting book,” he said, “may irk true-believers at one extreme, and militant secularists at the other. But I hope that readers who dwell between those extremes will find, as the Quakers say, that /A Private History of Awe’ speaks to their condition.”
Designated as a “Distinguished Professor at Indiana,” Sanders spent a year as writer-in-residence at Phillips Exeter Academy, and another year as visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has received fellowships for writing from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Indiana Arts Commission, the Lilly Endowment, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He also serves as a columnist on new fiction for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Sanders and his writings will also be the focal point of The New School’s Friday-morning seminar on Nov. 10. To facilitate the dialogue, Haight has been using “A Private History of Awe” in his English classes as has fellow instructor Gloria Larrieu. Instructor Ron Miazga has assigned another of Sanders’ books, “The Force of Spirit,” to some of his students. For more information, contact Haight at extension 4452.
Recollections of Gandhi
A grandson’s recollections of one of the great figures of the 20th century, Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi, will be shared with a KVCC audience on Tuesday, Nov. 14, at the Texas Township Campus.
Via satellite, Arun Gandhi will lead a 60-minute interactive seminar on “Lessons Learned from My Grandfather” at 7:30 p.m. The seminar, free and open to the public, will be aired in the Students Commons Theater.
Participants will have the opportunity to call in or e-mail questions to Gandhi, who was born in South Africa and raised in the environment of apartheid.
At the age of 12, he was sent by his parents to stay with his grandfather during a turbulent period in India’s struggle to free itself from British rule. Viewing firsthand the effects of his grandfather’s national campaign for liberation through nonviolent means, he was set on a course for life.
The senior Gandhi, who gained a global reputation for his nonviolent ways in the name of humanity, was shot to death by an assassin in New Delhi on Jan. 30, 1948. He was 78. The title of “Mahatma” means “great soul.”
After leading successful projects for economic and social reform in India, Arun Gandhi traveled to the United States to study racism in America. In 1991, he and his wife founded the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Memphis, Tenn., where one of his grandfather’s ardent followers, Martin Luther King Jr. himself had been shot to death by an assassin.
In the one-hour event, Gandhi will describe his grandfather’s concept of a nonviolent way of life. He will explain what his grandfather meant by “nonviolence” and provide examples of nonviolence in practice. He believes the United States and all nations should not resort to violence and fear to solve problems. Rather, the world needs to see the United States as a superpower in terms of its moral strength.
The presentation, which is co-produced by the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society and the National Collegiate Honors Council, is the fourth installment of a four-part, satellite-seminar series entitled “Gold, Gods, and Glory: The Global Dynamics of Power.”
Hosting the KVCC dialogue will be the college’s Phi Theta Kappa chapter.
Volleyballers eye state tourney
KVCC’s women’s volleyball team, coached by Jason Reese, is poised to make a major impact in this weekend’s regional tournament of the Michigan Community College Athletic Association at Oakland Community College.
By defeating Kellogg Community College last week, the Lady Cougars remained undefeated in league play and clinched the Western Conference Championship.
With success at the MCCAA tourney Oct. 27-28, the KVCC spikers can advance to the National Junior College Athletic Association regional tournament slated for Nov. 3-5 on the campus of Grand Rapids Community College. The nationals are booked for Scottsdale, Ariz., Nov. 16-18.
Members of the 2006 team and their high schools are: Jessica Sanders (White Pigeon), Alycia Davenport (Three Rivers), Leah VanEeuwen of Byron Center, Megan Duley of Cadillac, Taylor Jackson and Ashlyn Burke both of Portage Northern, Emily Mohney of Mattawan, Kim Gear and Shannon McLaughlin both of Watervliet, and Nicole Samules (Riverview).
Second Festival of Arts Nov. 4
Artisans and craftsmen will demonstrate how they create from metal, glass, wood, paint, fibers and other media when the Kalamazoo Valley Museum hosts its second Festival of Arts on Saturday (Nov. 4) from noon to 4 p.m.
The free activities will begin at the conclusion of downtown Kalamazoo’s annual Holiday Parade.
Among the participants will be:
● The West Michigan Glass Society whose members will demonstrate the secrets and skills of glass blowing in the front of the museum, as well as discuss lampworking, bead-making, fused glass, stained glass and mosaics.
● Wood carver Patrick Smith, whose workshop is in the Park Trades Center on Kalamazoo Avenue and hosts a program on the Community Access Center, will show how he produces hand-made wall plaques, three-dimensional sculptures and furniture.
● Textile artists from the Kalamazoo Weavers Guild, the West Michigan Lace Group, and the Kalamazoo Embroidery Guild will demonstrate a variety of fiber arts.
● Museum staff member Elizabeth Barker will demonstrate needle felting.
● Papermaker Eve Reid.
● Metalsmith and jewelry-maker Jennifer Moss.
Holly Fisher, owner of Smartshop Metalworking School and Gallery at 516 E. North St., is another likely participant to create metal sculptures on a forge in front of the museum.
Visitors will be able to create their own art using wool, paper pulp, cardboard tubes, and other materials.
For more information, call extension 7990.
Stitching for Ministry with Community
The people served by Ministry with Community will be the beneficiary of “Stitches for Charity,” an event being organized by “Knit One. . .Purl Two-Gether,” the college’s knitting group, for Friday (Nov. 3).
From noon to 10 p.m., knitters, crotchetiers and sew-ers are invited to stop by Room 1510 (The Gallery) on the Texas Township Campus to do their stitching best to create hats, scarves, gloves and mittens for the organization that serves the community’s poor, homeless, mentally ill, and those recovering from substance abuse.
Organizer Sue Visser said the event is open to anybody who would like to make winter apparel for charity. “This is not limited to those who take part in our knitting group,” she said. “The idea is for people to come when they can, and leave when they must. Newly purchased winter goods can also be donated.”
Such personal-care items as soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothbrushes, and toothpaste will also be accepted.
“We are also inviting college personnel to join us for this fun and worthwhile day while we work together to help keep our neighbors warm this winter,” Visser said.
She can be contacted at extension 4819 for more information about helping with “Stitches for Charity.”
There will be finger-food snacks, door prizes, music and an environment warmed by the fact the people are helping other people.
Visser is also looking for some creative soul or souls at KVCC to prepare a “Stitches for Charity” display in the main lobby’s showcase. She intends to exhibit stitched, sewed and crocheted items that have already been completed and add others as they are done. Door-prize donations are also needed.
Those who would like to join “Knit One. . .Purl Two-Gether” at its weekly knitting gathering on Wednesdays should also contact her.
Be on the ball and in better shape
KVCC employees and their spouses who sign up for a special fitness workshop will receive a free exercise ball.
Guiding the “Get on the Ball” workshops is Sheila Rupert, the latest addition to the KVCC Wellness and Fitness Center. She’ll also be leading two sessions on “Stretching Stress Management.”
Here’s the Texas Township Campus schedule:
♥ “Get on the Ball” – Thursday (Nov. 2) in the Student Commons Theater from noon to 1.
♥ “Stretching for Stress Management” – Thursday, Nov. 16, in the Student Commons Theater from noon to 1.
She’ll be back on the Arcadia Commons Campus on:
♥ Thursday, Dec. 7, for “Stretching for Stress Management” from noon to 1 in 128 B of Anna Whitten Hall.
One of Rupert’s favorite tools is the exercise ball that brings elements of balance and challenge to workouts.
These are essential elements for building one’s core strength, for stretching and for flexibility.
For more information about these workshops, personal fitness goals, and how to receive an exercise ball, contact Rupert at 488-4367, at extension 1305, or at .
Jazz – Balkan style – next in concert series
The Balkan jazz of the Goran Ivanovic Group continues the Thursday-night concerts for adult audiences at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum on Nov. 2.
Described as “a pan-cultural ensemble with a sound that combines jazz and classical music with leaping rhythms and the distinctive tonal palette of Balkan music,” the combo will perform at 7:30 p.m. in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater. Tickets are $5.