The Oxnard College Literature, Arts and Lecture Series will begin its 2014 spring Series with a celebration of the African American Poet Langston Hughes. Other events will feature a panel on addiction, poetry reading by the California State Poet Laureate, a Middle Eastern musical group, and testimony from a concentration camp survivor.
Sponsored by Oxnard College, the Series begins February 26, 2014, and will be held on Wednesdays from 1:00-2:00 p.m. on campus in the Performing Arts Center. The event held on April 30 is co-sponsored by Poets & Writers, Inc., through a James Irvine grant. All events are free, open to the public, and interpreted for the deaf and hard of hearing. Parking is $2.00. For more information, contact Shelley Savren, faculty coordinator, by email at ssavren@vcccd.edu or tel. 805-986-5800 (x1951). The Performing Arts Center is located on the north end of Oxnard College at 4000 S. Rose Avenue, Oxnard, CA 93033.
Spring 2014 Series Schedule
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Langston Hughes’s “Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz”
For African American History Month, USC Music Professor Ron McCurdy will recite the words of this 12-part epic poem and accompany them on the horn, celebrating Hughes's homage in verse and music to the struggle for artistic and social freedom at home and abroad at the beginning of the 1960s.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
“Addiction”
Oxnard College Addictive Disorders Professor Michael Webb will moderate a panel discussing problems and solutions of addiction, featuring Bill Shilley addressing new strategies, Lois Zsarney on nutrition, Becca Porter on support groups, Jose Cuervo on recovering, and Dr. Webb addressing criminal justice.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
“Latinologues”
Award-winning actor-writer-director-producer-comedian Rick Najera will entertain the audience with monologues from his book, Latinologues, and will discuss the image that Latinos have in Hollywood from inside out, focusing on the need for diversity in the arts and how his book Almost White addresses it.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
“The Wild and the Fire”
Poet and English Professor Shelley Savren will read poems from her new book The Wild Shine of Oranges and from The Common Fire, which depict her rebellious youth, portray her family and highlight teaching experiences in prison, juvenile hall, and schools for abused and suicidal teens, among others.
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
“Ain’t Got No Jeep and My Camel Died”
Israeli Musician Yair Dalal will play the ancient oud, ancestor of the guitar, and will talk about his experiences living with Bedouin nomads in the Negev and Sinai Deserts and the music created there – the instruments, the songs, the people, the stories and the inspirations coming from that life.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
“Uncle Walt Remembers the War”
In remembrance of the day the Civil War ended (April 9, 1864, exactly 150 years ago) and the death of President Lincoln five days later, actor John Slade will embody Walt Whitman, performing his poems, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” “O Captain! My Captain!” and “Song to the Open Road.”
Wednesday, April 16, 2104
“Wahid: A Middle Eastern Musical Duo”
Oudist and Composer Dimitris Mahlis will join with percussionist extraordinaire Chris Wabich to perform a selection of music from the Greek, Turkish, Carnatic and Western jazz traditions, using original composition and improvisation to convey a true musical fusion that is both uplifting and genre defying.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
“Never Forget, Never Let Happen Again – the Worst Genocide”
In commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day, survivor and author Clara Knopfler will speak about her experiences with her mother in several Nazi concentration and extermination camps and her life after liberation, followed by a Q and A and a signing of her book which documents those experiences.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
“From the Migrant Fields to California State Poet Laureate”
UC Riverside English Professor and California State Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera will read poems from his many books and discuss his journey from being a migrant worker to a published poet and a voice for the Mexican American experience to holding the highest office for poetry in California.
May 7, 2014
“Descending Into the Primal”
Professor Anthony Rodriguez and the students of Sigma Kappa Delta English Honors Society at Oxnard College will sound the depths of human nature as it is evidenced in William Golding's Lord of the Flies, debating issues, analyzing characters and reenacting scenes from this classic twentieth-century novel.
