Wednesday, February 5 - Sunday, February 9

Celebrating Black History Month

Wells will celebrate Black History Month with a performance series featuring comedy, dance, music, and the spoken word from Wednesday, February 5 through Sunday, February 9. All events will be located on the Wells campus and are open to the public - most are free.

• Wednesday, February 5, 8:00 p.m., Sommer Student Center: Comedian Shang will stimulate the audience and make them sit up and think while they are laughing. Shang became a hit at clubs and colleges with his dark, avant-garde, socio-political style. The influences of Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Bobcat Goldthwaite and Jim Morrison are detectable; but Shang's hard-hitting performance is uniquely his own.

  

• Friday, February 7, 8:00 p.m., Sommer Student Center: Sankofa, the African Dance and Drum Ensemble of SUNY Brockport, will present dance and theatre works expressing the dynamic presence of African culture in America. Some of the works are replicas of traditional African prototypes; others are re-creations, employing contemporary themes and movement motifs. Sankofa represents the rich cultural heritage of Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, the Americas, and Africa. This event is sponsored by the Wells Arts and Lectures Committee.
  

  

• Saturday, February 8, 8:00 p.m., Barler Auditorium: The Latin and jazz band Aconcagua will perform. The group's name is derived from the highest peak in the Americas, situated in the Andes between Argentina and Chile. Since its formation in 1993, the group has appeared in many international jazz festivals. Aconcagua's repertoire consists of original material and Latin-Jazz standards, influenced by Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, Argentinean, and Uruguayan music. This event is sponsored by the Wells Arts and Lectures Committee. Admission is $2.00 for students and seniors and $6.00 for the public.
  

• Sunday, February 9, 3:00 p.m., Sommer Center: Storyteller Shindana Cooper will stimulate awareness of the African and African-American communities by sharing authentic oral history that has evolved over many centuries. Her strong commitment to educating and motivating youth as well as the greater community has inspired her to tell ancient African stories as well as tales from around the world.

Thursday, February 13

Author and quilter Sandra Gould Ford to read at Wells College

Fiction writer and artist Sandra Gould Ford will read from her work on Thursday, February 13 at 8:00 p.m. in Macmillan Halls' Art Exhibit Room on the Wells College campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Ford is the founder and artistic director of Shooting Star Productions, Inc., a non-profit corporation that produces Shooting Star Review, an international literary and cultural magazine, and implements arts programs and other cultural events.

Her work has been published in Confluence Literary Magazine, Carnegie Magazine, James River Review, and Hemingway's. She received the Grand Prize for her writing in the Westmoreland Fiction Competition in 1993 and the August Wilson Fiction Competition in 1992.

In addition to her writing, she is also an accomplished photographer and quilt maker.

Ford received her master of fine arts and bachelor of arts degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, the International Women Writers' Guild, and the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses.

Sandra Gould Ford's visit to Wells is made possible by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.

Wednesday, February 19

A performance of Shaw's Man and Superman

George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman will be performed at Wells by The Julliard School Drama Division on Wednesday, February 19 at 8:00 p.m. in the college's newly renovated Phipps Auditorium. Tickets are $2.00 for students and seniors and $6.00 for the general public.

Written in 1903, Man and Superman punctures holes in the traditional perceptions of love and marriage through a role-reversing variation of the Don Juan legend. The charismatic John Tanner resists society's expectations and vows to remain a bachelor until his devious young ward, Anne Whitefield, traps him into marriage.

Directed by Eve Shapiro, the production will feature a cast of 11 talented students in their fourth and final year of study at the renowned Julliard School acting conservatory in New York City. Distinguished graduates of Julliard include Christine Baranski, Val Kilmer, Laura Linney, Kevin Kline, and Jean Tripplehorn.

Eve Shapiro is an internationally recognized director and teacher. She has directed more than 100 productions in the United States, England, Malta, South Africa and Switzerland. She was director of the Leeds Playhouse and at Bournemouth Repertory Company and was associate director at York Theater Royal in England. She was a master acting teacher at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London from 1962 to 1980. She is currently a senior faculty member at The Julliard School.

After its tour, this production of Man and Superman will return to New York for a run at Lincoln Center.

For reservations and information call the Student Activities Office at 315/364-3330.

Tuesday, February 25

Star Search winner brings puppets with attitudes to Wells

Ventriloquist Taylor Mason brings his unique musical comedy act to Wells' Sommer Student Center on Tuesday, February 25 at 7:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

With the help of puppets Romeo and Juliet and several other synthetic friends, Mason provides side-splitting entertainment for any audience. These are puppets with attitudes who allow Mason to splinter his personality - suddenly it's comedy to the third power.

Puppet Romeo studied history in college, he says, "because it was so easy. History repeats itself. I'll watch the reruns." Juliet is everything Mason is not: streetwise, witty, and hip. She constantly corrects him: "We're not a possum, we're a posse."

Mason and his friends have appeared on the MTV Half Hour Comedy Hour, Comic Strip Live, Evening at the Improv, and Caroline's Comedy Hour. He was a one million dollar Star Search winner in 1991.

Thursday, February 27

Rochester author will discuss "verminology" at Wells College

Rochester author Pamela Wharton Blanpied will read from her work on Thursday, February 27 at 8:00 p.m. in the Art Exhibit Room inside Macmillan Hall on the Wells campus. The event is free and open to the public.

The revised edition of Blanpied's critically acclaimed book, Dragons: The Modern Infestation, was published in November of 1996 by Boydell & Brewer, and she plans to educate and entertain the audience with excerpts. In her work, Blanpied satirizes popular science through ingenious use of the mythology of dragons and the creation of an academic discipline called verminology.

In an article published in the Village Voice, Barry Yourgrau writes, "... the real savor of Blanpied's book resides in the first-person parts, with their human specific warmth and voice. My favorite part is an account of a pioneering female verminologist's sojourn with a bunch of dragons who adopt her. It is parody yet still conveys the sober thrill of extraordinary sights."

In an article published in City Newspaper, Charles Flowers praises Blanpied's book: "The send-ups of scholarly research and of scholarly researchers are so wickedly just that, for the type of reader who believes that all moon landings were staged in Arizona, the work will seem perfectly straight... Beneath the playful surface of this delightful text, Blanpied explores our longing for the supernatural and for immortality itself with compassion and wit."

Blanpied is the associate producer of the Rochester Arts and Lecture Series and is the former co-owner of the Little Theatre in downtown Rochester.

This event is made possible by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.

Wednesday, March 5

Former Poet Laureate of Alaska will read

Sheila Nickerson, former poet laureate of Alaska, will read at Wells on Wednesday, March 5, at 8:00 p.m. in Macmillan Hall's Art Exhibit Room. The reading is free, and the public is invited to attend.

Nickerson is a novelist, poet, editor, and free-lance writer who has lived and written in Alaska since 1971. In her most recent book, Disappearance: A Map, she chronicles the disappearance of a colleague whose small plane was lost near the Malaspina Glacier and the Bering Glacier, an area also known as Alaska's Bermuda Triangle.

Her investigation into his disappearance leads her back to the beginning of the Alaskan frontier, the journeys of Sir John Franklin and subsequent explorers who were in search of the North Pole. From this investigation, Nickerson assembles a vivid map of uncharted territories and lives that touch through time, coincidence, or the hope of a message buried beneath a cairn.

Nickerson is author of a novel In Rooms of Falling Rain; a non-fiction book, Writers in the Public Library; a full-length musical, The Enchanted Halibut; and an anthology, Women Poets - The West, II. Her books of poetry include On Why the Quiltmaker Becomes a Dragon, Waiting for the News of Death, and In the Compass of Unrest.

Nickerson's visit to Wells is sponsored by a grant from the New York State Council for the Arts.

For more information on campus events call Wells College Public Relations at (315) 364-3209

Return to Campus Events

Library Resources Alumnae Association Career Services Conferences & Camps Book Arts Center		Internet Resources Campus Map Campus Events Campus News Finding People & Information
	HOME