With the exception of Hakimah Abdul-Fattah and Cameron Sheldon, who were abroad, the 2013 Fulbright grant recipients attended a May 13 reception at the home of Bates President Clayton Spencer. From left: Catherine Tuttle, Libby Egan, Tara Prasad, Marisa Mohrer, Spencer, Valerie Jarvis, Hansen Johnson, Nora Hanagan, Taryn O’Connell. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College.

Known as a top producer of students receiving prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Grants, Bates this month will graduate 10 such students — a record number for the college.

Supporting an academic year of research and teaching in more than 155 countries outside the United States, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program is funded primarily by the U.S. Department of State and sends some 1,800 U.S. citizens abroad annually.

The 2013 Bates recipients comprise one student awarded a study/research grant, for a biology project in Norway; eight who have received English Teaching Assistantships for work in nations from France to Malaysia; and one recipient of a Fulbright Austria U.S. Teaching Assistantship. The assistantships support students who both pursue their own research and work to improve local students’ English and knowledge of the United States.

Meet Bates’ 2013 Fulbright recipients:

• Hakimah Abdul-Fattah of Holland, Pa. An anthropology major and French minor, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in France.
• Emily “Libby” Egan of Harvard, Mass. A sociology major and education minor, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Bulgaria.
• Nora Hanagan of Singapore. A politics major and education minor, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Turkey.
• Valerie Jarvis of Granville, Mass. A major in biological chemistry with a minor in Spanish, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Malaysia.
• Hansen Johnson of Stowe, Vt. A biology major and music minor, he received a research assistantship for work in Norway.
• Marisa Mohrer of Guilford, Conn. A psychology major and minor in German, she received a Fulbright Austria U.S. Teaching Assistantship.
• Taryn O’Connell of Georgetown, Mass. A major in environmental studies and minor in history, O’Connell was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Malaysia.
• Tara Prasad of Lincoln, R.I. A major in biological chemistry and minor in education, Prasad received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in South Korea.
• Cameron Sheldon of Canton, Conn. A politics major and Spanish minor, Sheldon received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Armenia.
• Catherine Tuttle of Pittsford, N.Y. A double major in Spanish and English, Tuttle was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Spain.

Davis Project for Peace recipients Spencer Collet ’13 and James LePage ’13. Photograph by Michael Bradley/Bates College.

Initiatives to foster Israeli-Palestinian dialogue through the Web and nurture collaborative conversations in a recently liberalized Myanmar have garnered Davis Projects for Peace awards for three Bates students.

The $10,000 awards support international projects that college students undertake to “bring new thinking to the prospects of peace in the world,” in the words of philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis. Learn more.

Two seniors, Spencer Collet of Leawood, Kan., and James LePage of Cumberland, Maine, received the award for “Tweets for Peace,” their project using the Internet to enhance communication between Israeli and Palestinian youth. The pair will work with former participants in the Seeds of Peace conflict resolution program that takes place every summer in Otisfield, Maine.

2013 Davis Project for Peace recipient Aung Myint ’14. Photograph by Michael Bradley/Bates College.

Aung Myint, a junior from Yangon, Myanmar, received his award for “Minorities, Monasteries, and Conversations,” a reading-discussion program to help build the capacity for critical judgment and constructive dialogue among ethnic minorities in his native country. Using Burmese translations of English texts from the Maryland-based Touchstones Discussion Project, Myint will coordinate gatherings in Buddhist monasteries in Yangon.

Learn more about the Bates students’ Projects for Peace:

• Tweets for Peace
• Minorities, Monasteries, and Conversations

The Hot Club of San Francisco brings its “Cinema Vivant” program, performing live scores to vintage silent films, to Bates on Friday, May 10. Photograph by Lenny Gonzalez.

Hello from Bates! Here’s a listing of public events at the college for April 24-May 26, 2013.

The public is invited to these events. Except as noted, admission is free. (Where two admission fees appear, the cost for the general public is listed first, followed by the cost for students and seniors.)

Please note: The printed version of this calendar contained an erroneous listing for the Sheryl Bailey 3 concert. The concert takes place Friday, May 17. In addition, an incorrect source for tickets for the Hot Club of San Francisco was cited. The correct source is this L/A Arts site. We regret the errors.

Want the latest events information? Visit the daily Events page. Questions or comments? Contact events editor Doug Hubley at calendar@bates.edu.

Thanks for your interest in Bates!

Weekly
(please call to confirm)

6pm Wed | Life drawing: Sponsored by the Museum of Art on Wednesdays April 24-May 22. Dry-media easels and drawing benches provided, bring drawing board and supplies. $7. FMI 207-786-6158.
Olin 259

5:30pm Sat | Catholic Mass led each week by Associated Catholic Chaplain Fr. Paul Dumais of the Prince of Peace Parish. FMI 207-786-8272.
Gomes Chapel

5:30pm Sun | Protestant worship with gospel singing led each week by Stephen Saxon. FMI 207-786-8272.
Gomes Chapel

24 Wed

4:30pm | Local Histories: Dickens, Shame and Autobiographical Writing. A talk by Vassar’s Susan Zlotnick, associate professor of English. Refreshments. Sponsored by the the English department. FMI 207-753-6963.
Pettengill G21

Daniel Chong.

25 Thu

4:30pm | Hybrid Places and Meandering Paths: Connecting Russia and Maine. Jane Costlow, formerly a professor of Russian at Bates, offers this lecture to mark her appointment as Clark A. Griffith ’53 Professor in the Study of the Environment. FMI 207-755-5978.
Olin Concert Hall

26 Fri

7:30pm | Piano and violin. Violinist Daniel Chong of the Parker Quartet and pianist Frank Glazer, Bates artist in residence, perform in an Olin Arts Alive event. Admission: $12, available at batestickets.com. Free tickets are available for the first 50 seniors and students; reserve via olinarts@bates.edu. FMI 207-786-6163.
Olin Concert Hall

1 Wed

4pm | Baseball vs. Southern Maine.
Leahey Field

A Bates crowd at the Courthouse Plaza on Lisbon Street listens to the all-college a cappella performance that concluded the 2012 “College Night in Town,” known this year as “Bates Night in Town.” Photograph by Mikey Pasek ’12.

5 pm | Bates Night in Town: Aiming to enrich the relationship between Bates and the Twin Cities, students perform and show art downtown while restaurants offer discounts to students. Highlights include an exhibit of student art in the Art Deco Lamey-Wellehan building and an all-school a cappella concert in Dufresne Plaza, both on Lisbon Street. All events are open to the public. FMI mmurphy4@bates.edu.
Downtown Lewiston–Auburn

6pm | Noted photographer Chester Higgins Jr., whose work has appeared in major museums and publications such as Life, Time and The New York Times, offers a presentation called Dancing With My Spirit. Sponsored by the Learning Associates Program and the African American and American cultural studies programs. FMI 207-786-8296.
Pettengill G65

8 Wed

2:30pm | Baseball vs. St. Joseph’s.
Leahey Field

9 Thu

Time TBA | Bates Folk Music Festival: First of three days. The Freewill Folk Society’s third annual event features dancing, workshops and performances by Velocipede, The Press Gang, Alba’s Edge, Katie McNally and Eric McDonald, and Greg and Jessie Boardman. Admission, on a sliding scale, is $5–$20 for one day / $10–$30 for the weekend. FMI batesfolkfest.weebly.com/.
Chase Hall & other campus locations

Alba’s Edge. From left, Doug Berns, bassist; Neil Pearlman, pianist; Lilly Pearlman, fiddler; Jacob Cole, percussionist. At Bates, Katie McNally will fill in for Lilly Pearlman.

4:15pm | Getting Ahead: Social Mobility, Public Housing and Immigrant Networks. This talk by Professor Silvia Dominguez of the sociology and human services department at Northeastern University concludes the City, Neighborhood and Society series exploring social-science approaches to urban issues. FMI 207-786-8296.
Pettengill G65

10 Fri

7:30pm | Hot Club of San Francisco: Taking its cue from the French-Gypsy swing of guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stéphane Grapelli, the quintet brings its Cinema Vivant program of silent films with live music to Bates. Jointly presented by L/A Arts and the Olin Arts Alive series. Admission is $20, available at L/A Arts. FMI 207-786-6163 or olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Concert Hall

Time TBA | Bates Folk Music Festival (see May 9).
Chase Hall & other campus locations

11 Sat

Time TBA | Bates Folk Music Festival (see May 9).
Chase Hall & other campus locations

Day for Night plays classic country.

7:30pm | BatesDowntown: The college’s off-campus music series presents an evening of Americana with Day for Night, a Portland-based acoustic country duo, and the Seth Warner Trio, which plays folk, blues, old-time country and other styles. Free, but tickets required — available at batestickets.com. FMI 207-786-6135.
22 Park St.

15 Wed

4:30pm | Taking Italy Home: Souvenirs from the Grand Tour. Veronique B. Plesch, an artist and professor of art at Colby College, offers a talk sponsored by the Bates Department of Art and Visual Culture. FMI 207-786-8212.
Olin 104

Jazz guitarist Sheryl Bailey.

17 Fri

7:30pm | Sheryl Bailey 3: Combining “an astonishing command of the fingerboard with a seemingly endless flow of melodic invention,” jazz guitarist Bailey offers a trio performance in this Olin Arts Alive concert. Admission: $12, available at batestickets.com. Free tickets are available to the first 100 seniors and students by advance reservation: 207-786-6163. FMI olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Concert Hall

22 Wed

5pm | Dance Club Short Term Show. Featuring works by student choreographers and student dance groups, as well as the piece developed for this year’s “Tour Teach Perform” Short Term program by renowned performers Postell Pringle ’98 and Erin Gottwald ’98. FMI 207-786-6161.
Schaeffer Theatre

23 Thu

7pm | Writers read: Senior English majors read from their creative writing theses. FMI 207-786-6256.
Chase Hall, Skelton Lounge

26 Sun

10am | Commencement: Bates College’s 147th annual graduation exercises.
Historic Quad

“Citadel Ruin” (2010), a drawing in charcoal on Mylar by Dozier Bell. Courtesy of Aucocisco Galleries, Portland, Maine.

Museum of Art

FMI 207-786-6158
Hours: 10am–5pm Mon–Sat
(till 7pm Wed while Bates is in session)

NOTE: After May 25, the museum closes for renovations during summer 2013.

Through May 25

Annual Senior Thesis Exhibition: Culminating their yearlong thesis project, studio art majors Eleanor Anaclerio, Erin Augulewicz, Isaac Thompson and Amanda Wescott explore conceptual and psychological topics including the effects captured by a camera obscura; the relationships between spaces private and public, uninhabited and inhabited; representational portraits; and sculptural abstraction.

Dozier Bell: Mind’s Eye: Bell’s small-yet-powerful recent graphite drawings depict mysterious cloud-covered mountains, fog-shrouded craggy fingers of land jutting into the ocean and fragmented skylines in the low light of dawn or dusk. The work embodies the force of nature rather than focusing primarily on descriptive details.

Selections From the Permanent Collection: Recent Acquisitions: Work by historical and contemporary artists exploring a variety of media and subject matter. Artists with Maine ties include Marsden Hartley, William Manning, Charlie Hewitt and Andrew Wyeth. Curated with assistance from Museum of Art interns Cara Garcia-Bou ’13 and Nell Wachsberger ’13.

Postell Pringle ’98 (left, as Othello) and GQ (Iago) face off as Iago’s plot unfolds in Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s production of “Othello: The Remix.” Photograph by Michael Brosilow.

Rapper, writer, actor and director Postell Pringle ’98 is winning rave reviews for his star turn this spring in the title role of Othello: The Remix at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

In March, Time Out Chicago named Pringle its Performer of the Week. In a Time Out Q-and-A , he discussed how working in theater at Bates sharpened his delivery as a rapper:

“My approach to the actual attack of the line and getting punchlines and the arc of the storytelling within the song was all different. I realized that it had to do with the fact that I had just been working on acting, working on playing characters. … I wouldn’t be as good of a rapper if I hadn’t spent all that time working on just acting and just theater.”

Othello: The Remix was adapted from Shakespeare’s tragedy by the Q Brothers — aka GQ and JQ, who with Pringle and a fourth member are also members of the rap group the Retar Crew. The entire Crew performs in The Remix.

The Q’s modus operandi, previously exercised on such works as The Bomb-itty of Errors, is to render Shakespeare’s entire text as rhyming couplets suitable for rap delivery. The Remix re-imagines the title character as “a hip-hop mogul whose life falls apart when he makes Iago the opener’s opener on a new tour,” writes Time Out blogger Oliver Sava.

“To cut to the chase: Othello: The Remix — the 90-minute, lightning-fast, hip-hop version of Shakespeare’s tragic tale of jealousy and self-doubt — is absolutely brilliant, and immense fun,” wrote Chicago Sun-Times theater critic Hedy Weiss.

With Bates classmate Erin Gottwald, a dancer and choreographer, Pringle returns to campus this spring to lead the longstanding Short Term unit Tour Teach Perform, in which students create a dance piece and teach it to pupils in local schools.

• See the Chicago Time Out story about Pringle from March 21, 2013.
• See the Chicago Sun-Times review.
• See Pringle and Gottwald in their collaborative piece “Last Chance.”

Ingrid Olivia Norrmén-Smith ’13. Photograph by Michael Bradley/Bates College.

A 2013 Watson Fellowship will make it possible for a Bates alumna to spend a year in Africa and Asia researching cultural perceptions of one of humankind’s leading causes of death and disability.

A double major in neuroscience and French who graduates in May, Ingrid Norrmén-Smith of Upper Montclair, N.J., has received the Watson to support research that will explore how people in Morocco, Madagascar and Cambodia regard strokes and stroke victims.

“Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability around the world, but there isn’t a lot of literature regarding how different cultures perceive it” — even though a better understanding of such cultural perceptions could mitigate the global impact of strokes, says Norrmén-Smith, who goes by her middle name, Olivia.

“Your brain is an incredible organ that defines you, and when you have an affront to that organ, so much is changed. The effects are so personal — how people deal with disability, trauma and concepts of self, all of these different things.”

She adds, “I believe that as a Westerner, I stand to learn something valuable about how stroke victims are treated elsewhere. It may be that victims in other cultures are respected and revered, not stigmatized, and that life post-stroke is more fruitful because the support system that exists is more robust.

“I am just so happy that the Watson Foundation recognized this project.”

Awarded only to graduates of 40 highly selective liberal arts colleges, the Watson is one of the nation’s most prestigious graduate fellowships. The $25,000 fellowship is designed to identify potential leaders and challenge them in ways that foster independence, a global perspective and adaptability to new cultures. It funds research on a topic deeply important to the recipient and is conducted outside academe and the recipient’s home culture. Learn more.

“My project has two components,” says Norrmén-Smith. “One is to discern on a grand scale how stroke is perceived, and that will be accomplished via a questionnaire” completed by ordinary citizens in the destination country.

“But then I will also have personal interviews with stroke patients or people close to them.”

Norrmén-Smith has reached out to leading researchers in each country for assistance in finding stroke patients to interview and in administering the questionnaires. The questionnaires will combine basic demographic questions with scenarios depicting people afflicted in different ways by a stroke — physical, emotional and mental.

“It will be fascinating to see if disparate deficits evoke different responses,” she says. In addition, she will ask how participants would feel if a family member was experiencing stroke symptoms and what interventions the participant would take.

“Those could include options such as seeking medical help or religious advice, or whether the participant would intervene socially, pursue an exorcism, not seek help, etc.”

Although the cultures of Morocco, Madagascar and Cambodia differ in many ways, Norrmén-Smith suspects that religion will be a prime factor in shaping perceptions of stroke. She takes her lead from research into cross-cultural perceptions of mental illness that points to religion as a major determinant.

Morocco is predominantly Muslim, Cambodia primarily Buddhist and Madagascar is roughly divided between Christianity and faith practices indigenous to the island. But despite her expectations about religion’s role, “who knows what I will find?” Norrmén-Smith says. “That’s what’s intriguing.”

Norrmén-Smith first became interested in stroke while working as a volunteer and intern in New Jersey hospitals during the past several years. At the Overlook Medical Center in Summit, she conducted surveys of stroke patients and attended stroke-support group sessions.

She parlayed this experience into a project for the trauma hospital at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, in Newark, where she created a stroke awareness brochure that has been adopted by the neurology department and disseminated through the city’s medical establishment.

At Bates, Norrmén-Smith may be better known for her stage presence than her neuroscience research. She has sung with a variety of campus bands, including the a cappella Crosstones, and has also acted in plays.

“It’s the nature of a Bates student to be doing things that he or she is passionate about and to be overcommitted — in a good way,” she says. “People are really involved with things. I think Bates is a very happy place and that has influenced my experiences here.”

Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College.

Julia Foxworth ’13 of New York City, at right, spent much of April 5 “bombing” a bench on Alumni Walk — yarn bombing, that is.

Aka “guerrilla knitting” and “grandma graffiti,” yarn bombing is a genre of street art designed to raise awareness of the community environment, and inspire conversation and collaboration. Seeking to bring color and warmth to a concrete bench during a time of year that’s drab, chilly and stressful (finals are next week), Foxworth crocheted the piece with the help of 15 collaborators.

Later in the afternoon, other students were expected to celebrate the piece with ukulele playing, cupcakes, poetry, guerrilla knitting and other creative expressions. “The more color, the more collaborators, the better,” said Foxworth, shown above with classmate and fellow crocheter John Sowles. “The piece reflects the diversity of Bates.”

The piece was welcomed with simultaneous cries of “That’s so cool!” from passers-by. With the guidance of associate professor Pamela Johnson, art and visual culture major Foxworth undertook this project as an independent study complementary to her art history thesis. After Bates, Foxworth is off to a master’s program in arts administration at Columbia.

Clay Baldo ’13 explains a Chinese political poster during the Mount David Summit. Photograph by Michael Bradley/Bates College College.

It’s common knowledge here in the U.S. that the Chinese government’s involvement in arts and entertainment is, shall we say, much more hands-on than Americans are used to.

Presented during the Mount David Summit by their adviser, Assistant Professor of Chinese Xing Fan, three seniors described thesis projects that illustrated intriguing examples of such state involvement.

Clay Baldo of Santa Fe, N.M., talked about mid-20th century propaganda posters and the communist Chinese government’s shifting intentions for them. Baldo’s focus was the contrast between agitative and integrative propaganda — in musical terms, “Power to the People” vs. “Get Together.”

Of equal concern in mid-century China was the time-honored propaganda technique of holding up scapegoats, such as the Gang of Four, as a way of putting a face on politically odorous tendencies. The “Smash the Gang of Four” campaign in the 1970s, said Baldo, “is my favorite, because I hate the Gang of Four.”

Moving from Mao’s rise to dominance through the Cultural Revolution and beyond, Baldo’s poster gallery segued from scenarios of sanctioned worker violence against class enemies to pictures of harmonious collaboration in attractive landscapes. (Writers in attendance at the presentation were especially gratified by depictions of the pen as a weapon just as efficacious as a spear or shovel.) He noted that while the Chinese government still uses something like propaganda posters, nowadays they are more likely to caution against littering.

Eleanor Anaclerio of Winnetka, Ill., a double major in art and Chinese, talked about the high-profile dissident artist Ai Weiwei. Anaclerio’s own artwork seemed to have some oblique bearing on her presentation: She is also a photographer whose camera obscura images explore notions of public and private space as they seem to bring Bates campus scenes into student bedrooms.

Anaclerio argued that in a more liberal social-political context, Ai Weiwei could be doing what he does now and yet would not be seen as a dissident. Instead, the political climate in China has made him a dissident, she said, “but he hasn’t shied away from it at all.”

What impressed her particularly about this intrepid conceptual artist, she said, is his ability to create a community around him wherever he is, whether it was New York in the go-go 1980s or on the Internet today — where Ai Weiwei has pitched his big tent because the Chinese authorities won’t let him leave the country.

Anaclerio pointed to Ai’s 2010-11 Sunflower Seeds exhibition at the Tate Modern, comprising 100 million handmade porcelain “seeds” spread on the gallery floor. “Those seeds individually can’t do much,” she said. “But when there are so many of them together, even when you walk on them, you hardly displace any.”

Maura Maloney of Ellicott City, Md., chose the toughest row to hoe, subjecting herself to hours of dating shows from Chinese television, sans subtitles, to learn about female roles in Chinese society. Maloney studied episodes of the reality shows If You Are the One and Take Me Out, both based on a British show.

The shows are elaborate affairs in which male contestants use videos to make their case to a platoon of women, who can accept or reject the prospects by showing indicator lights. The shows, she said, “reflect the collective anxieties of Chinese singles” — a fraught arena in particular for women, who under Mao Zedong gained a kind of nominal gender equality that, Maloney explained, was more about making political points than advancing women’s real interests.

Bates economics professor Maggie Maurer-Fazio, a China specialist, asked Maloney about state censorship on the shows, in view of another Chinese program that drew official ire because viewer voting, à la American Idol, was deemed too participatory. Censorship exists, Maloney replied, but is less political than moral, responding to women portraying themselves as sexual beings and expressing untoward interest in money.

Agency, Maloney found, is the key to contentment. The women she observed didn’t want to have traditional qualities of character like gentleness and domesticity imposed on them — but were willing to assume those qualities if it was their choice. “I hear the same thing from my students,” said a member of the audience, a professor of women’s studies from Clark University.

Another listener asked if Maloney’s project had inspired her to watch American dating shows. No, said Maloney, who spent much of February watching 16 hours of the Chinese shows. “I think that would kill me.”

Slavic Soul Party! plays at Bates on April 6.

Hello from Bates! Here’s a listing of public events at the college for March 27-April 28.

The public is invited to these events. Except as noted, admission is free. (Where two admission fees appear, the cost for the general public is listed first, followed by the cost for students and seniors.)

Want the latest events information? Visit the daily Events page. Questions or comments? Contact events editor Doug Hubley at calendar@bates.edu.

Thanks for your interest in Bates!

Weekdays

4:10pm Mon-Fri | Mindfulness of Breathing: The Dharma Society’s Buddhist meditation sessions take place most weekdays when school is in session. (Bates is on break April 15-20 this year.) FMI 207-786-8272.
Gomes Chapel

Novelist Ron Currie Jr. Photograph by Lisa Prosienski.

27 Wed

4pm | Softball vs. Thomas (doubleheader).
Lafayette Street Field

6pm | Life drawing: Sponsored by the Museum of Art each Wednesday while Bates is in session. Dry-media easels and drawing benches provided, bring drawing board and supplies. $7. FMI 207-786-6158.
Olin 259

7pm | Women’s lacrosse vs. Bowdoin.
Garcelon Field

7:30pm | Ron Currie Jr., a Waterville native and current resident, is the award-winning author of God Is Dead, Everything Matters! and the new Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles. He reads from his fiction in a Language Arts Live presentation. FMI 207-786-6256.
Muskie Archives

28 Thu

4:15pm | Prospects and Pitfalls of Conducting Economics Experiments in a Liberal Arts Setting. Jordan Suter is a professor of environmental economics at Oberlin. FMI 207-786-8296.
Pettengill G65

7:30pm | The Poets and the Assassin. At Bowdoin College, Bates Senior Lecturer in Theater Kati Vecsey directs an all-Bates cast in a production of Reza Jalali’s play about women in Iran. Discussion and reception follow the performance. FMI 207-786-8294.
Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center, Bowdoin College

Mount David Summit 2010. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College.

29 Fri

1:30pm | Mount David Summit: The 12th annual celebration of student academic achievement features research presentations and discussions, literary readings, exhibitions and screenings, performances and more. FMI bates.edu/summit/.
Pettengill Hall

7:30pm | Les Miserables (2012; 158 min.) Presented by the Filmboard. $1.
Olin 104

7:30pm | Spring Dance Concert: A showcase of work by student choreographers, including thesis projects by dance majors. Admission: $6 / $3, available at batestickets.com. FMI 207-786-6161.
Schaeffer Theatre

8pm | Bates College Choir, conducted by John Corrie, performs Fauré’s Requiem and Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna. Free, but tickets required. FMI 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Concert Hall

30 Sat

Noon | Women’s lacrosse vs. Williams.
Garcelon Field

2 & 7:30pm | Les Miserables (see March 29).
Olin 104

5pm | Spring Dance Concert (see March 29 or look here).
Schaeffer Theatre

5:30pm | Catholic Mass led each week by Fr. Paul Dumais of the Prince of Peace Parish, associated Catholic chaplain. FMI 207-786-8272.
Gomes Chapel

8pm | Bates College Choir (see March 29 or look here).
Olin Concert Hall

The Larchmere String Quartet.

31 Sun

2pm only | Les Miserables(see March 29).
Olin 104

2pm | Spring Dance Concert (see March 29 or look here).
Schaeffer Theatre

5:30pm | Protestant worship with gospel singing led each week by Stephen Saxon. FMI 207-786-8272.
Gomes Chapel

7pm | Larchmere String Quartet. Eykamp String Quartet in Residence at the University of Evansville in Indiana, the quartet plays Haydn, Barber and Dvorak. Admission is $12, available at batestickets.com. Free tickets are available for the first 100 students and seniors by reservation: olinarts@bates.edu. FMI 207-786-6135.
Olin Concert Hall

The Bates Dance Company. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College.

1 Mon

Noon | Musical Outreach Undertaken Using Resources from a Grant From the Harward Center: This presentation by music faculty members William Matthews and Dale Chapman is a Harward Center for Community Partnerships Public Works in Progress event. FMI 207-786-6202.
161 Wood St., Room 111

7:30pm | Spring Dance Concert (see March 29 or look here).
Schaeffer Theatre

8pm | New music composed by Lea Goodman-Herrick and presented in her senior thesis concert. FMI 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Concert Hall

2 Tue

4:30pm | Between Empire and Nation: Muslims, Christians and Jews at the End of the Ottoman Empire. A talk by Michelle Campos, who teaches modern Middle Eastern history at the University of Florida. FMI aakhtar@bates.edu or jbelive2@bates.edu.
Pettengill G65

7:30pm | Computer music composed and performed by students. FMI 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Concert Hall

Jazz Band director Tom Snow.

3 Wed

4:30pm | Voice recital by students of Luette Saul. FMI 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Concert Hall

6pm | Life drawing (see March 27).
Olin 259

7pm | Bates Jazz Band. Directed by Thomas Snow. Free, but tickets required. FMI 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Concert Hall

7:30pm | Voice and speech performance. Students in Katalin Vecsey’s voice and speech course perform their final project. FMI 207-786-6161.
Plavin Dance Studios

4 Thu

12:30pm | Wind players from the Portland Symphony Orchestra discuss and demonstrate their instruments in an all-ages event. Free, but tickets required. FMI 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Concert Hall

7pm | Bates Steel Pan Orchestra directed by Erica Butler. Free, but tickets required. FMI 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Concert Hall

An untitled camera obscura image by Eleanor Anaclerio, on display in the Senior Thesis Exhibition.

5 Fri

3pm | Baseball vs. Bowdoin.
Leahey Field

4:30pm | Growing With Destruction: Selective Protein Degradation and Picornavirus Replication Success. T. Glen Lawson, newly appointed as Charles A. Dana Professor of Chemistry, offers the Dana Professorship Lecture. Reception follows. FMI 207-755-5978.
Chase Hall, Memorial Commons

6pm | Senior Thesis Exhibition 2013 opening reception (see Museum of Art, below, or look here). FMI 207-786-6158.
Museum of Art

7:30pm | 359°: Dance major Zoë Fahy performs her site-specific senior thesis project at the Bates Mill Complex above Museum L-A. She performs the 20-minute piece at 7:30 and 8pm, with a short intermission for Q&A. A student shuttle to the mill leaves from the steps of Chase Hall, 56 Campus Ave., at 7pm. Admission is free, but tickets are required: batestickets.com. FMI 207-786-6161.
Bates Mill Complex, 35 Canal St.

7:30pm | Frank Glazer retrospective: The pianist concludes his season of favorite music from 32 years of Bates performances with two works by Beethoven: the Diabelli Variations and the Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106 (“Hammerklavier”). Admission: $10, available at batestickets.com. Free tickets are available for the first 50 seniors and students: FMI 207-786-6163.
Olin Concert Hall

7:30pm | Silver Linings Playbook (2012; 122 min.) Presented by the Filmboard. $1.
Olin 104

The Bennewitz Quartet.

6 Sat

Noon | Men’s lacrosse vs. Hamilton.
Garcelon Field

Noon | Softball vs. Colby (doubleheader).
Lafayette Street Field

5:30pm | Catholic Mass (see March 30).
Gomes Chapel

2 & 7:30pm | Silver Linings Playbook (see April 5).
Olin 104

3pm | Bennewitz Quartet. Based in the Czech Republic, the quartet performs in an Olin Arts Alive presentation. Admission: $12, available at batestickets.com. Free tickets are available to the first 100 seniors and students by advance reservation: 207-786-6163. FMI olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Concert Hall

7:30pm | 359° (see April 5).
Bates Mill Complex, 35 Canal St.

7:30pm | Slavic Soul Party! Olin Arts Alive presents a nine-piece band from New York that offers funk grooves, fiery Balkan brass, accordion wizardry and virtuoso jazz chops. Admission: $12, available at batestickets.com. Free tickets are available to the first 50 seniors and students by advance reservation: 207-786-6163. FMI olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Concert Hall

7 Sun

2 & 4:30pm | Silver Linings Playbook (see April 5).
Olin 104

5:30pm | Protestant worship (see March 31).
Gomes Chapel

10 Wed

6pm | Life drawing (see March 27).
Olin 259

Chiharu Naruse and Dean Stein. Photograph by Michael Bradley/Bates College.

12 Fri

7:30pm | Beethoven sonatas: Violinist Dean Stein and pianist Chiharu Naruse complete their series with the “Kreutzer” sonata, the No. 2 in A major (Op. 12, No. 2) and the No. 3 in E-flat major (Op. 12, No. 3). Admission: $10, available at batestickets.com. Free tickets are available to the first 50 seniors and students by advance reservation at olinarts@bates.edu. FMI 207-786-6135.
Olin Concert Hall

13 Sat

Noon | Softball vs. Wesleyan (doubleheader).
Lafayette Street Field

2pm | Women’s tennis vs. Trinity.
Wallach Tennis Center

5:30pm | Catholic Mass (see March 30).
Gomes Chapel

14 Sun

1pm | Softball: Alumnae Game.
Lafayette Street Field

15 Mon

3:30pm | Softball vs. Maine-Farmington (doubleheader).
Lafayette Street Field

16 Tue

5pm | Women’s lacrosse vs. Tufts.
Garcelon Field

17 Wed

4pm | Baseball vs. Gordon.
Leahey Field

18 Thu

5pm | Women’s lacrosse vs. Southern Maine.
Garcelon Field

19 Fri

3pm | Baseball vs. Trinity.
Leahey Field

4pm | Softball vs. Bowdoin.
Lafayette Street Field

20 Sat

Noon | Baseball vs. Trinity (doubleheader).
Leahey Field

Noon | Women’s lacrosse vs. Connecticut College.
Garcelon Field

21 Sun

5:30pm | Protestant worship (see March 31). FMI 207-786-8272.
Gomes Chapel

 23 Tue

3:30pm | Softball vs. Fisher (doubleheader).
Lafayette Street Field

24 Wed

3pm | Baseball vs. Maine-Farmington.
Leahey Field

4pm | Men’s lacrosse vs. Colby.
Garcelon Field

6pm | Life drawing (see March 27).
Olin 259

6:30pm | Men’s tennis vs. Bowdoin.
Wallach Tennis Center

7:30pm | Violist Jessica Cooper performs in a senior thesis concert. FMI 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Concert Hall

25 Thu

4pm | Women’s tennis vs. Bowdoin.
Wallach Tennis Center

26 Fri

4pm | Softball vs. Trinity.
Lafayette Street Field

7:30pm | Daniel Chong and Frank Glazer. The violinist and pianist in an Olin Arts Alive concert. Admission: $12, available at batestickets.com. Free tickets are available to the first 50 students or seniors: 207-786-6163. FMI olinarts@bates.edu.
Olin Concert Hall

8pm | Requiem composed and performed in a senior thesis recital by Miles Isacke. FMI 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.
Gomes Chapel

“Citadel Ruin” (2010), a drawing in charcoal on Mylar by Dozier Bell, on display at the Museum of Art. Courtesy of Aucocisco Galleries, Portland, Maine.

27 Sat

11am | Men’s tennis vs. Trinity.
Wallach Tennis Center

Noon | Baseball vs. Colby (doubleheader).
Leahey Field

Noon | Softball vs. Trinity (doubleheader).
Lafayette Street Field

4pm | Women’s tennis vs. Tufts.
Wallach Tennis Center

5:30pm | Catholic Mass (see March 30).
Gomes Chapel

28 Sun

10am | Men’s tennis vs. Wesleyan.
Wallach Tennis Center

2pm | Women’s tennis vs. Wesleyan.
Wallach Tennis Center

5:30pm | Protestant worship (see March 31).
Gomes Chapel

Museum of Art

FMI 207-786-6158
Hours: 10am–5pm Mon–Sat
(till 7pm Wed)

April 5–May 25
Annual Senior Exhibition: Culminating their yearlong thesis project, studio art majors Eleanor Anaclerio, Erin Augulewicz, Isaac Thompson and Amanda Wescott present work in a variety of media.

April 6–May 25
Dozier Bell: Mind’s Eye: Bell’s small, powerful recent graphite drawings embody the force of nature. They depict mysterious cloud-covered mountains, fog-shrouded craggy fingers of land jutting into the ocean and fragmented skylines in the low light of dawn or dusk.

Selections From the Permanent Collection: Recent Acquisitions: Works historical and contemporary represent a wide variety of media and subject matter. Artists with Maine connections include Marsden Hartley, William Manning, Charlie Hewitt and Andrew Wyeth. Others represented include Odilon Redon, Enrique Chagoya and Beth Van Hoesen. Helping to create the exhibition were curatorial interns Cara Garcia-Bou ’13 and Nell Wachsberger ’13.

Benjamin Mays biographer Randal Maurice Jelks.

Benjamin E. Mays was a civil rights theorist, educator, preacher, Morehouse College president and mentor to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Mays was also one of Bates College’s most influential graduates, a member of the class of 1920. The college presents award-winning Mays biographer Randal Maurice Jelks, a member of the University of Kansas faculty, in a talk at 7 p.m. Monday, March 25, in the Benjamin Mays Center, 95 Russell St.

Sponsored by the college’s Office of Intercultural Education, the lecture is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-8376.

Jelks is the author of Benjamin Elijah Mays, Schoolmaster of the Movement (University of North Carolina Press, 2012), the first full-length biography of the man King called his “spiritual and intellectual father.”

In recognition of Schoolmaster of the Movement, Jelks recently received the 2013 Literary Award for Nonfiction from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, one of several awards with which the organization salutes excellence in works by African-American authors.

Mays was born in 1894 to sharecroppers in rural South Carolina. His first memory was of a white mob threatening his father. From an early age, Mays was determined both to get the best education and to break the grip of Jim Crow laws on the South.

In 1917, he entered Bates as a 23-year-old sophomore after a year at Virginia Union University, where two Bates alumni on the faculty encouraged him to try their alma mater. He came to Lewiston not only for a better education than a person of color could reasonably expect down South, but to prove his intellectual equality to whites.

Proof abounded. Mays won a speaking award in his first year at Bates, finished his senior year as captain of a triumphant debate team and was one of 15 in his class to graduate with honors, among other achievements.

Central to Schoolmaster of the Movement is Jelks’ argument that by connecting the substance of Christianity with the responsibility to challenge injustice, Mays prepared the black church for its central role in the civil rights movement.

And it was at Bates, Jelks writes, that Mays laid the groundwork for “a new biblical interpretation that could mobilize black communities to take action against Jim Crow’s enforced apathy.” Mays’ studies in religion steered him toward an intellectual structure for both his Baptist faith and his personal mission “to uplift his people,” in Jelks’ words.

Mays and Bates had a profound and enduring effect on each other. As Mays famously summed up his experience in Born to Rebel: “Bates College did not ‘emancipate’ me: it did the far greater service of making it possible for me to emancipate myself, to accept with dignity my own worth as a free man.”

Those words are echoed in the college’s mission statement, which begins: “Since 1855, Bates College has been dedicated to the emancipating potential of the liberal arts.” Mays exemplifies commitments to social justice, individual worth and access to education that have always been bedrock values for Bates.

Jelks is an associate professor of American studies at the University of Kansas, with a joint appointment in African and African American studies. He is co-editor of the journal American Studies and a co-founder and editor of the Michigan-based blog theblackbottom.com, which covers politics, culture and social activism.

He received a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Michigan, a master’s of divinity from McCormick Theological Seminary and a doctorate in comparative black histories from Michigan State University. He is an ordained clergyman in the Presbyterian Church.

Jelks also wrote the award-winning African Americans in the Furniture City: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Grand Rapids (University of Illinois Press, 2006).

Gunnar Manchester ’15 is Valentine Crambagge in the 17th-century comedy, performed at Bates March 21-24. Photograph by Michael Bradley/Bates College.

An uproarious 17th-century comedy that explores issues of marriage and gender while satirizing theatrical conventions of its time, The Swaggering Damsel appears in Bates College performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, March 21-23, and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 24, in Gannett Theater, 305 College St.

Admission is free, but reservations are recommended. For more information, please call 207-786-6161.

A play marked by “cross-dressing, sexual shenanigans, uppity servants and witty women,” in the words of one scholar, English playwright Robert Chamberlain’s 1640 The Swaggering Damsel reflects the preoccupations of a nation transitioning from a royal to a mercantile society.

Plotlines explore the financial, moral and social conditions that encumbered romance and marriage in Chamberlain’s time. The primary plot concerns a pair of lovers, Sabina and Valentine, whose affair encounters a series of roadblocks that they can overcome only after each has spent some time in the other’s shoes.

Portraying Valentine is Gunnar Manchester, a sophomore from Rehoboth, Mass. Sabina is played by Sarah Weinshal, a first-year student from Westport, Conn. All told, 10 Bates students are performing in the piece and one serves as stage manager.

Visiting Assistant Professor of English Matteo Pangallo ’03 directs “The Swaggering Damsel.” Photograph by Michael Bradley/Bates College.

The play has been performed rarely, if at all, since the 17th century, says director Matteo Pangallo, a visiting assistant professor of English and member of the Bates class of 2003. “This is a rediscovery” akin to a world premiere, he says.

Chamberlain was an amateur playwright, so Swaggering Damsel has always been a play peripheral to the theatrical and scholarly canon, Pangallo explains. “Chamberlain’s profession was joke-book writing, and Swaggering Damsel is a joke in five acts.”

He continues, “If we look at other romantic comedies from that period, we’ll get a sense of what the professional theater industry thought the audience wanted.” But Swaggering Damsel, instead, directly reflects the interests and perspective of an audience member.

“It’s not a conventional English Renaissance comedy,” Pangallo says. “Instead, it seems to lampoon and mock all the character types and clichéd plot twists that the theater of that era was churning out en masse.”

The Bates production jacks that tendency up a notch, reveling in an over-the-top theatricality. “We place a great deal of emphasis on the fact that these are actors taking on roles, and their roles are exaggerated,” says Pangallo.

Valentine is a parody of traditional romantic heroes (to the extent that he shares a name, as well as some plot points, with a character in Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona — produced at Bates just weeks before Damsel).

“Valentine’s speeches are way overblown, he spouts really bad poetry that he thinks is good poetry, he threatens to kill himself because he can’t have the woman of his dreams. All the characters on stage know that he is ridiculous, and the audience knows too.”

For the student performers and audiences alike, Pangallo says, The Swaggering Damsel offers a fresh take on a theatrical era dominated by Shakespeare — who, he points out, was in many ways atypical of English Renaissance playwrights.

“When you’re playing Hamlet, and you get to the ‘to be or not to be’ speech, you look out into the audience and see all the mouths flapping because everybody is saying it along with you. And the degree of pressure that creates to do something new can sometimes have negative effects on actors, because they start pursuing novelty for the sake of novelty.

“You don’t have that when you do a production of The Swaggering Damsel because it is novel. Its freshness, I think, is a virtue.”