Marc Bamuthi Joseph engages with his audience in the aisles of the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall. (Photographs by Phyllis Graber Jensen)

For a performance Jan. 13, performer, educator, activist and slam poetry champion Marc Bamuthi Joseph took the Olin Concert Hall stage—only to leave it again.

“This place is really fancy,” said Joseph, jumping off the stage into the audience. “I believe in ‘not fancy.’ ”

Joseph offered a staged (or off-staged) reading of his acclaimed performance piece red, black & GREEN: a blues in the evening event, part of Martin Luther King Jr. Day observances at Bates.

The piece is usually performed on a circular stage, with large “houses” on wheels representing different American cities. His Bates reading performance included two of the four acts, Chicago and Oakland. (The Bates Dance Festival presents the full-blown production April 27-28.)

Joseph called upon the Bates audience to fulfill the roles usually performed by the other artists working on the project. For one poem, the audience was split into four sections, each with a verse of “I’ve Got Peace like a River.” Without breaking cadence, Joseph would conduct the audience in singing while he moved around the room telling the story of a woman who emigrated to the U.S. from Sudan to escape the violence there, only to have her son murdered in Chicago.

Along with the excerpts from rbGb, Joseph offered original poems from previous projects. In tribute to King Day, he began with a piece dedicated to the civil rights leader. Using quotes from some of King’s greatest speeches, Joseph asked how far America has come in realizing King’s “dream.”

When an audience member asked Joseph how he came to be a performer, he answered with a rap from the album that, he says, changed his life, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back by Public Enemy. “Chuck D gave me a whole new vocabulary for liberation,” said Joseph.

But his last piece of the evening, a story from his time in Senegal, also shed some light on his emergence as a performer. After realizing his vulnerability to street hustlers and theft, Joseph encounters an American woman who is fighting the traditional practice of genital mutilation.

While visiting one village, that friend asks him to distract an impromptu village dance party while she negotiates an end to genital mutilation with the village elders. As a poet, Joseph is unsure how to “distract” a crowd of dancing locals. On a whim, he breaks into the hip hop dances he learned growing up in New York City–and the village is won over, as was the Bates audience by his re-enactment.

Joseph performs on the Olin stage.

Joseph worked his magic in a more intimate setting the evening prior to the Olin performance. While plows cleared the streets after the winter semester’s first snowstorm, Bates students congregated in the student-run coffee house, the Ronj, to enjoy an evening of hot chai, music and poetry from Joseph and student performers.

Sponsored by the Arts House, the evening was a successful turnout of student talent.

It was one of several opportunities for students to interact with Joseph, who also visited anthropology, dance, environmental studies and rhetoric classes during his four-day visit.

Standing in the middle of the room rather than onstage, Joseph performed two energetic spoken-word pieces that combined dance with storytelling and role-playing to captivate the room.

Humorous but introspective, Joseph’s pieces tackle questions about identity: What does it mean to be a father? What does it mean to be “hip hop” outside of America? Joseph danced, contorting his body to show pain, pleasure and confusion, his arms and legs swinging out over the heads of students sitting on the floor around him.

Eleven students representing all class years read original poems. Although some seemed nervous, the room was supportive and everyone got a hand. Many students admitted it was their first time reading in front of their peers.

“All of the student readers and performers were incredibly talented,” said Emma Timbers ’14, a creative writing major who co-organized the event with fellow Art House representative Doug Welsh ’14. “And it was exciting to see so many freshmen sharing their work.”

For some, reading has been an important aspect of their time at Bates. Seniors Charlotte Simpson and Alana Folsom, both members of the Bates Authors Guild, read from their creative writing theses. About half of the readers performed original slam poems and invited the audience to join their new slam group.

As for student musicians, Sawyer Lawson ’12 kicked off the evening with a bluesy acoustic guitar set. Also performing were Grace Glasson ’14, who performed folksy covers and originals on ukulele, and Hansen Johnson ’13, who performed covers and originals on acoustic guitar.

– by Erica Long ’12

From left, Associate Dean of Students James Reese joins Bates Multifaith Chaplain Bill Blaine-Wallace, Victoria Blaine-Wallace and Associate Multifaith Chaplain Emily Wright-Magoon in singing “We Shall Overcome.” (Photographs by Phyllis Graber Jensen)

Before reading the Call to Worship at Bates’ annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Worship Service on Jan. 15, Dean of Students James Reese shared his memories of King’s speech during the March on Washington, Aug. 28, 1963.

“My father was there,” said Reese.  “I was watching TV trying to find my dad in the crowd.”

Reese then asked the Chapel congregation to “stand close to one another like they did that day.”

This year’s King service was marked by stories like Reese’s, reminders that for some members of the Bates community, the March on Washington and King’s assassination remain vivid. On this bitterly cold January night, students, faculty, staff and neighbors gathered to share these memories and celebrate King’s life and dream with music, dance and a pledge of commitment to civil justice.

In his homily, keynote speaker Julian Agyeman shared his memories of watching King on television from his home in East Yorkshire, England.

In his homily, keynote speaker Julian Agyeman discusses his memories of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“TV opened a whole world for me,” Ageyman said of watching footage of the American civil rights movement.  “A world that was literally in black and white.”

He continued by asserting that King’s dream transcends issues of race.  A member of the Tufts University faculty and an advocate for environmental justice and sustainability, Agyeman asked the community to think about the creative and intellectual resources lost when young people are unable to realize their potential. He suggested that if a cure for cancer may be hidden in a patch of rainforest that will be destroyed, it could also be in the mind of a boy or girl who is unable to afford an education.

As in years past, the service included a letter-writing session that reflected this year’s King Day theme of environmental justice. While a jazz trio featuring music professor Dan Chapman and physics professor John Smedley performed, the congregation wrote to thank President Obama for announcing the first-ever nationwide mercury pollution standards for power plants last December.

A combined a cappella choir performs John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

The evening also featured poignant musical offerings by the Gospelaires, the Deansmen and a combined a cappella choir. The Gospelaires, led by Stephen Saxon, include Bates alumni and members of the Lewiston community along with current students.

“I Just Can’t Give up Now” featured a solo by 2011 Bates graduate Megan Guynes. Dance major Victoria Lowe ’12 accompanied the Gospelaires with original choreography for “I Wanna Be Ready.”

This year’s offering was donated to Lots to Gardens, an organization, founded by a Bates alumna, that uses sustainable urban agriculture to provide healthy and fresh food, and civic empowerment, to the youth of Lewiston and Auburn.

– by Erica Long ’12

The Bates Multifaith Chaplaincy’s weekly nondenominational service, {Pause}, creates a space for the silence to speak. I’ve been a student coordinator of {Pause} since 2009.

{Pause} takes place at 9 p.m. every Wednesday during the academic year. In the same sense that a carefully placed breath can make a saxophone solo into a great saxophone solo, the Chaplaincy believes that taking time to pause, contemplate and reflect on our busy lives makes them that much fuller.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The theme for the Dec. 8 {PAUSE} was “war and peace.” This brief video by Phyllis Graber Jensen includes songs peformed by Amna Ilyas ’13 of Faisalabad, Pakistan, and poetry read by Erica Long ’12 of Augusta, Maine.

“Because so much of our day is goal-oriented, [we need] time to just let our thoughts wander and see what moves us in the moment,” says Associate Multifaith Chaplain Emily Wright-Magoon. “Sometimes it is the first time all day that we are able to check in with ourselves.”

Although creating a space for silence and contemplation is the reason for the weekly program, it is also a venue for Bates musicians, dancers and poets. From students who have never performed in front of their peers before, to a cappella groups accustomed to standing-room-only shows, {Pause} is known for its variety.

Multifaith Chaplain Bill Blaine-Wallace says the only qualification for members of the Bates community to perform is “a desire to make an offering and some sense of what {Pause} is all about. And if the latter is lacking we’ll sure introduce them to what it’s all about.”

The Chaplaincy has offered similar programs off and on throughout the decade. Blaine-Wallace and Wright-Magoon made a commitment at the beginning of the 2009-2010 academic year to continue the program every week for a year.

As the year progressed, changes were made to reflect the needs of the community. A weekly theme was established to reflect the feelings on campus and the work of the performers. When Blaine-Wallace and Wright-Magoon realized that attendees might want to reflect on their experiences after each service, they added a recessional in the Chapel lobby with chai and cookies.

Most recently, attendees have been invited to contribute a word or short phrase during the last moment of the service.

Along with the silence are other ingredients in a {Pause} service that remain constant. The Chapel is lit with candles, the lights dimmed. The service always begins and ends with the ringing of a large glass singing bowl.

During fall 2011, {Pause} reached new audiences with themes that reflected big ideas on the minds of students. One week featured a dance performance advocating against the spread of HIV/AIDS.

And after the chalking vandalism incidents during Coming-Out Week, the Chaplaincy asked Bates OUTfront to provide poems and performances to rally support on campus. It was the most highly attended {Pause} to date.

by Erica Long ’12

Tiarra Abell ’12, a double major in Spanish and anthropology, is spending her December break in Ecuador doing research.

As the end of the semester approaches, Bates students are looking forward to a break from late nights in the library and a chance to spend the holidays with friends and family. But for senior Tiarra Abell of Louisville, Ky., winter break is a time to get some real work done.

At 4 a.m. Dec. 10, just hours after her last class of the semester, Abell began her journey back to Ecuador, where she spent her junior semester.

“A reality is coming true that I never imagined,” Abell said. “Although I didn’t want it to, I expected my time in Ecuador to end. But within just six months I’m able to go back!”

Along with 11 other seniors, Abell received a Barlow Thesis Research Grant. Established by David Barlow ’79, the grant’s goal is to enhance the study-abroad experience.

“I really like the Barlow thesis grant program, as it helps link the study abroad experience to the student’s academic program at Bates,” said Stephen Sawyer, director of off-campus study. “It allows students to return to their study-abroad country and interact with that setting in a more targeted way, building on their first experience.”

A double major in Spanish and anthropology, Abell is writing two senior theses, both investigating the lives of the Afro-Choteño community in Chota, a rural village with a population of 800. While living with a host family in Chota last spring, Abell was struck by the warmth and generosity of the Afro-Choteños despite the poverty in which they live.

“That was the first time in my life that I have experienced extreme poverty, in its real form,” said Abell. “The way they accepted me into their culture because I looked like them was very powerful to me. Just because I am black and I was doing well, they were very proud of me, as if I was one of their own.”

The timing for the return visit could not be better. After witnessing Easter in Chota, Abell was inspired to write her Spanish thesis on the role of faith in the lives of the devoutly Catholic Afro-Choteños. Abell hopes that spending Christmas in Chota will allow her to gather valuable interviews and photographs for her thesis.

After Bates, Abell plans to pursue a career in medicine. While in Chota, she volunteered at the local health clinic. She will return to the clinic to gather more field notes for her anthropology thesis on the economic and racial inequalities affecting medical treatment in Chota.

“This is a great opportunity,” she said. “Now I not only have volunteer experience in the medical field, but I have it in another culture.”

Most of her time will be spent in Chota, but Abell will visit Quito and Otavalo to gather books and articles that are not available in the United States on the Afro-Choteños. During this time she plans to meet Carla Guerron, the author of one of her primary sources, El Color de la Panela (“The Color of Brown Sugar”).

Abell will miss spending the holidays with her family in Louisville. “This is the first Christmas I have missed with my family, but being able to share and give back to people who don’t have nearly as much—who can’t even conceptualize the amount of things I have—brings me back to the true meaning of Christmas that my parents and family instilled in me.”

While home for Thanksgiving, Abell added, “my best friend’s sister gave me a big bag full of toys to give to the kids in Chota knowing that they would go to good use.”

– Erica Long ’12