This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
Lafayette’s biennial Roethke Humanities Festival, themed “Icons of Memory/Voices of Myth” this year, will include performances, lectures, exhibitions, and other activities featuring several renowned guests in November, as well as contributions from the campus community.
The core events of the festival will take place Nov. 5-17. A highlight will be a talk by Robert Pinsky, Poet Laureate of the United States from 1997-2000 and a Pulitzer Prize nominee for poetry, on “Dante and the Modern Imagination,” Tuesday, Nov. 6. The event is sponsored by the Thomas Roy and Lura Forrest Jones Visiting Lecture series. Pinsky also will work with English students in workshops and/or classes the following morning.
Another part of the Roethke Festival will be Lafayette’s ninth annual Fringe Festival, a showcase for original plays, music, poetry, performance pieces, scenes, dance, and improvisation by Lafayette students, faculty, and alumni. Held Nov. 12-16, events will include a poetry reading, student performances, and a FluxConcert.
Visionary theater artist Ping Chong will give classes and workshops for English and theater students Nov. 27-28 as the Closs Visiting Writer-in-Residence for 2001-02. The Closs Fund was established by Fred Closs, a long-time member of the English faculty and originator of Lafayette’s Roethke Humanities Festival, in memory of his mother, Ruth Mary Callahan Closs.
Tickets for Roethke Festival events at the Williams Center for the Arts may be purchased by calling the box office at 610-330-5009.
The full schedule of events:
Nov. 5-9, 10 a.m.-noon, 1-4 p.m.: Students will create small, handmade carvings from sandstone with folk artist Gregory Warmack, also known as “Mr. Imagination,” in the lobby of the Williams Center for the Arts. Participation is free.
Tuesday, Nov. 6, 8 p.m.: Robert Pinsky will talk about “Dante and the Modern Imagination” in the Kirby Hall of Civil Rights auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
Wednesday, Nov. 7, noon: J. Larry Stockton, professor and head of music, will provide an introduction to the history of taiko drumming within Japanese culture and society in room 123 of the Williams Center for the Arts. Lunch will be available for $3.
Wednesday, Nov. 7, 8 p.m.: Early music specialist Benjamin Bagby and his Sequentia ensemble — singing in Old Norse — will present Ping Chong’s Edda: Viking Tales of Lust, Revenge, and Family in the Williams Center for the Arts. Tickets cost $15.
Thursday, Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m.: Barbie Zelizer, associate professor of communications at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, will speak on “Holocaust Memory in the Camera’s Eye” in the Kirby Hall of Civil Rights auditorium. Sponsored by the department of religion and supported by the Lyman Coleman Fund, the event is free and open to the public.
Friday, Nov. 9, 8 p.m.: The Wadaiko Yamato touring ensemble will perform authentic Japanese taiko drumming at the Williams Center for the Arts. Tickets cost $20.
Monday, Nov. 12, noon: The Fringe Festival opens with a Favorite Poetry Reading brown bag in the Williams Center for the Arts. Lunch is available for $3.
Tuesday, Nov. 13, 8 p.m.: Urban Tap makes a stop during the national tour of its Caravane, a hybrid of free-style dance, percussive and hypnotic music, and a live video environment, at the Williams Center for the Arts. Tickets cost $18.
Wednesday and Thursday, Nov. 14-15, 8 p.m.: Fringe Original Performance Nights, including music, dance, performance art, and more by Lafayette students, faculty, staff, and alumni in the Williams Center Black Box Theater. Free admission.
Friday, Nov. 16, noon: Intermedia artist Larry Miller will give a brown bag lecture on his exhibition, “Either/Or,” at the Williams Center for the Arts. Lunch is available for $3. The exhibit runs through Dec. 7.
Friday, Nov. 16, 4 p.m.: Cellist Joan Jeanrenaud will perform “Ice Cello,” playing a cello made of ice with bows made of different materials, including split bamboo, barbed wire, and rasps. Composer and sound artist Gregory Kuhn will amplify and enhance the sound of dripping water from the melting instrument. The event is free and open to the public.
Friday, Nov. 16, 8 p.m.: Intermedia artist Larry Miller will present a FluxConcert, the final program in the Fringe Festival, at the Williams Center for the Arts. A program of Fluxus short performance pieces will be interpreted by Miller, Lafayette students, community participants, and cellist Jean Jeanrenaud. Miller conducted FluxConcerts at Lafayette in 1991 and 1995. The event is free and open to the public.
Saturday, Nov. 17, 8 p.m.: Cellist Joan Jeanrenaud will present “Metamorphosis,” a solo program combining works by Philip Glass, Steve Mackey, Zoltan Kodaly, Yoko Ono, Jeanrenaud, and Hamza El Din with cutting-edge interactive video technology at the Williams Center for the Arts. Tickets cost $18.