eInside Events

Kent State University Hotel Invites Faculty and Staff to a Thank-you Celebration on Oct. 22

Kent State University faculty and staff are invited to a
special thank-you celebration at the Kent State Hotel and
Conference Center on Wednesday, Oct. 22, from 4 to 7 p.m.
RSVP is required by Monday, Oct. 20.

In September, the Kent State University Hotel and Conference Center was officially named as the preferred hotel and conference center of Kent State. In celebration of that announcement and in gratitude for their support and continued partnership, university faculty and staff are invited to a special thank-you celebration at the hotel on Wednesday, Oct. 22, from 4 to 7 p.m.

The event coincides with the one-year anniversary of the hotel’s grand opening and will feature live music, complimentary hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar. The cash bar will include Ohio wines presented by Ohio Wine Producers Association local wineries in conjunction with Kent State University at Ashtabula’s Enology and Viticulture degree programs.

Kent State faculty and staff who wish to attend the event are asked to RSVP by Monday, Oct. 20, to hotel Sales Assistant Diana Watt at 330-968-6913 or dwatt@kentstatehotel.com.

“If you haven’t visited the hotel yet, this would be a great time to take a tour of the rooms and meeting and conference facilities," says Lawrence Carter, asset manager for the Kent State Hotel and Conference Center. "If you’ve visited the hotel before, come discover what’s new and what’s in store for you in the coming year.”

The hotel’s sales staff and general manager will be available to answer your questions, give you the details of the STASH Rewards program and help departments and divisions schedule their own “Wine Wednesday” event at the hotel.

The university requires the use of the preferred status facility for university-related lodging needs and off-site meeting/conference events whenever it can provide suitable accommodations.

Now, when Kent State departments book rooms for guests or use the hotel’s conference and meeting facilities, they can earn points toward free nights at the hotel through the Stash Hotel Rewards Program.

The points are offered per dollar spent in booking hotel rooms. During special promotions, points may also be earned when booking conferences and meeting rooms. Departments can use their bookings as an opportunity to earn free hotel stays for visiting presenters, VIPs or any guest of the university.

Stash Hotel Rewards is the nation's largest point-based loyalty program for independent hotels. More than 75 independent hotels located either on or near major U.S. university campuses are part of the Stash Hotel Rewards program.

Located in downtown Kent, just steps away from the city’s shopping and dining districts, the Kent State Hotel and Conference Center offers travelers 94 boutique-style guest rooms, an on-site restaurant and lounge, an indoor pool and workout facility, a 24-hour business center and 5,000 square feet of event space with a 10-seat executive boardroom.

For more information about booking rooms or meeting facilities at the Kent State Hotel and Conference Center, contact Teresa Kirkland, director of sales, at 330-968-6914 or visit the hotel’s website at www.kentstatehotel.com.

For information about the Stash Hotel Rewards Program, visit www.stashrewards.com.

Kent State School of Theatre and Dance Presents Hot Mikado

Based on Gilbert and Sullivan’s classic masterpiece, Hot Mikadowill delight audiences

Engaged to other people but in love with one another,
Nanki-Poo (Kyle Kemph) and Yum-Yum (Lindsay Simon)
share a moment of happiness in a scene from Hot Mikado.

Kent State University’s School of Theatre and Dance continues it 2014-2015 season with Hot Mikado, a musical based on the classic Gilbert and Sullivan opera The Mikado. The production opens Friday, Oct. 24, and runs through Sunday, Nov. 2, in E. Turner Stump Theatre, located in the Center for the Performing Arts, 1325 Theatre Drive on the Kent Campus.

For tickets, call 330-672-ARTS (2787), purchase online at www.kent.edu/theatredance or in person at the Performing Arts Box Office located in the Roe Green Center lobby of the Center for the Performing Arts, Monday – Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Tickets are $18 for adults; $16 for Kent State alumni, faculty and staff; $14 for seniors (60+); and non-Kent State students, age 18 and under, are $10. Tickets are free for full-time, Kent Campus undergraduate students. Groups of 10 or more can purchase tickets for $12 per person. The box office accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover, checks and cash.

With lyrics adapted by David H. Bell and music adapted and arranged by Rob Bowman, Hot Mikado is a comedic and thrilling combination of Japanese design and culture and the jazz and blues sounds of 1940s’ America. When the heir to the Japanese throne runs away and joins a traveling orchestra, he falls in love with a girl on his travels. But there's a problem – they are both engaged to other people. As the heir pursues his love, avoids his father and fiancé, and tries to maintain the secret of his true identity, musical comedy ensues.

Hot Mikado is directed and choreographed by Kent State Assistant Professor Amy Fritsche, whose direction of the smash hit Legally Blonde thrilled audiences last season. Fritsche describes Hot Mikado as a must-see production that “is a hilarious, hot and jazzy update of The Mikado. The show will be a swinging rip roaring good time for everyone involved.”

The production and design team includes music direction by Assistant Professor Jennifer Korecki, assistant direction by Daniel Ebert, assistant choreography by Nora Culley, scenic design by Associate Professor Raynette Smith, technical direction by Chase Drought, lighting design by Cyndi Hoffman, costume design by April Rock and sound design by Nathan Rosmarin. Cullen Motak serves as production stage manager.

Annual Celebrating College Teaching Conference Takes Place Oct. 23-24

The 21st annual Celebrating College Teaching Conference takes place Oct. 23 and 24 at the Kent Student Center. The University Teaching Council’s annual conference focuses on the four pillars of a Kent State University undergraduate curriculum — knowledge, insight, responsibility and engagement.

The conference kicks off with the Thursday Night Faculty Dialogue, on Oct. 23 from 7-9 p.m. at the Kent Student Center Kiva, featuring Susan Taft, associate professor in Kent State’s College of Nursing, and Christina McVay, senior lecturer with Kent State’s departments of English and Pan-African Studies. Taft and McVay will speak about “The Community of Inquiry.”

Conference activities on Friday include the Provost’s Continental Breakfast, followed by refereed round tables; invited round tables, including the Emeritus Round Table, featuring Senior Associate Athletics Director Emerita Judith Devine; the President’s Luncheon; and the Glenn W. Frank Lecture, by Associate Professor Emerita of Journalism Barbara Hipsman-Springer.

The conference culminates with poster sessions and a dessert reception at 2:30 p.m. to honor recipients of the Distinguished Teaching Awards and the Outstanding Teaching Awards and to recognize the wealth of teaching excellence at Kent State.

All conference events are free and open to all those who teach or support teaching at Kent State. Instructors, including graduate assistants and teaching assistants, are urged to plan their course syllabi so they may attend.

For more information about the conference and to register to attend the luncheon, visit the University Teaching Council website. Registration ends midnight on Oct. 22.

Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center to Host Reading By Award-Winning Poet

Shara McCallum, an accomplished poet whose work has been published in the U.S., U.K., Caribbean, Latin America and Israel, will visit Kent State University for two special events hosted by the Wick Poetry Center.

McCallum will read from her collection of poems on Wednesday, Oct. 29, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Room 306 AB at the Kent Student Center. Following the reading, she will mingle with guests and participate in a book signing during a reception.

On Thursday, Oct. 30, McCallum will speak in a “Poetry Salon” where she will engage in a question-and-answer session. The salon will begin at 3 p.m. at the May Prentice House – the new home of the Wick Poetry Center – located on the Lefton Esplanade between Lincoln and Willow streets. During the event, guests are encouraged to ask McCallum questions about her poetry, writing style, craft or any other curiosities.

Both events are co-sponsored by the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts (NEOMFA) and are free and open to the public.

"The NEOMFA is thrilled to join together with the Wick Poetry Center and host poet Shara McCallum,” says Catherine Wing, interim Kent Campus coordinator for NEOMFA. “McCallum's poetry charms as it twists, dazzles as it beguiles and binds us. Nimble in its myriad voices and precise down to every detail, she catches ‘the single curl escaping your woolen hat.’ She calls to us in ‘a voice of pure sugar’ even as she shows us the gnarled hands of those that peeled the cane. We're honored to have her visit and are ready to be spellbound."

McCallum is the winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize for Poetry award for her work The Water Between Us, and has been recognized for her poetry with a Witter Bynner Fellowship from the Library of Congress and a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship.

For more information about Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center, visit www.kent.edu/wick.

Kent State’s Institute for Applied Linguistics to Host Fifth Annual Shreve Lecture Series

Kent State University’s Institute for Applied Linguistics will hold its fifth annual Gregory M. Shreve Lecture Series in Translation Studies on Wednesday, Oct. 22, at 3:30 p.m. in the Moulton Hall Ballroom. The event is free and open to the public and refreshments will be provided.

This year’s lecture will feature Sharon O’Brien, director of the Centre for Translation and Textual Studies in the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies in Dublin, Ireland. The lecture is titled “Machine Translation: Bust or Boom for Professional Translation,” focusing on the use of software to translate speech or text from one language to another.

“The lecture will be focused on issues in machine translation,” says Françoise Massardier-Kenney, director of Kent State’s Institute for Applied Linguistics. “O’Brien will talk about its advantages and the problems it has created, and how those problems can be handled.”

Massardier-Kenney describes O’Brien as a world expert on the topic.

O’Brien conducts research focused on the interaction between translators and technology (including translation memory and machine translation), post-editing and cognitive aspects of translation among other topics. Massardier-Kenney says O’Brien was chosen for this year’s lecture because of her expertise.

“Every year, we alternate between a lecture on humanistic approaches and on empirical methods in translation studies,” Massardier-Kenney says. “O’Brien is one of the leading experts on empirical methods, and I think she will appeal to those interested in global communication.”

In addition to her research, O’Brien has authored and edited Cognitive Explorations of Translation (2011), Research Methodologies in Translation Studies (2013) and Post-editing of Machine Translation: Processes and Applications (2014).

For more information about Kent State’s Institute of Applied Linguistics, visit http://appling.kent.edu/.

Celebrate Campus Sustainability Day at Kent State, Oct. 22

Kent State University's Office of Sustainability will
coordinate activities to mark National Sustainability Day on
Oct. 22.

National Campus Sustainability Day is devoted to recognizing successes, challenges and innovations of sustainability in higher education across campuses nationwide. The theme for this year’s Campus Sustainability Day is “Empowering Change on Campus and in the Community.”

Kent State University’s Office of Sustainability has coordinated events for the day, including a virtual campus sustainability tour via Twitter (@kentstatesusty) and partnering with other sustainability-related groups working to empower change on campus and in the community.

Student groups, Kent State Environmental Society and Biology Club, along with Kent State’s Residence Services and energy consultant Brewer-Garrett, will be joining the Office of Sustainability on the second floor of the Kent Student Center from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 22. The different groups will be offering various activities that students can participate in to make a change on campus and in the community.

Kent State’s Office of Sustainability also will be part of a statewide social media celebration joining other schools across Ohio to support each other’s successes in sustainability in higher education. This marks the third consecutive year of Kent State’s participation in Campus Sustainability Day.

As part of the National Campus Sustainability Day events, a Keynote Broadcast Video, hosted by Second Nature, will be available for public viewing at 2 p.m. The Keynote Broadcast will feature higher education sustainability leaders and partners discussing ways in which students can make a difference, be part of sustainability solutions and build a career in the sustainability field. RSVP is required for the Second Nature Keynote Broadcast Video at www.campussustainabilityday.org.

There are various hashtags people can follow throughout the day to monitor conversations about Campus Sustainability Day.

• National Campus Sustainability: #CSD2014
• Ohio schools: #OhioCSD2014
• Kent State: #KentCSD
• Ohio schools Twitter list is “OH Campus Sustainability,” also found on the @KentStateSusty’s Twitter page
  

“We’ll tweet about different sustainability achievements on campus, such as LEED buildings, energy-efficient retrofits and the energy savings that we’ve seen,” says Melanie Knowles, Kent State’s sustainability manager.

The statewide Campus Sustainability Day social media celebration is being coordinated by Kent State’s outreach recycling coordinator, Leah Graham. The Ohio-specific Campus Sustainability Day celebration emerged from an Ohio Higher Education Sustainability Professionals Summit hosted by Ohio University in September.

The Ohio Campus Sustainability Day social media celebration began as a collaboration between the Kent State and Ohio University offices of sustainability. Currently, the Ohio Campus Sustainability Day social media celebration has spread throughout campuses across the state.

“It is exciting that all across campuses in Ohio and the nation, we’ll be supporting and recognizing our achievements in sustainability in higher education together,” Graham says.

“Campus Sustainability Day is a chance to highlight what we’ve accomplished, what we’re working toward and to celebrate the advancement of sustainability throughout higher education, especially in Ohio,” Knowles says. “I want students to know that this matters to the university; it benefits all of us, and they can take part.”

The Kent State University sustainability posts can be found on Twitter and on the group’s Facebook page.

The student organizations have come up with ideas to engage people to make a change on campus and in the community on Campus Sustainability Day.

“We hope to grab people's attention on the second floor of the Kent Student Center and engage them in conversations about the environment and sustainability,” says Kristen Schmidt, president of the Kent State Environmental Society. “We will be promoting the #KentCSD hashtag, explaining what the goal of Campus Sustainability Day is, and how students can get more involved in the campus groups. We will also be raising awareness for our latest project concerning the palm oil crisis. We will have information and other activities available to illustrate the effects of deforestation on orangutan habitat.”

Follow the Kent State Environmental Society on Twitter at @ksuenvironment.

“Our plan for Campus Sustainability Day is to work with the Greenhouse Manager Melissa Davis, and sell plants that she and the students have been growing,” says Carley Pasquale, president of the Biology Club. “We will also talk about the importance of plants and how they can help people live a sustainable life by utilizing plants,”

Follow the Kent State Biology Club on Twitter at @KSUBioClub.

For more information about sustainability initiatives at Kent State, visit http://www2.kent.edu/sustainability/index.cfm.

Encourage Your Students to Attend the Upcoming Fall Job and Internship Fair

Kent State University's Fall Job and Internship Fair will take
place Oct. 29.

Kent State University will hold its Fall Job and Internship Fair on Wednesday, Oct. 29, from noon to 4 p.m. at the Kent Student Center.

The fair is an opportunity for students to meet and network with representatives from a wide variety of organizations seeking interns and job candidates for immediate and future openings. All majors are encouraged to attend. Student or alumni registration is not required.

Main Street Kent Presents Annual Family Friendly Halloween

Local businesses in downtown Kent will host a Family
Friendly Halloween on Oct. 24.

On Friday, Oct. 24, families are invited to come to downtown Kent to celebrate a Family Friendly Halloween from 5-7 p.m. at the Hometown Bank Plaza and surrounding local businesses. Trick-or-treat bags and a list of participating businesses for trick-or-treat will be handed out to attendees at the plaza. Face painting, treats and other activities will be available at more than 30 downtown businesses. Halloween-themed crafts will be available at the Hometown Bank Plaza, and a costume contest will be judged there at 7 p.m. (Rain location is Earl’s Nest in Acorn Alley – 164 E. Main St.) Trophies will be awarded to winners in the following categories:

• Funniest Costume
• Scariest Costume
• Most Original Costume
• Prettiest Costume
• Cutest Costume
• Creepiest Costume
• Coolest Costume
• Most Creative Costume
  

For more information, visit www.mainstreetkent.org or call 330-677-8000.

Main Street Kent is a nonprofit organization focused on the revitalization of downtown Kent. It is an affiliate of the national Main Street program and the Heritage Ohio program.

Kent Keyboard Series Features Inspiring Music Paired With Stimulating Visual Art

Pianist Jennifer Hayghe will perform on Oct. 26 at Ludwig
Recital Hall as part of the Kent Keyboard Series.

The Kent Keyboard Series continues its 2014-2015 season with a unique concert featuring pianist Jennifer Hayghe, on Sunday, Oct. 26, at 5 p.m. in Ludwig Recital Hall. Ludwig Recital Hall is located in the Center for the Performing Arts at 1325 Theatre Dr. on the Kent Campus. The concert, titled The Art of Music...and the Music of Art features composers such as Bach, Debussy, Granados and Mussorgsky, paired with the inspiring art by Klee, Goya, Watteau, Hartmann and Tremaine.

Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. The original work for piano was inspired by drawings and sketches by a young artist and designer named Viktor Hartmann.

“My performance of this work has inspired a contemporary visual artist, Michele Tremaine, to create over 50 original paintings that directly correspond to the imagery that the piece of music evokes,” Hayghe says. “These paintings have been made into a silent film that is synchronized with the performance and projected during the live concert”.

Hayghe returns to Kent State after she performed and taught master classes in 2003 thanks to an invitation made by Kent State Associate Professor of Piano Donna Lee. In this opportunity, Hayghe’s intention is to make the audience feel and hear something new even if the music being played is already familiar.

“Often, it is a matter of drawing new connections to pieces and emotions and images, and that is what this concert is all about” Hayghe says.

Tickets for the performance are $15 for adults, $13 for seniors and Kent State faculty and staff, $10 for groups of 10 or more patrons, $8 for non-Kent State students, $5 for children and free for full-time Kent Campus undergraduate students.

Tickets are available weekdays noon to 5 p.m. at the Performing Arts Box Office, located in the lobby of the Roe Green Center in the Center for the Performing Arts at 1325 Theatre Dr. on the Kent Campus. The Performing Arts Box Office accepts Visa, MasterCard and Discover, in addition to cash and checks.

The Ludwig Recital Hall box office will open one hour prior to the performance for walk-up sales, and will accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover. Tickets and more information are available by calling 330-672-ARTS (2787) or visiting http://www2.kent.edu/music/index.cfm.

Kent State University Orchestra Concert on Nov. 2 Features Faculty Members Vardi and Jin in Storms and Romance

Pictured are members of the Kent State University
Orchestra.The Kent State Orchestra will continue its
2014-2015 season with a performance on Nov. 2, at the
University Auditorium at Cartwright Hall.

The Kent State University Hugh A. Glauser School of Music Orchestra continues its 2014-2015 season with a performance on Sunday, Nov. 2, at 3 p.m. in the University Auditorium at Cartwright Hall. Cartwright Hall is located at 650 Hilltop Dr. on the Kent Campus, with free parking located off Terrace Drive.

Rossini's ever-popular overture to William Tell sets the stage to feature Kent State faculty members Amitai Vardi and Yu Jin in Max Bruch's Double Concerto for Clarinet and Viola. The orchestra will close the concert with a performance of Robert Schumann's powerful Fourth Symphony, a monument of German romantic literature.

"Three pieces, all completely different in style and emotion, but all composed at nearly the same time,” says Charles Latshaw, director of the Kent State University Orchestra.

Vardi, an avid soloist, orchestral and chamber musician, was recently appointed assistant professor of clarinet at Kent State. Vardi has performed with many orchestras, including the American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra, with which he performed dozens of concerts and has toured to New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Miami.

Jin, a violist, has served as a Kent State faculty member since 2007. Jin is a winner of multiple competitions, including the first prize of the Washington International Competition, the Chicago Viola Society Solo Competition, the Ohio Viola Society Competition, the prize winner of the Primrose International Competition, the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and the Corpus Christi International Competition.

Tickets for the performance are $15 for adults, $13 for seniors and Kent State faculty and staff, $10 for groups of 10 or more patrons, $8 for non-Kent State students, $5 for children and free for full-time Kent Campus undergraduate students.

Tickets are available weekdays noon to 5 p.m. at the Performing Arts Box Office, located in the lobby of the Roe Green Center in the Center for the Performing Arts at 1325 Theatre Dr. on the Kent Campus. The Performing Arts Box Office accepts Visa, MasterCard and Discover, in addition to cash and checks.

The Cartwright Hall box office will open one hour prior to the performance for walk-up sales, and will accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover. Tickets and more information are available by calling 330-672-ARTS (2787) or visiting http://www2.kent.edu/music/index.cfm.

The Vanguard New Music Guest Artists Series

Members of Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble will
present the second concert of the 2014-2015 Vanguard
New Music Guest Artists Series on Oct. 25 at Ludwig
Recital Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

On Saturday, Oct. 25, the Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble will present the second concert of the 2014-2015 Vanguard New Music Guest Artists Series. Members of Quince who will perform at the concert are Amanda DeBoer Bartlett, Kayleigh Butcher and Liz Pearse. They will perform the composition Three Voices by Morton Feldman, one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. The concert, which will be held at Ludwig Recital Hall in the Center for the Performing Arts, will begin at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free.

With the precision and flexibility of modern chamber musicians, Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble specializes in experimental repertoire that is changing the paradigm of contemporary vocal music. Described as "a new force of vocal excellence and innovation" by The Brooklyn Rail, Quince continually pushes the boundaries of traditional vocal ensemble literature.

As dedicated advocates of new music, Quince regularly commissions new works, providing a wider exposure for the music of living composers, and supports the efforts of concert series and universities that strive to incorporate contemporary repertoire into their programming. Quince has recently been seen on Vicky Chow's Contagious Sounds Series, a.per.io.dic's John Cage Festival in Chicago, on the Philip Glass: Music with Friends benefit concert at the Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, and at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Nebraska. Their debut album Realign the Time was released this fall.

Composed of vocalists Elizabeth Pearse, Kayleigh Butcher, Amanda DeBoer Bartlett and Carrie Henneman Shaw, Quince thrives on unique musical challenges and genre-bending contemporary repertoire. Upcoming concerts “Realign the Time” and more can be found at quince-ensemble.com.

Three Voices was written for the experimental vocalist and composer Joan LaBarbara in 1982. The original concept involved the live performer singing along with two pre-recorded parts projected through on-stage amplifiers, creating an effect of three individual “voices,” all with the same origin (Ms. LaBarbara). Three Voices is indeed a challenging and ground-breaking work, has very rarely been performed live with three singers due to its nearly impossible demands on the human voice and psyche - impeccable rhythmic concentration, shrewd attention to tuning and the ability to sound as one voice in three parts. The text is based on Frank O'Hara's poem Wind, and shapes, twists and morphs short phrases from the poem into an hourlong musical experience.

This piece, an ode of sorts to the strong, unique friendship between Morton Feldman and Frank O'Hara is at times a struggle between activity and stasis, permanence and inevitability of change, form and formlessness, language and expression. What is universal is the hypnotic and mesmeric qualities of the three vocal lines, soloistic at first, but gradually transcending into one swirling, spiraling voice.