Everything Nac

Former U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker will discuss global issues of intolerance and violence during an academic program for Fort Bend ISD students and the public organized by Stephen F. Austin State University’s College of Liberal and Applied Arts on Oct. 7, at Texas Safari Ranch in Richmond.

The annual event is hosted by SFA’s Office of the Provost.

“This is the sixth year for the Global Citizenship Series conference and it has evolved over time,” said Dr. Brian Murphy, dean of the SFA College of Liberal and Applied Arts. “For the first five years, we focused on a geographic region — Europe twice, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America — but shifted to a specific topic for this year’s October event. The initial three conferences were for the public at-large, but the outreach has been to high school audiences in the more recent past.”

The series was developed as a means for SFA to bring high-quality academic programs that improve international understanding to Texas students and residents.

Approximately 650 Fort Bend ISD students are expected to attend this year’s conference, which will consist of one afternoon and two morning panels touching on aspects of violence across the globe. Crocker will add to that discussion during his lunch-hour keynote address.

Crocker retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2009 after a 37-year career before he was recalled to active duty by President Barack Obama to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan. He served as U.S. ambassador six times between 1990 and 2012, including in Lebanon, Kuwait, Syria, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Mr. Crocker was U.S. ambassador to both Iraq and Afghanistan during the height of the turmoil,” Murphy said.

Born in Spokane, Washington, Crocker grew up in a military family and attended school in Morocco, Canada and Turkey. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, in 2009, among more than 10 other notable awards throughout his career.

Crocker was conferred the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the Foreign Service, by President George W. Bush in 2004, and in 2009, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the establishment of the Ryan C. Crocker Award for Outstanding Achievement in Expeditionary Diplomacy.

The first panel of the 2016 Global Citizenship series will be moderated by Dr. Gina Causin, assistant professor in SFA’s School of Human Sciences, and will touch on concepts, forms of and responses to violence. The second morning panel will be moderated by Dr. Dianne Dentice, SFA associate professor of sociology, and will focus on violence in the U.S.

The third and final panel will be moderated by Dr. Steven Galatas, SFA associate professor of political science. The panel will discuss international violence.

The 2016 Global Citizenship Series will begin at 7:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 7, at Safari Texas Ranch, located at 11627 FM 1464 in Richmond, Texas. The conference will wrap up at approximately 2:30 p.m. To register for the free event, email Dixie Groll, assistant to the dean in the SFA College of Liberal and Applied Arts, at grollda@sfasu.edu.

Five presentations by Stephen F. Austin State University faculty and staff members will take place during the fall and early spring semesters as part of the SFA Office of Multicultural Affairs’ ongoing Consciousness Speaker Series.

The series’ goal is to connect students and the Nacogdoches community to SFA’s faculty and staff members while also exposing them to progressive issues in diversity, multicultural education and social justice. The OMA also hopes the series will help make campus and local communities more aware of the extraordinary scholarship and advocacy SFA’s faculty and staff members have to offer and facilitate relationship-building across the campus.

In previous years, the OMA invited out-of-town speakers to present in the series. However, this year’s event will spotlight the research of SFA faculty and staff members.

“We wanted to tap into the academic resources we have on campus, so we reached out to all faculty and staff members who were interested in talking about anything related to multicultural affairs, social justice or diversity,” said Dr. Griselda Flores, OMA assistant director. “I think when most people think about diversity or multicultural education, it’s often focused on racial issues, but there is so much more than that. For example, one part of the series focuses on yoga and another on religious freedom among Native Americans.”

Olegario Madera, outreach coordinator for SFA’s Department of Secondary Education and Educational Leadership, will kick off the series at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27, in the Baker Pattillo Student Center Multimedia Room, Room 2.101, with a discussion regarding the transition to higher education for students of color.

The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided and participants may bring a sacked lunch.

Remaining presenters for the Consciousness Speaker Series include Aloma D. Marquis, School of Art faculty member, who will discuss the act of dismantling racial injustice at 11 a.m. Oct. 11; Cyndra Krogen-Morton, SFA kinesiology and health science faculty member, who will talk about finding self-awareness and compassion within the practice of yoga at 11 a.m. Oct. 18; Dr. Luis Aguerrevere, associate professor in SFA’s Department of Human Services, who will discuss the influences of the Hispanic culture in presenting physical and mental symptoms and disabilities at 11 a.m. Nov. 14; and Dr. Darrel McDonald, SFA professor of geography, who will discuss Native American modern religious freedom at 1 p.m. Jan. 24.

For more information, contact the OMA at (936) 468-1073 or at oma@sfasu.edu.

While political pundits around the world are having a field day with this strange U.S. presidential election year, theatre and music students at Stephen F. Austin State University are having fun preparing for a production that puts it all in raucous rock musical perspective.

The SFA School of Theatre will present “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” Oct. 4 through 8 in William M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus. The show, with music and lyrics by Michael Friedman and a book by Alex Timbers, takes a comedic look at the founding of the Democratic Party and portrays Andrew Jackson, America’s seventh president, as an emo rock star.

Angela Bacarisse, professor of theatre who directed SFA’s smash hit “Spamalot,” directs this musical that boasts a blazing pop score, captivating sex-appeal and wagon-loads of goofy humor. It reinvents the life of Jackson in a way that mischievously reveals how little has really changed in two centuries of America’s often crazy, sometimes brutal, always entertaining political spectacle, according to Bacarisse.

“I have wanted to work on this play for many years, and it is of particular interest because this is an election year,” Bacarisse said. “Andrew Jackson was instrumental in the formation of the Democratic Party, and there are many similarities between what happened in the early 19th century and events of the early 21st century.

“Jackson’s unconventional, often controversial and fiercely held principles and vision shook things up politically, culturally and on the field of battle,” she said. “He played a pivotal role in America’s westward expansion. But Jackson’s legacy was also marked with slavery and the Indian Removal Act – issues that leave us questioning the consequences. He blazed new trails and opened new possibilities. He was loved and loathed, revered and reviled, but seldom ignored.”

The storyline follows Jackson on his journey from a Revolutionary battlefield at age 13 to two terms in the White House and depicts everything from drunken bar fights to tender love scenes.

Jackson’s presidency was a time of “political upheaval,” Bacarisse said.

“Voting rights expanded and the Republican system of government envisioned by the founding fathers was questioned and expanded,” she said. “Jackson’s military hero status and enormous popularity with those he called ‘the humble members of society’ – meaning farmers, mechanics, laborers – carried him to two terms. His unconventional ideas and stances on controversial issues upset the status quo. He brought muddy boots and common voices into the White House and outraged the elite establishment.”

All of this will be represented in the musical, Bacarisse said, ” … not in a historically accurate way, but in a humorous ‘Saturday Night Live’ style.”

“Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” won’t change anyone’s mind about the November presidential election, she added.

“But I hope those who see it will be reminded that history really does repeat itself,” Bacarisse said, “and that whoever is in the Oval Office – try as they might – will not be able to please everyone all of the time.”

Tod Fish, associate director of choral activities for the SFA School of Music, is musical director, and Longview senior theatre major Tanner O’Neal is student assistant director.

The show is recommended for mature audiences. A content advisory may be viewed at www.theatre.sfasu.edu.

Single tickets are $15 for adult, $10 for senior and $7.50 for student/youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.theatre.sfasu.edu. Performances are at 7:30 nightly.

The Cole Performing Arts Series at Stephen F. Austin State University will present music faculty members Christina Guenther and Ron Petti performing a flute and piano recital at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

Guenther is professor of flute at SFA, and Petti is professor and director of accompanying. The concert, which is a joint presentation of the SFA College of Fine Arts and School of Music, will open with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonata in G Minor.

“This work is actually attributed to Bach and was likely written by his son, Carl Philipp Emmanuel,” Guenther said. “With an obbligato keyboard part, the two instruments play an equal role in this standard fast-slow-fast three-movement Baroque work.”

The program includes Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s Sonata for Flute and Piano, which is also a three-movement work. Hummel, an Austro-Hungarian composer and pianist, crosses over the Classical and Romantic periods, which can be heard in the piece, according to Guenther.

“Classical scale patterns meet Romantic harmonies and colors,” she said.

The second part of the concert opens with French composer Francis Poulenc’s Sonata for Flute and Piano, another three-movement work with “lovely tone colors, singing melodies and fun energy,” Guenther said. The Coolidge Foundation commissioned the piece in 1957.

The concert will feature the world premiere of San Francisco-based composer Kyle Hovatter’s “by a spirit of uselessness.” The composer describes the work as “a spirited dance with a fun groove.”

The program closes with New York-based composer Gary Schocker’s “Airborne.”

“This work has a fun, jazzy feel, is high in energy with several mood changes, and will be a crowd pleaser,” Guenther said.

Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.

To a passerby, it might look like a typical, white brick storage building — nothing more than a place to house excess furniture and goods. But to Stephen F. Austin State University interior design students and staff members from Love In the Name of Christ, a non-profit Christian organization, the building is a blank canvas and a fresh start.

SFA interior design students have partnered with representatives from Love INC to renovate a storage building, located on Ruby Street in Nacogdoches, into a bathing and laundry facility for the Nacogdoches homeless community.

“Love INC is part of a nationwide faith-based organization that gives back to the community and those less fortunate,” said Mark Bridges, vice chairman of Love INC and a member of the buildings and grounds committee responsible for the project.

Love INC received an anonymous donation to buy the building, and Bridges said he approached Sally Ann Swearingen, associate professor in SFA’s School of Human Sciences, for help with the renovation.

“I’m always wanting to give back to the community, so I thought I should get all the interior design students — from freshmen to seniors — to work on this project,” Swearingen said.

Approximately 65 interior design students are involved in the renovation, which surpassed Bridges’ expectations.

“It’s beyond what I anticipated. The response from SFA is amazing,” Bridges said. “I pray it will be a wonderful experience and that we can teach the students what it’s like to give back to the community and to use their gifts for people when they may never see any payment for it.”

Last week, SFA students began the project by visiting the storage building to measure the facility and meet with Love INC’s board of directors and employees. During the meeting, students discussed Love INC’s needs and vision for the structure. The renovations will convert the storage unit into a facility with bathing areas, a laundry area and a one-room apartment for a person or family to shelter for a night or two.

“It feels good to give back and work on a project that will actually be built,” said Haley Gibbert, a senior interior design major from Texarkana, Texas. “This is going to help people, and it’s not just for a grade.”

Students had one day to create a name and logo and to design interior and exterior perspectives and a handicapped accessible floor plan of the storage building to present to Love INC. After Love INC representatives select a design, SFA interior design seniors will perfect and present it to the city.

“This is an opportunity for Love INC to minister and share the gospel to people who have never heard it or have never seen it in person,” said Rebecca Bumpurs, an SFA interior design sophomore from Port Lavaca, Texas. “The gospel isn’t just words, it’s actions. You can show the gospel through your actions and love for somebody else. This is what they are doing for the community.”

The timeline for this project is indefinite, but Bridges said he hopes Love INC will be able to build the facility as quickly as possible.