Everything Nac

A partnership between Stephen F. Austin State University’s School of Human Sciences and the East Texas Food Bank in Tyler aims to curb high levels of food insecurity in East Texas through a six-week Cooking Matters program.

This is the fifth year the school has partnered with the food bank to provide the informative and interactive program to the community. Justin Pelham, food, nutrition and dietetics clinical instructor at SFA, is using this program as a class project for students in his community nutrition course to showcase their skills in a real-world setting. This will be Pelham’s fourth year to lead the program.

“My goal is to provide real-world experience in the Nacogdoches community by allowing our students to demonstrate their nutrition knowledge with interactive education and cooking demonstrations,” Pelham said. “Community opportunities enhance the student learning experience when working with our underserved populations locally, making a significant impact in the students’ lives well past their undergraduate experience at SFA.”

The East Texas Food Bank is a nonprofit organization that distributes food to more than 200 partner agencies in an effort to feed children, the working poor and senior citizens throughout 26 counties in East Texas. According to food bank studies, one in four children and one in five adults experience food insecurity in East Texas.

Kinsey Jeffers, food bank nutrition education programs manager, and Brandi Gouldthorpe, SFA alumna and nutrition education specialist, visited Pelham’s community nutrition students recently to outline the food bank’s mission and services.

“Cooking Matters is one of our main direct education programs,” Jeffers said. “We offer 15 to 20 six-week courses every year. There are nutrition education components, kitchen and food safety components, grocery store tours and hands-on food preparation. Then we all sit down and eat the meal together.”

Pelham’s students will serve in all Cooking Matters roles, from program recruitment officer to chef and instructor.

“The student-led program provides interactive experiences for all sides,” Pelham said. “Students will be showcasing their leadership abilities among our underserved community and practice their communication skills in written and oral formats with the public. The East Texas Food Bank appreciates the partnership because we are reaching more people in their region who could benefit from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.

“The community, too, benefits from the Cooking Matters program because they learn different nutrition education topics that correspond with the practical cooking skills gained through the lesson. Also, each participant receives a bag of groceries with the items prepared that day to cook the same dish at home,” Pelham added.

Another class location has been added to this year’s Cooking Matters partnership, allowing organizers to double program participation. While Pelham’s students lead the course on campus, a second class will occur simultaneously at the Helping Other People Eat Pantry in Nacogdoches. Additionally, SFA’s new mobile food lab, the Lumberjack Express, will be driven to the HOPE Pantry for the class’ graduation event and potluck.

Cooking Matters classes will begin Oct. 7 and continue each Monday through Nov. 11.

For more information about East Texas Food Bank services, visit easttexasfoodbank.org.

By Christine Broussard, editorial marketing communications coordinator at Stephen F. Austin State University

Stephen F. Austin State University’s Office of Multicultural Affairs will host its first Brave Space Series of the fall semester beginning at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1, in the Baker Pattillo Student Center Multimedia Room. The series’ discussion is titled “Stereotypes within Education Systems.”

“This Brave Space session will discuss the stereotypes within the education system relating to race, social class and dialect,” Vanessa Huynh, OMA student ambassador, said. “We also will talk about ways to overcome stereotypes within education systems.”

Huynh and Dia Conerly, OMA student ambassador, will cohost the event.

Each month, OMA’s Brave Space Series provides a forum for open and honest discussion concerning difficult topics.

The discussion is free and open to members of the SFA and Nacogdoches communities. For more information, visit sfasu.edu/multicultural/480.asp.

By Emily Brown, marketing communications specialist for Stephen F. Austin State University.

The Wind Ensemble at Stephen F. Austin State University will present “An Evening with James Syler” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.

Dr. David Campo, director of bands at SFA, conducts the Wind Ensemble. Syler serves as the School of Music’s composer in residence for the fall semester, working with student musicians as they perform his works. Included on this concert are three diverse pieces from the composer’s catalog, including “Gearbox,” “Congo Square” and “Love Among the Ruins.”

Of “Gearbox,” Syler stated, “The initial idea for this work was in experimenting with interlocking rhythmic figures to create a mechanical-like fabric by using the technique of canon. By overlapping and displacing the rhythms on different beats, a gear-like sound emerged. This sound reminded me of an engine, driving, cars and all things mechanical. Gears churn, repeat and shift energy in a gearbox, or transmission, to move the machine forward, and so the title ‘Gearbox’ seemed appropriate. It is exuberant, joyful and celebratory music in memory of my father, Robert L. Syler ,who was a lover of cars, driving and all things mechanical.”

Found in the Treme´ neighborhood of New Orleans, just across Rampart Street north of the French Quarter, Congo Square has been a gathering place for enslaved people since the early 1800s. The Code Noir of the early 1700s made Sundays work free for all inhabitants of the colony including enslaved Africans. On these Sunday afternoons, the slaves would gather at Congo Square to commune, trade and, most importantly, make music. It was from these early beginnings that jazz music was born. Syler’s “Congo Square” features African drums juxtaposed on sounds from early jazz, creating a “musical gumbo” that reflects the diversity of musical styles that came together to create the signature sound of New Orleans.
“This unique mix of African, Creole and Caribbean is what I’ve tried to internalize in the creation of ‘Congo Square,'” Syler said.

“Love Among the Ruins for Wind Ensemble and Viola” will feature Dr. Jennifer Dalmas, professor of violin and viola at SFA, as viola soloist. The title is from the poem “Love Among the Ruins” by Robert Browning. The piece is not a concerto in the traditional sense, but rather a work that features the viola for its color, expressivity and voice within a narrative, Syler explained.

“The subject in this work is love as a timeless force – its continuation in our lives beyond the grave, throughout time and space and amidst the personal loss, difficulties or ruins of our lives,” he said.

Syler’s works have been heard throughout the world, including performances by Chinese Youth Choir, State Symphonic Band of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Lisbon Portugal Jazz Festival, Symphonic Wind Orchestra Mittelbaden of Germany, McGill University Wind Ensemble in Montreal, Canada, and more. Other notable performances include Symphony No. 1 “Blue” at Carnegie Hall, Bridge Chamber Music Festival, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, New York Choral Festival at Lincoln Center, Interlochen Arts Academy and more. He has completed more than 30 commissions in chamber, choral, orchestral and wind ensemble forms.

Between 1998 and 2013, he owned and operated Ballerbach Music, a music publishing company specializing in contemporary music. Since 2001, Syler has been a lecturer at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio where he teaches composition.

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.

The Percussion Ensemble at Stephen F. Austin State University will present its first fall concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 3, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

Directed by Dr. Brad Meyer, director of percussion studies at SFA, the ensemble will perform works by Van Halen, Robert Oetomo, Caleb Pickering, James Campbell and Russell Wharton.

A rock song written by the group Van Halen for their album “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge,” the song “Right Now” reflects on living for the moment and not being afraid of making a change, according to program notes for the concert.

Oetomo’s arrangement of Harold Arlen’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from “The Wizard of Oz” will feature sophomore, Davis Carr on marimba. Of the piece, Oetomo says it was “created with the intention of having a combination of jazz influences (harmonies and quasi improvisation) and classical romantic influences (runs, ornaments and flourishes), yet maintaining the simplicity of the melody and harmony of the recording.”

The ensemble will perform Pickering’s “21 Grams” and “Powder Keg.” Pickering states “21 Grams” refers to the “hypothesized ‘weight of the human soul’ as described by Dr. Duncan MacDougall in his 1907 medical experiments. MacDougall conducted experiments measuring the weight of his patients before, during and after their deaths. This work is abstractly programmatic in that it follows a general interpretation of seeing what lies beyond our existence on earth, both good and bad.” “Powder Keg” is a high-energy keyboard quartet scored for two vibraphones and two marimbas that is explosive in nature and shifts between rhythmic and harmonic stability and instability throughout, according to the composer.

Campbell’s “Engine Room” refers to the percussion section of a traditional steel band. The engine room plays a crucial accompaniment role in Calypso and Soca, the traditional folk music of Trinidad and Tobago. The composer develops motives out of the rhythmic patterns that are typically used in the engine room, as well as other patterns found within the context of Caribbean music, according to a description at percussionmusiconline.com. This performance showcases sophomore, Alcira Sanchez, on multiple instruments.

Graduate student, Mariah Taller, will be featured on snare drum on Wharton’s “Phylogenesis,” a work for solo percussion using two snare drums and audio. The title refers to the evolutionary history and development of an organism, and the musical development within this piece loosely mirrors that concepts, according to Wharton.

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.