Month: August 2012

Christina Oddo
Assistant Arts & Life Editor

Students, faculty and the downtown community came together to enjoy a diverse spread of events at the Lewisburg Street Fair and “Arts. Everywhere.” Festival. Musicians, food and beverages added to the array of afternoon activities, along with things like crafts, face painting and games. The performances and events demonstrated the tie between Lewisburg and the University’s community and programs.

One such event was the Poetry Path, which had its inaugural coincide with the Street Fair. It allowed participants to read a series of poems, as well as hear the poets narrate their own works. The actual path includes 10 markers, each of which pays tribute to historic and culturally important Lewisburg locales.

“The Poetry Path tour brought together people from the community as well as faculty, staff and students from Bucknell; we also had a wide range of ages on the tour,” Shara McCallum, director of the Stadler Center for Poetry, said. “It’s a wonderful feeling when you see something–and particularly an art as often misunderstood as poetry–that can bring such a range of people together.”

Later in the day, the Campus Theatre offered free refreshments and popcorn while it hosted a showing of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” The admission prices–25 cents for adults, 10 cents for children–were the same as in 1941 when the Campus Theatre originally opened.

Across Market Street at the Downtown Art Gallery, students, faculty and community members were offered a sneak peak of the exhibit of digit prints, “The Travelogue of Dr. Brain Damages.”

Such events and more were part of the second annual “Arts. Everywhere.” festival.  This festival coincided with the Downtown Street Festival and took place both downtown and on campus.

“Including a poetry event in the ‘Arts. Everywhere.’ festival is important because many people forget that there are arts besides visual arts. I would say that poetry/literature and music are the only two non-visual arts–and actually, Shara McCallum once described poetry as ‘the only art form whose pleasure is not derived directly from one of the five senses,’” Lauren Feldman ’14 said.

Other “Arts. Everywhere.” festival events included an exhibition to the Samek Art Gallery, a Gallery Series Concert, the Weis Center’s 25th Anniversary Open House, a drum workshop with Red Baraat, a Weis Center Series performance by Red Baraat, the Universal African Dance and Drum Ensemble performance, original plays performed by the Cap & Dagger club and fiction and poetry readings with students, faculty and staff.

Feldman read two poems for the Poetry Path, one about her childhood, family relations and growing up in Hawaii, the otherabout her experience as a volunteer for a suicide prevention line.

“Both these poems were autobiographical and focused on very formative experiences in my life,” Feldman said. “Getting to share such intimate parts of myself with an audience always makes me feel a little more at home here, a little more connected.”

All of the events in the Lewisburg Street Fair and “Arts. Everywhere.” festival worked to help make the Lewisburg community and University unite over appreciation for the arts and our shared town.

Daniel Park
Writer

Kenan Thompson, well-known for his eclectic roles in various comedy works such as “All That,” “Saturday Night Live” and “Fat Albert,” will be coming to the University for a night of comedy and entertainment on Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. on Sojka Lawn. The event was made possible by the cooperation between Bucknell Student Government (BSG) and Activities and Campus Events (ACE).

A survey was posted on myBucknell during the spring of 2012 to determine who students wanted to see most on campus at Center Stage. The survey provided different artists, including Thompson, Wanda Sykes and various actors from “The Office.” Of the 400 responses from the survey, approximately half favored Thompson to come to the University during this fall.

Even with the comedian’s packed schedule, ACE arranged for Thompson to visit in the following month.

“We were lucky; Kenan is currently high in demand and he only had three open dates available. His filming in not only Saturday Night Live, but various other shows made it nearly impossible for him to visit. But luckily his agents were cooperative in setting up a date for his visit,” Callie Frieler, assistant director of Campus Activities and Programming, said.

Many students already made plans to attend the event with friends and when questioned, all of them replied that he was enjoyable to watch on television.

“I don’t usually attend events hosted by ACE often, but I really plan on going to watch Kenan a month from now. I’ve seen him on television a couple of times and he seems interesting,” Dozy Onujuju ’15 said.

The bustling atmosphere on campus and stereotypically overwhelming environment of the first week of school has pushed students to look for a way to relax, have fun with friends and laugh.

“This would be a good opportunity for my friends and I to meet and enjoy Kenan perform on stage with his hilarious jokes, and best of all free food!” Erica Gaugler ’15 said.

Though the event is scheduled about a month from now, many students on campus are already aware of Kenan’s arrival on Aug. 29. As classes will be in full swing by then and life returned to the daily grind, students are already eagerly awaiting plenty of laughs and much more.

“This will be one of the few major events that will be on campus this year and I don’t plan on missing this event,” Adam Walsh ’15 said.

Siobhan Murray
Staff Writer 

The ground floor of the Elaine Langone Center (ELC) is set to expand into a centralized location for the Intercultural Equity and Advocacy offices by November. The new space will house Multicultural Student Services, International Student Services and the Women’s Resource Center offices and lounges, as well as the Activities and Campus Events (ACE) and Bucknell Student Government (BSG) offices.

“We really want to bring these services to the high traffic area of the ELC in the hopes of bringing in more people and providing more effective services for different affinity groups,” associate dean of students for diversity Thomas Alexander said. “We want people to understand that these services aren’t solely for certain people or certain groups. These services are for everyone.”

“I think it will make the offices more public and that people will know where they are. The three offices that are going downstairs will be able to work more closely and easily with one another,” Rabbi Serena Fujita said.

Alexander hopes the area can become a home base for students to hangout and spend downtime in, but also a center where students can come ask questions and voice concerns. Having the office of International Student Services in the area will provide students with a place to talk about going abroad, and ideally, talk to international students about the real experiences of foreign places.

Since the campus bookstore relocated from the ground floor of the ELC to Market Street in Lewisburg, there has been open space for student use. Right now, the hearth is an open area with seats and tables for students’ use, and houses the post office and Campus Activities & Programs (CAP) center. The new construction will keep this area for student use and expand the lounge section into new additional offices and lounges.

“I think it’s really cool that they’re expanding that area. There’s already lots of room for students to hang out and do work, and I think that putting offices there will attract lots and lots of students to the space,” Anthony Le ’16 said.

For Alexander, the broader goal is to create an appreciation for all types of diversity and a place where everyone on campus feels welcome and comfortable.

This coincides with the University’s overall goals to increase awareness of diversity and promote more openness. More attention can be paid to social and campus issues, so that “Hispanic heritage isn’t just celebrated during Hispanic Heritage Month, women’s and sexual violence empowerment isn’t just paid attention to during Take Back the Night and Black History isn’t commemorated only during Black History Month,”Alexander said.

The Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Awareness will also be moving into the ELC as well.