February Events
Department of Performing Arts presents “The Inferior Sex”
Tuesday-Saturday, January 31-February 4
Roberts Studio Theatre, Scott Studios at Arts West
Jan. 20, 21, 31, Feb 1, 2, 3 at 7:30 p.m.; Jan 21, 22, Feb 4 at 2 p.m.
Written by Jacqueline E. Lawton • Directed by Sarah Hankins
It’s the summer of 1972. The battle to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment is ramping up across the nation. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm is campaigning for president. And in midtown Manhattan, a group of women have created a magazine “for feminists who love fashion.” As the war in Vietnam intensifies, and the Watergate scandal erupts, the charged political and social climate challenges friendships and the future of the magazine itself. Poignant and hilarious, “The Inferior Sex” looks at finding your politics, your community and your voice in an ever-changing world.
Content warning: The Inferior Sex is set in a women’s magazine in 1972. The women discuss issues of sexism, sexual assault, sexual harassment, sexuality, racism, microaggressions and systemic racism. Admission: $15 or Elon ID. Reservations will be offered beginning January 13 at www.elonperformingarts.com.
Honoring the Legacy Symposium
Presentations by Imam Oliver Mohammed
and Imam Salahuddin Muhammad
Thursday, February 2
McBride Gathering Space, Numen Lumen Pavilion, 6:30 p.m.
Imam W.D. Mohammed was a distinguished Muslim leader known for reforming the Nation of Islam and forging ties with mainstream Muslim communities across the United States. Sponsored by the CSRCS, the CREDE and Muslim Life at Elon
Willis Delony, piano recital
Thursday, February 2
Whitley Auditorium, 7:30 p.m.
In a performing career spanning more than four decades, pianist Willis Delony has won acclaim as one of the nation’s leading classical/jazz crossover artists. As a solo and collaborative recitalist, Delony has performed classical and jazz concerts around the world. He continues to appear with the nation’s leading jazz artists, and these innovative concerts explore the two musical worlds. The Louisiana State University Boyd Professor of Piano and Jazz Studies, he has been a member of the music faculty since 2000. At Elon, he will present a recital of classical and jazz piano repertoire. Sponsored by the Music Department
Katina Bitsicas, visiting artist
Monday, February 6
Gallery 406, Arts West, artist talk and reception, 5:30 p.m.
Through video, installation, photography and performance, Katina Bitsicas explores the parallels between personal loss and trauma and the theme of living fully while the afterlife still looms nearby. Her multimedia works examine how humans can connect and find meaning through shared experiences. Batsicas has exhibited worldwide, including The Armory Show, PULSE Art Fair, Satellite Art Fair, CADAF Paris, Superchief Gallery NFT, the Wheaton Biennial curated by Legacy Russell, HereArt in New York, Art in Odd Places in Orlando, Digital Graffiti Festival and the St. Louis International Film Festival. Exhibition continues through March 10.
wInterfaith: Intersections of faith and justice
Wednesday, February 8
McBride Gathering Space, Numen Lumen Pavilion, 12:30 p.m.
wInterfaith is an opportunity for the campus community and the larger Elon community to engage with each other around different expressions of religion and spirituality. This year, wInterfaith conversations will focus on the ways that members of different faith traditions think about, and live into, the intersections of faith and justice. In three different panel discussions, for lunch on February 8 and February 15, and dinner on February 18, students, faculty and staff, and members of the Elon community will gather for meaningful interfaith conversation. This event is free for students, faculty and staff, and there is a registration fee for community members. Reach out to Hillary Zaken (hzaken@elon.edu) with questions or to register. Sponsored by The Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life and the Elon Community Church
Sylvester Johnson, “Racial States, Civil Religion and the Future of American Democracy”
Thursday, February 9
McKinnon Hall, Moseley Center, 5:45 p.m.
In this keynote address for the symposium “Civil Religion and Race in the United States,” Johnson examines the role of race in civic discourse and belonging in the U.S. and the capacity for U.S. institutions to accommodate racial difference. Sylvester A. Johnson is Assistant Vice Provost for the Humanities and Executive Director of the “Tech for Humanity” initiative at Virginia Tech. Johnson’s research has examined religion, race and empire in the Atlantic world, religion and sexuality, national security practices, and the impact of intelligent machines and human enhancement on human identity and race governance. He is the author or editor of four books on race, religion and empire, including the award-winning, “The Myth of Ham in Nineteenth-Century American Christianity.” Sponsored by the Elon Center for the Study of Religion, Culture and Society
Sunny Hostin, The Elon School of Law Distinguished Leadership Lecture Series
Thursday, January 19 DATE CHANGE: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9
Carolina Theatre (310 S. Greene Street, Greensboro), 6:30 p.m.
Sunny Hostin is a three-time Emmy Award-winning legal journalist, former federal prosecutor, New York Times bestselling author, and co-host of The View. At Elon, she will explore the way Americans shape their perceptions of justice through both established and emerging sources of news and entertainment.
In May 2021, Hostin released her debut novel, “Summer on the Bluffs” (William Morrow), which skyrocketed to #11 on The New York Times Bestseller List. The first book in her “Summer” trilogy is being adapted into a series as the first major project for Sunny Hostin Productions. In the fall of 2020, Hostin released her memoir, “I Am These Truths: A Memoir of Identity, Justice, and Living Between Worlds,” with HarperOne.
Hostin has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes Women, Essence, Newsweek, The New York Post, Latina and Ebony. A sought-after public speaker, she has delivered a TEDxTalk titled “A Possibility Model” and spoken at and moderated panels for the U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Corporate Counsel Women of Color, and the National Bar Association, and served as a witness at the Federal Judiciary’s Congressional Hearing for the Public’s Right of Access to the Courts.
The Distinguished Leadership Lecture Series presented by The Joseph M. Bryan Foundation is an integral part of Elon Law’s Commitment to learning, lawyering and leadership. The series brings accomplished leaders from a variety of disciplines to Elon University to share their experiences and perspectives with students and faculty. Admission is free and no tickets are required. Elon Law encourages RSVPs at law.elon.edu/leadership to help interested guests receive timely information and updates.
Department of Performing Arts presents “The Bridges of Madison County”
Friday-Sunday, February 10-12
McCrary Theatre, Center for the Arts
Feb. 10 at 7:30 p.m.; Feb. 11 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.; Feb. 12 at 2 p.m.
Book by Marsha Norman • Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown • Directed by Erin Farrell Speer
Based on Robert James Waller’s 1992 bestselling novel, this musical adaptation of “The Bridges of Madison County” illuminates and exalts Waller’s classic story about the right love at the wrong time. Italian war bride Francesca, lonely in the cycle of her life as the matriarch of an Iowa farm family, meets a stranger in her driveway one summer day. Their love affair will strain the ties that bind across the life Francesca has built and the history she left behind. Admission: $15 or Elon ID. Tickets available beginning Friday, January 20 at www.elon.edu/boxoffice.
Nathaniel Gumbs, organ recital
Sunday, February 12 POSTPONED!
Rescheduled for Sunday, February 26
Whitley Auditorium, 2:30 p.m.
Nathaniel Gumbs, concert organist, is director of chapel music and professor of organ at Yale University. Gumbs’ program will celebrate Black History Month with his performance of “Hold On, We Shall Overcome!”, a collection of music he has arranged for organ. The performance will also include classical organ repertoire by Black composers. This concert begins the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Whitley Auditorium, first used for graduation ceremonies in May 1923. Sponsored by the Office of Cultural and Special Programs, the Center for Race, Ethnicity and Diversity Education (CREDE) and the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life
Tectonic Plates, Alamance County’s Science Café:
“Love languages in the animal kingdom?”
Tuesday, February 14, 7 p.m.
Burlington Beer Works, 103 E. Front Street, Burlington, NC., 7 p.m.
Learn cutting-edge science in a relaxed informal atmosphere without all the technical jargon. Programs are held on the second Tuesday of each month (September through May). In February, Elon University Assistant Professor of Biology Jessica Merricks, will teach us the “love languages” used by frogs and other animals.
Information is available at https://www.facebook.com/TectonicPlatesScienceCafe or contact Dave Gammon, dgammon@elon.edu.
wInterfaith: Intersections of faith and justice
Wednesday, February 15
Community Life Center, Elon Community Church, 12:30 p.m.
wInterfaith is an opportunity for the campus community and the larger Elon community to engage with each other around different expressions of religion and spirituality. This year, wInterfaith conversations will focus on the ways that members of different faith traditions think about, and live into, the intersections of faith and justice. In three different panel discussions, for lunch on February 8 and February 15, and dinner on February 18, students, faculty and staff, and members of the Elon community will gather for meaningful interfaith conversation. This event is free for students, faculty and staff, and there is a registration fee for community members. Reach out to Hillary Zaken (hzaken@elon.edu) with questions or to register. Sponsored by The Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life and the Elon Community Church
Adam Liptak, “The Transformed Supreme Court: A Reporter’s Reflections”
Wednesday, February 15
McCrary Theatre, Center for the Arts, 7:30 p.m.
Liberal Arts Forum Lecture
Moderated by Professor David S. Levine, Elon School of Law
Adam Liptak covers the Supreme Court for The New York Times. A graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, he practiced for 14 years before joining The Times’s news staff in 2002. In 2007, he began writing “Sidebar,” a column on legal affairs. In 2008, he became the paper’s Supreme Court correspondent. His columns appear frequently and are available for browsing at www.nytimes.com/by/adam-liptak.
Liptak was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting in 2009. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has taught courses on the Supreme Court and the First Amendment at the University of Chicago Law School, New York University of Law and Yale Law School.
Professor David S. Levine is an affiliate scholar at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. From 2014-2017, he was a visiting research collaborator at Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy. The founder and host of pioneering radio show Hearsay Culture, Levine is the co-author of Information Law, Governance, and Cybersecurity (West 2019, with Sharon Sandeen). His work on voting machine technology and information access has been cited and published in leading newspapers and academic journals in the United States and European Union.
“Her Incendiary Love”
Gretchen Bruesehoff, soprano; Dora Cardona, soprano; and Suzanne Polak, piano
Thursday, February 16
Whitley Auditorium, 6:30 p.m.
A Department of Music faculty recital filled with incendiary music, performed by three fiery women. Feel the fire of love in all its dimensions from the female perspective. The feminine voice of love – young, fiery, timeless, unrequited, secret, revengeful and lusting – in all HER glory. Sponsored by the Department of Music, the Gender and LGBTQIA Center and El Centro
Molly McCully Brown, creative nonfiction reading
Thursday, February 16,
Canceled; to be rescheduled later in Spring 2023
Sacred Space, Numen Lumen Pavilion, 7 p.m.
Molly McCully Brown’s 2020 essay collection, “Places I’ve Taken My Body,” focuses on living with disabilities, in her case cerebral palsy. A recipient of a United States Artists Fellowship, a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, an Amy Lowell Scholarship and the Jeff Baskin Writers Fellowship, Brown is also the author of two poetry collections, including “The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded,” which won the 2016 Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize and was named a New York Times Critics’ Top Book of 2017. Brown teaches creative nonfiction in the MFA program at Old Dominion University. Sponsored by The Department of English
2023 Ripple Interfaith Conference: Stretching the Limits of Religious Identities
Friday-Sunday, February 17-19
Various locations and meeting times, information available at www.rippleconference.org
How do the intersectional identities we hold inform our religious and spiritual identities, and how does religious identity affect the way we think about the world? At Ripple, Elon’s student-led interfaith conference, you can engage with these questions, and more. At Ripple, students are encouraged to engage in genuine (and fun!) interfaith work to prepare them to develop as interfaith leaders and ambassadors. That’s the ripple effect – giving students a positive multi-faith experience that inspires them to explore their own identities, ask tough questions and further engage in sustained interfaith within their own communities. Participants will engage in dialogue, reflection and training through keynote speakers, panels and interactive breakout workshops. Reach out to Hillary Zaken (hzaken@elon.edu) with questions or to register. Sponsored by the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life
wInterfaith: Intersections of faith and justice
Saturday, February 18
Location TBD, 6:30 p.m.
wInterfaith is an opportunity for the campus community and the larger Elon community to engage with each other around different expressions of religion and spirituality. This year, wInterfaith conversations will focus on the ways that members of different faith traditions think about, and live into, the intersections of faith and justice. In three different panel discussions, for lunch on February 8 and February 15, and dinner on February 18, students, faculty and staff, and members of the Elon community will gather for meaningful interfaith conversation. This event is free for students, faculty and staff, and there is a registration fee for community members. Reach out to Hillary Zaken (hzaken@elon.edu) with questions or to register. Sponsored by The Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life and the Elon Community Church
Elon Jazz Festival and Concert
Saturday, February 18
McCrary Theatre, Center for the Arts, 7:30 p.m.
Directed by Brandon Mitchell
Guest clinicians Jon Metzger, vibraphone and Al Strong, trumpet
The Elon Jazz festival invites high school and middle school ensembles (Friday, February 17, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) followed by a performance and open jam session with the Elon Jazz Combo at The Oak House at 7 p.m. The 2023 Jazz Festival Concert on Saturday evening will feature the Elon Jazz Ensemble with guest artists/clinicians for a very special night of large format jazz music. Sponsored by the Department of Music
Ash Wednesday
Wednesday, February 22
Sacred Space, Numen Lumen Pavilion, 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Elon Community Church, 12:15 p.m. and 9 p.m.
All are welcome to receive ashes during a worship service beginning the Christian season of Lent. The 12:15 p.m. worship is ecumenical (Protestant and Catholic), and the 9 p.m. service is Catholic Mass. Shorter services with the distribution of ashes are also available in the Sacred Space, Numen Lumen Pavilion. Sponsored by Catholic Campus Ministry, LEAF (Lutherans, Episcopalians, and Friends) and the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life
Steven Heine, “Zen Tones: Painting and Poetry of the Buddhist Masters”
Wednesday, February 22
The Smith-Chase Lecture in Religious Studies
LaRose Digital Theatre, Koury Business Center 101, 5:30 p.m.
Zen Buddhism is well known for expressing the meaning of enlightenment using the fine and literary arts. It cultivates visual tones through ink-brush painting and aural tones through elegant rhyming poetry. This lecture explains Zen’s focus on the arts by highlighting the saying, “Painting is poetry without words, and poetry is painting with words,” and explores its implications for traditional and modern forms of religious practice.
Steven Heine is Professor of Religious Studies and Director of Asian Studies at Florida International University. He specializes in East Asian religions, especially the origins of Zen history and thought in China and its transplantation to Japan. Heine has published three dozen books, including From Chinese Chan to Japanese Zen and Zen and Material Culture (co-edited with Pamela Winfield). He is the recipient of the prestigious Order of the Rising Sun Award in recognition of a career promoting Japanese culture.
Douglas Jurs, piano recital
Wednesday, February 22
Whitley Auditorium, 7 p.m.
Elon Associate Professor of Piano presents forgotten keyboard works of Joseph Bologne Chevalier de Saint-Georges alongside the four Ballades of Chopin, music of Claude Debussy, and Caribbean dance music. Sponsored by the Department of Music
Black in the Theatre: The Black History Month Dance Concert
Friday-Saturday, February 24-25
McCrary Theatre, Center for the Arts
Directed by Keshia Wall
Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m.; Feb. 25 at 2 p.m.
A celebration of black performing arts including dance, spoken word, live music and more. Special guest choreographers include Souleymane Solo Sana and Michelle Gibson.
Nathaniel Gumbs, organ recital
NEW DATE: Sunday, February 26
Whitley Auditorium, 2:30 p.m.
Nathaniel Gumbs, concert organist, is director of chapel music and professor of organ at Yale University. Gumbs’ program will celebrate Black History Month with his performance of “Hold On, We Shall Overcome!”, a collection of music he has arranged for organ. The performance will also include classical organ repertoire by Black composers. This concert begins the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Whitley Auditorium, first used for graduation ceremonies in May 1923. Sponsored by the Office of Cultural and Special Programs, the Center for Race, Ethnicity and Diversity Education (CREDE) and the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life
Active Citizen Series: Deliberative Dialogue – How Should We Prevent Mass Shootings in Our Communities?
Monday, February 27
Lakeside 212, Moseley Center, 4:30 p.m.
More than 320,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since Columbine. The tragic attacks in Uvalde, Texas; Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and other places have raised concerns among many people across the nation. Such shootings have become more frequent and more deadly in the last decade. Each mass murder has devastating effects on a whole community. Overall, the United States has become safer in recent years, yet mass shootings target innocent people indiscriminately – often in places where people should feel safe such as movie theaters, shopping centers and schools. How can we stop mass shootings and ensure that people feel safe in their homes and communities? Sponsored by the Kernodle Center
Rev. Dr. Jay Augustine, “Called to Reconciliation”
Tuesday, February 28
McBride Gathering Space, Numen Lumen Pavilion, 7 p.m.
Nationally recognized civil rights leader and pastor Jay Augustine offers a prophetic call to recover reconciliation as the heart of the church’s message to a divided world. Sponsored by the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life
My Neighbor Tortoro (Japan)
Tuesday, February 28
Global Commons 103 (Media Room), 7 p.m.
In this classic Japanese animated film, two girls move to the country to be near their ailing mother and have adventures with the wondrous forest spirits who live nearby. The film explores themes of ecological magic and environmental healing.