Macalester College October events calendar

Sunday, October 1
J.S. Bach: The Complete French Suites
All six of Johann Sebastian Bach’s French Suites for solo keyboard will be performed by six different pianists, each bringing their own interpretive and stylistic voice to this timeless music. Macalester Music faculty Claudia Chen and Mark Mazullo are joined by piano faculty Esther Wang from Gustavus Adolphus College, Heather McLaughlin of North Hennepin Community College, Nicola Melville from Carleton College, and Jill Dawe of Augsburg College.

Speakers:
Paul Hoover, Professor of Creative Writing at San Francisco State University, has published fifteen poetry collections, a book of literary essays, and a novel. He has also co-translated three volumes of poetry from German and Vietnamese. He is widely known as editor, with Maxine Chernoff, of the literary magazine New American Writing, and for editing the anthology Postmodern American Poetry, 1994. A second edition of the anthology was published in 2013.

H. L. Hix is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy and the Creative Writing Program at the University of Wyoming. His most recent book is American Anger. His recent poetry collections include I’m Here to Learn to Dream in Your Language; As Much As, If Not More Than; First Fire, Then Birds: Obsessionals 1985-2010; and Incident Light.  Others recent books include Uncoverage: Asking After Recent Poetry and Ley Lines.  He has received a Fulbright Distinguished Lectureship, and the T.S. Eliot Prize, among others.

Elizabeth Harris has translated two of Antonio Tabucchi’s novels, Tristano Dies, and For Isabel: A Mandala. She is a recipient of the PEN/Heim Translation Grant and the National Translation Award for Prose. A professor of creative writing for many years, Harris now translates full-time.  Sponsored by Macalester’s English, Asian Languages and Cultures, and German and Russian Studies Departments.
+ Weyerhaeuser Memorial Chapel Macalester, 1600 Grand Ave., St. Paul, 5:30 pm FREE, 651-696-6387. 

Sunday, October 8

Monday, October 9
Witness for Peace Talk with Carol Rojas
Hispanic Studies and Latin American Studies Departments present a “Witness for Peace” talk, featuring Carol Rojas’ presentation titled “Women and the Construction of Peace in Colombia.” Rojas is an educator and a member of the Feminist Antimilitarist Network.
+ Olin-Rice Science Center 250, 166 Macalester St., St. Paul, Minn., 4:45 pm,
FREE, 651-696-6395. 

Wednesday, October 11
Undaunted Exploration: NASA’s New Horizons Mission to Pluto with MIT professor Richard Binzel
In July 2015, NASA’s New Horizons completed its nine-and-a-half-year journey to become the first spacecraft to see Pluto up close. It unveiled a surprisingly dynamic world never before revealed to human eyes.  Join Macalester graduate and MIT Planetary Science Professor Richard Binzel, who as a member of the NASA mission team, will deliver a firsthand account of latest discoveries and the decades long effort to extend human exploration to its farthest reach. His observations made the groundbreaking exploration to Pluto a top priority for NASA. Binzel did his first research on Pluto as a Macalester student working as a summer intern at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, DC.
+ Mairs Concert Hall, Music Building, Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, 130 Macalester Street, St. Paul, Minn., 7 p.m., FREE, 651-696-6295.  

Thursday, October 12; Friday, October 13 and Saturday, October 14
The 24th Annual International Roundtable looks at the topic “Empathy and Its Discontents” Oct. 12-14, 2017.
Every October since 1994, Macalester’s International Roundtable (IRT) has brought diverse communities together to dialogue around a single theme. This year, the theme is “Empathy and Its Discontents.” The modern concept of empathy first emerged in the early nineteenth century as a matter of aesthetic philosophy. Today, the international conversation about empathy is urgent and divisive. The idea is championed and challenged in equal measure by neuroscientists, human rights activists, arts critics, psychologists, philosophers, and commentators from many other fields. This roundtable seeks to bring these sometimes collaborative, sometimes conflicting perspectives together in one place. 

Over 40 Macalester students are leading 17 sessions at the roundtable, and each session is supervised by faculty and/or staff mentors who are contributing their own rich and diverse expertise to the roundtable. Sponsored by the Macalester Institute for Global Citizenship.
+ Varying campus locations and times, 1600 Grand Ave, St. Paul, Minn., FREE, 

Friday, October 13
Family Fest Concert (1 of 2)
The Music Department presents the Symphony Orchestra (Cecilia Espinosa, conductor) and Mac Jazz big band (Joan Griffith, director) in an hour-long collage concert.
+ Mairs Concert Hall, Music Building, Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, 130 Macalester Street, St. Paul, Minn., 8 p.m., FREE, 651-696-6808 or [email protected]calester.edu.

Saturday, October 14
Family Fest Concert (2 of 2)
The Music Department presents the Choirs (Michael McGaghie, conductor) and African Music Ensemble (Sowah Mensah, director) in an hour-long concert.
+ Mairs Concert Hall, Music Building, Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, 130 Macalester Street, St. Paul, Minn., 8 p.m., FREE, 651-696-6808 or [email protected]calester.edu.

Friday, October 13
Fall Family Fest Weekend:  No Child Left Behind by Nilaja Sun
Nilaja Sun’s No Child Left Behind follows the story of a visiting teacher in a 10th grade classroom at a high school in the Bronx. The one-person play includes 16 characters, a mixture of students, teachers, and administration. The play was created by Sun based on her eight-year experience with arts education in New York City schools. The story is narrated by the school’s longtime janitor. Faye Price, a 1977 Macalester graduate, is the guest director, and the play is the senior acting project of Niara Williams, class of 2018.
+ Black Box Theatre, in the basement of the Theatre Building, 130 Macalester Street, St. Paul, Minn., 7:30 pm. For ticket information call 651-696-6359 or go online at Macalester.edu/boxoffice. Additional performance: Sat., Oct. 14, at 7:30 pm; Sat., Oct. 21