We are the Best
2023-11-06 19:30 - 22:00 (America/New_York) | Pollak Theatre
Directed by Lukas Moodysson
Sweden, 2014
We Are the Best! is a story of three young misfit girls growing up in the early ‘80s Stockholm. Pixieish, mohawk-sporting Klara and her best friend Bobo are 13-year-old rebels looking for a cause. Despite having no instruments—or discernible musical talent—the two put all their energy into forming an all-girl punk band, recruiting their shy, classical guitar-playing schoolmate Hedwig as a third wheel. With tender affection for its young characters, We Are the Best! paints a joyous and sharply observant portrait of the rebellious spirit of youth and growing up different.
There will be a post screening Q&A hosted by Professor Mihaela Moscaliuc with special guest speaker Prof. Joe Rapolla.

Fleetwood Mac (Self-titled)
2023-11-07 19:30 - 21:00 | The Great Hall Auditorium/Virtual, 400 Cedar Ave, West Long Branch, NJ, 07720, United States
It’s just like book club but with albums! With new advances in technology, the way we consume music through our devices, apps and on demand streaming services like Pandora, Spotify and iTunes is making the idea of the “album” as an art form extinct. Get together with other music enthusiasts on Tuesday nights to discuss some of the greatest records of all-time! Listen to the album beforehand and then come prepared to discuss. This event will feature Fleetwood Mac (Self-titled).
This event is offered BOTH in person and via Zoom. Join us in person at the Great Hall Auditorium on the Campus of Monmouth University or join us via zoom. When you register you will be provided the ZOOM meeting link to join the conversation.
Free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Inviting Motion (Sabbatical project Wobbe F. Koning)
2023-11-08 00:00 - 23:59 | The Great Hall Auditorium/IDM Lab (Plangere 135), 400 Cedar Ave, West Long Branch, NJ, 07764, United States
Inviting Motion
Be invited by motion. What will you give up by giving in?
Inviting Motion is an interactive Virtual Reality (VR) experience with themes of enticing, luring, attention grabbing, and having to give something up when we give into attractions.
Talk: 11:45am-12:30pm | The Great Hall Auditorium
Demo: Experience Inviting Motion – 12:35pm-1:30pm & 2:50pm-4:30pm | Demo: IDM Lab (Plangere 135)

The Experience
After going through a simple onboarding process to calibrate and tweak the experience, you, the user, are initially tasked with finding a human form in the noise of particles that surround you. After your attention is grabbed, you will be invited, and then teased a little. You can enjoy exploring the interactions, but what are you giving away? Are you being scrutinized?
The experience generally last about 5 to 10 minutes
About the Project
As part of his Sabbatical from Monmouth University, Wobbe F. Koning returned to his alma mater The Ohio State University and worked with the community at the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD) to produce this VR experience. Motion Capture was used to create the attention grabbing and inviting motions, which are sparsely represented (using a limited amount of points) but are still instantly recognizable as human.
The project was a collaboration, and took shape as a result of the interactions with the ACCAD community.
Bios:
Wobbe F. Koning is an award winning animator and digital artist often combining 3D Computer Animation and video with audio to create mostly linear single channel works. Next to creating 3D printed stop motion animations, he has been exploring Virtual Reality (VR) as a medium, experimenting with different approaches while relying on his experience as filmmaker. Though not in his nature, he has been letting go of the total control the creator has over linear storytelling, and in stead embraced the interactive nature of VR.
Earlier work includes on-stage videos for dance performances, and multi screen installations. At Monmouth University he teaches animation in the Department of Art & Design.
Raven Serenity Glover received their bachelors degree in Simulation, Animation, and Gaming at Eastern Michigan University. There, they gained skills in 3D animation and character modeling. In their undergraduate research symposium project, Dynamic Storytelling with Animation, Raven Serenity explored the potential advantages animation has over traditional filmmaking in telling dynamic narratives. As part of the MFA program in Digital Animation and Interactive Media at The Ohio State University, Raven Serenity hopes to further expand the utilization of animation to promote self-awareness and self-expression.

Titanic: The Musical
2023-11-08 19:30 - 22:30 | Pollak Theatre
In the final hours of April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic, on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, collided with an iceberg and ‘the unsinkable ship’ slowly sank. It was one of the most tragic disasters of the 20th Century. Fifteen hundred seventeen men, women, and children lost their lives.
Based on real people aboard the most legendary ship in the world, Titanic: The Musical is ‘breathtaking’ (the Guardian) and ‘magnificent’ (the Telegraph), a stunning and stirring production focusing on the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of her passengers who each boarded with stories and personal ambitions of their own. All innocently unaware of the fate awaiting them, the Third-Class immigrants dream of a better life in America, the Second Class imagine they too can join the lifestyles of the rich and famous, whilst the millionaire Barons of the First Class anticipate legacies lasting forever.

With music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and a book by Peter Stone — the pair have collectively won an Academy Award, an Emmy Award, an Olivier Award and three Tony Awards. The original Broadway production of Titanic: The Musical won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book. This stunning production, captured live on stage for cinema screenings, celebrates the 10th anniversary of its London premiere, where it won sweeping critical acclaim.
Runtime: 145 minutes including one 10-minute intermission
Rating: Not rated, Treat as PG

Navigating Imposter Syndrome in Your Career, with Becca Baier '12
2023-11-09 12:00 | Virtual (Zoom)
Alumni Speaker Series
Nov. 9, 2023, at Noon

What happens when you are faced with imposter syndrome? Whether you are about to graduate, you are currently employed, or you want to switch career fields, we’ve all felt it. That voice in your head tells you that you don’t have the experience or qualifications. How do you “fake it ’til you make it” in a place you’re worried you’ll be found out?
Almost 2 years ago, Becca Baier ’12 transitioned from a higher education professional to the corporate world; these were some of her many thoughts along the way. Whether you’re thinking about changing career fields or just struggling with those loud voices in your head, let’s talk about what we didn’t know we all experience now and then: imposter syndrome.
About the Speaker
A proud Monmouth Hawk, Baier has a B.S. in Mathematics and M.A. in Higher Education Student Personnel. She went to Ole Miss for grad school, and during her eight years working in higher education, she worked at Rider University and Rutgers-New Brunswick. In January 2022, Baier made the career leap to corporate, where she now works at Paramount Global in Human Resources. After her first year and a half, she made a jump within Paramount to a new team and continues to experience that thing we can’t seem to avoid in life—change!
Outside of work, Baier is the founder and director of The Celebrate Life Foundation, a NJ 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, and is a certified life & career coach. She loves spending time with her family and friends, lives on the beach (right by campus!), and has a knack for organizing and color-coding.

Paul Mecurio’s Permission to Speak
2023-11-11 20:00 - 22:00 | Pollak Theatre
Starring EMMY & PEABODY Award winning comedian from “The Late Show w/Stephen Colbert,” “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report,” “Permission to Speak” was met on Broadway with rave reviews and nominated for the prestigious “Most Unique Show” Broadway Alliance Award. In this exciting comedy show with a twist, the audience stars WITH Paul who improvises with audience members – randomly bringing folks on stage and letting them share their often hilarious, jaw-dropping personal stories. Directed by legendary director Frank Oz (Creator and voice of YODA and Co-creator of “The Muppets”). A breath of fresh air, PERMISSION TO SPEAK is first and foremost, funny and entertaining, but also a truly freeing experience that connects people through their amazing shared stories.

BORROMINI AND BERNINI: THE CHALLENGE FOR PERFECTION
2023-11-13 19:30 - 21:30 | Pollak Theatre
A journey into the great beauty of Baroque Rome, when the city was the centre of western art and where every ambitious painter, sculptor and architect had to be.
This is the story of the most famous artistic rivalry of all time, the one between Borromini and Bernini, but also the story of Borromini’s rivalry with himself: a genius so absorbed by his art that he turns it into a demon that devours him from the inside forcing him to choose death to reach eternity.
Borromini deprived himself of everything to pursue a dream: to conquer Rome. It is the story of the architectural revolution of a solitary maestro who changed the appearance of Rome forever, by pushing himself to his limit, but also by battling conventions and prejudices, with the humility to learn from the past to invent the future, with the courage to pursue an idea despite knowing he would pay the price in the end.
Estimated runtime: 102 minutes

Mihaela Moscaliuc and Michael Waters
2023-11-16 16:30 - 17:45 | Great Hall 104 (Julian Abele Room)
Mihaela Moscaliuc is the author of the poetry collections Cemetery Ink (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021), Immigrant Model (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015) and Father Dirt (Alice James Books, 2010), translator of Liliana Ursu’s Clay and Star (Etruscan Press, 2019) and Carmelia Leonte’s The Hiss of the Viper (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2015), editor of Insane Devotion: On the Writing of Gerald Stern (Trinity University Press, 2016), and co-editor (with Michael Waters) of Border Lines: Poems of Migration (Knopf, 2020). She has published scholarship in the field of Romani Studies, on issues of representation, appropriation, exophony and code-switching, and on the works of Kimiko Hahn, Agha Shahid Ali, and Colum McCann. She is the Translation Editor for Plume.
Moscaliuc has received two Glenna Luschei Awards from Prairie Schooner, residency fellowships from The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, MacDowell, and Le Chateau de Lavigny (Switzerland), Dairy Hollow, two Individual Artist Fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and a Fulbright fellowship to Romania.
She is graduate program director and associate professor of English at Monmouth University (New Jersey) and former poetry & translation faculty in the low-residency M.F.A. program at Drew University (New Jersey).
Michael Waters’ recent books include Sinnerman (Etruscan Press, 2023), Caw (BOA Editions, 2020), & The Dean of Discipline (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018). Darling Vulgarity (BOA Editions, 2006) was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His co-edited anthologies include Border Lines: Poems of Migration (Knopf, 2020) & Reel Verse: Poems About the Movies (Knopf, 2019). His poems have appeared in numerous journals, includingPoetry, American Poetry Review, Paris Review, Yale Review, & Kenyon Review. A 2017 Guggenheim Fellow, recipient of five Pushcart Prizes & fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Fulbright Foundation, & NJ State Council on the Arts, Waters lives without a cell phone in Ocean, NJ.

Pippin
2023-11-16 20:00 - 22:00, 2023-11-17 20:00 - 22:00, 2023-11-18 14:00 - 16:00, 2023-11-18 20:00 - 22:00, 2023-11-19 15:00 - 17:00 | Lauren K. Woods Theatre
Monmouth University Department of Music and Theatre Arts presents their fall musical.
With an infectiously unforgettable score from four-time Grammy winner, three-time Oscar winner and musical theatre giant, Stephen Schwartz, Pippin is the story of one young person’s journey to be extraordinary. Winner of four 2013 Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival. Source: MTI

Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X
2023-11-18 13:00 - 17:00 | Pollak Theatre
Anthony Davis’s groundbreaking opera, which premiered in 1986, arrives at the Met at long last. Robert O’Hara, who was nominated for a Tony Award in 2020 for his direction of Slave Play, oversees a new staging that imagines Malcolm as an everyman whose story transcends time and space. A cast of breakout artists take part in the operatic retelling of Malcom X’s life. Baritone Will Liverman, who triumphed in the Met premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, sings Malcolm. Soprano Leah Hawkins plays his mother, Louise; mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis is his sister Ella; bass-baritone Michael Sumuel is his brother Reginald; and tenor Victor Ryan Robertson is the Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad. Kazem Abdullah conducts the newly revised score, which provides a layered, jazz-inflected setting for the esteemed writer Thulani Davis’s libretto.
Content Advisory: X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X contains strong language.

Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead
2023-11-21 19:30 - 21:00 | Virtual
Join us for Tuesday Night Book Club! Hosted by Monmouth University’s Ken Womack. This month’s novel is Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. DEMON COPPERHEAD speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.
When you register you will be provided the meeting link to join the conversation.

AI and Education: How to Navigate with Generative AI
2023-11-27 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual (Zoom)
The School of Education Instructional Technology Committee is happy to announce a free webinar about artificial intelligence and its effect on the educational landscape, which will be hosted by Ai Kamei, Ph.D. How can we navigate through an AI-infused future in education? While it’s true that tools like ChatGPT do present genuine challenges for educators, they also offer a chance to reconsider and update our current teaching methods. In this Zoom PD session, we will discuss how we can use generative AI like ChatGPT to update our current practice to support students to thrive in the AI era. Through this PD session, the participants will identify the pedagogical shifts necessary to meet student needs in the AI era, explore tools to save time planning lessons, writing emails, conducting research, and discuss the implications of AI on policies.

Join Us on Zoom (Nov. 27, 12 p.m.)

Living the Beatles Legend with Mal Evans
2023-11-28 19:30 - 21:00 | Virtual
Class Schedule: Tuesday, November 28 | 7:30 – 9:00 PM
Join Monmouth University Professor Kenneth Womack for an in-depth look at the life and times of Beatles roadie Mal Evans. For nearly 50 years, his story has been shrouded in mystery, especially his death at the hands of the LA police in January 1976. Professor Womack will reveal the truth about Mal’s remarkable life and untimely loss, while also sharing previously unpublished photos and other anecdotes from his forthcoming book Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans.”
Zoom Link will be provided upon registration.

Orchestra of St. Peter by the Sea
2023-12-01 20:00 - 22:00 | Pollak Theatre
Join us for a magical evening of music and celebration at the 31st Annual Holiday Concert with Father Alphonse Stevenson and the Orchestra of St. Peter by the Sea! Experience the joy and spirit of the holiday season as Father Alphonse Stevenson and his 42-piece Orchestra of St. Peter by the Sea and talented soloists fill the theater carols and seasonal favorites. This longstanding tradition has delighted audiences for over three decades, and we can’t wait to make this year’s concert even more memorable.

An Evening of Legends (Tribute Show)
2023-12-02 18:00 | Pollak Theatre
Presented by the Monmouth University Entrepreneurship Class
Support your Entrepreneurship Class of 2023 and join us for a night of spectacular entertainment! Featuring tributes to:

Frankie Valli and the Jersey Boys (featuring Bobby Valli)
The Rat Pack via Las Vegas (featuring Russ Martone and Divo Anthony)
Neil Diamond (featuring Tommy Lynn)
The Young Rascals (featuring The Rockity Academy)

Along with the Blue Hawk House Band!
Doors open at 6 p.m., concert starts at 7 p.m.

Buy Tickets
Give to the Center for Entrepreneurship Excellence Fund

Gala at the Great Hall
2023-12-02 18:30 | The Great Hall
On behalf of Monmouth University President Patrick F. Leahy, please join Monmouth University on Saturday, December 2, for the Gala at the Great Hall—a modern twist on a past event favorite. This marquee event will incorporate endless high-end action stations, craft cocktails and libations, and live musical entertainment, with ample seating for all to sit or mingle as they choose. A powerful brief program will be delivered by Monmouth’s President, Dr. Patrick F. Leahy. Guests will enjoy the grandeur and magic of Monmouth’s beloved signature building, while making an impact on those who walk its halls today.
Proceeds will benefit the Access Fund, providing scholarship support to students with financial need. Your participation will serve as a highly visible vote of confidence in a Monmouth University education, and most importantly, in the students we serve.

Jackson Browne’s The Pretender
2023-12-05 19:30 - 21:00 | The Great Hall Auditorium/Virtual, 400 Cedar Ave, West Long Branch, NJ, 07720, United States
It’s just like book club but with albums! With new advances in technology, the way we consume music through our devices, apps and on demand streaming services like Pandora, Spotify and iTunes is making the idea of the “album” as an art form extinct. Get together with other music enthusiasts on Tuesday nights to discuss some of the greatest records of all-time! Listen to the album beforehand and then come prepared to discuss. This event will feature Jackson Browne’s The Pretender.
This event is offered BOTH in person and via Zoom. Join us in person at the Great Hall Auditorium on the Campus of Monmouth University or join us via zoom. When you register you will be provided the ZOOM meeting link to join the conversation.
Free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Wadjda
2023-12-06 19:30 - 22:00 | Pollak Theatre
Directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour
Saudi Arabia, Germany, 2012
Young Wadjda dreams of owning a green bicycle. She wants to race a boy from the neighborhood, but the law prohibits girls from riding bikes. Just as she is losing hope, she hears about a cash prize for a Koran recitation competition at her school. Wadjda decides to earn the cash to fulfil her dream.
There will be a post screening Q&A hosted by Professor Claude Taylor with special guest speaker Prof. Saliba Sarsar.

British Invasion Part 2: First Wave, 1963-1967
2023-12-07 19:30 - 21:00, 2023-12-14 19:30 - 21:00 | Virtual
Class Schedule: Thursdays – December 7 & 14 | 7:30 – 9:00 PM
As the Beatles reached their first UK #1 hit with “Please Please Me,” the new music revolution had officially begun. Thus a new generation of artists such as Gerry and the Pacemakers, Hermans Hermits, Petula Clark, and the Rolling Stones joined the Fab Four in changing the charts. By 1964, the British Invasion had reached—and ultimately conquered—the United States.
This two-session virtual course taught by Kit O’Toole will survey some of the major artists of the First Wave period, from 1963-1967. It will cover genres from pop to the beginnings of psychedelia, and will examine other acts such as the Who, Dusty Springfield, the Animals, the Hollies, and many more. In addition, the class will study the impact of the First Wave on the charts and on American pop and rock music. Finally, how did the First Wave set the stage for the psychedelic and hard rock sound of the Second Wave?
Zoom Link will be provided upon registration.

Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas
2023-12-09 13:00 - 17:00 | Pollak Theatre
Sung in Spanish and inspired by the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez, Mexican composer Daniel Catán’s 1996 opera focuses on an opera diva, Florencia Grimaldi, who returns to her native Brazil to perform and to search for her lost lover, who has vanished into the jungle. The Met premiere stars soprano Ailyn Pérez as Florencia in a new production by Mary Zimmerman that brings the mystical realm of the Amazon to the Met stage. The distinguished ensemble of artists portraying the diva’s fellow travelers on the river boat to Manaus features Gabriella Reyes as the journalist Rosalba, bass-baritone Greer Grimsley as the ship’s captain, baritone Mattia Olivieri as his enigmatic first mate, tenor Mario Chang as the captain’s nephew Arcadio, and mezzo-soprano Nancy Fabiola Herrera and baritone Michael Chioldi as the feuding couple Paula and Álvaro, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium.

The Third Annual Julian Abele “Out of the Shadows” Public History Symposium (Virtual)
2023-12-12 09:00 - 12:00 | Virtual (Zoom)
Sponsored by the Public History Minor at Monmouth University
The Public History Minor at Monmouth University hosted the first annual Julian Francis Abele “Out of the Shadows” Virtual Public History Symposium via Zoom in 2021. Free for presenters and attendees alike, the Symposium is intended as a welcoming place for public history practitioners at all levels, established and emerging scholars, and graduate and undergraduate students to share their public history work on individuals or groups in history whose legacies have been purposefully or inadvertently suppressed, overshadowed, or underappreciated. We hope to bring these parties out of the shadows and into the fuller appreciation that they so richly deserve.
The Symposium is named in honor of pioneering African American architect Julian Francis Abele, who contributed greatly to the design of Monmouth University’s Great Hall (previously known as both Shadow Lawn and Wilson Hall). Everyone who has attended Monmouth University has personal memories of the building, a National Historic Landmark. But if you ask them about it, they are probably more likely to mention Woodrow Wilson’s brief time at the original Shadow Lawn (not “ours”), or the current mansion’s starring role as Daddy Warbucks’s home in the movie Annie than they are the fact that it was designed in large part by perhaps “the greatest American born Beaux-Arts architect,” Julian Francis Abele. Monmouth University’s Fall 2020 Museums and Archives Management Basics class sought to increase awareness about Abele’s role in the creation of what is perhaps our University’s most beloved landmark by creating “The Julian Abele Project.” Now, we hope to honor Abele’s name with this annual virtual public history symposium, designed to bring regular attention to Abele’s story and to highlight work focused on other figures underrepresented in the historical record.

Alumni and Fan Pre-Game Meet Up at Redd’s Biergarten (Newark, NJ)
2023-12-12 16:30 - 18:00
Pre-game alumni and fan meet up before men’s basketball takes on Seton Hall. Redd’s Biergarten

Purchase Game-Day Tickets (the Monmouth bench is in front of Section 7)
Pre-game meet-up is free!

Chanukah Party & Menorah Lighting
2023-12-12 17:30 - 19:30 | Anacon Hall, 2nd Floor, Student Center
Join Chabad for a radiant celebration of light at our Menorah Lighting event on Tuesday, December 12, at 5:30 p.m., right outside the student center. The evening will be graced with warm greetings from President Patrick F. Leahy, setting the stage for a festive and inclusive experience.
Co-sponsored by Chabad, the Student Government Association (SGA), and the AST Sorority, this event promises to bring our community together for a joyous celebration of Chanukah. Witness the symbolic lighting of the menorah, a beautiful tradition that signifies the triumph of light over darkness.
Following the lighting ceremony, immerse yourself in the spirit of Chanukah at our lively party! Engage in friendly competition at our dreidel competition, indulge in delicious food that captures the essence of the holiday, explore your artistic side with engaging arts and crafts, and savor the sweetness of amazing donuts that will leave your taste buds delighted.
Don’t miss out on this wonderful opportunity to share in the festivities, connect with your community, and embrace the spirit of Chanukah. It’s a night filled with light, laughter, and cherished traditions—see you there!
Register for the Chanukah Party & Menorah Lighting

Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin
2023-12-12 19:30 - 21:00 | Virtual
Join us for Tuesday Night Book Club! Hosted by Monmouth University’s Ken Womack. This month’s novel is Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin. Eugene Onegin is the master work of the poet whom Russians regard as the fountainhead of their literature. Set in 1820s Russia, Pushkin’s verse novel follows the fates of three men and three women. Engaging, full of suspense, and varied in tone, it also portrays a large cast of other characters and offers the reader many literary, philosophical, and autobiographical digressions, often in a highly satirical vein.
When you register you will be provided the meeting link to join the conversation.

The Doo Wop Project's Christmas Show
2023-12-16 20:00 - 22:00 | Pollak Theatre
The Doo Wop Project boys will get you into the Holiday Spirit! Hear old school Holiday Classics like The Drifters’ White Christmas, The Temptations’ Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons version of Santa Claus is Coming to Town along with “Doowopified” contemporary hits like This Christmas and Last Christmas. It’s sure to be a jolly good time.
The Doo Wop Project, the dynamic, rave-reviewed celebration of a beloved music genre stars the 5 engaging, charismatic and dashing Broadway stars from smash hits like JERSEY BOYS, A BRONX TALE, BEAUTIFUL, and MOTOWN: THE MUSICAL with their all-star band.
