Events

Homecoming Tailgate 2022
2022-10-22 10:30 (America/New_York)
Join us for the first Homecoming in the Colonial Athletic Association as the Hawks take on the University of Rhode Island!
The 2022 Homecoming Alumni Tailgate will be held on the practice field this year (new location) to make it easier to head into the game!

Medea
2022-10-22 13:00 - 16:00 | Pollak Theatre
Having triumphed at the Met in some of the repertory’s fiercest soprano roles, Sondra Radvanovsky stars as the mythic sorceress who will stop at nothing in her quest for vengeance. Joining Radvanovsky in the Met-premiere production of Cherubini’s rarely performed masterpiece is tenor Matthew Polenzani as Medea’s Argonaut husband, Giasone; soprano Janai Brugger as her rival for his love, Glauce; bass Michele Pertusi as her father, Creonte, the King of Corinth; and mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova as Medea’s confidante, Neris.
***Please note it is also HOMECOMING on campus this day – please plan to arrive early to secure parking and let the gate attendants know that you are on campus to see the opera. ***

A Conversation With Dr. Bernice A. King - On Building the Beloved Community
2022-10-25 15:00 - 17:00 | Pollak Theatre
Combating Racial Injustice Through Education Professional Development Series
Fall Distinguished Speaker
A Conversation With Dr. Bernice A. King – On Building the Beloved Community
Co-moderated By Nicole Pulliam, Ph.D. & Vernon Smith, Ph.D.
Complimentary Registration At: www.monmouth.edu/sjapd
Co-sponsored with The Monmouth University Intercultural Center

Writing Memoir
2022-10-27 19:30 - 21:00, 2022-11-03 19:30 - 21:00, 2022-11-10 19:30 - 21:00 | Virtual
Class Schedule: Thursdays – Oct. 27, Nov. 3 & Nov. 10 | 7:30 – 9:00 PM
This three-session virtual course provides attendees with an introduction to basic modes for telling the stories of their lives. Working in a supportive workshop setting, students will enjoy engaging, wide-ranging discussion about the joys and challenges of bringing their memories to life. Instructor: Mike Farragher, Monmouth University alumnus and author of numerous works of fiction and memoir.
Whether you have dreams of being a bestselling author or you’re committed to creating your life story as an heirloom for future generations of your family, memoir writing can be a rewarding endeavor to help make sense of your life journey.If you’ve ever said aloud, “I should write a book someday,” but didn’t know where to begin, this course will get you on the road to fulfilling that creative dream.
This course will explore how to get started, tools to overcome lack of confidence and overwhelm, provide creative writing prompts, and instill a disciplined process essential for success that has produced proven results for unknown and known authors alike.
Zoom Link will be provided upon registration.

Venice: Infinitely Avant Garde
2022-10-28 19:30 - 21:30 | Pollak Theatre
This event is rescheduled from the original date of August 5, 2022.
A tour of the magical city, Venice: Infinitely Avant Garde showcases masterpieces by Tiepolo, Canaletto, Rosalba Carriera and the intellectuals who fell in love with Venice: from Canova to Goethe, Lord Byron to Walter Scott, down to the great Hollywood stars drawn to its yearly Film Festival. 1600 years after its legendary foundation, Venice continues to be unique for its urban landscape and for its rich history, but above all, the city is unique for its identity, which combines the charm of decadence with the excitement of being on the cutting edge.
Runtime: 90 mins approx

The Grateful Dead, American Beauty
2022-11-01 19:30 - 21:00 | Pollak Theatre/Virtual, 400 Cedar Ave, West Long Branch, NJ, 07764, 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 The Grateful Dead, American Beauty.
This event will be held in person at Pollak Theatre and will also be available remotely 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.

Mothermotherland Created by Slovo. Theater Group
2022-11-02 16:30 - 18:00 | Pollak Theatre
Slovo. Theater Group is a group of Ukrainian and American actors and directors who have developed an original performance based on the work of Ukrainian author Mykola Khyvylovy.
Mothermotherland, by Slovo. Theater Group, is an original devised theater performance developed over the last three months by Ukrainians artists-in-residence with playwright Audrey Rose Dégez. The performance is based on the artists’ personal experiences, the war in Ukraine, and takes inspiration from Mykoly Khyvylovy’s 1924 novella I am (a Romantic), where the head of the local Cheka, a communist law enforcement agency, must decide whether or not to sentence his mother to death in the name of the ideals of the Commune.
Performance run time is approximately 60 minutes and will be followed by a talk-back with the artists.
FEATURING: Audrey Rose Dégez, Lili Maritchka Dégez, Daria Holovchanska, Yuliia Linnik, Olesia Zakharova, and Veronika Shuster
Monmouth University Sponsors: School of Humanities & Social Sciences, The Department of Communication, The Center for the Arts, Dr. Johanna Foster (Helen Bennett McMurray Endowed Chair of Social Ethics), The Intercultural Center

The Clay Bird
2022-11-02 19:30 - 21:30 | Pollak Theatre
Join us for a World Cinema Series film screening/discussion illuminating the theme “Wartime Lives: Enduring and Transcending Violence and Occupation” by analyzing the message and impact of the film The Clay Bird (Bengali, 2002).
The Clay Bird is a 2002 Bengali War-drama film was written and directed by Tareque Masud. It was his debut feature film. Based on Tareque’s story the screenplay was co-written by Tareque and Catherine Masud.
Set against a 1960’s backdrop leading up to Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan, THE CLAY BIRD tells the story of Anu, a boy sent away by his father to an Islamic school. Far from his family and the warmth of his region’s Hindu festivities, Anu struggles to break out of his shell and adapt to the school’s harsh monastic life. As the political divisions in the country intensify, an increasing split develops between the school’s students, just as Anu’s parents find themselves growing apart. Rather than be torn in half, Anu must decide which side he falls upon in this complex tale of tolerance, diversity, and the practice of Islam in a crises-ridden world.
The discussion of the film will be led by Dr. Rekha Datta, Professor in the department of Political Science and Sociology and Dr. Golam M. Mathbor, Professor in the School of Social Work

Fighting Times (Opening Event, Interdisciplinary Conference on Race)
2022-11-03 15:00 - 16:00 | Pollak Theatre
Isaac Knapper & Amy Banks, MD
Co-authors of “Fighting Time” and Justice Reform Advocates
Reading, Discussion, and Book signing
Public Spaces, Private Places: Constructing Race and Liberation
Opening Event

Interdisciplinary Conference on Race
2022-11-04 08:00 - 2022-11-05 17:00
Cognizant of the current economic and societal climate, the Race Conference committee is waiving registration fees for this year’s event in order to further the goals of open, active, and unhampered engagement.
Monmouth University’s Seventh Biennial Interdisciplinary Conference on Race
Public Spaces, Private Places: Constructing Race and Liberation
Virtual Conference

Delaware Tailgate
2022-11-05 10:00 - 12:30 | University of Delaware
Join fellow alumni and Hawk fans for a pregame tailgate on the University of Delaware campus! The event will take place in the Monmouth Tent inside the Blue Hens Tailgate Village, and will include Monmouth swag, tailgate food, and non-alcoholic beverages. Cash bar will be available.
$25 per person
Children under 12 are free

La Traviata
2022-11-05 13:00 - 17:00 | Pollak Theatre
Soprano Nadine Sierra stars as the self-sacrificing courtesan Violetta—one of opera’s ultimate heroines—in Michael Mayer’s vibrant production of Verdi’s beloved tragedy. Tenor Stephen Costello is her self-centered lover Alfredo, alongside baritone Luca Salsi as his disapproving father and Maestro Daniele Callegari on the podium.

Picnic Breakfast and Hike
2022-11-06 11:00
Join fellow alumni and current members of the Outdoors Club for a picnic breakfast before heading out to the trails for a Fall hike through Holmdel Park. Enjoy the beautiful scenery and a self-guided hike. Bagels, fruit, coffee and juice provided.

A Bronx Tale starring Chazz Palminteri - SOLD OUT
2022-11-06 16:00 - 19:00 | Pollak Theatre
**PLEASE NOTE THIS SHOW IS AT 4 PM**
This is event is SOLD OUT. If you would like to be put on the wait list for tickets please call the box office at 732.263.6889

Bronx-born and raised Chazz Palminteri wrote A Bronx Tale in 1988. The powerful one-man stage play depicted his bruising childhood which included witnessing a gangland killing when he was nine years old. Palminteri played 18 characters and brought them all to life in his autobiographical play. His friends, enemies and family came alive on stage. Hollywood Studios went crazy after seeing it and offered him millions of dollars to turn it into a major movie. There was one catch… They wanted to put a star in the role of Sonny and someone else to write the screenplay. With $200 dollars in the bank…Palminteri said No… he would hold out and wait. He wanted to play Sonny and write the screenplay. Then one night Palminteri walked into his dressing room and siting there was Robert De Niro who just saw the show… He said it was the greatest one-man show he’s ever saw. Robert DeNiro gave Palminteri the chance he was waiting for… And as they say in Hollywood the rest is history.
Palminteri wrote the screenplay for the film A Bronx Tale and then most recently wrote the book for the Broadway Musical. It was the first time in history that the same actor wrote the one-man play, the movie, and the Broadway Musical and starred in each one.
The show you will see now is the exact show Chazz Palminteri did 34 years ago with just a chair that made him a star.
www.chazzpalminteri.net

A Conversation with Robert Pinsky
2022-11-10 19:30 - 21:30 | The Great Hall Auditorium
Join former three-term US Poet Laureate and Long Branch, NJ native Robert Pinsky for an evening of conversation in celebration of the release of his memoir Jersey Breaks. The evening will be moderated by the Dean of The Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences, David Hamilton Golland, Ph.D.
“Truly the voice of the Jersey Shore.” – Bruce Springsteen
The acclaimed poet takes an affectionate look back. The U.S. poet laureate from 1997 to 2000 and “an expert at nothing except the sounds of sentences in the English language,” Pinsky (b. 1940) moves back and forth in time, narrating his life in crisp, self-deprecating prose. “If I have a story to tell,” he writes, “it’s how the failures and aspirations of a certain time and place led to poetry.” That place was Long Branch, New Jersey, where the author grew up in an Orthodox, lower-middle-class family in a neighborhood that was both poor and segregated. In the “sounds of Hebrew,” Pinsky heard Milton, Blake, and Whitman. He recalls reading stories and poems in the glossy magazines in his optician father’s waiting room as well as the “exact moment when I became a writer,” thanks to Through the Looking Glass. As an “ambitious, pseudointellectual freshman” at Rutgers University, he encountered and enjoyed Ulysses and the poetry of William Carlos Williams, T.S. Eliot, and Allen Ginsberg. Pinsky confesses that his way of writing a poem stems from getting a “tune in my head…like noodling at the piano,” and his approach fostered his popular Favorite Poem Project, which combined the “appeal of gossip with the appeal of art.”
Though the author loved playing music, poetry came first in college, and he explains how his “habit of thinking about names was essential to my work as a poet.” He lavishes praise on two cantankerous college teachers—Paul Fussell and “relentless dictator” Yvor Winters—as well as his friend and mentor Thom Gunn. When teaching at Wellesley in 1970, Pinsky attended Robert Lowell’s “erratic writing workshop,” and Lowell gave him a blurb for his first collection, Sadness and Happiness. Throughout, the author sharply dissects a variety of poems, including his own, and he excitedly explains the welcome challenge of translating Dante’s Inferno.
Fans of literature will relish Pinsky’s jocular recollections and infectious love of poetry.

Throws and Prose
2022-11-11 17:00 - 19:00
Can you SPARE a night to write with us? The English M.A./M.F.A. Program will be holding a fun, exciting event on campus on November 11 from 5-7 p.m.
What’s more fun than bowling AND writing? This event is right up your alley. Join us as a bowler or a spectator…we’ll spend time in the alley and then move to the gym for some writing, refreshments, and an open mic. There is a limited amount of bowlers allowed, so please, RSVP to attend. Shoes and ball are included in your registration. RSVP to mmcbride@monmouth.edu.

Fun Home
2022-11-11 20:00 - 22:00, 2022-11-12 20:00 - 22:00, 2022-11-13 15:00 - 17:00, 2022-11-16 20:00 - 22:00, 2022-11-17 20:00 - 22:00, 2022-11-18 20:00 - 22:00, 2022-11-19 20:00 - 22:00, 2022-11-20 15:00 - 17:00 | Lauren K. Woods Theatre
When her father dies unexpectedly, graphic novelist Alison dives deep into her past to tell the story of the volatile, brilliant, one-of-a-kind man whose temperament and secrets defined her family and her life. Moving between past and present, Alison relives her unique childhood playing at the family’s Bechdel Funeral Home, her growing understanding of her own sexuality, and the looming, unanswerable questions about her father’s hidden desires.
Adapted from Alison Bechdel’s groundbreaking graphic novel, Fun Home is a refreshingly honest, wholly original musical about seeing your parents through grown-up eyes.
Presented by the Department of Music and Theatre Arts, Fun Home features Director Sheri Anderson, Choreographer by Bob Boross, Musical Director of George Wurzbach and Assistant Director Annie Sacks.
Fun Home is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals.
“In an effort to make our show accessible to as wide an audience as possible, we’ve decided to make the show free to the public.
Thank you for your ongoing support of the arts at Monmouth University.”

The American Soldier
2022-11-11 20:00 - 22:00 | Pollak Theatre
Douglas Taurel (“Nurse Jackie,” “Blue Bloods”) is the creator and star of the Off-Broadway Award-nominated solo play, “The American Soldier,” based on true events and documentary letters written by veterans and their family members from the American Revolution through current-day Afghanistan. It honors the experiences of veterans and their families and explores the internal struggles they face when returning home from combat. “The American Soldier” has been nominated for the Amnesty International Award for theatre excellence , received 4 stars internationally, and has been featured in The Huffington Post, The Washington Post and Time Out.

Promoting Self-Care for Healthcare Professionals
2022-11-12 10:00 - 13:15
An evidenced based program designed to inspire those who care for others to also take care of themselves. This program will explore the need for self-care and the research supporting it.
The presenters will focus on behaviors that can improve the mental and physical health of both the caregiver and their clients. Join us in exploring simple lifestyle changes and resources that can be shared with your friends and co-workers to improve workplace wellness.
Topics Include

The evidence for self-care: Take good care of your-self: understanding the evidence and applying it to your life.
Mindful meditation: A guided practice and techniques to reduce stress, enhance focus and well-being. Perfect for people who think they can’t meditate.
Tai Chi: Explore the numerous benefits and take part in a brief introduction to the movements.
Self-defense basics: Develop a mindful approach and awareness to your surroundings and observe simple strategies that can be applied in any setting.

Wear comfortable clothes and shoes! Participants will take part in a mindful meditation and participate in the gentle practice of Tai Chi. Self-defense techniques will be demonstrated.
Presenters

Cynthia O’Connell is a recently retired Specialist Professor from the Educational Counseling graduate program at MU. She received her training in teaching Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction at the Jefferson-Myrna Brind Integrative Medicine Center in Philadelphia.
Andrea Garcia, OTD, MSW, OTR/L is a specialist professor and doctoral capstone coordinator for Monmouth University’s occupational therapy program. She specializes in upper extremity rehabilitation. Dr. Garcia is a master teacher in reiki.
Shoshanna Katzman, M.S, L.Ac is the founder of Red Bank Acupuncture & Wellness Center. She has been practicing Tai Chi and Qigong since 1974. She also specializes in acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine.
Brianna Wesley, RN, B.S. is a registered nurse in the emergency department and current graduate student at Monmouth University. She has a fourth degree black belt in Tae Kwan Do Chung Do Kwan and has been practicing for 22 years.

Successful Completion: Participants will attend 95% of the program, and complete an online evaluation to receive contact hours. None of the planners for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. There is no commercial support for this activity.

For additional questions, email bpaskewi@monmouth.edu
The Marjorie K. Unterberg School of Nursing and Health Studies at Monmouth University is approved as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by New Jersey State Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation Provider Number: P242-10/21-24

Ian McEwan's Atonement
2022-11-15 19:30 - 21:00 | Virtual
Join us for Tuesday Night Book Club! Hosted by Monmouth University’s Ken Womack, each month we’ll explore a different novel. All you have to do is Zoom in and join the discussion!
This month’s novel is Ian McEwan’s Atonement.

This month’s novel is NATIONAL BESTSELLER Ian McEwan’s Atonement.
A symphonic novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness that provides all the satisfaction of a brilliant narrative and the provocation we have come to expect from the acclaimed Booker Prize–winning, international bestselling author Ian McEwan.
On a hot summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a moment’s flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant and Cecilia’s childhood friend. But Briony’ s incomplete grasp of adult motives—together with her precocious literary gifts—brings about a crime that will change all their lives.
“A beautiful and majestic fictional panorama.” —John Updike, The New Yorker
When you register you will be provided the meeting link to join the conversation.

The Seagull
2022-11-17 19:30 - 21:30 | Pollak Theatre
by Anton Chekhov, in a version by Anya Reiss
directed by Jamie Lloyd
Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) makes her West End debut in this 21st century retelling of Anton Chekhov’s tale of love and loneliness.
A young woman is desperate for fame and a way out. A young man is pining after the woman of his dreams. A successful writer longs for a sense of achievement. An actress wants to fight the changing of the times. In an isolated home in the countryside, dreams lie in tatters, hopes are dashed, and hearts broken. With nowhere left to turn, the only option is to turn on each other.
Following his critically acclaimed five-star production of Cyrano de Bergerac, Jamie Lloyd brings Anya Reiss’ adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s classic play to stage. Filmed live in London’s West End with a cast including Tom Rhys Harries (White Lines), Daniel Monks (The Normal Heart), Sophie Wu (Fresh Meat) and Indira Varma (Game of Thrones).
