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  • Sam Cusumano

    Join us for a virtual Arts-Engineering talk/performance/workshop with Sam Cusumano. Cusumano is an Engineer for the Arts living in Philadelphia working with students, artists, musicians, and curators to create educational interactive electronic devices and installations. As part of his creative practice, he has connected plants and fungi with synthesizers to make music. Biodata Sonification is the process of representing invisible changes in plants to create music. By detecting microcurrent fluctuations across the surface of a plant’s leaf, these changes are used to generate MIDI notes which can be played through a synthesizer or computer to create sound. In this virtual presentation Sam Cusumano will explain methods used to tap into the secret life of plants, showing how to translate data for making music, and discuss the implications of interpreting biodata. Audio examples of Biodata Sonification will be performed live using analog synthesizers, digital audio workstations, and synth apps along with a Snake Plant, large Monstera, and various Cacti.

    When you register you will be provided the meeting link to join the conversation.

    Free and open to the public, but registration is required.

    This event is being recorded for educational and archival purposes and it may be posted on our website. By participating in this presentation, you give permission for Monmouth University to record the presentation for University purposes. You understand that your name, likeness, voice and statements may be recorded. If you do not wish to be recorded, a recording of this presentation will later be available upon request, and you can contact Amanda Stojanov, Assistant Professor of Digital Media (astojano@monmouth.edu) with any questions you may have regarding the presentation.

  • Supporting Systems and Communities in Achieving Racial Equality: A Groundwater Analysis – presented by Joyce James

    Voices for Change: Voting, Advocacy, and Action

    In this presentation, Ms. James will share her journey in developing the Texas Model for addressing Disproportionality and Disparities and the Groundwater Analysis for Addressing Racial Inequities© as the foundation for creating antiracist organizational cultures for undoing institutional and structural racism and improving outcomes for all populations. Participants will gain an increased understanding of the importance of cross systems collaborations and building partnerships with poor communities of color to remove the barriers that contribute to racial inequities. The session will include discussion of the pitfalls of well-meaning and well-intentioned leaders, who in isolation of an analysis of institutional and structural racism, and a racial equity lens, continue to unconsciously contribute to sustaining and often perpetuating racial inequities in the design and delivery of programs and services.

  • The Strengths of Black Families, presented by Denise McLane-Davison

    Voices for Change: Voting, Advocacy, and Action

    The political era of the Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, Gay Rights, and The Black Power Movement demanded the inclusion of rigorous research that centered racial and gender identity as significant narratives. The emergence of Black Studies and Women’s Studies, along with student-led and national organizations incorporating the same identity politics also demanded inclusion in intellectual landscapes. During this era Black social scientists blanketed the scholarship, theory, and treatment research that anchored African cultural values, traditions, knowledge, and generational behaviors as disruptive characteristics of pathologized Black family rhetoric. Collectively, cultural scholarship named the impact of adapting Black life to oppression and anti-Blackness policy. They declared the Black family as the fundamental source of strength of the Black community and as the defense for Black life from external threats. This session provides a historical and contemporary alignment on the Black strength perspective through racial pride, resistance, and resilience.

  • Atlantics Virtual Panel Discussion

    Join us for a World Cinema Series zoom discussion illuminating the theme “Living on the Edge: Displacement, Identity, and Resilience” by analyzing the message and impact of the 2019 film, Atlantics.

    Atlantics (French: Atlantique) is a internationally co-produced supernatural romantic drama film directed by Mati Diop, in her feature directorial debut. It was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. Diop made history when the film premiered at Cannes, becoming the first Black woman to direct a film featured in competition at the festival.

    The film is centered around a young woman, Ada, and her partner, Souleiman, struggling in the face of employment, class, migration, crime, family struggles, and ghosts. Working mostly with unknown actors, Diop focused in the film on issues such as the refugee crisis, remorse, loss, grief, class struggle, and taking responsibility (or not) of one’s actions. The Atlantic Ocean is used in many ways throughout the film, including as a symbol and engine for change, growth, life, and death.

    The discussion of the film will be led by Dr. Julius Adekunle, Professor in the department of History and Anthropology and Dr. Lisa Vetere, Associate Professor in the department of English.

    The film is available for streaming on Netflix.

    When you register you will be provided the meeting link to join the conversation.

    Free and open to the public, but registration is required.

  • Saïd Sayrafiezadeh

    Join us for a zoom reading and Q&A with author Saïd Sayrafiezadeh.

    Saïd Sayrafiezadeh is the author, most recently, of the story collection, American Estrangement. His memoir, When Skateboards Will Be Free, was selected as one of the 10 best books of the year by Dwight Garner of The New York Times, and his story collection, Brief Encounters With the Enemy, was a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Fiction Prize. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Best American Short Stories, Granta, McSweeney’s, The New York Times, and New American Stories, among other publications. He is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award for nonfiction and a Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers’ fiction fellowship.

    Saïd leads the Creative Nonfiction track in Hunter’s MFA program. He also teaches creative writing at Columbia University and New York University, where he received an Outstanding Teaching Award.

    When you register you will be provided the meeting link to join the conversation.

    Free and open to the public, but registration is required.

  • The XIV Dalai Lama – Livestream Event

    The XIV Dalai Lama will join Monmouth University and guests on Tuesday, September 21, at 11:30p.m. EDT for a livestream session to engage in conversation with our students and colleagues and offer his message of happiness, health, well-being, and the future of this earth, our only home.

  • Homecoming Weekend 2021

    Come to Shadow Lawn for our Tailgate Party on October 2! We’ll also be featuring plenty of on-campus and remote activities all weekend long.

  • Special Edition Tuesday Night Record Club: Bruce Springsteen’s The Rising

    During this special Thursday-night edition of Tuesday Night Record Club, host Ken Womack and guest Bob Santelli, GRAMMY Museum Founding Executive Director, and Monmouth ’73, mark the twentieth-anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that inspired one of Bruce’s most moving albums.

    When you register you will be provided the ZOOM meeting link to join the conversation. Click here for more information on how to use zoom

     

  • The Fine Art of Denim

    EXHIBITION EXTENDED UNTIL OCTOBER 14!!
    Denim, with all its symbols and dualities, is a common item of clothing that unites many around the globe. Dad Jeans, skinny jeans, low riders, bell bottoms, boot leg, wide leg, no leg, 501s, 504s, button fly, stretch jeans, the American dress code writ large across centuries. With so many styles available and ways to accessorize/manipulate the fabric, denim has historically allowed for a freedom of expression representing both individuality and shifts in cultural movements. Denim comes in a wide range of blues and other colors, washes, fades and textures making it a perfect, but not obvious, medium to create fine artwork. Denim that was discarded can open up a new way of looking, a startling way of seeing past the everyday. What we have abandoned, will be presented again, re-purposed from the lives we lived, to moments we experience together “forever in blue jeans.”

    Monmouth University’s Center for the Arts is pleased to present The Fine Art of Denim, a juried exhibition of artists who use recycled denim in new and creative ways. The works featured in this exhibit come from artists all over the United States and abroad.

    Pieces were selected from almost 100 entries by juror Vincent DiMattio, an accomplished artist and Monmouth University Professor in the Department of Art and Design, where he has taught for over 50 years and served as department chair and as gallery director for more than 20 years.

    Exhibiting Artists include: Michele Fandel Bonner, Howard Brandenburg*, Kerstin Bruchhaeuser, Emily Budd*, Don Coulter, Allison Dent, Debra Disman, Heidi Drahota, Shelley Gardner, George Gianakopoulos, Sabine Heinlein, Malka Kutnick, Tanya Lucadamo, Bob Mosier, Johanna Norry, Janice Patrignani, Leah Poller, Mary Schwarzenberger, Ashley Thomas, Ann Vollum, Shirley Wagner

    Virtual Exhibit: 

     

    The Fine Art of Denim Artist Statements

    *artists featured in virtual exhibit only.

    Virtual Opening Reception:
    June 24, 2021 at 7 p.m. via ZOOM

  • Monmouth University Music & Arts Festival 2021

    Entering its 2nd year on the virtual stage, this year’s Monmouth University Music & Arts Festival will feature members of the Garden State Philharmonic performing music from Civil War era Marches through Ragtime, Dixieland, and Jazz featuring music by composers George Gershwin, Scott Joplin, C.W. Handy, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong. The festival will also highlight selections and solos from The Monmouth University Chamber Choir, a performance by the Blue Hawk House Band and a special reading by former United States Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Tretheway. The festival will premiere at 7:00 PM on July 1st and be available to view through July 31st. To receive the streaming link for the festival you will need to register.

    The Monmouth University Music & Arts Festival is designed to provide Monmouth County communities and beyond, along with the students, faculty, and staff at Monmouth University, with the opportunity to enjoy a top-flight music and arts event each summer.

    In 2022, we are looking forward to presenting a robust program of offerings as the festival will host its inaugural in-person event. Our university is the year-round home for working musicians and artists, not to mention scores of students honing their talents as instrumental and theatrical performers, visual artists, and arts administrators. With the Music and Arts Festival becoming a yearly tradition, we hope to attract nationally and internationally acclaimed musicians and other fine artists to our campus. Not only will they supplement our students’ arts education, they will be on site each summer to provide visitors with opportunities to experience premiere concerts and exhibitions right here on the Shore.

    PROGRAM:

    The Garden State Philharmonic – Brass Quintet and Percussion
    STRIKE UP THE BAND!

    Strike up the Band  – George Gershwin, arr. Holcombe

    Signal March      – G.W.E. Friederich

    The Entertainer     – Scott Joplin arr. Arthur Frackenpohl

    High Society –     Cole Porter,  arr. Luther Henderson

    Beale Street Blues – C.W Handy, arr. Luther Henderson

    Sweet Georgia Brown – Ben Bernie & Maceo Pinkard,  arr. Luther Henderson

    It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing – Duke Ellington, arr. David Kosmyna

    Sousa Stars and Stripes –  John Philip Sousa – Holcombe

    The Monmouth University Chamber Choir

    Steal Away – American Spiritual, arr. Gwyneth Walker

    A Gershwin Jazz Trio – Words and music by Ira and George Gershwin, arr. Jay Althouse

    1. “Nice Work if you Can Get it.”
    2. “Someone to Watch Over Me.”
    3. “I Got Rhythm.”

    Seasons of Love – Words and music Jonathan Larson, arr. Steve Zegree
    Soloists:  Brynn Coy, Jordan Dilone, Tyler Oden, Kailey Rouse, David Wilderotter

    Vocal Solos by Members of the Monmouth University Chamber and Concert Choirs

    Shenandoah – American Folk Song, arr. Jay Althouse
    Brynn Coy – soprano

    Desperado – Eagles –
    Samantha Jordan, mezzo soprano

    She Used to Be Mine – from the Broadway musical “Waitress,” Sarah Barellies
    Rachel Wilson, soprano

    Wayfaring Stranger – American Spiritual, arr. Nick Garrett
    Nick Garrett, guitar and voice

    Strange Fruit – Billie Holiday
    Jenae Louis-Jacques, mezzo soprano

    Run Away with Me – Words and music Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk
    David Wilderotter, baritone

    Cry Me a River – Arthur Hamilton
    Georgette Abinader, mezzo soprano

    Who I’d Be – from “Shrek the Musical,” Words and music David Lindsay- Abaire and Jeanine Tesori

    Mitchell Hendricks, baritone, Mia Heim, mezzo soprano Jordan Dilone, tenor

    Summertime – from the Opera “Porgy and Bess,” George Gershwin
    Jenae Louis-Jacques, mezzo soprano

    Somewhere Over a Rainbow – Words and music by Edgar Harburg and Harold Arlen, arr. Murray Cutter.
    Kristen Wilczewski, soprano

    Blue Hawk House Band
    Cover version of “Freedom,” composed by John Lomax, Jonny Coffer, Alan Lomax, Frank Tirado, Dean McIntosh, Kendrick Lamar, Carla Marie & Beyoncé

    Performance Groups:

    Garden State Philharmonic – Brass Quintet and Percussion:
    Diane Wittry – Music Director and Conductor
    Michael Baker (Trumpet 1), Olivia Pidi (Trumpet 2), Karl Kramer-Johansen (Horn), Roger Verdi (Trombone), Wes Krygsman (Tuba), Gregory Landes (Percussion), Michael Avagliano (Score Reader)
    For more information on the program and performers click here

    Monmouth University Chamber Choir:
    Dr. David Tripold, director,     Maggie Tripold, accompanist
    Georgette Abinader; Kendall Brighton; Brynn Coy; Jordan Dilone; Mia Heim; Mitchell Hendricks; Arina Martin; Erin McGinniss; Tyler Oden; Lindsay Ploskonka; Delaney Rivera; Kailey Rouse; Nicholas Sewell; David Wilderotter; Rachel Wilson

    Blue Hawk House Band
    George Wurzbach, Director
    Mani Kissling (vocals), Mark Rodriguez (Guitars/Keyboards,) Dee DiMeola (Drums), Max Adolf (Guitar), Michael Rabbits (Rap) Dillon Schindler (Keyboards) Sara Wojciehowski (Bass/producer), B. J. Biedebach (engineer)