Campus Activities

• Author and environmental activist Silas House will speak Wednesday, April 2,  at 8 p.m. in Wygal Auditorium. “He will talk about civic engagement as it relates to mountaintop removal mining, which he is trying to stop,” said Dr. Scott Cole, associate professor of political science and co-director of the Civic Leadership Institute, which is sponsoring the program. House, currently writer-in-residence at Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee, is the author of the novels Clay’s Quilt, A Parchment of Leaves and The Coal Tattoo and the play The Hurting Part.
• Poet Laurie Kutchins will read from her work Thursday, April 3, at 8 p.m. in Wygal Auditorium. Kutchins is the author of three books of poems, Slope of the Child Everlasting, The Night Path, which received the inaugural Isabella Gardner Award and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, and Between Towns, winner of the Texas Tech University Press First Book Award. Much of her work is drawn from her native Wyoming, where she returns every summer. She teaches creative writing at James Madison University.
• The Longwood-Prince Edward Relay for Life, an American Cancer Society event that supports research and education, honors survivors and remembers those lost to cancer, will be held on Stubbs lawn on Friday, April 4, from 7 p.m. to 7 the next morning. One highlight of the evening is the lighting of the luminaria in honor or memory of a loved one. To sign up or for more information, visit www.events.cancer.org/rfllongwooduniversity.
• The David Esleck Trio will present a jazz recital Sunday, April 6, at 4 p.m. in Molnar Recital Hall in Wygal. Esleck is an adjunct instructor in the Department of Music.
• The Amernet String Quartet will present a Chamber Music Series concert Tuesday, April 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Wygal’s Molnar Recital Hall. The Quartet, which formed in 1991 and now is ensemble-in-residence at Florida International University, has been described as “fascinating with flawless intonation, extraordinary beauty of sound, virtuosic brilliance and homogeneity of ensemble.”
• Spoken word artist Paul D. will perform April 8 at 8 p.m. in Orr Auditorium (Hull 132).
• Dr. Derek Taylor, associate professor of English, will speak Wednesday, April 9, at 3 p.m. in Greenwood Library 147B on “The Curiously Conservative Feminism of Mary Astell (1666-1731).” His talk is part of the Women’s & Gender Studies discussion series. Astell was a proto-feminist writer whose advocacy of equal educational opportunities for women earned her the title “the first English feminist.”
• The Longwood Percussion Ensemble will present a concert Thursday, April 10, at 7:30 p.m. in Molnar Recital Hall in Wygal.
• Spring Weekend will be held Friday and Saturday, April 11 and 12, on Lankford Mall (behind Lankford Student Union). The event, sponsored by Lancer Productions, will feature performances by bands Friday from 4 to 10 p.m. and Saturday from noon to 10 p.m.; the annual Chili Cook-off Saturday beginning at 9:30 a.m. and bouncy boxing. In keeping with this year’s theme, “Old Hollywood: the Classics Never Fade,” there will be Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin impersonators, and people can have their photo taken (free) on a red carpet, like movie stars. Saturday activities will run from noon to 5 p.m. Bands will include BASIC Gospel, Italia, Same Ol’ Sound, Brian Simms, Alex Winton, Half Jefferson, Danielle Peck, Liam and Me, Cool Kidds, and Story of the Year.
• The film A Mighty Heart will be presented Wednesday, April 16, at 7 p.m. in Bedford Auditorium, in the General Education Film Series. The 2007 film, starring Angelina Jolie, is based on the memoir of the same name by Mariane Pearl, widow of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl who was kidnapped and beheaded in Pakistan in 2002.
• Dr. Larissa Smith Fergeson, associate professor of history, will speak Thursday, April 17, at 4 p.m. in the Greenwood Library Atrium on “Remembering School Days: Oral Histories of Black Education in Jim Crow Virginia.”
• Dr. Hasan Hamdan, associate professor of mathematics at James Madison University, will speak in the Mathematics & Computer Science Colloquium Series on April 17 at 4 p.m. in Ruffner 356. A reception will be held from 3:30 to 4 p.m. in Ruffner 300A.
• The Longwood Camerata Singers, University Choir, and Chamber Singers will present the Longwood University Spring Choir Concert on April 17 at 7:30 p.m. at Farmville United Methodist Church.
• The classic British comedy She Stoops to Conquer will be presented April 16-19 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 20, at 3 p.m. in Jarman Auditorium by Longwood Theatre. The production is directed by Dr. Gene Muto, professor of theatre. Oliver Goldsmith’s play, first performed in 1773, is a satirical tale of mistaken identity. Tickets are $8 for the general public; $6 for seniors, non-Longwood students and faculty/staff; and $4 for Longwood students. Phone the Jarman Box Office (395-2474) for ticket information.
• Presentations by students in English 400: Active Citizenship will be given Tuesday and Wednesday, April 22 and 23, in the Greenwood Library Atrium. They will occur during the 8 and 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. class periods Tuesday and consistently from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday.
• The Wind Symphony and Jazz Ensembles will present a concert Tuesday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m. in Jarman Auditorium.
• The Appalachian folk opera Yonder Mountain will be presented Thursday, April 24, at 7:30 p.m. in Molnar Recital Hall in Wygal by the Longwood Opera Workshop and the children’s music ensemble SCORE (Strings, Choral, Orff and Recorder Ensembles). The opera was written by John Krumich, founder and artistic director of The American Children of SCORE, based in Warrenton, a nonprofit music education and performance organization for children ages 8-12. About 20 members of the 45-member ensemble will perform at Longwood. The opera will be presented at 11 a.m. that day, also in Molnar, primarily for fourth-graders from Prince Edward County Elementary School. The Longwood Opera Workshop will perform the opera a third time in Warrenton the following Saturday with the entire SCORE ensemble. Krumich’s daughter, Käthe, is a senior at Longwood.
• The Longwood Company of Dancers will present its spring concert Friday, April 25, and Saturday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m. in Jarman Auditorium. Admission is $4 for students and $5 for faculty/staff and the general public.