Workshop with guest lecturers
October 8th 2021
Sarah Oliver, THTREMUS 403: Design and Production Seminar
Two guest lecturers who created The Sustainable Production Toolkit and are collaborating with the Broadway Green Alliance offered a two-part workshop during two of the Design and Production Seminar classes for all D&P students. As part of the course, students created their own sustainable production toolkit as it applied to individual disciplines (scenic, costume, lighting and stage management). In the second part of the workshop, in partnership with the second guest artist, students created an action plan for how their designs for University Productions this school year will utilize their own sustainable production toolkits.
Jonas Kaufmann recital
October 12th 2021
Vera Irwin, German 310, 232: Vienna and Short Texts
Two German classes attended a performance by German tenor Jonas Kaufmann. Kaufmann sang songs by Robert Schumann, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, and more. Students received a valuable opportunity to listen to works by composers they had discussed in class and also got to work with the texts of the songs, the background behind the lyrics, and the lyrics' musical interpretations.
Virtual guest artist visit
October 14th 2021
Amy Chavasse, Dance 534: Performance Interpretation
Two artists making up the group I Broke the Vase, a duet music and visual arts improvisation group from Athens, joined the class through Zoom. They spoke to the improvisation class and offered improvisational methods and practices to help them in their work.
Paper-making workshop
October 20th 2021
Toby Millman, RCARTS 334: Book Arts
Megan Heeres, a Detroit-based artist, visited the class to present her paper-based and sculptural work and led a paper-making workshop. By demonstrating paper-making and explaining its history and usage as an art form and commercial practice, Heeres introduced students to a rich and beneficial skill. Students used the handmade paper from this workshop to construct their subsequent bookmaking projects.
Guest visit from Clifton Boyd
October 25th 2021
Walter Everett, Music Theory 460, 560: Analysis of African-American Recorded Popular Music
Clifton Boyd, music theorist and Yale PhD candidate, came in to discuss a song by Stevie Wonder with the class.
*LIFTING VOICES*
Story-telling workshop with guest speaker
October 26th 2021
Carol Bardenstein, MIDEAST 295/English 140: Connecting Life Stories, Connecting Lives: The Middle East and Beyond
Sherrine Azab, a Detroit-based Egyptian-American story-teller, performance artist, theater director and story-telling workshop facilitator, conducted an in-class Story-Telling Workshop to demystify and guide students through the process of preparing a 5-minute story/personal narrative.
Guest visit with performance artist Carmelita Tropicana
October 26th 2021
Clare Croft , AMCULT 300: Practices in American Culture
Performance artist Carmelita Tropicana visited the class, performing a short excerpt of one of her works. She then led a class discussion about José Esteban Muñoz's "theory of disidentifications," which he defines using Tropicana's work. This visit was part of a unit on how social theories can be used to study pop culture and art; this day in particular focused on how theorists and artists can be in reciprocal relationships.
*LIFTING VOICES*
Exhibition visit
October 26th 2021
Ana María León, SPN 433: Our North is the South: Art as Politics in Latin America
This course is an introduction to modern Latin-American art from the twentieth century to the present. The class attended a tour of an exhibition of contemporary Colombian artist Olga de Amaral at the Cranbrook Art Museum, titled To Weave a Rock. This visit provided students with in-person contact with the work of a contemporary Colombian artist.
Papermaking and books art workshops
October 28th 2021
Endi Poskovic, ARTDES 348: Japanese Papermaking and Water-Printing
In a series of workshops, students learned about papermaking and book-making processes from visiting artists Kyle Clark and Katie Shulman. Applying this knowledge, they then created their own pieces of art to be displayed in an exhibit in the Stamps building.
Guest lecture by Virginia Grise
November 2nd 2021
Ashley Lucas, LATINOAM 311/RCHUMS 334/THTREMUS 399: Latina/o Theatre for Social Change
Virginia Grise is an internationally-known artist in the field of Latinx theatre for social change who addresses themes such as feminism, racism, body positivity, and more: her direct interaction with students contributed greatly to students learning through theatre practice. In this event, which was open to the public, she spoke about a play she produced with women in the Arizona prison.
*LIFTING VOICES*
Workshop with visiting artist Carmelita Tropicana
November 2nd 2021
Holly Hughes, INTERPERF 160: Interarts Performance Forum
Acclaimed performance artist Carmelita Tropicana, Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of the Creative Capital Grant, visited the class to lead a workshop. She gave a brief talk about her work then led the class in a few performance exercises. She introduced a wide range of approaches to performance, expanding the students' exposure to the field; she also addressed her experiences as a queer, Latinx immigrant to teach the class about intersectional backgrounds and how they influence her work.
*LIFTING VOICES*
Guest artist workshop with Zeynep Özcan
November 3rd 2021
Jennifer Hsieh, ANTHRCUL 357: Sound, Music and Noise
Through hands-on exploration, students learned the mechanics of a contact microphone, which transmits sound through structural vibrations. They then went on to use the microphone to produce sounds out of everyday objects such as pen & paper, tables, and hairbrushes. Zeynep Özcan, electronic music composer, then gave a workshop on electronic music production that incorporates the sounds from the contact microphone into the music composition.
Guest artist visit with Marc Arthur
November 9th 2021
Petra Kuppers, WGS 313: Health, Gender, and Performance
Marc Arthur, who works to use performance to reduce the stigma surrounding people with HIV/AIDS, led the class for a practical performance exploration. The class visited with him virtually in October and was able to build up their performances very deeply. Students learned to apply what they heard from Arthur in a broader, more international, virtual setting to a more personal, in-person engagement just at the point when they began preparations for their final performances in the class.
Guest visit with Loren Kajikawa
November 15th 2021
Walter Everett, Music Theory 460, 560: Analysis of African-American Recorded Popular Music
Loren Kajikawa, author and Associate Professor of Music at George Washington University, came in to discuss a recording by Grandmaster Flash with the class.
Master class and discussion panel
November 15th 2021
Marsae Mitchell, Body Language
Body Language is a technique that prepares students to succeed in commercial dance. On November 15, Tiffany Mitchell, co-founder of the Body Language technique, and Damn Della, Chris Brown's dance captain, led a panel discussion on how to get into the commercial dance industry and thrive. On November 17, they returned to teach a Body Language Master Movement Class. All of SMTD was invited to these two classes.
Guest speaker visit with Noriko Manabe
November 29th 2021
Walter Everett, Music Theory 460, 560: Analysis of African-American Recorded Popular Music
Noriko Manabe, Associate Professor of Music Studies at Temple University and researcher of social interactions with music in the U.S. and Japan, came in to speak about a song by Kendrick Lamar.
*LIFTING VOICES*
Guest lecture from Tyanna Buie
February 17th 2022
Endi Poskovic, ARTDES 376: Exploring Color in Relief Printing
Students listened to a lecture on printmaking as a social practice, led by visiting artist Tyanna Buie.
Floor work workshop with guest teacher
February 23rd 2022
Leah O'Donnell, DANCE 100: Contemporary Dance
Shannon White, a guest artist and teacher from Detroit, came in to teach students about floor work. Dance students were encouraged to challenge themselves and move close to the ground, a contrast to classical ballet and many European modern dance forms. Overall, the class was an exercise in acceptance and resilience that opened students' eyes to new dance forms.