Week of Events
Transition: Vietnam – Photography by Mark Ludak and Andrew Cohen
Vietnam is a country in transition. Intrigued by the rapid transformation of Vietnam, one of the fastest growing economies of the world Monmouth University professors, Mark Ludak and Andrew Cohen have returned multiple times to photograph this region. A dynamic, youthful country, especially seen in mega-cities like Ho Chi Minh City (Sai Gon), it is a country where the traditional and contemporary are reconstituted into distinctively Vietnamese manifestations.
NATURE AND NURTURE – Mother/Daughter Artists: The Paintings of Cheryl Griesbach and Claudia Griesbach-Martucci
In 2000, Cheryl Griesbach began creating a body of paintings based on her interests in European 18th and 19th century still-life, botanical and landscape art. Her method includes the
manipulation of segments of Northern European paintings and incorporating that imagery in building a new landscape, like a stage. Following
in her parent’s footsteps Claudia Griesbach also attended the School of Visual Arts and with her background in illustration and oil painting, a
skill she learned from her mother, each of her paintings tells a story. In her most recent work she explores the notion “that behind every exquisite thing that exists there is something tragic,” a quote from Oscar Wilde’s Portrait of Dorian Gray.
Sheba Sharrow
As one of its series of events around the theme of “Activism,” Monmouth University hosts an exhibition of paintings by the 20th-century artist who chronicled outrage and compassion for the struggles against injustice. Figurative painter Sheba Sharrow bore witness to human suffering, struggle and liberation. She was a child of the Great Depression and World War II, a participant in the social justice movements of the 1960s and ’70s, saw the bloody roads walked for civil rights and the damages wrought by wars.
Norma (Encore)
Norma (Encore)
The season opens with a new production of Bellini’s bel canto tragedy Norma, starring Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role, which she has sung to acclaim at the Met in 2013, as well as at the Canadian Opera Company, San Francisco Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu, and Lyric Opera of Chicago—making her one of the world’s leading interpreters of the iconic title character. Joyce DiDonato co-stars as Norma’s colleague and rival, Adalgisa, opposite Joseph Calleja as Pollione and Matthew Rose as Oroveso. Carlo Rizzi conducts and Sir David McVicar directs the new production.
Alicia Ostriker
Alicia Ostriker
Alicia Ostriker is a poet and critic, author of seventeen collections of poetry, most recently The Book of Seventy (winner of the National Jewish book Award), The Old Woman, the Tulip and the Dog, and Waiting for the Light. She has received the Paterson Poetry Prize, the San Francisco State Poetry Center Award, the William Carlos Williams Award, and has been twice nominated for the National Book Award, among other honors. As a critic she is the author of Stealing the Language; the Emergence of Women’s Poetry in America, and other books on poetry and on the Bible. She is distinguished Professor Emerita of Rutgers University, teaches in the low-residency Poetry MFA program at Drew university, and is currently a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
Improvedy – Spontaneous Comedy!
Improvedy – Spontaneous Comedy!
Join us for a fun improve show on Friday nights in November! A cast of five will use: your suggestions, props, “Cards Against Humanity”, music, something you throw at them and miss, and actually YOU on stage! Their quick-wits and dangerous minds to keep you entertained for AT LEAST AN HOUR!