COMING UP: NOVEMBER 13-21
Students Work to Raise Awareness About Hunger and Homelessness
Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week at SSU sheds light on a portion of the population that is too often invisible, with a series of lectures and opportunities to positively impact the lives of others.
Starting on Mon., Nov. 16, the student group Join Us in Making Progress (JUMP) hosts a series of lectures and community service opportunities. The group will partner with the California State University Employee's Union to conduct a campus-wide canned food drive. All donations will go to the Redwood Empire Food Bank, Sonoma County's largest hunger-relief organization. The events include:
Mon., Nov. 16
• "Hope for Hunger and Homelessness in Sonoma County"
Sociology Professor Sheila Katz heads a panel discussion about the state of hunger and homelessness in Sonoma County, and recent developments in state and national policy. Panel members include participants, volunteers, and staff from local human services organizations: Committee on the Shelterless (COTS), the Redwood Empire Food Bank, Catholic Charities Family Support Center, and Salvation Army. 7 p.m.- 8:30 p.m. in the Student Union MPR
Wed., Nov. 18
• Volunteer at Redwood Empire Foodbank
Students sort, pack and distribute food at the Redwood Empire Foodbank in Santa Rosa.
Thurs., Nov. 19
• Thanksgiving Dinner and Kids Fair:
Students serve a Thanksgiving dinner at 5 p.m. and hold a Thanksgiving-themed Kids Fair with arts and crafts projects at 6:30 p.m. at the Family Support Center in Santa Rosa.
Fri., Nov. 20
• Serve dinner at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco: Students help serve dinner to clients at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco.
For more information about these and other related JUMP events, call 4-4277 or visit the JUMP website.
Growing Up In Neverland Offers a Fresh Take on Peter Pan
Longtime SSU theatre professor Judy Navas, collaborating with composer
Jeff Langley and designer Anthony Bish, breaks the fourth wall of Peter
Pan with the debut of Growing Up in Neverland, a world premier
production that offers a fresh perspective on J.M. Barrie's classic Peter Pan. The production opens Fri., Nov. 13 and plays until Sat., Nov. 21, in Person Theatre.
The family-oriented Growing Up is a wild romp through three
imaginative worlds of Neverland, Barrie's mind, and the stage itself, featuring live-action, an original musical score,
theatrical wizardry, fairy creatures, and puppetry. "The play deals with different dimensions of fantasy and reality which
the medium of theatre is naturally suited to explore," explains Navas.
The 50-minute play, which has no intermission, is offering four, youth-audience performances (Nov. 13, 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., an Nov. 20, 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.) for which tickets for students and parent chaperones are $3, and free for teachers and administrators. The remainder of the performances are ticketed at $12 general admission, $10 for SSU faculty, alumni and staff, $8 for seniors and children under 12, and free for students with an SSU ID. For a full list of dates, or more information, visit the Brown Paper Tickets website.
SSU Psychology Professor Explores What Happens When Youth Fast From Electronic Media
The media is a powerful influence on the lives of young people, but what happens when students spend a week "media-free"? Psychology professor Mary Gomes (pictured at left) discusses her current research based on a class assignment in which students fasted from electronic media for a week and later wrote a paper in which they reflected upon the experience. Her lecture, entitled "Fasting From Electronic Media, A Psychological Analysis" takes place at noon on Tues., Nov. 17 in Stev. 2011 as part of the School of Social Sciences Brown Bag Lecture Series.
Experience the Delights of a True Bollywood Film at the Sonoma Film Institute
The Sonoma Film Institute invites the community to explore Bollywood culture with the screening of "Kal Ho Naa Ho" ("Tomorrow May Never Come") on Fri., Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. and again on Sun., Nov. 22 at 4 p.m. in Warren Auditorium, Ives 101.
"Most people in America still don't know what a Bollywood film is," says Ajay Gehlawat (Hutchins) who is an expert on Third World cinema and pop culture and genre studies. "This trend of Bollywood becoming more Westernized in style blurs the line of what Bollywood is. There are increasingly MTV-style song and dance sequences and increasingly Western culture in their clothing. It's like a house of mirrors. The name itself is a reference to Hollywood. Then you have films like "Slumdog Millionaire" that are referencing Bollywood," says Gehlawat.
However, "Kal Ho Naa Ho" is the genuine article. The story of two men who fall in love with the same troubled women allows for fantastic dance and song sequences and a hyper-real use of landscape. But while true to its roots, "Kal Ho Naa Ho" is also evidence that the convergence of cinema goes both ways. Filmed entirely on location in the cosmopolitan city of New York, "Kal Ho Naa Ho" was an early player in the trend of featuring non-resident Indians in Bollywood films. For more information on SFI or a complete list of upcoming films, visit the SFI website.
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