Campus Currents

Thursday, Oct 12, 2023, at 4:30 PM in Alumni Room
Zoom Registration Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEkf-yurjgqE9ZV-3CqO22knbI7iq2KXgVT

“Obour Tanner’s Archive” is a compelling engagement with the provenance of Wheatley’s letters to Obour Tanner. It reads closely Katherine Edes Beecher’s explanation of how she acquires a collection of Wheatley’s letters to Obour Tanner. This isn’t quite a story about Wheatley, but it is a story about Obour Tanner and her friendship with the poet. They were friends for at least ten years when Wheatley dies in 1784. Tanner keeps living until 1835, and she keeps her letters from Wheatley. She keeps these letters because they are friends. She collects or creates her own kind of archive and in it, she remembers her friend. It wrestles with the following questions: What does it mean to remember a friend? What is mourning’s relationship to the archive? Is it still an archive if you are one person collecting stuff that reminds you of your deceased friend? “Obour Tanner’s Archive” invites a reconsideration about how black women, in the eighteenth century, remember each other.

Sponsors: Arts & Ideas, the Division of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement, the History Department, and the English Department.

By Publications Intern Sophia Harris

Every person inhabiting our green earth has a role to play in the fight against climate change, according to Tory Stephens, the lead for the climate fiction initiative and of Grist, a media organization.

Stephens heads an initiative called “Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors,” which encourages futuristic climate solutions and intersectionality to imagine a world 180 years from now to develop climate solutions for future generations .

This project has received stories from 3,000-plus writers from 91 countries over the past three years.

The Henry Whittemore Library partnered with the Blue Marble Librarians to hold a discussion between Corey Farrenkopf, a librarian at Blue Marble, and Stephens on September 28.

Farrenkopf said Stephens “creates opportunities that transform organizations and shift cultures. He is a resource generator and a community builder for social justice issues, people, and movements.”

Farrenkopf added Stephens “uses storytelling to champion climate justice and imagine Green Clean and just futures.”

Stephens got his start in activism writing appeals and fundraising for people living with HIV and AIDS and protecting people on Medicare/Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act.

He found his passion for advocating and helping people during this time but he wanted to make a bigger impact, Stephens said.

He wanted to focus on the people behind the statistics of appeals and fundraising. He found that his audience was more interested in storytelling than they were in raw information.

And so “Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors,” was born.

Stephens said it is imperative to identify a “problem and then try to rally society so that we can explore the problem as a collective. I think what makes it powerful is us citizens, acting and caring about our society.”

He added, “In this climate fiction initiative, we want intersectional stories, stories that have rich, layered folks whose identity will not be compromised and whose identities are central to the story. We want stories that touch on issues that aren't just the climate crisis that intersects and are woven - racial injustice or racial injustice is very much focused on climate injustice, and you will see that on with frontline communities,” Stephens said.

Submissions are open for three months in the spring for writers to submit their stories for Imagine 2200 and published stories are available on their website for free.

Consider joining us for this Saturday's Fall undergraduate Open House and help us show prospective students what an amazing academic community we have here at Framingham State!

The event will enable students and families to explore academic programs with faculty and current students, learn about admissions, financial aid, athletics, support services, and campus life. Each guest will enjoy a complimentary lunch, take a campus tour, and receive free entry to the Danforth Art Museum.

The open house will run from 9 a.m. to noon.

The Fall Exhibitions at the Danforth Art Museum focus on the work of three New England-based artists working across media, approaching themes of perseverance, resilience, and acceptance.

Kate Holcomb Hale's exhibition, lean, Stand, collapse, incorporates painting, installation, and video to explore how we foster a unique voice and carve out spaces of our own as sites for creativity. Her works function as her means of expression and connection from within the domestic realm, and show how the process of creation became a vital lifeline during the pandemic.

Processing self and acceptance through art is also seen in the work of Marisa Companion, a New Hampshire-based painter and performance artist, whose exhibition Performative Realities will be in the Museum's Litowitz Gallery. Companion's stark yet brilliantly vivid portraits of friends and depictions of self-explore healing, trauma, and self-love.

Connecticut-based photographer Torrance York will be exhibiting selections from her series Semaphore in the Museum’s Works on Paper Gallery. Photographs explore York’s day-to-day journey and challenges since being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Both frustration and hope are expressed through careful object studies, abstractions, and poetic landscapes.

The exhibitions open to the public Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023 and will remain on view through January 28, 2024. An opening reception with the artists is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 14, at 6 p.m.

Join staff from the Christa McAuliffe Center to observe (safely) a Partial Solar Eclipse!

Saturday, October 14
STOP BY ANY TIME BETWEEN
12:30PM - 2:30PM
In front of May Hall, Framingham state University

Participants of all ages are welcome to safely observe the partial solar eclipse and participate in hands-on activities!

Partial eclipse begins: 12:18 PM

Maximum eclipse: 1:25 PM

Monday, Oct. 16, 11 a.m.
Heineman Ecumenical Center  

Chase Elodia’s Perennials, a Brooklyn-based ensemble, arrive in Framingham for an exciting
mid-day performance. Founded in 2020, the band combines a collaborative and improvisational sensibility with an aesthetic orientation that has been nourished by singer-songwriters and
electronic artists like Meshell Ndegeocello, Norma Winstone, and Becca Stevens. Their 2022
Biophilia Records release, Portrait Imperfect, was named one of the Best New Albums of 2022
by Downbeat Magazine, who awarded it 4.5 stars and hailed it as “artful” and “ambitious.” The band was featured at the 2023 Winter Jazz Festival, has received accolades from the Café Royale
Cultural Foundation and South Arts, and is set to release their next album in Spring 2024.

Join us for the Alan Feldman Week of Poetry Keynote Event:

Tuesday, Oct 17, 2023, at 4:30 PM in the Heineman Ecumenical Center
Zoom Registration Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZItduyoqjgpH9Gb-H-ISM5WYuvoVwB4rNJz

Oliver de la Paz is the Poet Laureate of Worcester, MA and his newest work, The Diaspora Sonnets, was recently shortlisted for the National Book Award. He is the author and editor of seven books, including The Boy in the Labyrinth, a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award in Poetry. With Stacey Lynn Brown he co-edited A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry. Oliver serves as the co-chair of the Kundiman advisory board, which promotes the work of Asian-American writers. He teaches at the College of the Holy Cross and in the Low-Residency MFA Program at PLU.

Sponsors: Arts & Ideas and the English Department

Thursday, Oct 19, 2023, at 4:30 PM in the Forum, McCarthy Center

Dr. Adrian Smith, head of the Evolutionary Biology and Behavior Research Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, has a joint appointment as a Research Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University. He studies the behavioral ecology of social insects and insect natural history. As a science communicator, he makes videos of his insect laboratory for his YouTube channel, Ant Lab, and demonstrates how collaboration between the Arts and Humanities and STEM is vital to education. In making science accessible to the public, we can understand how considering insects as pests and using pesticides jeopardizes environmental sustainability.

Sponsors: Arts & Ideas, the Division of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement, and the Communication, Media, and Performance Department

The next event in the Fall 2023 National Endowment for the Humanities-sponsored Invited Lecture Series on Race + Digital Humanities is scheduled for October 16th:

• Monday, October 16: Dr. Julia Troche (Ancient Egyptian Archaeology, Missouri State University), will be delivering a lecture, “Current Debates in Digital Egyptology, Or What Happens When Scholars Assign Race to the Pharaohs.”

• Thursday, November 9: Gowthaman Ranganathan (Anthropology, Brandeis University) will be delivering a lecture, “Oral Histories of Queerness in Post-War Sri Lanka.”

All events will take place 4:30-5:30 p.m. in the Heineman Ecumenical and Cultural Center. For more information, contact Dr. Bartholomew Brinkman (bbrinkman@framingham.edu) or Dr. Kristen Abbott Bennett (kbennett5@framingham.edu)

Massachusetts STEM Week 2023 will take place from October 16–20 and is a statewide collaborative effort organized by the Executive Office of Education and the STEM Advisory Council in partnership with the state’s nine Regional STEM Networks, like MSEN, which plan and coordinate activities with local school communities, community leaders, and business partners.

The McAuliffe Center is hosting multiple events, to learn more visit:

https://cm-center.org/event/stemweek2023

MathWorks at FSU: Is the Amazon Rainforest Disappearing?
Hosted by Christa McAuliffe Center
McAuliffe Center (O'Connor Hall Ground Floor)
Monday, Oct. 16
1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

MathWorks at FSU: The Power of Data in Climate Science
Hosted by Christa McAuliffe Center
McCarthy Center Alumni Room
Monday, Oct. 16
4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Clean Energy - Education and Career Pathways 101
Hosted by Christa McAuliffe Center and Massachusetts Clean Energy Center
McCarthy Center Forum
Wednesday, Oct. 18
4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Fall FSU Cooks Events!

FSU Cooks is back in the kitchen…in-person to Mix and Bake some fun with the entire FSU Community!! Join us for any and all of the following events. All events are free to the FSU community and are sponsored by the Nutrition and Health Studies Department.

Quick Pumpkin Snack Cake – October 25th 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Come scare up some fun as we bake a simple pumpkin chocolate chip snack cake. This Mix and Bake takes place during lunch break, so bring your lunch and leave with a snack cake! #snackcake #1hourbake

Registration Link

A Twist on Pie Crust – December 6th between 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Looking to perfect your pie crust?…then join us to learn some new techniques. This Mix and Bake takes place mid-day, so bring your lunch and leave with some pie crust twists! #pietwists #1hourbake

Registration Link