Author of "The Black Middle Ages," Matthew X. Vernon
2024-02-15 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Hollins Room, Wyndham Robertson Library, 7916 Williamson Road, Roanoke, VA, 24020, United States
Vernon is the author of The Black Middle Ages: Race and the Construction of the Middle Ages, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2018, which examines the influence of medieval studies on African American thought. Vernon focuses on nineteenth century uses of medieval texts to structure racial identity, but also considers the flexibility of medieval narratives more broadly in the medieval period, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. This book engages disparate discourses to reassess African American positionalities in time and space. Utilizing a transhistorical framework, Vernon reflects on medieval studies as a discipline built upon a contended set of ideologies and acts of imaginative appropriation visible within source texts and their later mobilizations. An associate professor of English at the University of California, Davis, his academic interests include medieval literature, travel narratives, migration, film, and comic books. He earned his B.A. from Cornell University and completed his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. at Yale University.

Sponsored by the Department of English and Creative Writing and the Dee Hull Everist Visiting Speaker Fund.

Dinara Klinton in Concert
2024-02-18 15:00 - 16:00 | Talmadge Recital Hall, Bradley
Praised for her “fantastic virtuosity, energy, and power, combined with deepest comprehension into authors’ idea,” Dinara Klinton is an acclaimed recording artist, performer, and teacher. Her music education started at the age of five in her native Kharkiv, Ukraine, and she now tours internationally while serving as professor of piano in the UK Royal College of Music and the Yehudi Mehunin School. Hollins is hosting her as our 2024 Galbraith Guest Artist, and she will be performing on Sunday, February 18, at 3 pm in the Talmadge Recital Hall, Bradley. Join us to see this incredible artist!

Zoom Lecture with L’Merchie Frazier
2024-02-22 18:00 - 19:00 | Frances Niederer Auditorium, Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center
L’Merchie Frazier is an accomplished visual activist, public artist, historian, and poet. She is a member of Women of Color Network Quilters, founded by Carolyn Mazloomi, Ph.D., whose quilt collection is currently on view at the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum. In this lecture, Frazier will discuss the contributions of African American quiltmakers with particular attention to the artists in Mazloomi’s collection.

In person Zoom viewing, Niederer Auditorium, Wetherill Visual Arts Center. Reception to follow.

Zoom link available by emailing cardenla1@hollins.edu

The lecture will be posted to the museum’s YouTube page after the event.

Student Thesis Theatre Production: "Constellations"
2024-02-23 19:30 - 2024-02-24 19:30 | Hollins Theatre
By Nick Payne. Directed by Elizabeth McDonald

When: February 23 at 7:30 pm, February 24 at 2 pm and 7:30 pm
Where: Hollins Theatre Main Stage
What: This spellbinding, romantic journey begins with a simple encounter between a man and a woman. But what happens next defies the boundaries of the world we think we know—delving into the infinite possibilities of their relationship and raising questions about the difference between choice and destiny.
Content Warnings: Domestic Abuse, Mature/Sexual Language, Intimacy (Kissing), Fatal Illness, Assisted Suicide
Hollins students, faculty, and staff get in FREE. Tickets are available at the door. For anyone interested in bringing a guest, general admission is $5 and those tickets can be purchased at the link below:https://our.show/hollinsconstellations

Movie Screening: "The Philadelphia Eleven"
2024-02-25 14:00 - 16:00 | Frances Niederer Auditorium, Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center
In an act of civil disobedience, a group of women and their supporters organize their ordination to become Episcopal priests in 1974. The Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia welcomes them, but change is no small task. The women are harassed, threatened and banned from stepping on church property.

In this feature-length documentary film, we meet the women who succeed in building a movement that transforms an age-old institution, and challenges the very essence of patriarchy within Christendom.

Sponsored by St. James Episcopal Church DOK and Hollins office of diversity, equity, and inclusion

A Women’s History Month Event

Reception to follow

Author of “The Donkey Elegies,” Nickole Brown
2024-02-29 19:30 - 20:30 | Green Drawing Room, Main
Brown is the author of The Donkey Elegies (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2020); Fanny Says (BOA Editions, 2015), a biography in poems about Brown’s grandmother, which won the Weatherford Award for Appalachian Poetry; and Sister (Sibling Rivalry Press), which was first published in 2007 and reissued in 2018. To Those Who Were Our First Gods, a chapbook of nine poems published by Rattle, won the 2018 Rattle Prize. With Jessica Jacobs, she cowrote Write It! 100 Poetry Prompts to Inspire (Spruce Books, 2020). She is Hollins’ Spring 2024 Writer-in-Residence and teaches in the Sewanee School of Letters’ M.F.A. program, the Great Smokies Writing Program at the University of North Carolina Asheville, and in the SunJune Literary Collaborative. Brown received her M.F.A. from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, studied literature at Oxford University, and was the editorial assistant for the late Hunter S. Thompson.

Sponsored by the Department of English and Creative Writing and the Dee Hull Everist Visiting Speaker Fund.

Continuing Art Exhibitions
2024-03-01 00:00 - 23:59 | Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center
Learning to Look: An Artist’s Perspective, through March 17

African American Quilts from the Collection of Carolyn Mazloomi, through April 14

2024 Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence Ying Li: Blossoms in a Sudden Strangeness III, through April 14

Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 12-5 pm, Thursday 12-8 pm (closed Mondays) www.hollins.edu/museum

Nationally Known Psychologist and Author to Discuss “Hope in a Time of Monsters”
2024-03-04 09:00 - 10:00 | Babcock Auditorium, Dana Science Building
Professor and education expert Sarah Rose Cavanagh, author of the new book Mind Over Monsters: Supporting Youth Mental Health with Compassionate Challenge, will speak in Hollins University’s Babcock Auditorium on Monday, March 4, at 9 a.m. Admission is free and open to the public.

Cavanagh is the senior associate director for teaching and learning at Simmons University, where she also teaches in the psychology department as an associate professor of practice. Her research considers the interplay of emotions, motivation, learning, and quality of life. In addition to Mind Over Monsters, she has written three other books, including The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion (2016). She blogs for Psychology Today and has penned essays for Literary Hub and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

“We are excited at Hollins to welcome a nationally known author to speak on one of the most pressing issues of our time: supporting student mental health,” says Nora Kizer Bell Provost Laura McLary. “Cavanagh also engages deeply in ways to support the mental health of faculty and staff in their roles as both teachers and mentors of students.”

In her interactive presentation, “Hope in a Time of Monsters: Supporting Faculty and Student Mental Health,” Cavanagh will offer research, food for thought, and practical applications based on her book on how higher education should respond to both faculty depletion and the student mental health crisis.

“The last several years of disruption, uncertainty, and overburdened workloads have exhausted teachers and students alike,” Cavanagh says. “Monsters have reared their heads, and we have understandably shrunk from them. Faculty are burnt out and students are experiencing an epidemic of mental health problems, especially anxiety.”

In order to support their mental health and reinvigorate their learning, Cavanagh asserts that “students need both compassion and care on the one hand, and assistance in developing competence and self-efficacy on the other. Faculty need relief from overburdened workloads, but also to reignite their love of teaching. They are sacrificing their own mental health, phoning it in out of desperation, or leaving the profession entirely.”

Published by Penguin Random House, Mind Over Monsters has been praised as “an important book” by Ken Bain, president of the Best Teachers Institute and author of What the Best College Teachers Do. “It makes a valuable contribution to the literature on teaching and learning, tackling an urgent mental health crisis, and how we can build the learning environments that will help students overcome that crisis and thrive,” he explains.

Women’s Role within the Eastern Siouan Tribes of Virginia’s Interior
2024-03-07 17:30 - 18:30 | Frances Niederer Auditorium, Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center
Victoria Persinger Ferguson is an enrolled citizen of the Monacan Indian Nation of Virginia. She serves on the Monacan Historic Resource Committee and is the program director for Historic Solitude/Fraction on the campus of Virginia Tech. She is a graduate of Marshall University and has 30 years of experience researching science methodologies and historical documentation to explain and support theories on the daily living habits of Eastern Siouan populations through the early European colonization period.

Sponsored by Hollins University Distinguished Speaker Series and the department of gender and women’s studies

Author of “Path to Grace: Reimagining the Civil Rights Movement,” Ethel Morgan Smith M.A. ’90
2024-03-07 19:30 - 20:30 | Hollins Room, Wyndham Robertson Library, 7916 Williamson Road, Roanoke, VA, 24020, United States
Smith is the author of three books: Path to Grace: Reimagining the Civil Rights Movement (University Press of Mississippi 2023), Reflections of the Other: Being Black in Germany (CreateSpace 2012), and From Whence Cometh My Help: The African American Community at Hollins College (University of Missouri Press 2000). Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Green Mountains Review, Callaloo, STIR Journal, African American Review, The University Florida Journal, and Tusculum Review. Smith adapted From Whence Cometh My Help into a stage play entitled African Violets. Smith is a Professor Emeritus at West Virginia University. She has also taught at Carlow University, Monash University (Australia), Randolph College, University of Canterbury (New Zealand), Virginia Tech, and Universität Tübingen (Germany). She is a Fulbright Scholar and a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow and has received two National Endowment for the Humanities grants.

Sponsored by the Beanstalk Fund, a collaboration between Wyndham Robertson Library and the Department of English and Creative Writing.

Student Thesis Staged Reading: "Our Family in the Stars"
2024-03-07 19:30 - 2024-03-09 19:30 | Hollins Theatre
Our Family in the Stars by Viktor Oler ’24, directed by Faolan Timm ’25

A Student Thesis Staged Reading

When: March 7 and 9 at 7:30 pm
Where: Hollins Theatre Main Stage
What: Never stop dreaming about the potential future. When Olive decides to leave their family, they sneak onto a ship to exit from the port. However, they soon realize they have entered Captain Alexander’s ship, a captain feared throughout all the galaxies. The two are wary of one another until a spark connects them. Intertwining their hearts and destinies. This is the story of a captain and a scholar who embark on a journey of trial and tribulations. While they find compassion and empathy, they find a family – together.
Content Warnings: None
FREE and open to the public. General admission. No tickets or prior reservations necessary. To livestream, please email stropegm1@hollins.edu for the link.
For more information, please visit https://www.hollins.edu/theatre.

Student Thesis Staged Reading: "CORPS"
2024-03-08 19:30 - 2024-03-09 14:00 | Hollins Theatre
CORPS: a canniballet in two acts by Aves Lewis ‘24, directed by Lynn-Lee Williamson ’26

A Student Thesis Staged Reading

When: March 8 at 7:30 pm and March 9 at 2 pm
Where: Hollins Theatre Main Stage
What: Hunger will drive you wild. Joan Faucher is a first-year ballet student who wants more than anything to impress her professor and learn everything she can. She soon discovers that her struggles in the studio are due to a progressive and disabling disease that could get in the way of her dreams. In an effort to save herself and her future, she makes a choice that changes the course of her life forever. Told through dance, music, and memory, CORPS (a canniballet in two acts) asks how far you would go to be the best.
Content Warnings:Violence, cannibalism, transphobia, traumatic injury and hospitalization, references to human trafficking, and cult behavior.
FREEand open to the public. General admission. No tickets or prior reservations necessary. To livestream, please email stropegm1@hollins.edu for the link.
For more information, please visit https://www.hollins.edu/theatre.

Virginia Glee Club and Hollins Choir Concert
2024-03-10 19:00 - 20:00 | duPont Chapel
The Hollins combined choirs are joined by the Virginia Glee Club and the Valley Chamber Orchestra to present Haydn’s Te Deum. A fantastic opportunity to hear an entire community of musicians working together—you don’t want to miss it!

Student Recital
2024-03-12 19:30 - 20:30 | Talmadge Recital Hall, Bradley
Come support our students as they perform for family and friends.

Conversations: Visiting Dance Artist Series with Todd Rhoades
2024-03-14 18:00 - 19:00 | Botetourt Reading Room, 7916 Williamson Road, Roanoke, VA, 24020, United States
Visiting guest artist and teacher Todd Rhoades will be in conversation with Dance Department Chair Jeffery Bullock about the current state of dance and contemporary culture.

Thursday, March 14, 6 – 7 pm, Botetourt Reading Room

Thursday, April 11, 6 – 7 pm, Botetourt Reading Room

Leading from the Margins: A talk with Mary Dana Hinton, Ph.D.
2024-03-28 19:00 - 20:30 | duPont Chapel
Mary Dana Hinton is the 13th president of Hollins University and president emerita of the College of Saint Benedict. A highly respected and sought-after advocate for the liberal arts and inclusion, President Hinton’s leadership reflects a deep commitment to educational equity and the education of women. Hinton’s latest book, Leading from the Margins: College Leadership from Unexpected Places, was inspired by her lived experiences as an emerging leader. She also has a TEDx Talk of the same name. Whether you’re an emerging or established leader, lessons from Leading from the Margins can empower you to find your own leadership style and discover strength in unexpected places.

Book signing to follow in the Botetourt Reading Room

Continuing Art Exhibitions
2024-04-02 00:00 - 23:59 | Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center
African American Quilts from the Collection of Carolyn Mazloomi, through April 14

2024 Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence Ying Li: Blossoms in a Sudden Strangeness III, through April 14

Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 12-5 pm, Thursday 12-8 pm (closed Mondays) www.hollins.edu/museum

Empowering Women through Education with Guest Speaker: Verletta White, Ph.D.
2024-04-04 13:00 - 14:00 | Babcock Auditorium, Dana Science Building
A results-driven, student-centered, visionary leader, Verletta White, Ph.D. was appointed superintendent of Roanoke City Public Schools (RCPS) on July 1, 2020. She has been recognized regionally and nationally for her ability to bring together communities for the benefit of students. In 2023, she was named Virginia’s 2024 State Superintendent of the Year, Virginia’s Region VI Superintendent of the Year, and was also touted as one of the five superintendents in the nation to watch by K-12 Dive.

Often referring to Roanoke City as “the sweetest city on earth,” White is involved and engaged within the community. She serves on boards and advisory councils for many local, regional, and state organizations.

White holds a Bachelor of Science degree in education from Towson University, a Master of Arts degree in leadership in teaching from the Notre Dame of Maryland University, and a Doctor of Education degree in urban educational leadership from Morgan State University.

White and her husband, Sidney, are the proud parents of two grown children, Victoria and Bethany, both of whom graduated from public schools.

Art Exhibition Opening: "Behind the Scenes at the Museum"
2024-04-04 18:00 - 19:00 | Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center
Using selected works from the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum’s permanent collection and the archives at the Wyndham Robertson Library, student curators put theory into practice in this exhibition, which is the culmination of the spring class, Behind the Scenes at the Museum. As part of the class, students collaborate and share responsibility for conceptualizing, researching, designing, interpreting, and installing a cohesive exhibition. Participants bring a variety of backgrounds and experience to the class, pursuing various disciplines. Co-instructors are Stephanie Gibson, professor of art history, and Jenine Culligan, director of the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum.

Through April 21, 2024

Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 12-5 pm, Thursday 12-8 pm (closed Mondays) www.hollins.edu/museum

Classics Symposium: Echoes of Empire: New Approaches to Imperial Strategies in the Ancient Mediterranean
2024-04-05 00:00 - 23:59 | Frances Niederer Auditorium, Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center
Reception in the lobby following each lecture

2-3 pm

Sea Empires and Coastal Connectivity in the Third Century BCE Mediterranean

Presented by Melanie Godsey, Ph.D., Texas Tech University, Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures

3:15-4:15 pm

The Toxic Ties that Bind: Empire as the Art of Bullying and North Africa in the Second and First Centuries BCE

Presented by Stephen A. Collins-Elliott, Ph.D., University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Department of Classics

For more information, please contact gfranko@hollins.edu or mcculloughkd@hollins.edu.

Support for the Classics Symposium generously provided by the Office of the Provost.

Canceled: Quilts and Stories Community Event
2024-04-06 13:00 - 16:00 | Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center
Canceled

Quilts and Stories is an opportunity for local quilt collectors and enthusiasts to bring a quilt to the museum for an afternoon of sharing stories about how it was made or given and how it has been important in your life.

“African American Quilts from the Collection of Carolyn Mazloomi,” on display at the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum through April 14.

• Registration is limited to 20 participants. Each participant is invited to bring one quilt that they will discuss for five minutes. Light refreshments will be provided.
• To sign up, please email Laura Carden at cardenla1@hollins.edu with your name, email address, phone number, and type of quilt you’ll be bringing.
• Registration closes on Monday, April 1.

Quilts have long provided comfort, an outlet for creativity, and a vibrant way to bring history home. We look forward to hearing your story!

Museum hours: Tuesday – Saturday 12-5 pm, Thursday 12-8 pm (closed Mondays)

Conversations: Visiting Dance Artist Series with Todd Rhoades
2024-04-11 18:00 - 19:00 | Botetourt Reading Room, 7916 Williamson Road, Roanoke, VA, 24020, United States
Visiting guest artist and teacher Todd Rhoades will be in conversation with Dance Department Chair Jeffery Bullock about the current state of dance and contemporary culture.

Thursday, April 11, 6 – 7 pm, Botetourt Reading Room

Author of “Looking Both Ways,” Pauline Kaldas
2024-04-11 19:30 - 20:30 | Hollins Room, Wyndham Robertson Library, 7916 Williamson Road, Roanoke, VA, 24020, United States
Kaldas, professor of English and creative writing at Hollins, is the author of Looking Both Ways, a collection of essays (Cune Press 2017); The Time Between Places, a collection of short stories (University of Arkansas Press 2010); Letters from Cairo, a travel memoir (Syracuse University Press 2007); and Egyptian Compass, a collection of poetry (WordTech Communications 2006). She also co-edited with Khaled Mattawa Dinarzad’s Children: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Literature (University of Arkansas Press, 2009). She was awarded a fellowship in fiction from the Virginia Commission of the Arts and has been in residency at the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Arts. Her work navigates the geography of immigration, exploring issues of culture, identity, language, and home. Kaldas was born in Egypt and immigrated with her parents to the United States at the age of eight in 1969.

Sponsored by the Department of English and Creative Writing and the Dee Hull Everist Visiting Speaker Fund.

Student Thesis Theatre Production: "Beautiful Noise"
2024-04-11 19:30 - 2024-04-13 19:30 | Hollins Theatre
Beautiful Noise written and directed by Asha-Ashanti Turner ’24 and Mackenzie “Seiya” M. Sessoms ’24
· When: April 11-13 at 7:30 pm
· Where: Hollins Theatre Main Stage
· What: Beautiful Noise is a story about two Black women on a journey of self-reclamation. As a piece that reflects the experiences of Black women in America, particularly through the lenses of the patriarchy, racism, and misogyny. We hope that you as our audience can take away your truth and reclaim your power.
· Content Warnings: Sexual content, sexism/misogyny, partial nudity, and marijuana use.
· FREE and open to the public. General admission. No tickets or prior reservations necessary.
· For more information, please visit hollins.edu/theatre.

Valley Chamber Orchestra Spring Concert
2024-04-14 15:00 - 16:00 | duPont Chapel
The VCO will perform Copland’s Symphony no. 3 as well as an original work by one of its very own!

Springtime Strings
2024-04-18 12:00 - 13:00 | Hollins University Campus, 7916 Williamson Road, Roanoke, VA, 24020, United States
Pause a moment on your way to lunch to listen to our talented string musicians perform an outdoor concert.
Moody Plaza

Graduate DRAFTWORKS Artist Talk
2024-04-19 14:00 - 15:00 | Botetourt Reading Room, 7916 Williamson Road, Roanoke, VA, 24020, United States
Year Residency graduate students Paris Gray, Sarah Lunceford, and Katy Womack present an ARTIST TALK about their new dance and performance work.

Botetourt Reading Room

DRAFTWORKS: a salon showing
2024-04-19 20:00 - 21:00 | Botetourt, Studio II
Year Residency graduate students Paris Gray, Sarah Lunceford, and Katy Womack present an informal showing of new works-in-progress.

Botetourt Studio II

Student Thesis Theatre Production: "Hollins Living History Project"
2024-04-20 00:00 - 23:59 | Hollins Theatre
The Hollins Living History Project (A Walking Tour) created by China Moore ’24
· When: April 20 at 1 pm and 2:15 pm
· Where: Begins on the steps of the Hollins University Theatre
· What: Today we answer the call. The Call of the Ancestors. Guided by the ancestors, the Enslaved of Hollins University move through the campus once more to tell their stories and that of the generations that follow.
· Content Warnings: May be emotionally disturbing/taxing. Depictions of slavery and racial prejudice. Violence. Mentions of genocide.
· FREE and open to the public. Limit of 30 people per tour. Please email stropegm1@hollins.edu to reserve a ticket. There will be a talkback immediately following the 2:15 pm tour. ASL interpretation and mobility accommodations available upon request. The first 10 people to arrive at each tour will receive signed copies of From Whence Cometh My Help by Ethel Morgan Smith.
· For more information, please visit hollins.edu/theatre.

Music Students Showcase
2024-04-21 16:00 - 17:00 | Talmadge Recital Hall, Bradley
Join us to support three of our advanced students—Sophia Ciatti, Mackenzie Alderson, and Autumn Wille—as they show off their excellent progress in performance studies.
