Special to 1808Delaware
You’re Invited to Join Ohio Wesleyan for April 2024’s Lineup of Public Happenings
7:30 p.m. April 1 – Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, president of the Middle East Policy Council and the former chief diversity and inclusion officer at the U.S. Department of State, discusses “Shaping Organizational Culture: The Ethical Imperative in Global Leadership,” in Benes Room B inside Ohio Wesleyan’s Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, 40 Rowland Ave., Delaware. A former ambassador to the Republic of Malta, Abercrombie-Winstanley will illuminate the ethical dimensions of diversity, equity, and inclusion in international diplomacy and corporate arenas. She will provide insights into the ethical imperative of forging connections and breaking barriers, empowering listeners to lead with integrity and empathy on a global stage. Her talk is OWU’s 2023-2024 Heisler Business Ethics Lecture. The event is sponsored by The Woltemade Center for Economics, Business and Entrepreneurship and presented by The Woltemade Center and the Palmer Global Scholars Program. Admission is free. Learn more at owu.edu/woltemade.
3 p.m. April 7 – OWU senior recital featuring Payton Andisman, saxophone, in Jemison Auditorium inside Sanborn Hall, 23 Elizabeth St., Delaware. Admission is free. Learn more at owu.edu/PerformingArts.
7 p.m. April 8 – Virginia Gewin, an independent science journalist, presents “Breathing Clean Air: An Environmental Success Turned Environmental Justice Story,” in Benes Room B of OWU’s Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, 40 Rowland Ave., Delaware. Currently, Gewin is serving as the 2023-2024 Nova Media Fellow, where she is exploring “Tainted Air: Unearthing the public health impacts of novel fine particulate matter sources and tracking emerging pollutants.” Gewin’s articles have appeared in Nature, Science, Bloomberg, The Atlantic, Washington Post, Discover, Popular Science, and many others. Gewin’s presentation is Ohio Wesleyan’s 2023-2024 Benjamin F. Marsh Lecture Series on Public Affairs. Admission is free. Learn more at owu.edu/politics.
8 p.m. April 9 – Ohio Wesleyan’s Chamber Orchestra, conducted by instructor Deborah Price, in Gray Chapel inside University Hall, 61 S. Sandusky St., Delaware. Admission is free. Learn more at owu.edu/PerformingArts.
4:15 p.m. April 10 – Lars Horn, M.A., award-winning writer and Columbia University School of the Arts faculty member, reads from their first book, “Voice of the Fish: A Lyric Essay,” in the Milligan Room of Slocum Hall, 75 S. Sandusky St., Delaware. Described as “breathtaking in its scope and generosity,” Horn’s book explores topics including marine history, theology, questions of the body and gender, sexuality, transmasculinity, and illness. It won the 2020 Graywolf Nonfiction Prize, the 2023 Great Lakes College Association New Writers Award, was an Honor Book for the 2023 Stonewall Israel Fishman Nonfiction Book Award, and was an American Booksellers Association Indies Introduce Selection. A writer and translator working in literary and experimental nonfiction, Horn will sign copies of “Voice of the Fish” after the reading. The event is sponsored by the OWU Department of English. Admission is free. Learn more at owu.edu/English.
7 p.m. April 11 – A. Dirk Moses, Ph.D., the Anne and Bernard Spitzer Professor of International Relations at the City College of New York, discusses “How and Why Did Genocide Become the ‘Crime of Crimes’?” He will speak in Benes Rooms A and B inside Ohio Wesleyan’s Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, 40 Rowland Ave., Delaware. In his talk, Moses will explore, “What if ‘genocide’ had not become a distinct crime, and we had inherited the alternative of ‘crimes against humanity’ from the Nuremberg Trials?” He is the author and editor of multiple publications on genocide and memory, including “The Problems of Genocide: Permanent Security and the Language of Transgression,” and he has been described as the “most original and provocative scholar writing on the problem of genocide.” Moses also is the senior editor of the Journal of Genocide Research. His presentation represents Ohio Wesleyan’s 2023-2024 Robert Kragalott Lecture on Genocide, Mass Atrocity, and Human Rights. Admission is free. Learn more at owu.edu/history.
7:30 p.m. April 11-13 and April 19-20 – “Absolute Zero,” a musical by Marie Incontrera and Dorie Clark, on the Main Stage of Chappelear Drama Center, 45 Rowland Ave., Delaware. Join the Department of Performing Arts for this developing musical hailed by Broadway World as “a taut, funny musical thriller” that offers “a gleeful reclamation of the patriarchal and often sexist spy genre.” Things are heating up for the CIA’s coolest agent, Sam Knight, when her quest to shut down a terrorist set on freezing the planet turns into a high-stakes confrontation with a former lover who has absolutely zero chill. Following international breadcrumbs, infiltrating armies of clones, and irritating INTERPOL is business as usual for the suave superspy. Cracking open her icy exterior to battle her inner demons? That’s not the kind of fight Knight signed up for. This musical spy thriller includes genre-typical adult content. Admission is free, but seating is limited and reservations are requested. Tickets may be reserved online.
8 p.m. April 12, 19, and 26 – Friday night guest nights, at Perkins Observatory, 3199 Columbus Pike (U.S. 23), Delaware. Content varies based on weather conditions, but may include a planetarium show, observatory tours, or stargazing with the 32-inch Schottland Telescope. Tickets are $10 in advance or $12 on the day of the event and at the door. Reserve tickets by calling (740) 363-1257. Learn more at owu.edu/perkins.
April 14-May 11 – The annual Fine Arts graduating senior exhibit, “Grounded”, with juried works by nine members of the OWU Class of 2024, and “Restore,” an unveiling of 31 newly conserved masterworks, at the Richard M. Ross Art Museum, 60 S. Sandusky St., Delaware. The exhibits will open with a public reception from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. April 14. Pieces in the “Restore” exhibit have been cleaned and restored by the Cleveland-based ICA-Art Conservation (originally known as Intermuseum Conservation Association) through a 2021 Inspire! grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Learn about the restoration process, all part of the museum’s permanent teaching collection, and see the work by artists who have contributed to major movements in Western art history including Francisco Goya, Käthe Kollowitz, Jack Levine, Roy Lichtenstein, Joan Miro, Rene Magritte, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and more. During the academic year, the Ross is open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The Ross is handicap-accessible and admission is always free. Call (740) 368-3606 or visit owu.edu/ross for more information.
7 p.m. April 14 – OWU composition recital, featuring works created by students of instructor EunSeok Park, and senior recital, featuring Phoenix Ball, in Jemison Auditorium inside Sanborn Hall, 23 Elizabeth St., Delaware. Admission is free. Learn more at owu.edu/PerformingArts.
8 p.m. April 16 – Ohio Wesleyan’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble, conducted by professor Richard Edwards, in Gray Chapel inside University Hall, 61 S. Sandusky St., Delaware. Admission is free. Learn more at owu.edu/PerformingArts.
4:30 p.m. April 17 – Unveiling of the official portrait of Ohio Wesleyan’s 16th president, Rock Jones, in the Reading Room of Slocum Hall, 75 S. Sandusky St., Delaware. The portrait was created by New York-based artist Steven Polson, whose commissioned portraits include General Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, and Condoleezza Rice for the U.S. Department of State. Learn more at www.stevenpolson.com. Jones, who will attend the unveiling, served as OWU’s president for 15 years before retiring in June 2023. The unveiling is one of the special events being held during the inauguration week of Ohio Wesleyan’s 17th president, Matt vandenBerg. Admission is free. Learn more at owu.edu/inauguration.
8 p.m. April 18 – OWU student recital, in Jemison Auditorium inside Sanborn Hall, 23 Elizabeth St., Delaware. Admission is free. Learn more at owu.edu/PerformingArts.
10 a.m. April 19 – Ohio Wesleyan inaugurates Matthew P. vandenBerg, Ed.D., as the 17th president in the university’s 182-year history, in Gray Chapel inside University Hall, 61 S. Sandusky St., Delaware. The inauguration ceremony, estimated to last two hours, also will be streamed live online at owu.edu/InaugurationStream. Admission is free, and overflow seating will be available if needed. Learn more at owu.edu/inauguration.
3 p.m. April 21 – OWU student recital, in Jemison Auditorium inside Sanborn Hall, 23 Elizabeth St., Delaware. Admission is free. Learn more at owu.edu/PerformingArts.
7 p.m. April 23 – Public policy analyst and diplomat Ryan Hass discusses “Are the U.S. and China Destined for War?” He will present in the Benes Rooms of OWU’s Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, 40 Rowland Ave., Delaware. Hass is director of the John L. Thornton China Center and the Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies at the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization. His presentation is OWU’s 34th annual John Kennard Eddy Memorial Lecture on World Politics. The event is sponsored by the OWU International Studies Program and the Department of Politics and Government. Admission is free. Learn more at owu.edu/InternationalStudies and owu.edu/politics.
8 p.m. April 23 – Ohio Wesleyan’s Park Avenue Jazz Ensemble, conducted by instructor Kevin Turner, in Gray Chapel inside University Hall, 61 S. Sandusky St., Delaware. Admission is free. Learn more at owu.edu/PerformingArts.
8 p.m. April 26 – Terpsicorps 23/24 student dance concert, on the Main Stage in Chappelear Drama Center, 45 Rowland Ave., Delaware. Admission is free. Learn more at owu.edu/PerformingArts.
7:30 p.m. April 27 and 2 p.m. April 28 – OWU senior project productions, featuring performances and presentations by graduating senior theatre majors, in the Studio Theatre inside Chappelear Drama Center, 45 Rowland Ave. This showcase will feature “In the Garden of the Selfish Giant,” written by Sandra Fenichel Asher and directed by Dyna Bresson, and “Fair Winds, Following Tides,” written and directed by Isabelle Tinti-Kane. The performances may contain adult themes and content. Admission is free. Learn more at owu.edu/PerformingArts.
7:30 p.m. April 29 and April 30 – OWU senior project production, featuring “Not Trying to Get a Laugh,” written and performed by Evan Van Deusen, in the Studio Theatre inside Chappelear Drama Center, 45 Rowland Ave. The performance may contain adult themes and content. Admission is free. Learn more at owu.edu/PerformingArts.
All Ohio Wesleyan public event information is subject to change. For the latest updates, visit owu.edu/calendar or “like” www.facebook.com/OhioWesleyanUniversityNews. For more Battling Bishop athletics events, visit battlingbishops.com.
Photo: Ohio Wesleyan’s April events include the inauguration of Matt vandenBerg as OWU’s 17th president. The ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. April 19 in Gray Chapel inside University Hall. Here, vandenBerg speaks in Gray Chapel at OWU’s recent Mock Convention. (Photo by Paul Vernon)
