October is its sunset sky; November the later twilight.--Henry David Thoreau | |
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November 2021
Directors Note:
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This month is full of light as both Diwali and Hanukkah celebrations begin. Diwali started yesterday (November 4) and Hanukkah starts at the end of the month on the 28th.
It's Indigenous People’s Month so let’s ensure that we learn more about the Indigenous people of this land, the Stockbridge Munsee, and those of any other land we have inhabited. Kamloopa, a play with an all Indigenous cast is streaming through the weekend and Muh-he-con-ne-ok is on display at the Berkshire Museum through early January. Check them out!
In addition to upcoming events and opportunities, this newsletter will also introduce you to two more DC Community Engagement Fellows and each of the DC Team Shares invites you to diverse ways to take a little time out for yourself.
Do keep an eye out for programming in reflection of Trans Day of Remembrance (November 20)!
Read on!
Eden-Reneé
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Community Engagement Fellows (CEF) | |
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The DC Community Engagement Fellows are a Davis Center-trained, peer-to-peer diversity education, and mentoring group. Trained extensively by The Davis Center team, Community Engagement Fellows work closely with The DC Team and are part of The Davis Center’s effort to provide education for the campus on issues of identity, power, and privilege in order to build a more inclusive community. Community Engagement Fellows co-facilitate workshops, hold office hours, form partnerships across the campus, and work on independent capstone projects. Each month we will highlight a couple of the amazing CEF's that the DC has been fortunate enough to get to work with.
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Special CEF-curated programming:
free and open to the campus community!
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CEF Ri and CDPC NatMB are still figuring out the days and times, but if you'd like to join Ri for 'FREE WRITE!', write NRM4 and you'll be notified of when to join. This activity is designed to celebrate the act of WRITING without any other limits. Sit, be, write, process, share or don't share: this space is judgement free and warmly welcomes you.
DROP IN: come when you want, leave when you want!
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CEF Tina is hosting mindfulness watercolors on Saturdays from 3pm to 5 pm. All supplies are provided so grab a snack and forget about school for a little bit.
Tina will help teach new techniques for mindfulness and to up your watercolor game!
DROP IN: come when you want, leave when you want!
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As the vigors of the semester take ahold of our lives, know that CEF Jahnavi welcomes you to the Jenness House every Wednesday from 3-5 p.m.
Come for a few minutes or stay the whole time. There are a variety of coloring books and high quality coloring supplies.
DROP IN: come when you want, leave when you want!
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Hello! For this month's newsletter...thank you!
Dear Davis Center Times Readership,
My name is Aseel Abulhab, and I'm the Assistant Director of the DC. Welcome to Williams Signs! I discovered a passion for sign language and working with the D/deaf community at the end of high school, and have since had the opportunity to finish a complete course in ASL, attend a summer course at Gallaudet University, and undertake two international fellowships devoted to deaf access to education. Each newsletter, I will share related to sign language and/or D/deaf culture. If you have any additional questions or want to engage on the subject, please reach out to me at aa9. Happy signing!
This month, learn about International Sign Language. Sign language is not universal, but an international sign language does exist and is used in certain contexts!
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Greetings, Ephs! I’m Aly, the Associate Director of the Davis Center. This is my column about issues of identity and power in U.S. musical culture.
Today, let’s do some listening. One recording of a live performance that I’ve returned to again and again is Aretha Franklin playing and singing “Dr. Feelgood” at Fillmore West in 1971. I encourage you to give yourself about 10 minutes to listen, and really focus on what you’re hearing and feeling without other distractions. This performance is a reminder not only of the incredible skill Franklin brings as a vocalist, but also her status as one of the best soul keyboardists of the 1960s and 1970s. And if after listening, you want to think more about Franklin’s importance as a soul artist and her live performances of this specific song, I suggest checking out Emily Lordi’s essay “Souls Intact: The Soul Performances of Audre Lorde, Aretha Franklin, and Nina Simone.” Enjoy!
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Times are extraordinarily tough these days which can make it easy to focus on everything that is going wrong. But, something is also going right. Maybe it was a beautiful day, or you ran into a friend unexpectedly, or got something in by the deadline. Sometimes we need to take a little, purposeful, time to accentuate the positive to mitigate the focus on everything that is making life difficult. Most of the time, even when times get unpredictably worse, there is also something positive about it which can also be what was learned from the experience. So, this month make an extra effort to notice the good things that happened.
Want to go deeper? Try writing down three good things every day. Set aside some time and make a meeting with yourself!
Want to learn more? Here’s a video and article about the Three Good Things exercise and why it is helpful.
Want to talk about it? I’d be happy to talk! Here’s the office hour calendar for The DC Team! Also consider creating your own self-care check in group.
Be Well,
Eden-Reneé
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Hi Friends:
In mid-July, I was informed by Mass Audubon that there was a bird virus going around: it only affected birds, but in an effort to protect them, we 'birders' were asked to put away the feeders and birdbaths. They encouraged us to do our part, noting that it was high summer and that the natural world was bountiful. Knowing this fact didn't take the bird-shaped hole out of my heart, as my bird feeders provided me my only consistent work companions during the previous 19 months, and in fact, it took me a while to adjust to their absence: but I understood loud and clear--social distancing isn't only for us humans, it's also for the birds. I'd rather them alive than sick and feeding at my window.
Well, great news friends: put up those feeders again!! The virus has disappeared as mysteriously as it appears (they think it may have had to do with the cicadas) and as the world chills out for a few months, know that you can feed the birds again! One of my favorite birding sources is the Massachusetts Audubon Society, which also puts out great outdoor resources such as what I've shared this month: an almanac of what's going on in our neck of the woods this month.
November is a tough month-- know that even as the leaves all fall and the trees take on their skeletal forms, that there are plenty of things ALIVE outside...even when things look at their bleakest, there's always life springing up and spreading hope.
Appreciate the world, even on the nastiest day, and consider feeding the birds. It's a generous way to show mercy and love to others and I promise you: they make great companions. Their song will fill the air of the darkest day if are ready to listen.
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EVENTS•OPPORTUNITIES•RESOURCES | |
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WAM Theatre presents Kamloopa by Kim Senklip Harvey, directed by Estefanía Fadul.
A contemporary comedy featuring an all-Indigenous ensemble.
Streaming digitally, Nov 1-7, 2021.
*contact [email protected].
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The '68 Center for Career Exploration is pleased to announce the launch of a new software platform called Interstride. | |
Interstride is a tool for international students to find internships and jobs in the United States and research companies that hire international students.
Interstride is also for all students looking for internships and jobs in countries around the world!
Please continue to leverage information sessions and recruiting events from employers in Handshake and of course, take advantage of the Williams alumni network in EphLink.
We hope Interstride complements your search tools and allows you to learn more about specific companies that hire international students as well as jobs around the world!
Login with your Williams email at student.interstride.com to make your profile and get started!
We've also created this short video to show you how to use Interstride.
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Dively Committee seeking members
Are you interested in supporting LGBTQ+ life on the Williams campus? The Dively Committee for Human Sexuality and Diversity is seeking new members. The Dively Committee plans events such as Rainbow Graduation, co-sponsors events that address questions of gender and sexuality, and funds summer opportunity grants. The committee is open to faculty, staff, and students, and we’d love to meet you! If you are interested, please reach out to Aly Corey (awc5) for more information.
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Muh-he-con-ne-ok:
The People of the Waters That Are Never Still
On View August 6, 2021 through January 9, 2022
Following the symbolic pathway of water throughout the exhibition, visitors will develop new insights into the history and culture of this Berkshire County Indigenous community through objects from the Berkshire Museum collection and those of partner institutions, contemporary oral histories and historical profiles of members of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, timelines, and more. As they travel through the galleries, museum patrons will trace the journey of this region’s first residents from their lands that stretched from the Hudson River Valley to Berkshire County, through forced removal from these lands by white colonizers, to their current home in Wisconsin. Along the way, visitors will explore historical and current-day topics, discover actions they can take to be better allies to Indigenous people worldwide, and unlearn harmful misconceptions and stereotypes.
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Latina/o/xs, Sanctuary, and Studying Religion:
An Open Conversation About Journeys with Leo Guardado and Barbara Sostaita
Thursday, 11.11.21 @ 12pm
Preregister by November 9th to arrange your lunch order.
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Join the Winter Blitz to Help Our Community! | |
Winter Blitz is an annual event where Williams students team up with students from Bennington College and MCLA to go out and help local low-income families weatherize their homes for the winter. This year, we’re switching things up a little bit to keep everyone safe; We’re partnering with the organization WindowDressers to build storm windows that will then be distributed out to different households! If you’d like to help out with the building process, please sign up using the form below- it’s a half-day commitment with provided food, great company, and a fantastic cause! Hope to see you there! | | |
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Hot Topics with Aseel Abulhab '15
Join the Davis Center for lunch and learn more about American sign language and Deaf Culture at Williams College. What's changed? What could be better?
Come on Wednesday the 10th at noon with a hungry stomach and a curious mind.
Lunch will be provided.
Jenness House living room.
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WAYNE SHORTER & ESPERANZA SPALDING: IPHIGENIA
Friday, November 5, 8pm & Saturday, November 6, 8pm
In Iphigenia, two of the most visionary and daring musical voices of our time—composer Wayne Shorter and librettists and performer Esperanza Spalding—have created a modern operatic re-imagining of the ancient tale of a daughter sacrificed to the gods. Against a set designed by luminary architect Frank Gehry, classical and jazz forms collide in a full orchestral score, while a deeply poetic and radical libretto sees Iphigenia herself multiply and stare down opera’s history. Shorter and Spalding’s 'Iphigenia' is not so much an adaptation as an intervention into myth-making, music, and opera as we know it.
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Fragility Etudes: Music by Susie Ibarra with film by Yuka Honda (of Chibo Matto)
Composer and percussionist Susie Ibarra’s Fragility Etudes explores humanity’s interdependence with the natural environment through a world of sound. One of SPIN’s “100 Greatest Drummers of Alternative Music,” Ibarra brings together six musicians in a dynamic score of overlapping rhythms experienced in the round.
Ensemble performance and soloists
- Jennifer Choi: violin
- Daniel Louis Doña: viola
- Yuka C. Honda: electronics
- Susie Ibarra: drum set and percussion
- Jake Landau: pianos and pianet
- Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe: voice and modular synthesizers
Fragility Etudes was commissioned by Asia Society Museum, New York, for the inaugural Asia Society Triennial 2021: We Do Not Dream Alone.
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Great ON-CAMPUS Events and Opportunities | |
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Rites of Passage: 20/20 Vision Virtual House Screening
November 5th @ 8pm ET
on YouTube & Facebook
RitesOfPassageProject.org
facebook.com/ritesofpassageproject
IG: @ritesofpassage.project
We are thrilled to announce the virtual screening of Rites of Passage: 20/20 Vision- a walk-through installation performance celebrating the lives of Women of Color. Set inside a historic Women’s Club mansion in Pittsfield MA (The Whitney Center for the Arts), each of its 21 rooms represented a stage or theme of initiation in the lives of Black, Indigenous and Immigrant Women of Color (BIWOC), using multimedia art and performance. Rites of Passage: 20/20 Vision took place over 5 days this August 2021 with 1000 attendees, and over 65 collaborators from around the US. For those who could not see the live in-person event, our virtual screening of the house, followed by a live artist talk-back, will take place on Friday November 5th at 8pm ET. Links for live streaming on YouTube and Facebook will be released on October 30th on our website and on the Rites of Passage Facebook page. As a singular and groundbreaking work of art & activism by BIWOC, Rites of Passage: 20/20 Vision has been featured in Ebony, the WAMC Roundtable, AlbanyTimes Union, By The Way Berkshires and The Berkshire Edge.
This live-streamed event is open to all and free of charge.
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Pathways for Inclusive Excellence is seeking one STEM Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Research Assistant to work closely with the Faculty Fellow for the Davis Center and the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion on various projects related to DEI within the STEM fields. Work includes helping with community/campus programming and initiatives, analyzing data, creating summaries/reports of current and previous data, and researching best practices related to belonging and inclusion of underrepresented and minoritized populations within the STEM fields. Work responsibilities may include and are not limited to scholarly research, reading books, attending and developing training for these purposes.
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Integrative Wellness Services (IWS) | |
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The Davis Center at Williams College
10 Jenness Drive
Williamstown, MA 01267
davs-center.williams.edu
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