The January Series of Calvin College returns to Portland, starting Jan. 6 at Oak Hills Community Church in Beaverton, one of 48 remote webcast locations worldwide to broadcast one of the nations leading lecture and cultural arts series.
The 2016 edition features:
David Brooks, a prominent political commentator and OpEd columnist for The New York Times
Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow for Global Health at the Council of Foreign Relations and the only person to win the Pulitzer, Polk and Peabody awards for journalism
Eric ONeill, a security expert who has worked as an FBI counterterrorism and counterintelligence operative
Bethany Haley Williams, a psychologist and leader in rehabilitating children traumatized by war
For a full list of speakers: www.calvin.edu/january/2016.
Free and open to the public, the broadcasts are streamed from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Mondays through Fridays, Jan. 6-26, at the church, 2800 N.E. 153rd Ave., in Beaverton.
Fertile Ground sprouting
One of the Portland theater scenes most anticipated events is once again taking place in January the 2016 Fertile Ground Festival of New Work.
Itll take place Jan. 21 through 31 at venues around the city, with nearly 70 acts of creation in theater, dance, circus/vaudeville arts, music, film, animation, multidisciplinary arts and more, by nearly 50 producers.
The Acts of Creation festival pass is $50, available, as is all information, at fertile www.groundpdx.org.
In forming Fertile Ground in 2009, the Portland Area Theatre Alliance wanted to give as much exposure to the arts as possible, with playwrights, actors, dancers, designers and producers all benefiting. Therell be fully staged productions, workshop and staged readings, and more.
Portland is a fountain of innovation and creativity, a place where new ideas thrive and creators are almost literally on every corner, says Nicole Lane, Fertile Ground festival director. Its an incubator for new works of art creation citywide.
Key theater producers are CoHo, Milagro, Tears of Joy, Lakewood, Portland Story and Action/Adventure. Polaris Dance Theatre once again presents the Groovin Greenhouse, with choreographers and dance groups. PDX Playwrights will show 14 new works and Artists Repertory Theatre will feature five lunchtime readings and two 7:30 p.m. staged readings.
Full event listings can be found at fertilegroundpdx.org; a printed guide will be available at Artists Rep, Portland Center Stage, and Portland5 Centers for the Performing Arts, among others, or online at www.fertilegroundpdx.org.
(Well have more on Fertile Ground in January).
Appreciative audience
The Oregon Symphony recently sent musicians behind prison walls to play a concert for incarcerated women at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville. The Dec. 9 concert was a success for the second year in a row.
Its part of the Department of Corrections Oregon Accountability Model, to help offenders transition back to communities.
We want to bring a piece of Oregon culture to these women who are working hard to improve their lives, says Scott Showalter, symphony president, in a news release. Its heartening to get to know them and share the beauty of music.
Mayor Charlie Hales and his wife, Nancy Hales, accompanied the musicians violinists Shin-Young Kwon and Emily Cole, violist Jennifer Arnold, cellist Marilyn de Oliveira, bassoonist Evan Kuhlmann and percussionist Sergio Carreno, who played holiday and classical favorites from the likes of Tchaikovsky, Dvorak and Beethoven. The evening ended up with a sing-along of Christmas carols.
Adele coming
Not many singers are hotter than Adele right now, especially after the release of her latest album, 25, which sold more than 3 million copies in the first week. You can make plans now to see her in concert next year, when the megastar visits the Northwest for concerts at Seattles KeyArena, July 25 and 26. If still available, tickets can be purchased at Ticketmaster outlets, www.Ticketmaster.com or by phone at 1-800-745-3000.
Shell also do concerts in Vancouver, British Columbia, July 20 and 21.
