Extra Credit Opportunity: Apple Day Convocation

The annual “Apple Day Convocation” will be celebrated on Thursday, March 1, 2012, in the McCray Recital Hall. This year’s speaker will be Mr. Arthur Edwin “Ed” McKechnie III, Chair of the Kansas Board of Regents. Ed is also the Executive Vice President for Strategic Development and the Chief Commercial Officer for Watco Companies, Inc. in Pittsburg. A PSU graduate, Mr. McKechnie earned a B.A. in Communications in 1986.

Extra Credit Opportunity: Cuarteto Latinoamericano

“Matchless in tonal magnitude, tuneful fluency and concentrated teamwork.” – The Washington Post

Cuarteto Latinoamericano, formed in 1982, is known worldwide as the leading proponent of Latin American music for string quartet. This award-winning ensemble from
Mexico consists of the three Bitrán brothers, violinists Saúl and Arón and cellist Alvaro, along with violist Javier Montiel. The Cuarteto has recorded most of the Latin American
repertoire for string quartet, and the sixth volume of their Villa-Lobos 17 quartets cycle, recorded for Dorian, was nominated for a Grammy award in 2002 in the field of Best Chamber Music Recording as well as for a Latin Grammy.

The Cuarteto has performed as soloists with many orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Seattle Symphony, the Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México, the Dallas Symphony and the Símón Bolívar Orchestra of Venezuela. Under the auspices of the Sistema Nacional de Orquestas Juveniles of Venezuela, the Cuarteto has created the Latin American Academy for String Quartets, based in Caracas, which serves as a training ground for five select young string quartets from the Sistema.

February 10, 2012

All performances will be at 7:30 p.m. in McCray Recital Hall on the PSU campus.
Tickets are available at no charge to full-time PSU students with valid student ID.

Extra Credit Opportunity: Distinguished Visiting Writers

Pittsburg State University’s Distinguished Visiting Writers Series presents the 7th Annual Faculty Reading, featuring fiction writers Lizanne Minerva and Lori Baker Martin. The reading takes place at 7:00 PM, Thursday, February 2 in the Governor’s Room of the Overman Student Center. A reception follows in the Heritage Room. The reading is free and open to the public.
Lizanne Minerva has published short stories in literary journals such as Puerto del Sol, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, and Apalachee Quarterly. Originally from Tallahassee, Florida, Minerva was the recipient of the Ernest Hemingway Fellowship in fiction at Indiana University, where she earned an MFA in Creative Writing in 1992. She later completed a Ph.D. in Creative Writing at Florida State University. Minerva has taught fiction and literature at Missouri State University and is currently an instructor at PSU. Fiction writer Roland Sodowsky says Minerva “creates characters both believable and surprising in their complexity. Her fiction is a pleasure to read.” Novelist Kathy De Grave says Minerva’s stories present “an incisive depiction of women’s lives in middle-class America. Lizanne’s characters are spunky and humorous. We laugh with them as they reveal their flaws. We recognize these women and sympathize with the hard choices they have to make every day!” Minerva is working on a collection of short stories about mothers and children, and on Thursday she will be reading some of her recent fiction.
Lori Baker Martin earned a Master’s degree in English from PSU in 2009, then completed her MFA at The Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa, where she was named a Truman Capote Fellow. She was also the recipient of The Writer’s Workshop Clark Fischer Ansley Award for Excellence in Fiction. She has also received awards from Kansas Voices and the Cincinnati Review Schiff Prose Contest. Her work has been published in Prick of the Spindle and The MacGuffin, and is forthcoming in The Little Balkans Review. Novelist Kathy De Grave says that Martins’s writing “has a haunting quality.  Scene by scene the images are vivid and original; they stay in one’s mind. The characters, too, are so fully drawn they seem real, even though the story they inhabit often verges on the mysterious. Lori finds beauty in the grotesque and sees the struggle of the human spirit in everyday choices.”  Hailing from rural southeast Kansas, Martin is a third-generation Pitt State graduate, and on Thursday she will be reading from Bitter Water, her novel-in-progress set in Civil War-era Edna, Kansas and Carthage, Missouri.
For more information, contact the English Department at x4689.

Extra Credit Opportunity: Space Shuttle History

2012 Physics, Mathematics & Engineering Lecture Series
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
102 Yates Hall
2:00 pm

Dr. Steven Alan Hawley (a former NASA astronaut who flew on five spaceflights and currently a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Kansas) will present

The Engineering, Scientific, and Cultural Legacy of the Space Shuttle

For more information, please contact Dr. Tim Flood (235-4401)

Abstract
April 12, 2011 marked the 50th anniversary of the first human in space and the 30th anniversary of the initial launch of Space Shuttle Columbia on STS-1.  Between 1981 and 2011, five Space Shuttles flew 135 missions with Atlantis completing the final mission last July.  Astrophysicist and Kansas native Dr. Steve Hawley was one of the first class of astronauts selected specifically for the Shuttle in 1978.  He flew as a crewmember on 5 missions, including the deployment of both the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory.  He also had positions in flight operations management and astronaut selection during his 30-year NASA career.  Dr. Hawley will share his perspectives on the challenges and accomplishments of the Space Shuttle program.

Extra Credit Opportunity: Cantus Ensemble

Recognized as the “premier men’s vocal ensemble in the United States” by Fanfare Magazine, Cantus enjoys a vigorous schedule of national tours, subscription concerts in its home of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, educational outreach programs, and recording. The Washington Post hails the ensemble’s sound as having both “exalting finesse” and “expressive power,” and refers to their musicmaking as “spontaneous grace.” The ensemble is known for adventurous programming spanning many periods and genres,  including chant, Renaissance music, contemporary works, art song, folk, spirituals, world music, and pop. The ensemble has toured throughout Canada, West Africa, the United States, and Europe. Their numerous recordings have garnered critical acclaim from Stereophile, Gramophone, Classics Today, and National Public Radio. Cantus has received commissioning grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, American Composers Forum, and Chamber Music America. An active proponent of music education, Cantus strives to encourage people of all ages especially men – to sing. The ensemble annually works with over 10,000 young people throughout the country in educational activities ranging from master classes to festivals and collaborations.

January 20, 2012

All performances will be at 7:30 p.m. in McCray Recital Hall on the PSU campus.
Tickets are available at no charge to full-time PSU students with valid student ID.

Extra Credit Opportunity: Kansas Poets

The Distinguished Visiting Writer Series at Pittsburg State University will host a reading featuring twelve Kansas poets at 7 p.m., on Dec. 8, in the Governor’s Room of PSU’s Overman Student Center. This reading is part of a twenty-city reading tour to commemorate the publication of Begin Again: 150 Kansas Poems. The reading is free and open to the public.

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Poet Laureate of Kansas, organized the book publication and the reading tour. The project, which celebrates the Kansas Sesquicentennial, began in April, National Poetry Month, with poets submitting work that related to Kansas. Mirriam-Goldberg says the collection represents a diverse group of poets and perspectives: “This book is a wonderful compilation of poetry across Kansas, bringing together over 90 poets from all over and beyond the state to share the beauty, mystery, surprises, quirks and stories of Kansas.”

Kansas has a rich history of regional writing which includes such notable poets as William Stafford, James Tate, Langston Hughes, and Gwendolyn Brooks. An unusual number of poets have connections to Pittsburg. In fact, according to Laura Washburn, director of creative writing at PSU, “The literary prowess of this region may be one of its best-kept secrets.” Of the 93 poets included in Begin Again, twelve of them have connections to Pittsburg and PSU. “Pittsburg has a lot to be proud of in this anthology,” Washburn said. Published poets who are included in the anthology but who will not be at the reading are Eric Dutton who was born in Pittsburg and received his master’s from PSU, and Pamela Yenser who also received her master’s at PSU.

Reading Thursday are Laura Lee Washburn, Iris Wilkinson, Lorraine Achey, Roland Sodowsky, Stephen Meats, Daniele Cunningham, Olive L. Sullivan, Rick Nichols, Al Ortolani, Max Yoho, Melissa Fite, Allison Berry, and Ronda Miller.

This will be the fourth event in the annual Distinguished Visiting Writer series, which brings nationally acclaimed authors, poets and writers to PSU. The DVW is sponsored by the English department and the Student Fee Council. Information about the Kansas 150 tour is available at the Poet Laureate’s website http://150kansaspoems.wordpress.com/.

Extra Credit Opportunity: PSU Winds & SEK Symphony

The PSU Wind Ensemble and SEK Symphony will be presenting a Holiday Concert this Sunday, December 4th at 2:00pm at the Pittsburg Memorial Auditorium.  The concert is free and open to the public.  The Wind Ensemble will perform standard band literature during the first half of the program, and then they will be joined by the SEK Symphony strings to present holiday music, complete with an audience sing-a-long!!!  Warm apple cider and cookies will be provided in the lobby following the concert.

Extra Credit Opportunity: December PSU jazz concert

Here is your official invitation to the December PSU jazz concert. It is at 7:30 PM on December 1 at Memorial Auditorium (503 N. Pine in Pittsburg). This is a free concert and features two of our PSU colleagues, Mrs. Stella Hastings and Dr. Russell Jones. The concert has something for everyone form jazz standards to classic pieces like Secret Love, Georgia, and Tea for Two. There are works from the Basie, Kenton, and Les Hooper libraries and even a new work from the British rock band Radiohead. We hope to see you there.