Optimism at Antioch College, and hard work ahead

With its first class of new students now at Antioch College, and new faculty and staff on board, the mood is hopeful on campus, according to President Mark Roosevelt at a talk to the community Friday evening.

“It’s been a wonderful couple of months,” Roosevelt said. “Walking around campus, you can feel the optimism.”

Roosevelt gave an update on the college to an overflow crowd at Herndon Gallery. Before the talk, several hundred community members joined with students, faculty and staff for a potluck at the college art building. The event coincided with meetings of the college’s board of trustees and alumni board.

The number “35″ has special significance for the college, Roosevelt said, as there are 35 students in its initial class. And the college recently received a check for $35 million from the sale of the college’s YSI Incorporated stock after the global corporation ITT acquired YSI in the summer.

But the question of how to create an economically sustainable college remains Antioch’s most significant challenge, Roosevelt said, emphasizing that college leaders do not yet have clear answers.

“That is the big work ahead of us,” he said.

However, Roosevelt encouraged the college community to be undaunted by the size of the task, comparing the challenge to that of the Pittsburgh public schools, where he previously served as superintendent. When Roosevelt and other school leaders decided that Pittsburgh needed to launch an ambitious effort to guarantee college scholarships to all high school graduates, “We didn’t have a dime,” he said, yet in a year the schools had raised $150 million.

See the Oct. 27 Yellow Springs News for a more detailed story of Roosevelt’s talk.

Antioch College hosts closing symposium for ‘Rhythm of Structure’ exhibition

YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio – October 21, 2011 – An exhibition exploring the intersections between mathematics and arts will come to an end with a closing symposium Nov. 4-6 at Antioch College. Rhythm of Structure: Mathematics, Art and Poetic Reflection was originally curated by John Sims ‘90 for the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. It focuses on the visual language of mathematical ideas and process as a way to explore a spectrum of themes from geometric landscapes to the socio-political.

Miami Valley visual artists, poets, dancers, musicians, community members and students are invited to attend the closing symposium. Events begin Friday evening at 7 p.m. and continue throughout the weekend, including a gallery talk, artist talk, mad poetry workshop, film screening, panel discussion and community response. All events are free to the public and reservations are not needed.

Visiting New York poet Kristin Prevallet, along with Yvonne Seon, John Booth, Maria Booth, Bomani Moyenda, Ella Miller Toy, Bing Davis and Kevin Dean, will be featured in the closing symposium.

The community is invited to present poetic responses to the exhibition during the open mic section of the program at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5. The Community Response segment will be followed by an after-party reception at the Herndon Gallery.

Symposium schedule

Friday, November 4
7 p.m. | Closing Gallery Talk | “Rhythm of Structure: the Journey” | by Curator John Sims
@ Antioch College, Herndon Gallery

Saturday, November 5
10 a.m. | Oulipo: Mathematical Poetry | Presentation and mad poetry workshop by Kristin Prevallet
@ Antioch College, McGregor Hall, Room 113

11 a.m. | Birth of a Math Artist | by John Sims
@ Antioch College, McGregor Hall, Room 113

2 p.m. | Screening of Rhythm of Structure: Mathematics, Art, and Poetic Reflection
@ The Little Art Theatre, 247 Xenia Ave., Yellow Springs

7 p.m. | Community Response | Featuring Kristin Prevallet, John Booth, Maria Booth, Bomani Moyenda, Ella Miller and Yvonne Seon
Open mic responses with available blues music to accompany. After-party reception sponsored by AACW.
@ Antioch College, Herndon Gallery

Sunday, November 6
1 p.m. | Math, Art and Poetry Panel Discussion | John Sims, Bing Davis, Kevin Dean and Kristin Prevallet

@ Antioch College, Herndon Gallery

About the curator

Sims graduated Antioch College with a math degree in 1990. The next year, he organized the inaugural Cross-Cultural Field Program in conjunction with African American Cultural Week. These efforts resulted in the development of the current African American Cultural Works (AACW)—a nonprofit, community-based group that recognizes cultural heritage and celebrates diversity by organizing, promoting and hosting events.

Today, Sims is an interdisciplinary conceptual artist, creating multimedia projects spanning the areas of mathematics, art, text, performance and political-media activism. His main projects are informed by the vocabulary of mathematical structure, the politics of sacred symbols and poetry as ally to the visual arts. As the former coordinator of mathematics at Ringling College Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, he designed a visual mathematics curriculum for artists and visual thinkers. Sims has curated more than 15 mathematical art exhibitions and has lectured and exhibited nationally and internationally, including Hungary, Spain, Israel and Argentina. His work has been featured in Nature, Sculpture, BOMB magazine, FiberArts, NYArts, Science News, CNN, New York Times and the Washington Post. Learn more about Sims at www.johnsimsprojects.com.

About the exhibition

Rhythm of Structure: Mathematics, Art and Poetic Reflection is the product of a yearlong series of shows that premiered at the Bowery Poet Club in New York City in 2009. It features major contemporary artists Sol LeWitt, Adrian Piper, Karen Finley, DJ Spooky, Dread Scott, Ken Hiratsuka, John Sims, Paulus Gerdes, John Hiigli, Vandorn Hinnant and many others.

The series of exhibitions and performances connect mathematics to the process of art to the voice of poetry, exploring the multidimensional nature of structure from the geometric to conceptual to social to the metaphysical. Topics range from love to the lotto, from sacred geometry to quilts, and tessellation to mathematical graffiti.
To stimulate a dialogue around the use of structure and promote reflection via the poetic lens, poets have been invited to respond to the work forming the basis of a documentary film and catalog, which will be available for purchase at the symposium.

The exhibition, which premiered May 18 at Antioch College, can be viewed through Nov. 6 in Herndon Gallery on the campus. Gallery hours are 1:00-4:00 p.m., Tuesdays through Sunday.

For more information about the closing symposium, contact Sara Black at sblack@antiochcollege.org.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Jennifer Jolls
Assistant Director of Communications
Office: 937-319-6131
jjolls@antiochcollege.org

The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973) by Ivan Dixon

African-American Representation in Feature Films Series

Thursday, October 20
7:00 PM
Nonstop Institute
305 N. Walnut St., Yellow Springs
donation

From a 1966 novel by Sam Greenlee, the director Ivan Dixon sold The Spook Who Sat by the Door as a Blaxploitation shoot-em-up, masking the theme of urban-based warfare for African American liberation in urban communities. Upon release it provoked violent reaction in some parts of white America, and the FBI pressured the distributor to destroy all copies. The film was a bootleg classic in the African American community for years, but didn’t officially exist until it was digitally restored from the original camera negative, hidden in a Hollywood vault, in 2004.

About The African-American Representation in Feature Films series and workshop screenings on Thursdays at Nonstop October-November, 2011: Starting in mid-October and continuing every Thursday through November 3, Bob Devine will introduce screenings of a series of important and sometimes difficult-to-access narrative films dealing with African-American representation by African-American directors and by Hollywood (1964-1989). Future screenings include works by Haile Gerima, Charles Burnett, and Spike Lee. People are encouraged to attend these screenings/workshop discussions as a series, or to attend the individual screenings of specific films. To register for the workshop call 937-232-9906, or come to Nonstop the night of the film.

About the instructor: Bob Devine was one of the founding members of Antioch College’s critical Communications program, has been teaching courses in media and social change, film and communications theory for 40 years, and has been actively involved in the fields of community media, public access and participatory democratic media outside the academy. In 2005 Bob served as Interim Executive Director of Manhattan Neighborhood Network, and in 2008 he served an extended term as an Executive Consultant for O‘lelo Community Media in Honolulu, these organizations being the two largest community media centers in the country. At Antioch, Bob served as President of the College from 1996-2001, while continuing to teach in the field of communication and community media; most recently Bob taught courses and independent studies for Nonstop. Bob is the 1994 recipient of the Alliance for Community Media’s George Stoney Award, recognizing his national contributions to the field of community media, and the 2002 recipient of the Antioch College Alumni Association’s J.D. Dawson Award recognizing his contributions to the College. Bob is also the director of several dozen documentaries.

For further information contact: Bob Devine, 767-232-9906

I’m Antioch. Yes, I’m the real Antioch. – Dayton City Paper

October 4, 2011 by Dayton City Paper

How two institutions with historic ties (and the same name) still confuse the crap out of us…

By Caroline Shannon-Karasik and Tim Walker

Antioch University Midwest vs. Antioch CollegeAntioch University Midwest vs. Antioch College

Antioch. What comes to mind when you hear that word? For some, it’s the Antioch Shrine Center in downtown Dayton on East First Street. For most, it’s the famed Antioch College in Yellow Springs, which served as the face of progressive liberal arts colleges in the 1960s and 1970s. And still for even others, it represents that other university down the road in Yellow Springs, Antioch University Midwest.

This is the heart of our question, “Will the real Antioch please stand up?”

Read the full story at http://www.daytoncitypaper.com/im-antioch/

 

 

Antioch College Welcomes Students First Day Of Class After Closure

The first day of class begins Tuesday at Antioch College. After closing in 2008 because of financial problems, it opens to thirty five new students called the Horace Mann Fellows. This inaugural class gets free tuition, and plays an important role building on the traditions of Antioch. But as Emily McCord reports, the students also feel a responsibility to resurrect the school for a community eager to see a thriving college again.