The difficult life of author Richard Wright is the subject of a one-man play, “Black Boy,” to be performed by Charles Holt at Westmont’s Porter Theatre one night only, Thurs. Nov. 1, at 8 p.m. A suggested donation of $5 will benefit the student-lead group Racial Equality and Justice (REJ). The actor will hold an open forum in Hieronymus Lounge Friday, November 2, at 3:15 p.m. to discuss the production.
Visiting scholar Araceli Ardón will lecture on “The Caves of Altamira, Spain: A guided Tour of the Oldest Museum in the World” Thursday, Nov. 1, at 3:30 p.m. in Westmont’s Hieronymus Lounge. Ardón is one of the few people in the past three decades who have entered Altamira Cave, famous for its Upper Paleolithic paintings.
Ardón served as director of the Museum of Art in Querétaro, Mexico for eight years before getting the chance of a lifetime.
This month’s public viewing with Westmont’s Keck Telescope will include a free lecture by a world-renowned astronomer from Australia. Martin George, curator at the Launceston Planetarium of the Queen Victoria Museum, will speak on “Astronomy Down Under: Studying the Sky from Australia,” Friday, Oct. 19, at 7 p.m. in the Carroll Observatory lecture hall.
Six high school choirs will join four college groups for Westmont’s third annual Fall Choral Festival at First Presbyterian Church, Constance and State Street, Friday, Oct. 26, at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
The Westmont Theatre Department presents Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre in an acclaimed adaptation by Polly Teale Oct. 19, 20, 26 and 27 at 8 p.m. in Porter Theatre. They will also give matinees Oct. 18, 19, 25 and 26 for invited high school students in the first installment of the Found in Translation: Great Literature in the Theatre program.
President Gayle Beebe has welcomed long-time co-worker Doug Jones to Westmont as vice president for finance. Jones fills a position left vacant when Ron Cronk retired last year after working at the college for 22 years.
Jones was vice president of finance and administration at Spring Arbor University for the seven years Beebe served president there. Jones left his job as controller at Huntington College, his alma mater, in 2000 when Beebe recruited him to Spring Arbor University.