News from Transy

Eclectic menu for mid-week concert at Transylvania

Posted on November 1, 2013July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—All musical palates are sure to be satisfied at Transylvania University’s Composers’ Concert Wednesday, Nov. 6, as music professors Tim Polashek and Larry Barnes serve up a savory menu of diverse original compositions. The concert will be in Carrick Theater of the Mitchell Fine Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. The program includes world music, specifically Chinese, Indonesian and Islamic; solo Irish arrangements; and jazz-influenced modern classical music. The instrumentation is wide-ranging, too—piano, flute, guitar, cello…and an ashtray. Barnes will present four compositions, one of which is “Wanderer Fantasy: Hibernia” for piano, played by Barnes.  “Hibernia,” the Latin name for Ireland, is part of “Preludes from Pangaea,” composed for and premiered by Louisville pianist Denine LeBlanc in 2012. The piece explores elements of music cultures outside the Euro-centric tradition, an outgrowth of Barnes’ pedagogical work. Other compositions by Barnes include “Minarets” for guitar trio, a piece influenced by Middle-Eastern chant; “Cloud-Hidden,” a composition that borrows from ancient Chinese philosophy; and “The River of Heaven,” a lyrical, virtuosic vehicle for cello with the pianist playing the piano’s strings with a glass ashtray. Polashek will present “Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano” and “Evening Psalm,” both originally composed for his brother, jazz saxophonist Matthew Polashek, and Eric Huebner, a New York Philharmonic pianist. The performance of “Evening Psalm,” written in 2005, has strong emotional overtones for Polashek. His brother was in a tragic car

Read “Eclectic menu for mid-week concert at Transylvania”

Transylvania University hosts encore presentation of LUNAFEST film festival

Posted on October 29, 2013July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Nine short films by, for and about women. An opportunity to celebrate the courage and resiliency of women, as well as the talent, insightfulness and sense of humor of the filmmakers. That’s what the LUNAFEST film festival will bring to Lexington, and Transylvania is pleased to host the encore performance on Sunday, Nov. 10, at 2 p.m. in the William T. Young Campus Center.  A discussion will follow, led by Sarah Jane Sanders, an editorial photographer and blogger based in Lexington. Learn more about the nine films at www.lunafest.org. The festival was established in 2000 by LUNA, the makers of the Whole Nutrition Bar for Women. Two nonprofits dedicated to helping women will benefit from the festival proceeds: GreenHouse17, which supports those affected by domestic partner abuse (formerly the Bluegrass Domestic Violence Program) and the national Breast Cancer Fund. Tickets are $15 for the general public and $5 for students. The Kentucky Theatre will present the first local screening of the films on Thursday, Nov. 7, at 6:30 p.m. Ashley Gutshall, Transylvania’s assistant director of residence life and coordinator for interpersonal violence prevention, explains why Transylvania chose to host the film festival: “Statistics from the National Domestic Violence Hotline indicate that 12 million men and women in the United States will be affected each year by intimate partner violence. Partnering with GreenHouse17 and having events like these on campus is vital to raising awareness about ending violence in our

Read “Transylvania University hosts encore presentation of LUNAFEST film festival”

Transylvania University offers public screening of film about civil rights activist Anne Braden

Posted on October 28, 2013July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—In 1954, Anne Braden, a white Louisville journalist from an established family, helped an African American couple purchase a home in a white suburb. Soon thereafter she was charged with sedition against the state of Kentucky and discredited as a “Red” in newspaper headlines. Thirty-five years later, Braden was awarded the first Roger Baldwin Medal of Liberty from the American Civil Liberties Union as a “lifelong leader of the movements for racial justice, labor rights, and peace in the South.” In those intervening years, Braden distinguished herself as one of the most courageous, committed activists in the civil rights era. She and her husband endured time in jail and separations from their children, but they refused to be silenced. Braden became a model for young white women who wanted to join the movement and mentored three generations of social justice activists. Appalshop filmmakers Anne Lewis and Mimi Pickering used interviews and archived film footage to share the tale of how Braden, sometimes by the sheer force of her personality, helped foment societal changes that slowly improved conditions for minorities. “Anne Braden: Southern Patriot” will be shown in Transylvania’s William T. Young Campus Center Thursday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m. Afterward, Pickering will lead a discussion of the film. The event is sponsored by Transylvania’s Creative Intelligence Series and is free and open to the public. Pickering is an award-winning filmmaker and director of Appalshop’s Community Media Initiative. According to

Read “Transylvania University offers public screening of film about civil rights activist Anne Braden”

Transylvania’s Moosnick Lecture features Amy-Jill Levine, noted Jewish scholar of the New Testament

Posted on October 23, 2013July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—One does not expect to find a Yankee Jewish scholar teaching the New Testament in the Bible Belt. But that is exactly what Amy-Jill Levine does. The decidedly unorthodox scholar will visit Transylvania University on Tuesday, Nov. 12, to give a lecture titled “How Jews and Christians Read Scripture Differently.” The event is free and open to the public. Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School and College of Arts and Sciences and an affiliated professor with the Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations in Cambridge, England. “Professor Levine is probably the premier scholar on Jesus today,” Transylvania religion professor Paul Jones said. “Her religious tradition, intellectual acumen, and insightful sensibilities allow her to illuminate the text or the subject she’s working with in ways that are unparalleled.” The talk, which is part of the Franklin B. Moosnick Lectureship in Judaic Studies, will be at 7 p.m. in Transylvania’s Carrick Theater. Levine will also give a lecture titled “Hearing Jesus’ Parables as Jewish Stories” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13, at Temple Adath Israel in Lexington. “Professor Levine combines historical-critical rigor, literary-critical sensitivity, and a frequent dash of humor with a commitment to eliminating anti-Jewish, sexist, and homophobic theologies,” according to her online biography. Read more about her in this New York Times article. Levine earned a B.A. from Smith College, an M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University, and honorary doctorates

Read “Transylvania’s Moosnick Lecture features Amy-Jill Levine, noted Jewish scholar of the New Testament”