Common Hour is scheduled every other Friday from 12:30-1:30 p.m., during which time no classes or committee meetings are scheduled. Open to Bowdoin students, faculty, and staff. Common Hour statement of purpose.
Barbara Ehrenreich, Political Activist and Author
Friday, January 27
Pickard Theater, Memorial Hall
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
Barbara Ehrenreich is an investigative journalist, an activist, and the author of twenty-one books, including the New York Times bestseller Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. The author will discuss her book and will be available to sign copies immediately after the presentation.
Auden Schendler '92, VP of Sustainability at Aspen Skiing Company
Friday, February 10
Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center
Great Hope, Great Fear: Climate Change and the Search for Meaning, from Neanderthals to Extreme Skiers
Auden Schendler is Vice President of Sustainability at Aspen Skiing Company. He worked previously in corporate sustainability at Rocky Mountain Institute. His writing has been published in Harvard Business Review, the L.A. Times, Slate, Scientific American, and other media. He was named a global warming innovator by Time magazine and a Climate Saver by the EPA. Auden has testified to congress on the impacts of climate change on public lands, and speaks widely on sustainability. His book Getting Green Done: Hard Truths from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution was called “an antidote to greenwash” by NASA climatologist James Hansen.
EepyBird, the Coke and Mentos Guys
Friday, February 24
Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center
1/10/100: Unlocking Creativity
Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz, the creators of the infamous Internet videos of Coke and Mentos, will speak about their creative process. Their talk, entitled "1/10/100: Unlocking Creativity," explains their methods for opening up creativity in everyone. Known as EepyBird, Grobe and Voltz have been nominated for two Emmy Awards, won four Webby Awards, and their viral videos have been seen over 150 million times. They explore how everyday objects can do extraordinary things, from Coke & Mentos becoming 25-foot-tall geysers to 250,000 sticky notes transforming into waterfalls of color. This has led to appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman, The Today Show, Ellen, Mythbusters, and numerous other television programs.
Abigail Killeen, Karofsky Faculty Encore Lecture
Friday, March 30
Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center
Learning to Read Through Form and Failure
Abigail Killeen juggles her teaching schedule with a full performance calendar in Portland, Boston, and New York. She also specializes in developing new material for the stage. Together with Rose Courtney she created a stage adaptation of Isak Dinesen’s Babette’s Feast. Killeen played Babette in the premiere production in New York in 2010, and publication of the adaptation is pending through Dramatic Publishing. Babette’s Feast will next be presented as part of Acacia Theater Company’s (Milwaukee) current season. Premiering this spring is Ordinary Mind/Ordinary Day, Killeen’s collaboration with Adrianne Krstansky (Brandeis University). Ordinary Mind/Ordinary Day, which incorporates the text of four short stories by Viriginia Woolf, is part of the Brandeis Theater Company’s 2011–2012 season. Killeen performed the piece at Brandeis in November and Bowdoin in March.
Student Chamber Ensembles Concert
Friday, April 20
Studzinski Recital Hall, Kanbar Auditorium
Please join us for a relaxing afternoon of wonderful music performed by students in the Bowdoin Department of Music.
Museum Pieces
Friday, May 4
Museum of Art Terrace
A Bowdoin tradition for more than twenty years. Celebrate spring in front of the Bowdoin Museum of Art with dancing and music from the Department of Theater and Dance, featuring class projects, independent student work, and student clubs.
