Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

  After studying jazz piano in his native Australia, Konrad moved to the US and toured extensively with jazz greats like trumpeter James Morrison and with the John Pizzarelli Quartet, leading to over 1000 performances in just four years. In 2017 he became artistic director of the legendary Ballroom on the West Coast and founded his own trio. Their focus is on standards—tunes collectively known as the American Songbook. Direct, simple, yet intriguing they improvise solo narratives with toe-tapping nonchalant grace. March 3, 2022 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University For more information:  https://www.friendsofgoodmusic.com/performances

  Friday, January 21, 2022 at 7:30 PM Merz Trio       Regina A Quick Center for the Arts 3261 West State Road St. Bonaventure University  St. Bonaventure , NY 14778 Phone: 716-375-2494 https://www.friendsofgoodmusic.com/performances   Winner of the 2019 Concert Artists Guild International Competition Formed during a snow storm in New York City in 2017, the Trio has made a sweep of top US competitions, taking Gold Medals at the 2018 Chesapeake and the 2019 Fischoff Competitions, in addition to the 2019 Concert Artists Guild International Competition. The Merz Trio has performed at major concert venues in New York, Boston, and Chicago, as well as in Australia and the UK.

On Monday, February 15, St. Bonaventure University's Jandoli Institute  will explore the role musicians’ fans can play in promoting social justice. The forum, “Prevention, Proliferation, and Prioritization: The Good You Can Do as a Fan,” will begin at 7 p.m. on Zoom. Register to get the Zoom link >> http://ow.ly/99j950DwWCM

An upcoming exhibition of quilts at St. Bonaventure University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts aims to comfort victims of sexual assault while focusing on the need to create safer environments for all. “Discomforters,” an exhibition of quilts by fiber artist Ruta Butkus Marino, former curator at the Quick Center, opens Monday, April 1, and runs through Thursday, April 11. A panel discussion of sexual assault featuring Marino and panelists from the university and the local community will take place at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 3, at the Quick Center. The panel discussion is open to all. Words on Marino’s quilts are direct quotes taken from Project Unbreakable, a web-based photography project started in 2011 by then 19-year-old Grace Brown, the friend of a sexual assault survivor. Before disbanding the project, Brown collected more than 4,000 submissions from around the world, each photo showing a sexual-assault survivor holding a poster with a quote by his or ...

Twelve St. Bonaventure University theater students and two faculty members participated in the regional Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, held Jan. 15-19 at Montclair State University in New Jersey. They were among approximately 1,000 students and faculty attending the festival for Region II, which comprises college and university theater programs in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. Also attending the week-long festival were guest artists from Broadway and regional theaters. The festival featured workshops, seminars, presentations, exhibitions and various types of theater production, including devised theater and new works. Eight St. Bonaventure students participated in the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Auditions. Four students were nominated by festival faculty responders for their work in SBU Theater’s 2018 productions of “Picasso at the Lapin Agile” and “A Christmas Carol.” Each of those students chose a scene partner and presented aud...

Dr. Donika Kelly, assistant professor of English at St. Bonaventure University, has won the $10,000 Kate Tufts Discovery Award for her debut collection of poetry, “Bestiary.” One of the most prestigious prizes in contemporary poetry, the award recognizes a first volume by a poet of promise. “Bestiary,” which was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award in 2017, presents readers with a rich catalogue of legendary beasts and fantastic creatures that express familiar human struggles with identity, love, fear, and understanding even as they look back to the mythical past. The book was long-listed for the National Book Award in poetry in 2016, and was also named one of the New York Times’ best poetry books of the year. “Winning the Kate Tufts is such a tremendous and unexpected honor,” said Kelly. Kelly, who came to St. Bonaventure in the fall of 2016, teaches creative writing and 20th century American literature. Dr. David Hilmey, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences a...

The St. Bonaventure University Department of Visual and Performing Arts will host the National Players production of Shakespeare’s “Othello” on Monday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m. in the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. The production is part of the department’s Martine Performing Arts Series, designed to bring a broader variety of music, theater and dance to the university community and selected by the faculty-artists of SBU’s music and theater programs. “Othello” is the story of a celebrated black general returning home from war and the hatred he encounters because of his race. His most trusted aide, Iago, devises a plot to ruin him. Soon, Othello and his loving wife, Desdemona, are caught in a terrifying trap of lies and murder. In the National Players’ production, directed by the company’s artistic director Jason King Jones, “Othello” is given a contemporary design. Shakespeare’s brilliant words combine with the resonance of identity and racial tension to transform “Othello” in...

Dr. Megan Walsh’s newest book takes a look at literature in Colonial America — and the focus isn’t just on words. In “The Portrait and the Book: Illustration and Literary Culture in Early America” (University of Iowa Press), the St. Bonaventure University English professor argues that colonial-era author portraits shaped readers’ conceptions of American literature. In the 19th century, new image-making methods like steel engraving and lithography caused a surge in the publication of illustrated books in the United States. Yet even before the widespread use of these technologies, Walsh says early Americans had already established the illustrated book format as central to the nation’s literary culture. Through an examination of readers’ portrait-collecting habits, writers’ employment of ekphrasis (a vivid, often dramatic, verbal description of a visual work of art), printers’ efforts to secure American-made illustrations for periodicals, and engravers’ reproductions of Briti...

A St. Bonaventure University faculty member’s research on religious and ethical questions about artificial intelligence is the subject of a new book by a Spanish priest and educator. “Anne Foerst: The Religious Dimension of the Search for Artificial Intelligence,” by Francisco José Génova Omedes, has been published in Spain. The intersection of theology and artificial intelligence has been a lifelong research interest of Dr. Anne Foerst, an associate professor of computer science and director of the Individualized Major program at St. Bonaventure. Foerst, who’s also a theologian and an internationally known expert on human-robot interaction, is the author of “God in the Machine: What Robots Teach Us About God and Humanity,” a book that examines what robots can teach us about being human. During a postdoctoral fellowship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Foerst was a researcher at the institution’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and director of MIT’s God an...

As a young boy, Pittsburgh attorney John R. “Jack” McGinley Jr. would stay at St. Bonaventure University to visit one of his uncles and watch the Pittsburgh Steelers practice during training camp. That uncle — Fr. Silas (Dan) Rooney, O.F.M. — proved to be a “strong presence” in McGinley’s life and also within the large, tight-knit McGinley/Rooney family where athletics were encouraged and education valued. Now, as Jack McGinley celebrates 50 years as a Bona alumnus, he and his family and the Rita M. McGinley Foundation of which he is chair have committed $2 million to enhance University Ministries at St. Bonaventure. The gift will primarily be used to create a renewed ministries center on campus. “Jack McGinley, like his father and mother, always recognizes the strength that comes to us when we belong to communities of faith,” said Sr. Margaret Carney, O.S.F., S.T.D., university president. “This gift will create a fitting center and expression of this fundamental creed: We must...

Some University of Pittsburgh at Bradford students may be seeing quite a bit of each other even after they graduate on Sunday, having been hired by the same employer or headed to the same graduate school. Max Asinger, a business management and computer information systems major from Bradford, will be a programmer analyst at Zippo Manufacturing Co. while working on a Master of Business Administration at St. Bonaventure University. Among his co-workers at Zippo will be fellow computer information systems and technology majors Nathan Debockler of Port Allegany, who will also be a programmer analyst, and Daniel Yeager of Rew, will work as a systems support analyst. Another trio of students will be staying close to their alma mater by working at American Refining Group in Bradford. Lincoln Dorward, a computer information systems and technology major from Bradford, will work as an information technology services technician; Rachelle Heffner, a hu...

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — Poet Willie Perdomo will read from his work at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 17, at St. Bonaventure University’s Café La Verna. The reading is free and open to the public. Perdomo is the author of “The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon,” finalist for the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry; “Smoking Lovely,” winner of the PEN Beyond Margins Award; and “Where a Nickel Costs a Dime,” finalist for the Poetry Society of America Norma Farber First Book Award. He has been a recipient of a Woolrich Fellowship in Creative Writing at Columbia University and a two-time New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellow. His work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, BOMB, Mandorla, and African Voices. He has written children’s books about Roberto Clemente and Langston Hughes. Perdomo is a member of the VONA/Voices faculty and is an instructor in English at Phillips Exeter Academy. The reading is made possible through funding from the Visiting Scholars Co...

After a week during which he won two games with buzzer-beating shots, St. Bonaventure junior guard Marcus Posley has earned multiple Player of the Week honors. Posley's remarkable performances caught the attention of the national media. He was named national Player of the Week by ESPN college basketball reporter Andy Katz as part of his weekly "3-Point Shot" segment on ESPN.com. Posley was also named national Player of the Week by CBSsports.com college basketball insider Gary Parrish and "Mr. Big Shot" by USA Today writer Scott Gleeson. He also was selected SB Nation Mid-Major Madness Player of the Week. In addition, Posley was selected the Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Week and the Big 4 Player of the Week. Posley scored buzzer-beating game-winners against both Davidson and VCU last week. Feb. 4 at Davidson, with 4.8 seconds left in regulation and the Bonnies trailing 61-60, he drove the length of the court and scored just before the horn sounded. The...

The public is invited to a pregame tailgate party from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday as St. Bonaventure University continues its celebration of the 100th anniversary of Thomas Merton’s birth. St. Bonaventure’s men’s basketball team hosts La Salle at 7 p.m. The tailgate party will be held on the lawn between the Reilly and Swan centers. Chili dogs and non-alcoholic beverages will be available for sale. The university is holding a day-long winter carnival Saturday to celebrate Merton, the revered Catholic spiritual writer who taught English at St. Bonaventure in the early 1940s before becoming a Trappist monk. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

St. Bonaventure University will save an estimated $100,000 or more a year on its electric bill thanks to a new solar electric project being developed in Olean. BQ Energy of Poughkeepsie, a leader in developing renewable energy on brownfields and landfills, will construct a pair of 2.7-megawatt solar arrays on a 24-acre portion (Parcel 3) of the Olean Gateway Site off Buffalo Road near Interstate 86. The longtime industrial site has been undergoing a massive cleanup over the past several years to make the land usable again for development. The project, called Solean, is among eight projects in Western New York and 141 in the state receiving support through Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s NY-Sun initiative. “It couldn’t be more of a win-win situation for us,” said Brenda McGee, senior vice president for finance and administration at St. Bonaventure. “We’re thrilled to be partnering with BQ on this clean-energy initiative, which reaffirms our commitment to sustainability and the redu...

St. Bonaventure University will offer a new major in environmental studies beginning in fall 2015. The New York State Department of Education approved the bachelor of arts degree program earlier this month. Dr. Ted Georgian, biology professor and longtime instructor in St. Bonaventure’s environmental science program, will serve as program director. The environmental science program will be phased out May 31, 2015. Unlike environmental science, which is meant to provide substantial depth in the technical aspects of the discipline, the environmental studies program gives students the flexibility to select courses that approach environmental issues from a perspective of interest to them, from business to natural resources conservation to philosophy and theology. “St. Bonaventure, with its Catholic Franciscan tradition, mission, and value of the care for Creation, is singularly called to initiate such a degree,” Georgian said. “The program will also put to good use the natu...

The William E. and Ann L. Swan Business Center has been recognized by American School & University magazine in its 2014 Architectural Portfolio issue. The new home to St. Bonaventure University’s School of Business, which opened in August 2013, was one of just 24 building projects cited in the post-secondary education category. The magazine commended the Swan Center’s design for “reinforcing the open spaces and quads so essential to the campus fabric.” The magazine also praised the “magnificent views” from lecture rooms and student spaces, and the facility’s commitment to sustainability, citing an annual carbon output 54 percent lower than a typical building of equivalent size. The Swan Center was designed by Cannon Design. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

By Casandra Nguyen SBU ‘15 St. Bonaventure University senior Joseph Pinter has been named the school’s 11th Jim Murray Memorial Scholar. A double major in history and journalism and mass communication, Pinter is one of five winners of the foundation’s annual nationwide essay contest among students from 28 other invited universities with strong journalism programs. Each of the winners receives a $5,000 scholarship in honor of the late sportswriter Jim Murray. Pinter attended the congratulatory ceremony for the 2014 Murray Scholars at the Santa Anita Racetrack in California on Oct. 25. Pinter, originally from Angola, N.Y., and a graduate of Lake Shore Senior High School, came to St. Bonaventure with a passion for his hometown teams, the Buffalo Bills and the Buffalo Sabres. As a writer for the school’s student-created online newspaper, The Intrepid, he has the itch for sports writing. Having written a story on the 2013 winner of the scholarship, Emily Steves, ...

St. Bonaventure will kick off the 2014-15 basketball season with a new event, Bona Fan Jam, on Saturday, Oct. 25. The event, which will be free, will begin at 5 p.m. with an outdoor fan fest on the basketball courts between the Reilly Center and Richter Center. The fan fest portion will include local food vendors who will offer sample dishes priced between $1 and $5, meet-and-greets with the Bonnies basketball players and coaches, sports contests run by the St. Bonaventure teams and games and activities for kids of all ages. Local band Diggin’ Roots will play from 5-7. At 7:00, the action will shift inside the Reilly Center where the Bonnies will be introduced during a midnight madness-style event. The Bonnies cheerleaders and dance team will perform, and there will be a student dunk contest to benefit the Brian Moretti Scholarship Fund. Finally, both the men’s and women’s teams will play 15-minute scrimmages and compete in 3-point shooting contests. There will be a number of giveawa...

Knight Kiplinger, (pictured) editor in chief of Kiplinger’s magazine and Kiplinger Letters, will be the keynote speaker for the 54th annual Mark Hellinger Awards Ceremony. The evening offers the opportunity to honor top students and distinguished graduates in St. Bonaventure University’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The event will be held on Thursday, Oct. 23, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The reception will begin at 6 p.m. and dinner at 6:45 p.m. The six honorees include Madison Thieman, Mark Hellinger Award recipient; Tate Slaven, Mark Hellinger Award runner-up; Mark Belcher, Buffalo News Entrepreneurial Reporting Award; Lee Coppola, Journalism and Mass Communication Distinguished Graduate; and Steve Lingle and Jerry Lee, Journalism and Mass Communication Alumni of the Year. Thieman, ’14, joined The Quilted Squirrel as an account executive after graduating from St. Bonaventure in May. During her four years, Thieman dedicated her tim...