Associate Provost of Interdisciplinary Studies and Global Education Dr. Mimi Barnard spoke last week at Regent University’s London International Partners Conference.
Barnard’s presentation, “Leading and Growing Study Abroad During Times of Increased International Unrest and Threat,” addressed best practices to encourage increased access to and growth in study abroad while ensuring that faculty and students have current, relevant information regarding safety and security while abroad.
On Jan. 14, hundreds of students from 11 local universities and several area high schools gathered in the Fisk University Memorial Chapel to honor and remember the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Members of the Belmont, Fisk, Trevecca, Vanderbilt, Lipscomb, Meharry, Nashville State, Motlow State, Volunteer State, MTSU and Tennessee State University communities signed up to spend their Saturday serving the city they share by participating in one of several service projects at sites primarily dealing with food security and service to veterans. Around 250 total volunteers were a part of the event, including 30 Belmont students. By lending a hand at organizations such as Second Harvest Food Bank, Room in the Inn and Feed the Children, volunteers were able to honor Dr. King’s legacy by actively working to improve the lives of those around them.
Prior to being bussed off to various service sites, volunteers joined together to hear from several local leaders, including interim Fisk University President Frank Sims, Vanderbilt University Chancellor Dr. Nicholas Zeppos and Belmont’s own president, Dr. Bob Fisher. After the welcome from university leaders, keynote speaker Dr. Ernest “Rip” Patton, Jr. spoke about his experience as a Freedom Rider in 1961 where he peacefully protested segregation and racial hatred. Patton headed for Jackson, Mississippi that May on the third bus that left Nashville and was arrested upon arrival. He spent over 60 days in Mississippi’s Parchman State Prison Farm at the age of 21. Patton also spoke about his work to end segregation in Nashville by participating in sit-ins and boycotts on the streets of downtown. He recalled the day he listened to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak on Fisk’s campus and how Dr. King bravely continued to speak after Fisk’s gymnasium was evacuated three times for bomb threats. Lastly, Patton encouraged students to stand up for justice and to continue fighting for equality for all.
Volunteers spent approximately two hours at their service site before heading back to Fisk for personal reflection time.
“It was so rewarding to see students from so many of our campuses come together to serve,” said Tim Stewart, director of Belmont’s Office of Service-Learning. “ It gives me hope that the ‘beloved community’ Dr. King spoke of, where ‘love—which means understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill, even for one’s enemies,’ is possible.”
For more coverage of Saturday’s service event, view this coverage by Nashville’s News Channel 5. To keep up with all of the events scheduled throughout the week in Dr. King’s honor, click here.
Photo credits: Jonny Wright, Trevecca Nazarene University
Dr. Douglas Murray, professor of English, has published an extensive essay on the contemporary British composer Jonathan Dove’s opera Mansfield Park. The essay appeared in Persuasions-on-Line (POL), a peer-reviewed publication by the Jane Austen Society of North America.
This edition of POL went public on December 16, Austen’s birthday. The essay may be read here.
Dr. David Curtis, Chair and Professor of English, has published “Benjamin Franklin and the Sea” on Oxford University Press’s blog. Curtis is the author of the Oxford Bibliographies in American Literature “Benjamin Franklin” article and was invited to contribute the piece to mark the 311th anniversary of Franklin’s birth.
Belmont’s Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business Director of Development and Industry Relations Sarah Cates was re-elected to the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame Foundation’s Board of Directors for a second term. The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to honoring and preserving the songwriting legacy uniquely associated with the Nashville music community. Its purpose is to educate, celebrate and archive the achievements and contributions made by members of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Cates said, “It’s a great privilege to serve on a board so deeply committed and connected to Nashville’s one of a kind creative community. Honoring songwriters is a purpose that inspires and motivates me and I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve.”
Roughly 20 members of the Belmont Christian Songwriting Community, a new campus organization started by songwriting majors in the Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business, had the chance to hear from several top members of the Capitol Christian Music Group team recently. The students were able to listen to industry professionals discuss current trends that have been appearing in the Christian music market and where the industry seems to be heading. Additionally, the students in attendance were offered the opportunity to pitch the Capitol CMG team a song via an exclusive email address. The submissions will be reviewed and the Capitol team will invite at least one songwriter and one artist back for a follow-up face-to-face meeting sometime this month.
Capitol CMG Publishing Creative Manager Josh Kotras spoke to students about the growing power of the Christian music industry with a national radio audience of 40 million weekly listeners and a rapidly growing share of the streaming market. Vice President of A&R Brad O’Donnell and A&R Creative Director Jon Sell offered up advice for students hoping to become emerging artists within this market. “Being at Belmont means that the most talented, creative people from communities around the country have converged here,” Sell said. “Collaborate with one another, encourage one another, challenge one another.”
Capitol Christian Music Group is the world’s leading Christian music company and market leader in recorded music, distribution and music publishing. It is owned by Universal Music Group under their label Capitol Records, LLC.
Through an alumni networking series piloted last fall called “Career Conversations: Bruin to Bruin,” current students visited the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) on January 11 to hear from three Belmont alumni currently working in the music industry. The event had around 70 students and alumni in attendance as songwriters Sarah Buxton, Abe Stoklasa and Nicolle Galyon offered advice on owning your craft, dealing with rejection and navigating college life while simultaneously pursuing a career in the entertainment industry. The event was hosted by NSAI Marketing Manager and Belmont alumna Libby Oellerich in conjunction with Belmont’s Offices of Alumni Relations and Career & Professional Development.
Buxton is one of Nashville’s top female songwriters and is currently signed with Big Loud Shirt Publishing. She has had songs cut and released by Big & Rich, Gary Allen, The Band Perry and Martina McBride as well as two songs that topped the charts at number one: Florida Georgia Line’s “Sun Daze” and Chris Lane’s hit “Fix.” Stoklasa currently works as a full time staff writer at Big Yellow Dog Music in Nashville and has had cuts by Blake Shelton, Tim McGraw, Ben Rector and Lady Antebellum. He also worked with Buxton on Chris Lane’s number one hit.
Galyon graduated from Belmont in 2006 and signed a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music Publishing. She has had her fair share of number one hits with “We Were Us” by Keith Urban featuring Miranda Lambert and “Automatic” by Miranda Lambert. In 2014, Galyon was named as Music Row Magazine’s Breakthrough Songwriter of the year. She also competed in season two of NBC’s “The Voice.”
It’s Wednesday night, and it appears to be ‘ladies night’ at the Regal Cinema at the Green Hills Mall in Nashville. One hundred tickets were provided to the community to view the movie “Hidden Figures” before it officially opened in a limited number of theaters nationwide. “Hidden Figures” is the untold story of three brilliant African American women who worked at NASA during segregation and played a vital role in man’s flight to the moon.
Following the special screening of the film, a group of local women participated in a panel discussion. Belmont University was in the mix as Dr. Lakisha Simmons, assistant professor in the College of Business, shared her experiences as an African American female pioneer. Simmons is the founder the Homework Suite mobile application. Reacting to the film she said, “When you make an impact, who can deny you? Even if it takes 50 years.” And it did take that long for the masses to learn the integral role three African American women played in the U.S. space program.
The movie recreates the lives and experiences of NASA employees Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe). The trio were real world rocket scientists who helped to create the mathematical calculations needed to get, among others, the late astronaut and former Senator John Glenn to the moon.
As a child, Johnson’s teachers knew her calculating genius. In a scene with her parents near the beginning of the film, an administrator tells them, “You have to see what she becomes.” Thanks to “Hidden Figures,” millions will now see and know Johnson as “the computer,” the mathematician’s nickname. Creating analytic geometry while dealing with a segregated society, few knew about her sacrifice as an African American woman who couldn’t use the same restroom as her white co-workers. On the screen, it took Henson forty minutes to run across the NASA complex to the West Computing Lab Building to use the bathroom marked “colored restroom.” This was Hampton, Virginia in 1961.
Vaughan wanted a promotion to supervisor, as that’s the role she was fulfilling for NASA. She ran the West Computing Lab, the section run by African American women, without pay, title or seemingly training. Clearly ahead of her time, Vaughn foresaw the entire division’s replacement by new technology, the IBM computer. Instead of panicking, waiting or wishing it away, Vaughn took her son to the library, read a book on the Fortran computer programming language and learned how to program the new system.
Glenn passed away in 2016 prior to the film’s release. He was portrayed as an integral part of Johnson’s success, consistently supporting her work. When a tough call had to be made, he told NASA to depend on Johnson to make it. Johnson’s supervisor Al Harrison was portrayed by Academy Award winning actor Kevin Costner. In the film, Harrison was intensely driven and didn’t seem to care about Johnson’s race or gender. The goal to beat the Russians was clear, and Harrison didn’t care which team member made it happen.
Jackson, the third major character, was capable of being an engineer, but due to her race she could not legally take the classes for the position. She petitioned the Virginia court for the right to take classes at the whites-only institution, the only place the courses were offered. In the movie, she was granted access to take night classes only.
After the film, the panel shared wisdom for the ages. Simmons noted the journey is easier when helping others is leveraged. “Mentor someone. Get a mentor. Having someone to help you get up the hill and then you pulling someone behind you” is the pathway to success, she said. As many educators push American students to embrace science, technology, engineering and math, “Hidden Figures” fits right into the equation.
Other panelists were the mother-daughter duo and mobile app developers Kerry Schrader & Ashlee Ammons Founders of Mixtroz Social Engagement Platform and Meryl Johnson, director of digital strategy at the Country Music Association. The panel was moderated by Isaac Addae, a business professor at Tennessee State University.
Addae is also one of the founders of Conscious Conversation, a Nashville-based group focused on galvanizing the general public around issues of community and economic development in metropolitan communities. They partnered with Clerisy Circle to host Reel Talk on Hidden Figures, an evening of thought-provoking film and dialogue. Indeed, Hidden Figures provides audiences with fodder for discussion since its box office debut surpassed other popular releases. Hidden Figures grossed $22.8 million in its opening weekend.
May 2016 accounting graduate Graham Spencer-Orrell has always been known as a super fan of Belmont’s sports teams, but after last week’s women’s basketball game against U.T. Martin, you may just recognize him as the “mayonnaise eater.” The 2015 recipient of the David Fish Award for fan loyalty received media attention from several major sports networks after ESPNU cameras caught him eating giant spoonfuls of mayonnaise straight out of the jar in the stands behind the broadcasters at the January 5 game. By the next day, Spencer-Orrell’s few innocent seconds of fame had over 1.12 million views on Instagram and had been shared by Sports Illustrated, ESPN’s SportsCenter, USA Today Sports and The Washington Post.
Spencer-Orrell says that the jar of mayonnaise started out as a joke when he brought it to a game a while back. However, since that game, it has turned into a superstition as he claims that Belmont has never lost a game he’s carried it to. Sure enough, with the unconventional help that his mayonnaise jar provided, the women’s basketball team resided over U.T. Martin with a score of 71-66.
Although he enjoyed his moments in the spotlight, Spencer-Orrell said one of his favorite parts of this experience was the extra exposure it brought to the women’s basketball game.
To view the video shared by SportsCenter, click here.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” ―Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail
In light of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 16 and the legacy he left behind, Belmont University is hosting a 2-week string of events with the intention of memorializing, commemorating, clarifying and bearing witness to the mission and purpose of Dr. King’s fight for social justice. The schedule includes a candlelight vigil, keynote speaker, film screening and several discussions designed to engage students in conversations about diversity, race and ethnicity. The tradition of honoring Martin Luther King Jr. through university-organized events began in 1997 and continues today through the efforts of the MLK Jr. Commemorative Committee.
In addition to the on-campus events occurring throughout the next two weeks, members of the Belmont community will also participate in an MLK Joint Day of Service on January 14 in conjunction with eight local universities. After a morning of joint fellowship, volunteers will spend two hours of their time serving in the local area with projects at Second Harvest Food Bank, Feed the Children and other sites dealing with food security and service to veterans.
Drs. Erin Pryor and Shelby Longard, co-chairpersons of the commemorative committee, said, “Our intention is to memorialize Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy and his impact on the plight for racial equality. We also try to shed light on the true meaning and purpose of MLK Jr.’s message by encouraging an on-going, honest campus-wide dialogue about current race issues. In that spirit, we sought to bring speakers and events to campus that might engage a more active contemplation and engagement within the university community. Each year, we hope that the programming will cultivate active dialogue within our Belmont community wherein students, faculty, staff and the broader community can not only learn about King and his legacy, but will bring his dream to bear on the harsh realities of racial inequality that still plague our society. While it is important to celebrate the many gains and victories, we want to acknowledge that the journey is not finished … that this is not the time to be complacent; it is the time for action. And now, more than ever, we need his wisdom and grace.”
The following events are free and open to the Belmont community and the general public. For additional information, visit Belmont’s MLK website at www.belmont.edu/mlk.
