1) Balance Classes Scheduled for Sept. and Oct. at the Senior Center
The Lois E. Harrill Senior Center is offering a Matter of Balance class. Are you or someone you know fearful of falling? Have you changed your lifestyle and routine due to fear of falling? If so, this class may be for you. In this class you will learn: to view falls as controllable, set goals for increasing activity, make changes to reduce fall risks at home, and exercise to increase strength and balance. The class will be held Mondays and Wednesdays, September 21, 23, 28, 30 & October 5, 7, 12, and 14th from 10am-Noon. Call 828-265-8090 to register by September 16.
2) Award-Winning Science Journalist Carl Zimmer to Speak at ASU Sept. 16
The New York Times science journalist Carl Zimmer will speak Sept. 16 at 7 p.m. in the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts at Appalachian State University.
His lecture, titled “A Journey to the Center of Your Brain,” is free and open to the public. Zimmer’s campus visit is sponsored by the University Forum Committee and University College, with additional support from the Joan Askew Vail Endowment and the Office of Multicultural Student Development.
Zimmer is an expert on topics ranging from biology and evolution to parasites and viruses. In addition to writing the weekly Matter column in The New York Times, he writes for National Geographic and other publications.
The New York Times Book Review said Zimmer was, “as fine a science essayist as we have.” He won the National Academies Communication Award and is a two-time winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Journalism Award.
He has written 10 widely praised science books, including “Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea,” “Soul Made Flesh,” which was named one of the top 100 books of the year by The New York Times Book Review, “At the Water’s Edge” and “Parasite Rex.” His 2008 book, “Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life” was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Zimmer is also the author of a groundbreaking textbook about evolution titled “The Tangled Bank.”
Zimmer has lectured at many of the country’s leading universities, medical schools, and museums, and is a frequent speaker at scientific conferences. He has enthralled audiences with insightful talks on topics ranging from the cutting edge of medicine, to the history of the scientific revolution, to the wonderful creepiness of parasites.
Along with the National Academies of Science prize, he has won fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He is a lecturer at Yale University, where he teaches science writing.
3) Get to Know the Cats Up for Adoption at the Watauga Humane Society
Looking for a loving feline to curl up by the fire with you this fall, but not sure what you want in a purrfect mate? Starting September 4th, you can stop by Watauga Humane Society and experience a unique speed-dating style adoption special for cats!
Each adoptable cat’s unique personality, from the sleepy couch potato, to the active cat, to the one-of-a-kind quirky and unique cat will be displayed on his or her cat condo or enclosure by clipart cutouts of Pusheen the famous web comic cat. Finding a compatible kitty couldn’t be easier.
As always, all cats come with age appropriate vaccines and parasite prevention, spay/neuter, microchip, free wellness check, initial bag of food, and all the advice you need to start out right!
Don’t worry, there are plenty of personalities to go around! And, with new prices (adults $50, kittens $35, and special needs/seniors $25), you are sure find your purrfect match! Spread the word about this fascinating September Special!
4) University of Zululand Choir to Perform at Appalachian in September
Fourteen singers and the director from the award-winning University of Zululand Choir will be in residency Sept. 4-17 at Appalachian State University with performances on campus Sept. 9 and 16. The choir also will perform Sept. 11 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Boone.
The choir was established in 2001 in Durban, the third-largest city in South Africa. The choir sings a variety of compositions, from Afro gospel, jazz and soul to traditional, indigenous music and opera. They are winners of the 2013, 2014 and 2015 National Champions in Arts and Culture choir competitions, and hold additional honors.
The University of Zululand is one of Appalachian’s international partners. Director Bhekani Buthelezi was a visiting scholar at Appalachian in 2014. During his campus residency, he worked with choirs and conductors in the Hayes School of Music and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.
The visit is a result of the partnership between Appalachian and the University of Zululand. Members of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Boone are serving as host families, providing lodging and food. The choir will accept donations at the Sept. 11 concert and sales of their CDs will help pay for some personal expenses during their time in the U.S.
The choir’s public events are:
· A concert on Sanford Mall Sept. 9 from 1:15- 2 p.m. In case of inclement weather, the concert will be held in Plemmons Student Union.
· A program of South African music and dancing as part of a cultural exchange Sept. 10 from 8-10 p.m. at Broadstone recreational facility in Valle Crucis.
· A performance Sept. 11 at 8 p.m. at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Boone.
· A performance Sept. 16 at 6 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall. A reception will follow.
5) Auschwitz-Birkenau Survivor to Speak at ASU on Sept. 17
Holocaust survivor Susan Cernyak-Spatz will give a talk titled “Perpetrators Through the Eyes of the Victims,” Thursday, Sept. 17, at 7 p.m. at Appalachian State University. Her presentation in Belk Library and Information Commons room 114 is free and open to the public.
Cernyak-Spatz, who is a professor emerita of German literature at UNC Charlotte, was born into a middle-class Jewish family in Vienna. In 1929, she moved with her family to Berlin, where they witnessed Hitler’s rise to power. They fled to Prague in March 1938. Her father managed to escape to Belgium shortly before the German invasion of Poland, but the Nazis arrested and eventually deported Cernyak-Spatz and her mother.
She suffered at the hands of German guards at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, as well as from a range of diseases, including typhoid and scarlet fever. However, her connections in the barracks and the fact that she could speak English, French, Czech and German helped her obtain a job in the camp’s administration offices, away from the often deadly outside work details. She survived Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp. Her mother died in the Theresienstadt ghetto.
In July 1946, Cernyak-Spatz emigrated from Europe to the United States. She completed a dissertation on German Holocaust literature in 1971, working under the direction of the prominent author and German literature scholar Ruth Klüger, another survivor. In 2005, she published her memoirs, copies of which will be available after the talk.
“She won’t just give a straight survivor narrative,” said Thomas Pegelow Kaplan, the newly appointed director of Appalachian’s Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies. “We wanted to bring Susan Cernyak-Spatz back to campus because she is not only a survivor, but a teacher and an academic who went on to work in areas closely related to the horrors she experienced in the Holocaust.” Cernyak-Spatz last lectured on campus in 2005.
“Many Holocaust survivors are already deceased,” Pegelow Kaplan said. “In a few years there will be no one left, so we should speak with survivors while we still can. She is part of the experience of the modern world, of genocide and mass murder, which, sadly, will be with us for a long time to come.”
Cernyak-Spatz’s talk is co-sponsored by the Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies, Department of History, Department of Philosophy and Religion, the Global Studies Program, Temple of the High Country, and the university’s Hillel chapter. For more information, call 828-262-2311 or email [email protected].
