Saint Mary's Newsroom

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Youth, educators, administrators, families, and community members will gather together at the Saint Mary’s University Center on Thursday, Feb. 28, for the sixth Missing Voices: Equity in Education Summit — titled Advocate: Access & Act! Attendees will engage in solution-oriented dialogue to discuss how to take action to increase equity in education.

Active community leaders will take the stage to unpack the terms “advocacy” and “civic engagement.” A panel presentation and a keynote address will be complemented by two breakout session presentations. Audience members will come away with a better understanding of advocacy and civic engagement and hear inspiring examples of how individuals have advocated for themselves, their schools, and a more equitable education system for all students.

Breakout sessions by local leaders, although focusing on different areas, will connect their content to the main theme of the summit. Artistic opportunities will be involved with the program. Guests can expect to engage in conversation with one another and explore new perspectives throughout the day.

Leaders from the Youth Equity Solutions (YES!) team will direct the day’s events. These young people help make decisions regarding the summit and facilitate transition activities, ask reflective questions, direct the audience, and participate in breakout session presentations.

Speakers at the 2019 summit will include:

• Sandra Vargas, senior executive leadership fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. She is a well-known community leader in the Twin Cities and has won a number of awards for her work in equity and racial justice.
• Zuki Ellis, chair of the Saint Paul Board of Education. As a lifelong citizen of Saint Paul, she wants to give back, support, challenge, fight for, and lead the community that has helped to raise and shape her life, as well as the lives of all the students of the district.
• Mónica Segura-Schwartz, a member of the Board of Education in School District 742. She has been a consistent advocate for disengaged or underrepresented groups and encourages others to participate in public life by getting involved in community making.
• Rose Chu, senior policy fellow at Minnesota Educational Equity Partnership. Her industrial and systems engineering background, coupled with her experience as a classroom teacher, has continued to ground her life’s work in educational reform and transformation.

Breakout session presentations will be facilitated by a number of equity leaders, including:

• Kenneth Eban, senior organizing director at Students for Education Reform Minnesota.
• Eden Bart and Rose McGee from the Minnesota Humanities Center.
• Syra Yang, equity specialist at Robbinsdale Area Schools.
• Jim Knutson-Kolodzne, director of the American Indian Center at St. Cloud State University.

The summit will be held from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Saint Mary’s University Center, located at 2540 Park Ave. in Minneapolis. Check-in and continental breakfast begins at 7:30 a.m. Youth, family members, parents, and community organizers are invited to attend at no charge. Tickets for education professionals and general admission tickets are $125. Guests can register online at smumn.edu/missingvoices as well as on the day of the event. Any questions about registration or the event can be directed to ccre@smumn.edu.

WINONA, Minn. — Saint Mary’s University Jazz Combo 1 students will bring the music of pioneering American jazz pianist, composer, and poet Horace Silver to audiences in Germany and Belgium during their spring 2019 tour.

From Silver’s first hit, The Preacher, to his moving ballad, Peace, Jazz Combo 1 will honor the legacy of this legendary American jazz artist through many of his original compositions.

Concerts will take place in Cologne, Germany, and various locations throughout Belgium starting Saturday, Feb. 23. The tour will culminate on Sunday, March 3, with a performance at Brussel’s premier jazz club, The Music Village.

Local audiences can welcome the musicians back at their homecoming performance on Tuesday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m. in Figliulo Recital Hall, located in the Saint Mary’s Performance Center.

Led by Director of Jazz Studies, A. Eric Heukeshoven, Jazz Combo 1 students participating on the tour are Sam French, alto sax; Jacob French, trumpet; Sam Price, guitar; Cray Alvarez and David French, percussion; and Max Heukeshoven, bass. Vocalists Erin McCoy and Liam Hahn will join the combo to bring Silver’s words to life.

For more information, contact Eric Heukeshoven at 507-457-7292 or eheukesh@smumn.edu. Ticket information is available at pagetheatre.org or by calling the Page Theatre box office at 507-457-1715, between noon and 6 p.m.

About Jazz at Saint Mary’s

Jazz has played an integral role at Saint Mary’s University since the mid-1950s when the locally famous big band known as the Marinotes (led by Brother Paul Turner, FSC ’46) was formed. Today, the Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Workshop Combo, and Jazz Combo 1 are staples of the curriculum.

In March 2015, Jazz Combo 1 was featured at numerous venues in Ireland, including the Castle Hotel in Dublin and Galway’s No. 1 jazz club, Busker Brownes. In March 2012, the group toured and performed in Germany. A fundraiser for the Dreifaltigkeits-Krankenhaus (Trinity Hospital) in Köln (Cologne) drew a packed house of more than 450 and raised in excess of $8,000.

WINONA, Minn. — The Page Series at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota will present Virginia Repertory Theatre on Tour with a relaxed performance of “Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.” This stirring drama, written by Douglas Jones with music by Ron Barnett, is a classic tribute to the great American who freed herself and hundreds of her people from the bonds of slavery.

The nation’s second largest touring company for young audiences will perform at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 20, in Saint Mary’s Page Theatre.

As Tubman and her friend, Sarah Bradford, narrate her adventurous life, the audience will share in the joys, sorrows, and challenges faced by Tubman, who changed the world through her courage.

This deeply moving musical history lesson is inspiring, heart-warming, and comical while also full of the good humor, determination, and charity of its subject. The audience will find a new appreciation for Tubman and a deeper understanding of her times.

The production is based largely on Bradford’s book, “Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman,” and does contain a scene in which Tubman is the victim of discrimination through use of a racial slur. The company explains, “The playwright made a conscious decision to include this scene because it is historically exact, and it is an illustration of the degradation and humiliation African Americans endured even after emancipation.” Audiences are invited to read more about this scene and use of historically accurate language in the program note, “Why We Say It,” which can be found at pagetheatre.org. A performance guide is also available to help families prepare for the performance and learn more about Tubman.

This will be a relaxed performance with limited sound and lighting effects. There will also be flexible seating options to provide for sensory needs or wiggle room for children. Page Theatre staff are available to assist patrons in setting up their orders and will work to accommodate special requests or considerations. Running time is approximately one hour, and the production is open to the public and recommended for children in grades three and up.

All tickets to this performance are offered on a pay-what-you-can basis, thanks to the support of WNB Financial. For more information or to order tickets, visit pagetheatre.org or call the Performance Center box office at 507-457-1715 (noon to 6 p.m., weekdays).

The Page Series will also partner with the Winona County Historical Society and the Winona Public Library for a Gathering at the History Center on Saturday, Feb. 16, at noon. The event will feature story time and a lesson on freedom quilts with members of the Winona Area Quilters Guild. Attendees will be invited to create a paper quilt square that can be added to a community-generated “freedom quilt” that will be hung in the Page Theatre’s Ben Miller Lobby during the performance. This event is free and open to participants of all ages.

About Virginia Repertory Theatre on Tour

Virginia Rep on Tour, founded in 1975 as Theatre IV, has been internationally acclaimed for excellence as a theatre for young audiences. On Feb. 1, 2002, Virginia Rep on Tour’s production of “Buffalo Soldier” was performed, by request, at the Pentagon to open their celebration of Black History Month. The company performs live for more than 500,000 students, parents, and teachers each year throughout 33 states and the District of Columbia.

About the Page Series

Now in its 32nd annual season, the Page Series connects professional performing artists from around the globe with thousands of Winonans each year. With events at the Joseph Page Theatre on the Winona Campus of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, as well as at locations across the Winona community, the Page Series offers dance, music, and theatre performances, workshops, classes, and more that inspire, uplift, educate, and invite community members to discover the relevance of the arts in their daily lives.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Page Series community programs are made possible, in part, through grants from the Elizabeth Callender King Foundation and the Xcel Energy Foundation.