Upcoming Events

Spring 2025

Peter W. Klein - Executive Editor of Investigations at NBC
February 19 - 20, 2025

Peter W. Klein is a journalist, documentary filmmaker, professor, and media leader. He is the executive editor of investigations at NBC News. Mr. Klein will present his new documentary, Bribe, Inc., focusing on a sophisticated international scheme involving the oil industry in the Middle East (Baghdad) as well as two Canadian playboy brothers who orchestrated millions in bribes through their Monaco-based company Unaoil.

Threading Art & Activism with Dr. Alex Davenport
March 4 - 8, 2025

As an institution, St. Lawrence University is committed to helping students find and enact their passions through a dynamic and diverse interdisciplinary education. SLU is seeking to be a leader in environmental justice by empowering “the next generation of leaders to develop the skills necessary—through education, advocacy, and action—to be agents of change in their communities, the region, and the world” (SLU, 2023). During a 3-day residency, visiting scholar-activist Dr. Alex Davenport will teach students and faculty creative strategies for engaging in impactful environmental activism.

Dr. Davenport, an Assistant Professor in Communication Studies and Theatre at Northern Virginia Community College, is excited to join us at St. Lawrence University for a series of class visits, a featured performance, and advocacy/performance workshop. His featured show Threading: A Performance-Lecture, focuses on the legacy of the Appalachian activist Julia “Judy” Bonds (d. Jan. 03, 2011), practices of memorialization, and ongoing calls for justice within the coalfields. The performance was developed as part of Dr. Davenport’s dissertation research and at academic conferences, before being competitively selected as a featured performance for 2024’s Southern States Communication Association conference.

During his workshop, Dr. Davenport will use the framework of the performance-lecture, to work with participants to develop advocacy skills that draw on aspects of public speaking and aesthetic performance; culminating in a showcase at the end of his stay.

The Silk Road, Jazz and Modern Sounds from Spain to Japan April 14 - 18, 2025

Experience an unforgettable journey through global music with the Aeolian Trio during their four-day residency at St. Lawrence University. Titled "The Silk Road, Jazz and Modern Sounds from Spain to Japan," this residency brings together the extraordinary talents of shakuhachi master and California native Bruce Huebner, New York-based Japanese guitarist Shu Odamura, and percussion virtuoso Todd Isler, whose expertise spans South Asian and Middle Eastern rhythms. Join us for a dynamic blend of traditional, jazz, and contemporary influences, showcasing the seamless connections between cultures and the universal language of music. 

About the Aeolian Trio 
The shakuhachi, a Japanese traditional bamboo flute that is rooted in Zen Buddhism, meets the guitar, a Spanish folk instrument that became a giant of jazz, rock and pop.  In ancient times the shakuhachi was carried from the Middle East to Japan on the fabled Silk Road. Meanwhile, the guitar springs from flamenco and Renaissance traditions, and has antecedents in the Middle Eastern Oud. These seemingly disparate traditions separated by a two continents spring from the same cradle of civilization. 

Now, centuries later, in California, Tokyo, and New York, Japanese guitarist Shu Odamura and shakuhachi master Bruce Huebner join New York-based percussionist Todd Isler to reunite these ancient traditions and bring them into the Twenty First Century.   In their concert we hear how the melisma and phrygian “Spanish” mode is answered by the nuances of the Japanese miyako mode of the Zen bamboo flute, and how the rich rhythmic traditions of South and Central Asia underpin the fusion.