Susanne Weil, associate professor of English and Humanities, introduces Lyceum/Humanities 283A.

Steve Norton, associate professor of Biology, will discuss predator-prey relationships. The results of a predator-prey interaction have unequal consequences for the participants. If a predator fails, it simply goes hungry until the next prey opportunity; if a prey fails, its life is over. At the same time, no prey has the resources to be totally predator free, but reducing the number of predators that have the potential to eat you is a positive step. We will examine two predator-prey stories in which local marine fish species (sculpins) will serve as the potential predators and marine invertebrates (snails and amphipods) will serve (or try not to be served) as potential lunch. In the case of the snail, the crux of the defense appears to be the least of things, a structure called the operculum; but some species of sculpins have found a way to bypass the defenses. In the case of the amphipods, we will explore how a combination of chemical defense, aggregation, and bright coloring can teach naïve predators that their feeding time is better spent seeking other prey.

April 21, 2010 marks the centennial of Mark Twain's death. As he famously remarked, though, "the report of my death was an exaggeration," and the array of events to commemorate his legacy planned nation-wide this year suggests the truth that lurked within his quip. All Centralia College and Timberland Library events are free and open to the public!

From newsroom to steamboat, mining camps to managing his own publishing house, bankrolling inventions at home and abroad, Mark Twain spent as much time chasing fortune as writing. Susanne Weil, Centralia College Associate Professor of English and Humanities, will give a guided tour of Mark Twain's strange travels through the world of high (and low) finance.

Other Mark Twain events:
Mark Twain, April 2010 events (doc)

On April 14, at 7 p.m. in Corbet Theatre, Kurt Sutton, a Mark Twain impersonator will perform. For more information, see: http://kurtsutton.home.mindspring.com/

Centralia's own Mark Twain impersonator and columnist for the Centralia Chronicle, Bill Moeller, will share his insights about Twain's life and legacy in an interview with Susanne Weil, Lyceum moderator. Watch for a dramatic reading from one of Bill's favorite works by Twain!

Kevin J. Miller, author of Home and Away, Light That Whispers Morning, will read his poetry about life in the Pacific Northwest as Centralia celebrates National Poetry Month. Miller has been teaching for 38 years in the public schools, with one year in Denmark on a Fulbright grant. He has received awards or grants from Bumbershoot/Weyerhaeuser, Artists Trust, Tacoma Arts Commission, Jack Straw Writers, and won the Jeanne Lohmann Writer's Prize. For information about his poetry collections, visit his publishers's websites and check under authors:

• Pleasure Boat Studio: http://www.pleasureboatstudio.com/
• Blue Begonia Press: http://www.bluebegoniapress.com/index.php?page_id=276

We celebrate Cinco de Mayo with guest speakers from the La Cima Bilingual Leadership Camp. Jair Juarez, president of Centralia's Latinos Unidos Club, will introduce Joe Fenbert and Lupe Ledesma, organizers of La Cima Bilingual Leadership Camp, who will share how their camp helps youth "find their voice, explore their stories and choose who they want to be."

For more information, see:
About La Cima Leadership Camp (doc)
Latino Youth: Today and Tomorrow, Essay by Vincent Perez, founder of La Cima (doc)

Mike Peroni, owner of Boistfort Valley Farm, will share some of the challenges and opportunities that he and his family have faced in managing an organic farm. Mike has spent most of his adult life farming organically and marketing his produce, fruit, and flowers directly to consumers through farmers markets and a thriving CSA program.

Boistfort Valley Farm is a 50 acre certified organic farm located in Curtis WA about 10 miles SW of Chehalis. They employ 25 people in summer and deliver their produce to Centralia, Chehalis, Olympia, Tacoma and Seattle. Boistfort Valley Farm is a true believer in life beyond commerce and takes its role in the community seriously. Mike is president of both the Olympia and Chehalis farmers market's Boards of Directors, and the Farm maintains ongoing working relationships with local organizations such as Lewis County Juvenile Court, Thurston County Food Bank, the Area Agency on Aging, NRCS, ESD113, Lewis County Conservation District and several other state federal and local entities.

For more information, see:
Mike's Web site: www.boistfortvalleyfarm.com
Mike's blog: www.boistfortvalleyfarm.blogspot.com

Lisa Weasel, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biology at Portland State University, will offer a realistic view of the pros and cons of genetically modified foods. Her recent book, Food Fray, has won wide respect for her account of how scientists, farmers, policy-makers, and grassroots activists see the subject, as well as her attempt to provide a balanced view of this hot-button topic.

Here is Weasel's description of the GM food controversy—and you can find more on her website, http://www.lisaweasel.com:

"It started with little fanfare over a decade ago, when genetically modified foods quietly appeared on American grocery shelves. But in the years since, GM foods have sparked a global controversy and sounded alarms here at home, triggered by a multitude of unanswered questions and dubious practices, such as highly publicized cases of 'biopharm' crops contaminating the food supply...runaway commodity prices and worldwide food shortages linked, in part, to the biofuel movement...Europe's open hostility to GM foods and Africa's outright refusal to accept food aid containing genetically modified crops...."

Tom Mulder, Monument Manager of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument work, is an avid lover of the outdoors, a passionate advocate for science and outdoor education, and a devoted fan of Mount St. Helens and its majestic landscape. He will speak on the question of whether Mount St. Helens should become a national park.

For more information, see:

Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument:
http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/

The Congressionally appointed Mount St. Helens Advisory Committee:
http://www.skamaniacounty.org/SHAC.htm

Mount St. Helens Institute, our non-profit educational partner:
http://mshinstitute.org/college_students

What are "green jobs," and can people make a living doing them? Barbara Hins-Turner, Director of Centralia College's Center of Excellence for Energy Technology, will share the wealth of opportunities that exist for people interested in working toward a green future.

Susanne Weil, associate professor of English and Humanities, introduces Lyceum/Humanities 282.

Living Voices, a nationwide touring company, presents "The Right to Dream," a dramatic tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. The struggle and sacrifice for civil rights in America is witnessed in this compelling story. Via interactive theatre and video, Living Voices recreates a young man's coming of age as an African American in Mississippi during the 1950s and 60s. This program illuminates the issues of civil rights, leading audiences to understand how the fight against prejudice has shaped our history.
Read the news release »

CC Honors students, Lori Taylor and Michael Duffy, present their honors projects in writing and film.
Lori Taylor (Centralia College class of 2009) is now studying English at WSU-Vancouver. She will read from her novel in progress, Elements of Change, which she began as an Honors Project at Centralia. Michael Duffy is a current Centralia Honors student. He will show clips from the film he is working on now—The Forgotten: Armistice Day, 1919, a film based on the Centralia Tragedy of 1919—and share his experiences as a first time filmmaker.
Michael Duffy’s Web site: www.toonsmithstudios.com

Centralia College Honors graduate Kate Cushman, now working in accounting, will explain how she developed her own small business plan in Honors 160 and 170; current Centralia Business Honors student John Heller will describe his Honors 160 work on family financial literacy.

Marie Tucker, Health Educator for Lewis County Public Health, presents "Finding Nutrition in Lewis County." Learn about food access and food policy issues in Lewis County: fast food consumption, health effects, cost issues, and consumer education will be put in perspective by our regional health educator.
View the presentation (ppt)

How can farms and food banks partner to help connect families with healthy, locally grown foods? Hear how local initiatives are helping people in southwest Washington. Presented by Tim Bernthal of Washington Farms to Food Banks Program and Danielle Craig of Growing Places Farm, Centralia.

For more information, see:

• Danielle Craig, National Teach-In Panelist, Evergreen State College
• About Growing Places Farm
• Video of Growing Places Farm
• Food Lifeline
• Washington Gorge Action Programs
• 2nd Harvest Inland Northwest
• Bellingham Food Bank

As Centralia celebrates Black History Month, novelist, playwright, and teacher Nancy Rawles, winner of the American Book Award for Love Like Gumbo, will read from her most recent novel, My Jim, which retells Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of runaway slave Jim’s wife, Sadie.

In her New York Times review, Helen Schulman called My Jim "as heart-wrenching a personal history as any recorded in American literature." My Jim is the winner of an American Library Association's Alex Award and the Legacy Award in Fiction from the Hurston/Wright Foundation. Her work on My Jim led Nancy to participate in the Feminist Sexual Ethics Project at Brandeis University. Under the direction of Professor Bernadette Brooten, the Project explored "The Long Legacy of Slavery in the Lives of Women and Girls."

• More about Nancy Rawles

Lewis and Clark College Chief Librarian, Jim Kopp, will explore how historical novels have represented pioneer days utopian communities of Willapa Bay, Washington and Aurora, Oregon. His presentation will include a reading from his own children’s book, told from the point of view of a girl growing up in the Aurora colony.

Jim Kopp is director of the Aubrey R. Watzek Library at Lewis & Clark College. His scholarly interests are in utopian and communal studies, and is the author of Eden Within Eden: Oregon's Utopian Heritage (OSU Press, 2009). Jim has an undergraduate degree from the University of Oregon, a master’s in history from the University of Portland, a master's in library science from The Catholic University of America, and a doctorate in American Studies from George Washington University. He is a member of the board of directors of the Aurora Colony Historical Society. Read Jim Kopp's article in the Oregon Historical Quarterly (Summer 2009):
"Novel Views of the Aurora Colony: The Literary Interpretations of Cobie de Lespinasse and Jane Kirkpatrick"

For more info, visit these sites:

• Aurora Colony Historical Society
• Jim Kopp's blog: Communal Humanities
• 2009 profile on Jim Kopp
• 2004 article on Jim Kopp

As Centralia celebrates Women's History Month, Associate Professor of Biology and Environmental Science, Lisa Carlson, will share the stories and legacy of key women environmental leaders: global, national, and local. For more info, see:

• Rachel Carson
• Dr. Wangari Maathai
• Hazel Johnson
• Lois Gibbs
• Winona LaDuke
• Hazel Wolf
• Vandana Shiva
• The Chemical Body Burden of Environmental Justice Leaders, May 2009

As Centralia continues its celebration of Women's History Month, Edna Fund (left), historical columnist for the Centralia Chronicle and candidate for City Council, will interview Helen Holloway (right), a real life "Rosie the Riveter," about her experiences as a young woman working in the munitions industry during wartime. Presented in Corbet Theatre. Reception to follow.

• View historical photos slideshow

Susanne Weil, associate professor of English and Humanities, introduces Lyceum/Humanities class.

Reporter Eric Schwartz and photographer Brandon Swanson covered the floods of 2007 and 2009 for the Centralia Chronicle. When the flood waters subsided in January 2009, the pair wanted to discover what the Chehalis was like when it wasn’t a site of natural disaster. They set out to kayak the river, from the Twin Cities to its confluence at the Pacific Ocean, and find out. These dynamic journalists will share what they discovered about life along the river—in all its moods. They will also present a slideshow from not only their trek, but the floods of ’07 & ’09.

• View the slideshow

Maximilian MacDonald of Maximilian Motors, Chehalis, will talk on recycling and the future of the car. See storyofstuff.com.

• View the slideshow

Jim Bach, retired Washington State Apiarist, will explain this threat to honeybees, its implications for human beings, and recent research into solutions. Two presentations are offered: 1:00 pm and 7:00 pm, both in Corbet Theatre.

• Read the news release
• View the slideshow
• 2009 Beekeepers Classes (pdf)
• Lewis County Beekeepers Association (pdf)

Atara MacNamara, Centralia College psychology professor, and Joe Martins, Fluke Corporation business consultant, will offer a positive approach to business in challenging times. Presented in Corbet Theatre. To learn more about the Phoenix process, see Here, Innovation Is No Fluke: Fast Company (pdf).

• Read the news release

Brian Tyrrell, Theatre Dept. and CC drama students perform Dramatic Monologues on "The Paradox of Affluence." in Wickstrom Studio Theatre. Drama students will perform a series of original monologues that explore the contradiction between wealth and poverty—and the part each plays in a range of human conditions. For decades, humorists and philosophers have used this timeless human foible—deprivation amidst plenty—to illustrate their comic skits or deep questions. This may be one of the most rigorous examinations of the immovable "paradox of affluence" you're going to hear anytime soon.

• View CC Theatre Productions slideshow

• Read the news release
• View the slideshow

Centralia 1919: A Tragedy of Clashing Visions (doc)

Aaron Goings, instructor of labor history at Saint Martin's University. Goings's research specialization is Pacific Northwest history. His dissertation, "Red Harbor: Class, Violence, and Community in Grays Harbor Washington, 1900-1934," focuses on the I.W.W.

Presented by Dr. Earl Nordby, Chaplain, American Legion Grant Hodge Post #17, Centralia.

Dr. Laurie Mercier, WSU-Vancouver History Dept., will present on Women in the Pacific Northwest Labor Movement.

• See Laurie Mercier faculty page.