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Virginia Wesleyan University will hold its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Ceremony on Monday, January 17 at 6 p.m. in a virtual format on the VWU Digital Broadcasting Network. Dr. Veleka Gatling, Director of Diversity Initiatives at ODU, will serve as keynote speaker, and the Mavis McKenley ’11 Award will be presented to a student who embodies the ideals of Dr. King. 

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The Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges’ (VFIC) annual Wells Fargo Ethics Bowl competition brings together student teams from each of the 15 VFIC member institutions for lively debate and consideration of applied ethics – real world ethical dilemmas that affect people’s lives in increasingly complex ways. As the Virginia Wesleyan Ethics Bowl team prepares to compete, the Robert Nusbaum Center hosts a debate demonstration, with members of the audience having the opportunity to interact, critique, and discuss. The 2022 topic Pandemic Ethics asks teams to consider decisions that individuals, families, businesses, and organizations have needed to make throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Free and open to the public.

Join the Virginia Chorale for the 22nd year of the Young Singers Project, the Chorale’s flagship educational program for high school singers, conducted this season by Carolyn Myers. Ms. Myers, who has enjoyed a long career as a music educator, served as the supervisor of music education for the Chesapeake Public Schools and the director of choral music at Great Bridge High School, Chesapeake.  She was also a faculty member at East Carolina University’s School of Music, where she earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees.

For tickets, visit Young Singers Project | VIRGINIA CHORALE (square.site).

Join the Chorale for this “back to the future” concert as we perform contemporary music set to the medieval poetry of Hafez, Rumi and Omar Khayyam. Featured selections include Adolphus Hailstork’s Seven Songs of the Rubaiyat, Abbie Betinis’s From Behind the Caravan, and Eric Whitacre’s This Marriage.  

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Dr. Ophera Davis brings new voices to the forefront as black women from Mississippi share their stories and strategies of survival and recovery before, during, and after Katrina. These women provide, in their own words, lessons learned and strategies for how to rebuild life after disasters. A book signing immediately follows the presentation. Ophera A. Davis, Ph.D., is an author, independent scholar, and 20-year affiliate faculty member who has taught in African studies and psychology departments at colleges in Boston. This spring, Virginia Wesleyan welcomes Dr. Davis as our visiting scholar in the university’s new Africana Studies program. Free and open to the public. Sponsored in partnership with Virginia Wesleyan’s Africana Studies Program, Office of Gender and Sexuality Equity, and Robert Nusbaum Center.

Virginia Wesleyan University invites prospective students and their families to visit campus for a Virtual Marlins Day open house on Saturday, February 12. Guests will hear from current students, faculty, and staff and learn about academic offerings, scholarship opportunities, the financial aid process, and more! Plus, prospective students in (virtual) attendance will receive a $1,000 Visit Grant.

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During this one-hour workshop, Corey Rosen, award-winning writer, actor, and storytelling teacher, leads participants in activities that give them the chance to interact and share stories that explore how storytelling can be used to bridge and reconcile religious, racial, and ideological differences. Corey Rosen has hosted 105 live events for The Moth, The Moth StorySLAM, and its GrandSLAM. Rosen has been featured on “The Moth Radio Hour” and in many podcasts, and he has been credited in movies such as “Mission: Impossible,” several “Star Wars” films, and Disney’s “A Christmas Carol.” Free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Robert Nusbaum Center in partnership with the Konikoff Center for Learning of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and the Simon Family JCC’s Lee & Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival, in coordination with the Jewish Book Council.

C.S. Lewis scholar Dr. Terry Lindvall unpacks Lewis's classic work, The Four Loves, from its chilly inception to its practical wisdom. In this short book, Lewis, with his wife, Joy, opened up the windows of four kinds of love: storge, philia, eros, and agape, experiences of loving that help us enjoy these gifts bestowed by God. But be forewarned, as Lewis noted about their danger, “Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal.” Terry Lindvall, Ph.D. is VWU’s C. S. Lewis Chair in Communication and Christian Thought. Free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Robert Nusbaum Center in partnership with VWU’s ‘Love Liberally’ annual Valentine’s symposium to explore the concept of love through a variety of disciplinary lenses.

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The In[HEIR]itance Project is a national arts organization that helps unconnected neighbors navigate challenging civic conversations through collaborative theatre projects. Using the unique history of Coastal Virginia, and ‘Exodus’ as the inherited text, the I[H]P is activating community dialogue on racial dynamics, redlining, and displacement to create a play for the Virginia Arts Festival in May 2022 at Norfolk’s historic Attucks Theatre. During this event, I[H]P artists share initial ideas for the play, and ask for audience feedback to help shape the play. Free and open to the public.  Sponsored by the Robert Nusbaum Center with support provided by the Hampton Roads Community Foundation and Virginia Humanities.

VIRGINIA FESTIVAL OF JEWISH FILM: Tango Shalom --Followed by discussion with film’s stars, and dessert reception

Director Gabriel Bologna | 115 min | USA | 2020 | English | PG-13

It is fitting that a comedy is the first film collaborated on by the Vatican, a Hasidic Synagogue, a Mosque, and a Sikh Temple. From the director of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” “Tango Shalom” features an award-winning ensemble cast that includes Lainie Kazan, Renee Taylor, Joseph Bologna and Dancing with the Stars pro Karina Smirnoff.

Moshe Yehuda, a Hasidic Rabbi and amateur Hora dancer enters a Tango competition to save his Hebrew school from bankruptcy. Due to his orthodox beliefs, however, he is not allowed to touch a woman. At odds with his family, the Grand Rabbi of his orthodox sect, and the entire Hasidic community, Moshe asks a Catholic priest, a Muslim Imam and a Sikh holy man to help him dance in the Tango contest “without sacrificing his sacred beliefs.”  Offered by the Robert Nusbaum Center  in partnership with the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater as part of the 29th Annual Virginia Festival of Jewish Film presented by Alma & Howard Laderberg.

Tickets: $25. Limited seating; pre-purchase strongly suggested.

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VIRGINIA FESTIVAL OF JEWISH FILM:  Ben Gurion Epilogue --Followed by discussion with producer Yael Perlov  

Director Yariv Mozer | 70 min | Israel | 2016 | Hebrew with English Subtitles | Not Rated

Newly discovered 1968 interview footage shows David Ben Gurion at age 82, five years before his death. Living in the seclusion of his home in the desert, remote from all political discourse, he offers his perspective on the Zionist enterprise. His introspective soul-searching is the focus of this film, and his reflections provide a surprising vision for today’s crucial decisions and for the future of Israel. Yael Perlov is the two-time winner of the Israeli Academy Prize for film, laureate of the Art of Film prize of the Ministry of Art and Culture, senior lecturer at the Film and Television Department at Tel Aviv University, and currently a visiting scholar at Duke University. Offered by the Robert Nusbaum Center  in partnership with the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater as part of the 29th Annual Virginia Festival of Jewish Film presented by Alma & Howard Laderberg.

Tickets: $12. Limited seating; pre-purchase strongly suggested

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The Perspective of a World-Renowned Wildlife Photographer

Roie Galitz is a world-renowned wildlife photographer, who travels to the world's most extreme habitats and documents animals as never seen before. This talk—based on Galitz’s personal experience as an extreme adventurer and wildlife photographer—focuses on setting impossible goals and reaching them through networking, self-empowerment, and negotiating failures. Roie Galitz, known to many from his three TED talks, is not only a world-renowned wildlife photographer and environmental diplomat but also a Greenpeace Ambassador and featured speaker around the globe. Free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Robert Nusbaum Center in partnership with the Konikoff Center for Learning of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and the Simon Family JCC’s Lee & Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival, in coordination with the Jewish Book Council.

For many Americans, the word “Oneida” is associated with silverware. The origin of the utopian community that came to make silverware is less well known. In the mid-19^th century, John Humphrey Noyes established a revolutionary community in rural New York centered on achieving a life free of sin through God’s grace, while also espousing equality of the sexes and “complex marriage,” a system of free love where sexual relations with multiple partners was encouraged. In this Zoom presentation and discussion sponsored by the Robert Nusbaum Center, Dr. Ellen Wayland-Smith discusses the community and focuses on its most unusual and misunderstood practice: “complex marriage.”  Free and open to the public. Registration Required by March 3

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In The Female Circumcision Controversy, Dr. Ellen Gruenbaum points out that Western outrage and efforts to stop genital mutilation often provoke a strong backlash from people in the countries where the practice is common. While she looks at the validity of Western arguments against the practice, she concentrates particularly on the complex attitudes of those who practice it and on indigenous efforts to end it. In this Zoom presentation and discussion sponsored  by the Robert Nusbaum Center, Gruenbaum shows an important method in working toward social change and answers questions. Free and open to the public. Registration required by March 17

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No Justice, No Peace: How Black and White Americans Define Peace Differently

Most White Americans describe peace as the absence of war or the lack of threat of direct violence from an individual or group. Black Americans, on the other hand, frame peace as the absence of direct, structural, and cultural violence of systemic racism. For the first 30 minutes of this event, Dr. Jeff Toussaint shares insights from his research on how Black and White Americans conceptualize peace differently and offers practical tips for how to become more effective peacemakers. Then we will move to the Peace Garden to dedicate the planting of a Peace Pole and share refreshments. Jeffrey Toussaint, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Sociology-Criminal Justice at VWU. Free and open to the public. The Peace Pole is made possible by the Presbytery of Eastern Virginia Peacemaking Committee in recognition of peacemaker William Granville Sale, Jr. Sponsored by the Robert Nusbaum Center.

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Virginia Wesleyan University invites prospective students and their families to visit campus for a Marlins Day open house on Saturday, April 9. Guests will meet current students, faculty, and staff, tour VWU's beautiful 300-acre campus, and learn about academic offerings, scholarship opportunities, the financial aid process, and more! Plus, prospective students will receive a $1,000 Visit Grant.

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The lines of racial segregation in most U.S. metropolitan areas are as stark today as at any point since Reconstruction. This is not an accident, and it didn’t happen overnight. Dr. Johnny Finn provides an overview of the theoretical and historical underpinning of racial segregation in Coastal Virginia; presents his research team’s findings on today’s landscape of racial, economic, and environmental inequality that is the legacy of nearly a century of segregationist housing policies; and reflects on important next steps for our region. John C. Finn, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Geography and Chair of the Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology at Christopher Newport University. Free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Robert Nusbaum Center, this annual endowed lectureship pays tribute to the legacy of local humanitarian Justine L. Nusbaum.

A day for the entire Marlin community to participate in VWU's annual philanthropic event. Through the generosity of the Marlin community, VWU will continue to be a place of meaningful engagement, service, and opportunity.

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Tickets $40 General Public; $20 Students 

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In the gospels Jesus exorcises demons and also explicitly tells his disciples to heal, preach, and cast out demons. If Christians do not see exorcism as normative to their faith—and many Christians clearly do not—in what sense are they being true to his example and command? In Diary of an American Exorcist, Msgr. Stephen Rossetti who has participated in hundreds of exorcisms, gives an inside look at the intense experiences and practices of an exorcist. In this Zoom presentation sponsored by the Robert Nusbaum Center, Dr. Rossetti reflects on his book and answers questions. Free and open to the public. Registration required by April 21

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Save the date to join VWU alumni and friends in New York City. VWU Alumni & Friends Tour guests will stay in exceptional accommodations, dine in the heart of the city, view an art collection at one of the world’s finest art museums, attend an extraordinary concert performance by the Wesleyan Choir at a national historic landmark, and much, much more! As we finalize our plans, further tour details and how you can register to attend will be announced.

Discounted tickets for Seniors/Military/Educators are $110 for the season and $25 for a single concert. General admission is $130 for the season and $30 for a single concert. - Livestream passes are $15 per concert. - Season subscriptions include in-person admission and livestream passes for each concert.

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