Center for the Arts

A Conversation with Emily Bernard

Author of Black is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine

Moderated by Edvige Giunta and Meili Ellis-Tingle

Presented by: The NJCU Center for the Arts, and The English Department Student Events and Publications Committee at New Jersey City University

Tuesday, April 20, 6:00 p.m.
Virtual Event

Join us for a riveting conversation with Emily Bernard. Emily Bernard is the author of Black is the Body: Stories from My Mother's Time and Mine, which was named one of the best books of 2019 by Kirkus Reviews and National Public Radio. Black is the Body won the 2020 Los Angeles Times Christopher Isherwood Prize for autobiographical prose. More Information

NJCU BFA 2021 Thesis Exhibition
April 7 - May 6, 2021

As we mark a full year of extraordinary circumstances that have altered so much, this exhibition of artwork created by the BFA graduates of 2021 celebrates the hope of moving forward. Through challenging times this work shows perseverance, introspection, community, hope and a leap into the future. 

The exhibition spans three gallery spaces and includes a diverse output of creativity from ceramic sculpture to video illustration.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Thursday 12-5pm and by appointment by emailing gallery@njcu.edu

Virtual Artist talks: 

April 9, 2021 at 2pm
April 16, 2021 at 2pm
April 30,  2021 at 2pm

Register

An Evening with Barron Ryan

Virtual Event
Saturday, April 24, 8:00 P.M.
$15 Public/$8 Student & Senior

Purchase Tickets

Join us for a live streamed concert with pianist Barron Ryan, from the Margaret Williams Theatre. Smithsonian Magazine recently named Barron "One of Ten Innovators to Watch in 2021". He has just released the funkiest, ‘countriest’, most calypso-y classical music album you’ve ever heard, on his third solo album, First of Its Kind. Tickets at njcu.edu/arts.

A Conversation with Author Joanna Clapps Herman

Moderated by Edvige Giunta and Peggy Jackson

Presented by: The NJCU Center for the Arts, and The English Department Student Events and Publications Committee at New Jersey City University

Tuesday, April 27, 1:00 p.m.
Virtual Event

When I am Italian: quando sono italiana, (2019), Joanna Clapps Herman’s most recent publication, explores the question of whether it’s possible to be Italian if you weren’t born in Italy. Her fiction collection No Longer and Not Yet (2014), is about the intimacies of everyday life on The Upper West Side of Manhattan. A memoir, The Anarchist Bastard (2011) which begins, “I often say that I was born in 1944 but raised in the 15th Century because although I was born in Waterbury, CT, in a New England factory town, in post-WWII, I grew up in a large southern Italian family where the rules were absolute, and customs antiquated.” She is co-editor of two anthologies Wild Dreams (2008) and Our Roots Are Deep with Passion (2006). She has published widely in literary journals as a poet, a fiction writer and an essayist.

For information contact egiunta@njcu.edu 

Songwriting Workshop:
Thursday, April 29, 11:10 A.M. - 12:50 P.M.

Virtual Event

Free with RSVP

This workshop with The Honey Dewdrops will focus on creativity and songwriting with an emphasis on lyric writing. We'll explore the importance of making songwriting a regular practice by addressing two modes of working: gathering and collecting ideas and inspiration from outside sources; and generating lyrics and musical ideas on your own. 

Guy Davis: Routes of the Blues

Wednesday, May 5, 10:00 a.m.
Virtual Event
Tickets: $8
Link will be sent 2 hours prior to the show

Purchase

To purchase tickets via cash or check please contact: boxoffice@njcu.edu 

Join us for a truly inspiring and joyous program of music with Guy Davis, in his show Routes of the Blues. Acclaimed artist, Guy Davis, has spent his musical life carrying his message of the blues around the world, from the Equator to the Arctic Circle, earning him the title “An Ambassador of the Blues”. His work as an actor (film, TV and Broadway), author and music teacher earmark him as a renaissance man of the blues. This show introduces the history of the Blues and demonstrates its different styles, rhythms and story themes.

Grades: 5 - 9

Agua Es Vida/Water is Life: Dancing through Mexico

Written by David Gonzalez with Cecilia Ortega-Cano, Dance & Music by Mexico Beyond Mariachi

Thursday, May 6, 10:00 am
Virtual Event
Tickets: $8
Link will be sent 2 hours prior to the show

Purchase

To purchase tickets via cash or check please contact: boxoffice@njcu.edu 

30 minute filmed show
15 min live Q&A with the artist

Combining music, dance, and storytelling, Mexico Beyond Mariachi immerses the audience in the magical realism that is ever-present in Mexican culture, igniting their imagination and leaving them with an enhanced awareness of our global community.

In TREKKING MEXICO, students take a deep dive into folk traditions, both ancient and contemporary. This colorful educational show takes you on a Mexican expedition of historic and geographic regions through folkloric music and dance. From feeling the rumbling drums of Tenochtitlan to the sweet sounds of the stringed Jaranas of Veracruz, audiences are transported to the jungles of Tabasco and trek the mountains of Guerrero, this multimedia show will whisk you away on a joyful ride through this culturally rich republic.

Grades: K - 5