Grinnell College Public Events Concert Series

10/29/2025

Finish your Halloween night off by stopping at Herrick Chapel for some spooky fun- 8pm!

Immerse yourself in a captivating selection of spooky and atmospheric organ pieces that will set the perfect mood for the season. Whether you’re ...

04/19/2024

Michael Londra and the Grinnell Symphony Orchestra

Saturday April 20, 2024
7:00pm
Herrick Chapel

Sponsored by: Public Event Series and Grinnell College Music Department

Performance is free and open to the public.

04/17/2024

Scholar Convocation
Thursday April 18, 2024
11:00 am
JRC 101

Ruha Benjamin

In this talk, Ruha Benjamin draws on the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic and introduces a micro-vision of change—a way of looking at the everyday ways people are working to combat unjust systems and build alternatives to the oppressive status quo. Born of a stubborn hopefulness and grounded in social analysis, Dr. Ruha Benjamin offers a pragmatic and poetic approach to fostering a more just and joyful world. In so doing, she explores how the humanities in action invites us to cultivate a “poetics of living” that entails creative care and attention to how we treat and value one another.

Ruha Benjamin is the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, and author of the award-winning book Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code, among many other publications. Her work investigates the social dimensions of science, medicine, and technology with a focus on the relationship between innovation and inequity, health and justice, knowledge and power. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Marguerite Casey Foundation Freedom Scholar Award and the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton. Her most recent book, Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want, winner of the 2023 Stowe Prize, was born out of the twin plagues of COVID-19 and police violence and offers a practical and principled approach to transforming our communities and helping us build a more just and joyful world. Ruha’s forthcoming book Imagination: A Manifesto will be released in February 2024.

04/15/2024

Public Events Series
The Man Without a World

A silent film with live music composed and performed by pianist Donald Sosin and violinist Alicia Svigals.

Tuesday April 16, 2024
JRC 101 @ 7pm

This event is free and open to the public.

03/13/2024

No Plans for the evening - join us @ Grinnell College tonight.
7:00pm
Herrick Chapel

Join Us Tonight!
Tord Gustavsen Trio
7:00pm @ Herrick Chapel

This event is free and open to the public.

With the release of his first recording in 2003 entitled Changing Places, Norway’s Tord Gustavsen came forth with a new sound by applying elements of American jazz to the classical, church, and folk music of his youth. The result was an immediately identifiable, Norwegian kind of jazz, a descendant of the original fresh with new sources of inspiration that has won the hearts of music lovers worldwide and established Gustavsen as Scandinavia’s leading jazz artist.

Tord Gustavsen, piano and electronics

Steinar Raknes, double bass and electronics

Jarle Vespestad, drums

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AlghsoLSeFJZhkCyP-tn2NKUojj0?e=VznxaA

03/13/2024

Join Us Tonight!
Tord Gustavsen Trio
7:00pm @ Herrick Chapel

This event is free and open to the public.

With the release of his first recording in 2003 entitled Changing Places, Norway’s Tord Gustavsen came forth with a new sound by applying elements of American jazz to the classical, church, and folk music of his youth. The result was an immediately identifiable, Norwegian kind of jazz, a descendant of the original fresh with new sources of inspiration that has won the hearts of music lovers worldwide and established Gustavsen as Scandinavia’s leading jazz artist.

Tord Gustavsen, piano and electronics

Steinar Raknes, double bass and electronics

Jarle Vespestad, drums

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AlghsoLSeFJZhkCyP-tn2NKUojj0?e=VznxaA

03/06/2024

Scholar Convocation
Benjamin Madley

Thursday March 7, 2024
11:00am
HSSC Auditorium

"An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873"

Benjamin Madley is an historian of Native America, the United States, and colonialism in world history. Born in Redding, California, he spent much of his childhood in Karuk Country near the Oregon border where he became interested in relations between colonizers and Indigenous people. Educated at Yale and Oxford, he writes about Native America as well as colonialism in Africa, Australia, and Europe. Madley has authored or co-authored twenty journal articles and book chapters. They have appeared in journals ranging from The American Historical Review to The Western Historical Quarterly. Yale University Press published his first book, An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873. This book received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History and a host of other prizes. According to former California Governor Jerry Brown, “Madley corrects the record with his gripping story of what really happened: the actual genocide of a vibrant civilization, thousands of years in the making.” Madley also co-edited The Cambridge World History of Genocide, Volume 2: Genocide in the Indigenous, Early Modern, and Imperial Worlds, 1535-1914. His current research explores Native American migration and labor in the making of the United States.

03/06/2024

Met Opera
Saturday March 9, 2024
10:55am
Grinnell College - Harris Center

La Forza del Destino

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Verdi’s grand tale of ill-fated love, deadly vendetta, and family strife, with stellar soprano Lise Davidsen following a string of recent Met triumphs with her role debut as the noble Leonora, one of the repertory’s most tormented—and thrilling—heroines. Director Mariusz Trelinski delivers the company’s first new Forza in nearly 30 years, setting the scene in a contemporary world and making extensive use of the Met’s turntable to represent the unstoppable advance of destiny that drives the opera’s chain of calamitous events. The distinguished cast also features tenor Brian Jagde as Leonora’s forbidden beloved Don Alvaro, baritone Igor Golovatenko as her vengeful brother Don Carlo, mezzo-soprano Judit Kutasi as the fortune teller Preziosilla, bass-baritone Patrick Carfizzi as Fra Melitone, and bass Soloman Howard as both Leonora’s father and Padre Guardiano. For the final three performances, soprano Elena Stikhina and mezzo-soprano Maria Barakova take over as Leonora and Preziosilla.

03/04/2024

TONIGHT!
Join us in Bucksbaum, Sebring-Lewis @ 7:00pm

Public Event Series
Des Moines Metro Opera
Beauty and the Beast

Monday March 4, 2024
7:00 p.m.
Bucksbaum Sebring-Lewis

This event is free and open to the public.

In the world premiere tour of Grétry and Borths' Beauty and the Beast, the characters of Belle’s world are obsessed with how they are perceived by the world around them. The Prince was the worst example of this until the Spirit of the Rose cursed him so that his body would reflect his soul, and everyone would see him for the beast he truly was. With the help of Belle, the Spirit of the Rose, and a magic mirror, the Beast will try to change his heart and break the curse.

02/27/2024

Scholar Convocation/ Grinnell Lecture
Thursday February 29, 2024
11:00am
JRC 101

Peter-Michael Osera
"Automating Soul: What Does Computation Unveil about the Things We do?"

In Peter-Michael’s lecture, which is entitled, "Automating Soul: What Does Computation Unveil about The Things We Do?," he will use insights from his own research on program synthesis—the automatic generation of computer programs from specification—to help both experts and non-experts navigate the strengths and weaknesses of tools like ChatGPT and how they will evolve in the future. Ultimately, this lecture will invite us to consider the “soul” of what we do at Grinnell and how we can respond positively to how computing automation may affect our work and the world.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://grinnellcollege.zoom.us/j/88401813930?pwd=0EwV42ayYBICazvenTv6Me9oyhcKDi.1

Meeting ID: 884 0181 3930

Passcode: Grinnell

02/20/2024

Public Event Series
Des Moines Metro Opera
Beauty and the Beast

Monday March 4, 2024
7:00 p.m.
Bucksbaum Sebring-Lewis

This event is free and open to the public.

In the world premiere tour of Grétry and Borths' Beauty and the Beast, the characters of Belle’s world are obsessed with how they are perceived by the world around them. The Prince was the worst example of this until the Spirit of the Rose cursed him so that his body would reflect his soul, and everyone would see him for the beast he truly was. With the help of Belle, the Spirit of the Rose, and a magic mirror, the Beast will try to change his heart and break the curse.

02/20/2024

Scholar Convocation
Luis Fabiano de Assis
Thursday February 22, 2024
11:00 a.m. - JRC 101

Empowering Action: Human-Centric, Data-Driven Pathways for Multidisciplinary Solutions to Social Challenges—The Cases of Human Trafficking and Child Labor in Brazil

The presentation will provide an overview of the case study, highlighting the prevalence of human trafficking and child labor in Brazil. It will emphasize the vital role played by human-centric, data-driven solutions and examine the process of fostering multidisciplinary collaboration within a complex multi-stakeholder environment. We will delve into the development of effective data strategies for addressing social challenges and showcase notable success stories and achievements. Additionally, the presentation will explore the existing challenges and outline future directions. Finally, we will discuss the potential for these data-driven pathways to succeed on a global scale.