Calendar

National Geographic’s Planet or Plastic? exhibition showcases the global plastic waste crisis and highlights innovators working to solve this urgent issue. Featuring the work of researchers, scientists and artists, the exhibition traces the history of plastic and explores the devastating impacts of plastic pollution on our world’s oceans. The exhibition will also feature a look into the rise of single-use plastics due to COVID-19. Through powerful imagery, Planet or Plastic? makes the important case for the need to find a balance between using this material and protecting our environment.

Join us for an opening reception. Mixed media artist and Norfolk Public School art educator, Samantha Wegener combines ready made objects and pre-manufactured trinkets in a playful creative process sparked by inspiration from materials that best serve ideas quickly and succinctly. Put into a demonstratively visual language, vulnerabilities regarding labels she identifies with and labels others often bear are explored in her collaborative Labels project on display as part of this exhibition. Local artist Jazmine Sloan creates acrylic paintings that prompt viewers to think creatively, outside of the box, and beyond what they perceive. Her work represents emancipating yourself from the cage that is your mind. A founder of the Raven’s Fig Foundation, Jazmine strives to empower children and youth of color to express themselves creatively in visual arts and literature through the discovery of the African American culture.

See Bay Youth Orchestras stream of their live broadcasts on March 29. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZaYO4Jz2rA and https://youtu.be/64jL8wlhFK4

Marin Theatre Company Playwright-in-Residence Lauren M. Gunderson is America’s most produced playwright. Her new piece, The Catastrophist, follows virologist Nathan Wolfe, named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People in the World for his work tracking viral pandemics. Wolfe has hunted viruses from the jungles of Cameroon to the basement of the CDC. Hear his story - presented as cinematic digital theatre - as he tracks the threats that come from without and within. A blazingly intelligent, wryly witty, and warm look at the thrill of discovery, whether it's a new virus or the treasures of your own family. Gunderson brings to life a time-jumping tale based on the life and work of Nathan Wolfe (who also happens to be her husband). An interactive deep dive into the profundities of scientific exploration and the harrowing realities of facing your own mortality, The Catastrophist is a world premiere theatrical experience built of - and for - this moment in time.

The festival is named for a singular professor emeritus, “Dr. Bill” Carroll, who died in 2010. He was a poet and lyricist as well as a scholar of literature. Writers who are Black, Indigenous or people of color are featured. Faculty readings start April 6 at 12:30 PM. At 7:00 PM Randolph Walker Jr. will read. April 7 at noon, a discussion "Entering the Conversation: Crafting Research and Writing for Higher Education." At 7:00 PM, Peachanda DuBose and Naima Tokunow discuss "A Writer's Journey." April 8 at 12:30 PM Readings by the winners of NSU's student writing Contest. At 7:00 PM, Benjamin Naka-Hasebe Kingsley speaks.