Contemporary painter and mixed media artist Barbara Owen creates a site-specific installation featuring her work with cut paper. Owen, who works out of studios in Pawtucket, RI and Brooklyn, NY, studied sculpture and poetry, but has since focused on painting as her primary medium. This exhibition is on display through November 3. The galleries will be closed on September 3 in observance of Labor Day, and October 6-9 for fall break.

Russell is the author of What’s Hanging on the Hush (Ahsahta Press, 2018). Her work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, jubilat and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day newsletter. She serves as the Assistant Director of the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics at the University of Pittsburg.

Contemporary painter and mixed media artist Barbara Owen will talk about her career and her installation currently on display in the Weil Gallery. Owen, who works out of studios in Pawtucket, RI and Brooklyn, NY, studied sculpture and poetry, but has since focused on painting as her primary medium. Please join us for the opening reception of Simile + Metaphor: Red Necklace and Fiber/Paper/Love immediately following the lecture.

Creative writing alumnae Megan Collins ’06 and Jennifer Pierce ’13 read from their soon-to-be-published first novels. Collins, who holds a MFA from Boston University and teaches creative writing in Connecticut, will be reading from her manuscript Persephone’s Sister. Pierce, who received an M.A. in publishing in Oxford, England and works in Boston, Massachusetts, will read from her upcoming YA novel Slow Motion.

Christina Thompson, editor of the Harvard Review and the author of a memoir, Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All, which was shortlisted for the 2009 NSW Premier’s Prize, reads from her work. Her new book Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia, is scheduled for publication in summer 2018. May Room, Mary Lyon Hall, 5:00 p.m.

Conrad, whose most recent work includes While Standing in Line for Death, will read from their original poetry. They are the author of six books of poetry and won The Believer Magazine Book Award for their 2017 volume, ECODEVIANCE.

Brasilian drummer and composer Fernando Saci presents an exciting evening of percussion, including original compositions.

The Wheaton Chamber Singers present a program of jazz standards and more, joined by the Wheaton Chorale and Haas Visiting Artist Dominique Eade, two-time winner of the Boston Music Award for best Jazz Vocalist.

In his latest solo work, ‘El border brujo’ internationally acclaimed MacArthur fellow Guillermo Gómez-Peña draws from his 30-year-old living archive and combines new and classic performance material to present a unique perspective on the immediate future of the Americas. His self-styled “imaginary activism” invokes performance art as a form of radical democracy and citizenship. This spoken word performance includes multiple cameos by collaborator, Balitronica Gomez. Free tickets can be reserved through the Watson Box Office.

Missy Hairston, who at different points in her life, could be described as a woman of majestic proportions, plays 30 characters in this solo comedy in which we follow her progress as she grows up in the South, migrates to New York where she finds remarkable success on the comedy club circuit, then pursues a career in Hollywood. Awkwardly Fabulous will resonate especially with women who have had to confront body issues and issues of esteem regarding their love and work lives (which is to say, lots of women). Plenty of men will identify with it too. Free tickets can be reserved through the Watson Box Office (508-286-3575 or [email protected]).