Under the baobab: Penn State’s Thon, other Happy Valley happenings to celebrate
At Penn State we are proud of more than football.
Thon, the world’s largest student-run philanthropy, raised $18,841,726.53 for Four Diamonds, which funds pediatric cancer care and supports families fighting childhood cancer. Raised by 16,500 student volunteers, the total is a record and $1.1 million more than last year.
Since 1977, Thon has raised over a quarter of a billion dollars. Seven hundred students danced and stood without sleep for 46 hours. Thousands more filled the Bryce Jordan Center to support them. We are ...
Elsewhere in Happy Valley, coach Carolyn Kieger’s triumphant women’s basketball team in its quest to make the Big Ten Tournament continued its three-game win streak with an upset over the University of Southern California, 85 to 82, during senior day at Rec Hall. The team honored two seniors, Amiya Evans and Vitória Santana, and five managers prior to tipoff. Kiyomi McMiller had a career day, with one of the best all-around performances this fan has ever seen. She scored 40 points, six assists and three steals. It was her sixth straight 30-point scoring game, tying Caitlyn Clark’s streak of consecutive 30-point games.
During the game, sophomore McMiller surpassed 1,000 points for her career. After earning her second Big-Ten weekly honor roll nod, she is a shoo-in for her third. Redshirt junior center Gracie Merkle added 15 points on an efficient seven-of-eight shooting from the floor. Freshman forward Nyla McFadden recorded 10 points with four-of-five shooting from the field. Over 50 Lady Lion supporters crowded into Happy Valley Live for a watch party and will return there for the season finale against Indiana on Friday.
Shifting to arts, the Palmer Museum of Art, in collaboration with the Department of Comparative Literature, the African Studies Program, the Humanities Institute and the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, continued Black History month celebrations, hosting the interdisciplinary gallery conversation and poetry reading during their weekly Art After Hours event entitled: “We Are Here.” It highlighted the special exhibit, “Insistent Presence, Contemporary African Art from the Chazen Collections.” The event featured poet and professor Gabeba Baderoon, award-winning poet Jolyn Phillips, artist Malick Welli, and Penn State’s Afrique Fusion Dance team. Over 100 patrons were in attendance.
In other local news, State College Area School District board of education member Carline Crevecoeur, the only elected Haitian official in Pennsylvania, will be a guest of honor at the Haitian vs. Brazil FIFA World Cup match in Philadelphia on June 19.
Robin Seymour convened the Philanthropic Council of The College of Arts and Architecture to hear a presentation of Frank Jacobus, Head of the Department of Architecture, on future plans.
And the resistance continues. Words have consequences.
Back in the mid-‘50s after the Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawed segregation in public schools, I was transferred to a formerly predominantly white school in Chicago. After the mandatory intro, the teacher re-introduced me to the class as “the reason their schools were declining in quality.” It happened 70 years ago. I remember it as if were yesterday. It was.
Last week at the BAFTA Awards, our State College neighbor, Delroy Lindo, along with fellow Oscar nominee Michael B. Jordan, were presenting an award. The “N-word” was shouted from the audience by a person with Tourette’s syndrome. The network chose to broadcast the event despite having ample opportunity to edit out the epithet for the delayed broadcast. The producers apologized but it was too late. Racism has consequences.
Elsewhere in the entertainment world, Paramount Skydance won the bidding war for Warner Bros when Netflix bowed out of the competition. In related news, the U.S. President “ordered” Netflix to fire our friend, board member, and former Secretary of State, Susan Rice because of comments she made concerning the current political climate. Stay tuned. In the spirit of full-disclosure, I am filming a Netflix series at present. I am under an NDA but Netflix will announce the show this summer.
Stay strong. Sisters and brothers, Ubuntu!
Charles Dumas is a lifelong political activist, a professor emeritus from Penn State, and was the Democratic Party’s nominee for the U.S. Congress in 2012. He is a Lions Paw honoree. He lives in State College with his wife and partner of over 50 years.