Gather with friends and family for the USAF Band of Mid-America's FREE Veterans Day Concert Series! These family-friend 90-minute concerts feature the unit's 45-member concert band, and will honor our nation's veterans, share stories of their sacrifices, and reflect on all that makes us flourish as individuals and as a nation. In addition to spectacular marches and patriotic music, the concert will include Broadway tunes, jazz selections, and more.

The Pete Ellman Big Band has been entertaining Chicagoland audiences since 2009 performing at locations such as Mullen's in Lisle and Fitzgerald's in Oak Park. Committed to developing the next generation of jazz musicians, Pete and his band are often guest clinicians throughout the area. Join us as we celebrate big band jazz at Lewis with Pete Ellman and his band.

Hailed as "one of the last pianists in the grand Romantic tradition of Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and Rubinstein," Barbara Nissman continues the grand bravura tradition of romantic pianism. Her recordings of Prokofiev, Bartók and Ginastera are considered "definitive," and she has been praised for her series of recordings of nineteenth-century composers, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Brahms, and Rachmaninoff. Join Nissman for an unforgettable afternoon spent with her favorite composer "friends"- Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, and Prokofiev.

Learn more about Ms. Nissman at BarbaraNissman.com

LAS MAGNIFICAS is a Chamber Music Theatre piece for singing actress and trio (cello, piano and percussion) exploring the lives and times of three towering figures in Latin American cultural history: the iconic Mexican Ranchera singer Chavela Vargas, Cuban Singer Celia Cruz, 'The Queen of Salsa" and Chilean Singer Violeta Parra, the Mother of Latin American Folk Music. Text by Marjorie Agosin. Music to include songs made famous by the artists: Tu Voz, Gracias a la Vida, La Vida es un Carnaval, La Llorona and Volver a los 17. as well as instrumental music by Latin American Composers: Ernesto Lecuona, Eduardo Sanchez de Fuentes, Jose Alfredo Jimenez, Victor Jara, and Tania Leon.

Featured regularly on Chicago's premiere jazz radio station, WDCB 90.9 FM, Matt Shevitz is an in‐demand musician in the jazz, blues, and popular music scenes of the Chicago area. He has performed with many internationally renowned musicians such as Dick Hyman, Ignacio Berroa, Howard Levy, Frank Capp, Frank Wess, Eric Lindell, and Spare Parts. This concert will feature works from his albums Forward Motion (2018) and First Take! Live on WDCB (2022), an album of songs recorded during live broadcasts for WDCB 90.9 FM. Join us for an incredible jazz experience with one of the preeminent Chicago saxophonists working today.

Two visiting authors will be reading from their newly published work and providing a Q and A session: Jameka Williams and Aricka Foreman. Jameka Williams s holds an MFA in poetry from Northwestern University and is the author of American Sex Tape, winner of the 2022 Brittingham Prize in Poetry from the Wisconsin Poetry Series. She works as a Production Assistant & Editor at Haymarket Books. Aricka Foreman is the author of Salt Body Shimmer from Yes Yes Books and has fellowships from Cave Canem, Callaloo, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. She is a publicist for Haymarket Books.

Editors from Lewis University's online literary journal Jet Fuel Review as well as alums, faculty, and staff, from a variety of departments, will read published creative work--fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry--that is gathered both nationally and internationally.

Artist Statement: This work was inspired after a friend asked me to capture the essence of her adopted city of Phoenix, Arizona. Once I started the journey, I was immediately captivated. The American West has been the subject matter of artists for hundreds of years. I add these images to that history.

Rosy Petri is a multidisciplinary artist fusing portraiture and storytelling as an act of witness. She's been an Artist-in-Residence at the bell hooks center and Pfister Hotel, a Nohl Emerging Artist Fellow, and Mildred Harpole Artist of the Year. Her work can be seen at www.thisisparadisehome.com

The Nation's oldest art society is well into its second century of exhibiting art. Chicago Society of Artists' exhibitions are sought by galleries, due to their ability to interpret the real and imaginary world via artistic versatility and eclectic styles across a variety of mediums.

The Lewis University Department of Art and Design is proud to present the Senior Capstone Exhibition. This biannual art show coincides with the capstone course, Senior Project. The course challenges graduating students to put their newly acquired skills and understanding of art to the test by participating in a professional exhibition experience.

More Info Coming Soon!

More Info Coming Soon!

More Info Coming Soon!

The little prince may have returned to his own tiny planet, to tend his Rose and look after his Sheep, before a short, enchanted time, he returns to us and comes alive on stage. This play tells the story of a world, weary and disenchanted Aviator, who sputtering plane strands him in the Sahara desert, and a mysterious, regal "little man" who appears an ask him to "Please, sir, draw me a sheep." During their two weeks together in the desert, the Little Prince tells the Aviator about his adventures through the galaxy, how he met the Lamplighter and the Businessman and the Geographer, and about his strained relationship with a very special flower on his own tiny planet. The Little Prince talks to everyone, he meets: a garden of roses, the Snake and a Fox who wishes to be tamed. From each, he gains a unique insight which he shares with the Aviator: "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly." "What is essential is invisible to the eye." At length, both the little man and the Aviator must go home – each with a new understanding of how to laugh, cry and love again.

Hilariously, everything which can go wrong in a production does so. II Fornicazione is a "grim" tale of operatic adultery, poison, and mayhem. Streuth is the crime story Agatha Christie would never have dared to write. A Collier's Tuesday Tea combines the kitchen with the coal mine with an irreverent glance at D.H. Lawrence. All's Well that Ends As You Like It pushes the genius of the bard to its limit while filching lines from most of his plays. In all, cues are missed, effects fail, and props are lost and confusion reigns, but the coarse actors struggle on.

The teachers of Tumbldn high school don't live in an inspirational teacher movie. They bring mouse traps from home, they make the toilet paper last, and they show up for the kids nobody else shows up for. So when the school is slated for closure at the end of the year, and the weight of the inevitable bears down on the community, students and teachers alike, discover their breaking points. Ricky, the vice principal has stayed firmly on the sidelines for all of the teachers previous battles, but now in the 11th hour, he's compelled to step up with a plan to save the school. Some risk their futures to follow his lead, but does he actually have any idea what he's doing? spiked with humor and brimming with fury, Exit Strategy is an exhilarating call to arms about what we owe each other.

"Godspell" was the first major musical theater offering from three-time Grammy and Academy Award winner, Stephen Schwartz, (Wicked, Pippin, Children of Eden); and it took the world by storm. Led by the international hit, "Day by Day", Godspell (2012) features a parade beloved songs, including "Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord", "Learn your Lessons Well", "All for the Best", "All God Gifts", "Turn Back, O Man" and "By My Side". A small group of people help Jesus Christ, tell different parables by using a wide variety of games, storytelling techniques, and a hefty dose of comic timing. An eclectic blend of songs, ranging in style from pop to vaudeville, is employed as the story of Jesus' life dances across the stage. Dissolving hauntingly into the Last Supper and the Crucifixion, Jesus' messages of kindness, tolerance, and love come vibrantly to life. Boasting a score with chart-topping songs, a book by a visionary playwright (John-Michael Tebalak) and a feature film, Godspell (2012) is a sensation that continues to touch audiences.

Dr. Jamil Mustafa (English Studies) will draw on his new book, The Blaxploitation Horror Film: Adaptation, Appropriation and the Gothic, to discuss how mainstream and Blaxploitation horror films interpret and adapt classic Gothic tales.

Purchase Book on Amazon

Sponsored by the Film Studies Program, we will screen four short films that have won or been nominated for major awards from the Hollywood academy and film festivals around the world. Dr. Christopher Wielgos, Director of Film Studies, will host, guide conversation and answer any questions.

English Studies professor, Dr. Philippian, will discuss his new co-edited collection Inclusive Shakespeares: Identity, Pedagogy, Performance (Palgrave, September 2023), a volume that responds to the growing concern to make Shakespeare Studies inclusive of prospective students, teachers, performers, and audiences who have occupied a historically marginalized position in relation to Shakespeare's poetry and plays.

Purchase Book on Amazon

A rapidly changing climate, accelerated by human actions (or inaction), impacts creation and the human community in multiple and complex ways. We're nearing a point when the effects of climate change will become irreversible. Communities of Color, including Indigenous peoples, regions struggling with poverty, and women with children are facing far greater consequences from our collective choices as individuals, nations, and corporations. Failure to act strategically with urgency is exacerbating ecological trauma to our earth, the compromise of health in vulnerable populations of human beings, animals and plants, and increasing the occurrence of devastating 'natural' disasters.

The 2023 Peace Teach-In seeks to explore the interdisciplinary and intersectional complexities of climate change and to seek responses together that will grow environmental justice and create greater health equity in our communities, nation and world.

Join Dr. Tina Bobo for a discussion on new technologies and treatments in medicine during this presentation, which is part of the Peace Teach-in Series.

Join us for an evening of outstanding jazz performed by one of the hottest pianists currently playing in Chicagoland. Born in Buenos Aires, Leandro López Váradyrady has been a staple in the Chicago jazz scene since 2000 performing regularly at the Green Mill, Jazz Showcase, and Andy's Jazz Club among many other prestigious performance halls including Symphony Center, Harris Theater, and the Auditorium Theater. An internatsional performer, López Várady has performed at festivals around the world, including the Chicago Jazz Festival; Taste of Chicago; South Shore Jazz Festival; Hyde Park Jazz Festival; Detroit Jazz Festival; Made in Chicago Festival in Poznan, Poland; Havana Jazz Festival in Havana, Cuba; Jazz y Pop Festival in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the 57th International Festival in Ruse, Bulgaria. The recipient of a Gold Record Award for his participation in Mietek Szcześniak's Nierówmi" album, López Várady is currently the pianist for the Orbert Davis' Chicago Jazz Philharmonic. He also is a member of Doug Lofstrom & New Quartet, Steve Hashimoto's "Sueños", Juli Wood's "Chicago Calling" and the Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre Music Ensemble.