As the second part of this segment of the Bluffton University Forum series, we will conclude our project with a full performance of “Tempest: Music and Poetry for a Regenerative Earth” on Tuesday evening, November 14th, in Yoder Performance Hall on the Bluffton University campus, inviting the whole college and the wider community, and reaching out to others in the Findlay, Toledo and Lima area. Musicians from the Early Interval ensemble will present music inspired by the European fascination with nature that was burgeoning in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, interspersed with poems by contemporary poets reflecting on our current climate crisis. We will have a talk-back with the performers afterwards and seek to engage in response and discussion about what we can learn from this exchange. We know that the facts about global warming and technological shifts in our approach to energy, agriculture, transportation and the like, while fully necessary, will not by themselves be enough. We hope to explore how the arts can merge with scientific and historical understanding toward more heart-felt and long-lasting personal and public reflection and change.

This event was funded by an Ohio Humanities Spark Grant.