Calvin College Fall 2011 calendar Dutch or Dutch-American talks or events supported by Calvin’s Meijer Chair in Dutch Language and Culture and by Calvin’s Dutch program

(for details and last minute changes and updates go to http://www.calvin.edu/academic/dutch/events/)

Saturday, September 24, 9:00 a.m.  Outside the Van Noord Arena, Calvin College

Go Green, Go Dutch, Go Bike

Several years ago the Dutch Consulate in Toronto began a promotional initiative called Go Green, Go Dutch, Go Bike. It calls attention to thelongstanding importance of the bicycle in the Netherlands, that urbanbicycle transportation is good for the environment, and that othercountries can learn and benefit from Dutch bicycle culture.

Together with area bicycle organizations, Calvin College will hold a Go Green, Go Dutch, Go Bike Event on Saturday Sept. 25 (with Saturday, October 2, as an alternate date, in case of heavy rain) withsome pre-ride activities beginning at 9:00 outside the Van NoordArena and the ride from campus to downtown leaving at about 9:30.The ride will return to campus around noon. The return route will take riders past some outdoor Art Prize exhibits. t-shirt sale ($15 with $5going to the Motion Initiative: An Urban Cooperative Youth Bicycling Ministry). Everyone is invited to ride along. Wear orange!

Thursday, October 6, 7:30 p.m. Bytwerk Theater, De Vos Communication Center, Calvin College

Dutch Movie: Sonny Boy (2011)

Ricky Koole, Sergio Hasselbaink, Directed by Maria Peters, 135 minutes

Dutch rating system: 12 (not suitable for children under this age) violence, fear, discrimination, coarse language

Sonny Boy is a Dutch big budget film based on the true story of a forbidden love between a black Surinamese man and a Dutch white woman that took place in the first half of the twentieth century in the Netherlands. The film is an adaptation of the bestselling novel "Sonny Boy" of Annejet van der Zijl. The film Sonny Boy opens in 1928 and tells the story of Waldemar, a 19-year-old black student from Suriname (then part of the Netherlands), and a married Dutchwoman in her 40s, Rika, who fall head over heels in love. A first test of the strength of their love arrives when they discover that she is pregnant. A second one arrives more than a decade later, when they hide several Jews in their home during WWII. (from http://afroeurope.blogspot.com)

Tuesday, October 18, 3:30, North Hall 078, Calvin College

Prof. Henk Aay, Meijer Chair in Dutch Language and Culture

Lecture: Constructing Images of the Netherlands with Documentary Films: The Netherlands Information Service in the United States, 1941-74.

The Netherlands Information Bureau was established by the Dutch government in exile in 1941 to update the public perception of the Netherlands in the USA, to encourage the USA to join the war effort against Germany, to put the Dutch colonies into a more positive light, and to raise funds for the reconstruction of the war-torn country. Documentaries played an important role in the publicity coming from the Netherlands Information Bureau. The films were seen throughout the country by millions of people. We will learn which documentaries were especially popular as well as who saw them and where. Representative image fields from the 1940s, 50s and 60/70s will be shown.

Thursday, November 3, 7:30 p.m. Covenant Fine Arts Center Recital Hall (107)

Dr. Annette Stott, Director, School of Art and Art History, Professor of Art History and Women’s Studies, University of Denver.

Lecture: Holland Mania

Holland Mania describes a curious era in American cultural history. During this period, 1880-1920, old Dutch master paintings and Dutch antiques moved into American collections in unprecedented numbers. American artists occupied six art colonies in the Netherlands, sending hundreds of pictures back to the United States for exhibition and sale. Historians revised their understanding of colonial history to account for a much larger Dutch influence in the formation of American institutions and ideals, even going so far as to designate the Netherlands, "the Mother of America." Tourists traveled to this new motherland to see where the exiled Pilgrims lived before embarking for America on the Mayflower and to visit scenes of seventeenth-century Dutch history. The love of Dutch culture and its association with American history affected architecture, interior design, advertising, children's literature, social entertainments, and even, briefly, women's fashion. This book traces the Dutch influence in turn-of-the-century American culture and offers explanations for the mania that developed for all things Dutch.  (http://mysite.du.edu/~astott/Holland_Mania.html)

Thursday, December 1, 3:30, Science Building 010

Prof. Jan Boersema, Institute for Environmental Studies, VU University Amsterdam

Lecture: Easter Island: If No Collapse, What Then? Cultural Adaptations to a Changing Environment

Keynote Lecture at the Calvin Environmental Assessment Program (CEAP) Poster Session

Dr. Boersema has written a just published book in Dutch: Images of Easter Island; the Sustainability of a Culture (April 2011); an English translation is on the way. When the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen in 1772, as the first European, laid his eyes on the island on Easter Sunday, 1772 he saw an entirely deforested landscape and a culture in decline. Was there a connection between the two? The theory advanced by, among others, Clive Ponting, Jared Diamond, as well as many other scholars, that the culture responsible for the statues (the Moai) collapsed because forests were cut to transport the figures, gained broad acceptance. The story of Easter Island grew into an icon of environmental history, an example of cultural collapse due to mistaken use of natural resources and a warning for the entire Earth as an island in space. Professor Boersema examines this widely accepted conclusion against the light of the history of the island and emphatically rejects it. Another story needs to be told.