Wake to Wonder

Grammy award-winning musician Lucinda Williams reads "Compassion,” a poem written by her late father, the poet Miller Williams.

"Enterons" for the win!

Tournament Scrabble player Melissa Routzahn taught us how a love of language can be meaningfully blended with a keen awareness of probability and strategy.

“Every good story begins in medias res. There’s the part that’s Over. There’s the part that’s Next. In the middle gapes a gap. “Mind the gap” because the gap is the Now. The more we mind it, give attention—surrender—to the Now, the greater it seems to swell. The greater it seems imaginatively as we attend to what’s possible, perhaps especially to what’s improbable.”

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On September 8, 2022, award-winning poet and teacher Jeanine Hathaway delivered the inaugural talk for The Star-Splitter Academy’s school year.

In previous years, Jeanine has spoken to us about Joan of Arc, rhinos, kaleidoscopes, cephalopods, sound as touch, illuminated manuscripts, and the act of pilgrimage. This year, she contemplated transitions, in a talk entitled "Mind the Gap," which was followed by a conversation with the students.

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Jeanine Hathaway currently enjoys Professor emerita status from Wichita State University, having taught creative writing and literature there. She was a poetry mentor in Seattle Pacific University’s MFA Program.

Hathaway is the author of the autobiographical novel Motherhouse (1992), the 2001 Vassar Miller Poetry Prize-winning The Self as Constellation (2002), and a chapbook, The Ex-Nun Poems (2011).

Her most recent collection of poetry is Long After Lauds, published in 2020 by Slant Books.

David Rees Snell is an actor best known for his role as Detective Ronnie Gardocki on the crime drama The Shield. He has also had recurring roles on The Unit, Party of Five, S.W.A.T., and Silicon Valley. He has guest starred on such shows as Hawthorne, Numb3rs, Lie to Me, Sons of Anarchy, Last Resort, Criminal Minds, and Leverage. Snell also co-starred in the Hallmark TV movie Desolation Canyon.

He attended the University of Kansas as a theatre major and worked on the stage before becoming involved in TV work.

Snell is also a voice actor, who has appeared in such short films as P1 and Draw the Pirate. He also had speaking roles in a number of video games including Need for Speed: Undercover and Call of Duty 2 Big Red One.

Lars Larsen has been a creative brain in the advertising industry for over twenty-two years. He has focused his passion on shaping insights and unique creative expressions (making ads) for brands across the globe such as Kraft, Nabisco, Nestle, Kellogg’s, Oscar Mayer, Kimberly Clark, Heinz, Eli Lilly, Amgen, among others. H also spent time digging into diverse things such as Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation, Miller Beer, The Memorial Golf tournament, and the Chicago Children’s Museum.

Jason Bailey is film critic and editor-at-large for Flavorwire and a regular contributor to The New York Times and The Playlist. A graduate of the Cultural Reporting and Criticism program at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, he is the author of four books and is currently writing his fifth, Fun City Cinema: New York City and the Movies That Made It, for Abrams Books. His byline has appeared at Vulture, Vice, The Atlantic, Slate, Indiewire, Gothamist, Rolling Stone, Uproxx, Pajiba, The Dissolve, Salon, Hyperallergic, and The Village Voice, among others; he also appeared in the CNN documentary miniseries The Movies. He lives in New York with his wife, Rebekah, and their two daughters.

Susan Lyles is the founder and producing artistic director of the Denver, Colorado based not-for-profit And Toto too Theatre Company, which produces new works written by women playwrights.

The inspiration for the company had been cultivated throughout her acting career, which began during her teenage years. Prior to creating And Toto too, Susan signed with Farrell Talent Management in 2001, providing her inroads where she appeared in several national commercials, industrials and local productions. She has a BA from Wichita State University, and has received certification from The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Shakespeare. She has worked onstage in London, Chicago and Denver and has also worked in film, commercials, print, industrials, and voice over. She has directed more than twenty plays, including the award winning Naked in Encino, Car Talk, and Heads.

She has designed costumes for more than fifty productions, including Lion in Winter (Denver Victorian Playhouse), 12th Night (Denver Victorian Playhouse), and Greater Tuna and Christmas Tuna (Denver Victorian Playhouse, Town Hall Arts Center). Susan was recently honored with a 2015 True West Award. She is branching out into film with her newly formed film/theatrical production company Ruff, Ruff Dog Productions.

Sunny Overholt is an artist and teacher in Wichita, Kansas. She teaches printmaking at Northwest High School, and is the only full-time printmaking instructor in the Wichita public schools.

Sunny graduated from Friends University in 2013 with a degree in art education after spending many summers teaching art classes at summer camps for incarcerated youth. She finds joy and meaning in teaching young people the power of creativity to change their lives, and is grateful to spend her days helping students learn new ways of believing in themselves. In her free time she works on her own prints, and this spring was featured in the international printmaking magazine, Pressing Matters.

Sabina Luu (aka Pixelpusher), a San Francisco-based visual artist, took us behind the scenes of her work of creating unique visual art for music events.

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Pixelpusher has been a visual contributor to the San Francisco bay area music scene for more than a decade. With a life-long love of music and driving curiosity to hear the latest creative sounds, she performs unique video art for music events. Her strong video background is evident by her style, which combines gorgeous video layers with digital effects to create cohesive and fluid animated compositions. These styles are unique and tailored to each musical performance, creating a rich layered harmonious effect. Always evolving and never satisfied to stay in one place creatively, she likes pushing boundaries with her video artwork and exploring new ways to create beautiful synergistic moments in time.

With the voice of a siren, self-taught guitarist and singer-songwriter Jenny Wood has captivated audiences throughout the country redefining alternative pop-rock with her moving lyrics, authenticity, alternate tunings and desperate, potent melodies.

With a background in theater and vocal performance at Wichita State University, Jenny learned to perform while studying composition and songwriting to be able to tote her one-woman show cross-country and earn notoriety as being a truly genuine artist. She lived in southern California and Nashville for much of her early twenties writing, performing and touring with all genres to earn her indie artist title. Jenny recently created her own anti-bullying music program that evolved from her music video, “Don’t Let Them Get In Your Head” and now tours local schools with her music concert that encourages kids to take the negative and make it creative.

Her first full length release, “Don’t Let Them Get In Your Head” (2015) is available on all digital distribution sites and her newest EP, “Truth Has Legs” was released in September 2018. Jenny continues to play her with her original rock band that harkens 90’s grunge and ripping vocals as well as shoegaze project Team Tremolo and various funk/R&B groups. Jenny’s loyal fanbase cares deeply for her commitment to honest lyrics and self-truth, and youth inspired by her will to share one’s gift to better connect and contribute to the world.

Tyler Bowers is a graphic designer, painter, and musician who graduated from Northfield in 2014 and from Friends in 2018. He plays bass in the band The House and has a growing painting practice.

Emilio Villalba is a Mexican-American painter living in San Francisco. Born in Chula Vista and raised in Southern California, he grew up interested in drawing and art. He created a career in Los Angeles as a visual effects artist where he animated television commercials and film.

Kyttra Burge is an actor and educator in Virginia. She has starred as Patsy Cline in various touring shows; teaches acting, vocal music, and audition prep; and in her spare time is a force of nature on the rink!

Jennifer Sturch joined us to talk about her stage management career in the New England area at Trinity Repertory Co (RI), ART (MA), Long Wharf (CT), and Hartford Stage (CT) where she worked with, among others, Tony Kushner ("Homebody/Kabul") and Paula Vogel ("The Long Christmas Ride Home"), both with director Oskar Eustis, (now Artistic Director of the Public Theatre in New York City, where he has been integral to the creation of new works, including Lin-Manuel Miranda's “Hamilton,” among many others).

Jennifer Sturch grew up in a military family. Her father was a chaplain in the Air Force, and she grew up all over the world, including the Netherlands, Taiwan, and myriad places in America. Her love of theatre and music started early in life. She grew up playing piano, guitar, and singing, but landed on theatre as her primary love.

While she pursued acting in college at Wichita State University, she realized her strength lay in her ability to manage, so she pursued a career in stage management. She enjoyed a successful professional career in the New England area at Trinity Repertory Co (RI), ART (MA), Long Wharf (CT), and Hartford Stage (CT) where she worked with, among others, Tony Kushner ("Homebody/Kabul") and Paula Vogel ("The Long Christmas Ride Home"), both with director Oskar Eustis.

Jennifer has been in Texas for the past fourteen years and just moved to Santa Fe, NM, with her wife, Wendy, and their two cats and two dogs. She plans to continue her exploration of art through her photography.

Grant Snider began drawing and writing before he knew what he was doing. Soon it was too late to stop.

His comics have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Kansas City Star, The Best American Comics 2013, and all across the internet. He is also the author and illustrator of many children's picture books.

Grant lives in Wichita, Kansas, with his wife, daughter, and four sons, where he also practices orthodontics. You can often find him carrying a sketchbook, lost in his own thoughts.

Chas Thompson is a doctoral candidate studying higher education at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, AR, where he also works as a research and teaching assistant in the College of Education of Health Professions. He has taught and guest lectured about the history of U.S. higher education, research and assessment methods in educational research, and college student development. His research focuses upon the lived experiences of minoritized college students, with particular interests in student activism, gender expression, and college student fashion. Outside of work, he can be found spending too much time playing video games and not enough time walking his dog on the beautiful Northwest Arkansas nature trails.

Seth Girton is from Wichita, where he began studying cello at the age of nine. Under the tutelage of Susan Mayo, he was an active participant in the Wichita Symphony Youth Orchestras Program for six years before earning a degree in mathematics at Oberlin College. After a year in Michigan, where he worked at a full-scale piano restoration shop, Seth returned to Wichita to scurry about in the back of McHugh Violins as a repair technician.

He received his Master of Music degree from Emporia State University in 2015. Seth has taught at Southwestern College, where he also directed the Southwestern College Youth Symphony, Tabor, Hesston, and Bethel College, where he remains on the adjunct faculty. Seth maintains an active performance schedule with the Newton Mid-Kansas Symphony Orchestra and the Hutchinson Symphony Orchestra, in each of which he serves as principal cellist, and with Knocknasheega Celtic Band. He has spent several years exploring non-traditional and experimental cello techniques and sharing these at venues in the Wichita area, particularly local farmers' markets as well as coffee and public houses.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet.” (Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu; Chapter 64). The Chinese character for mile is a compound of earth and field. It measures about the length of a single village. The saying acknowledges our roots and community. The journey begins where we are. On foot.

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On September 7, 2021, Jeanine Hathaway delivered the inaugural talk for The Star-Splitter Academy’s school year.

Jeanine Hathaway currently enjoys Professor emerita status from Wichita State University, having taught creative writing and literature there. She was a poetry mentor in Seattle Pacific University’s MFA Program.

Hathaway is the author of the autobiographical novel Motherhouse (1992), the 2001 Vassar Miller Poetry Prize-winning The Self as Constellation (2002), and a chapbook, The Ex-Nun Poems (2011).

Her new collection of poetry, Long After Lauds, was recently published by Slant Books.

Cary Conover is a photographer and educator based in Wichita, Kansas, whose work has been featured in the New York Times and in a recent article in The Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/2021/10/11/photographers-wonder-curiosity-shines-through-this-project-life-wichita-kansas/).

He is currently a faculty member at Andover High School, where he advises the yearbook and broadcast journalism programs and teaches beginning and advanced photojournalism classes. He is also an adjunct instructor of photography at Newman University, teaching analog and digital photography in the school's art department. From 2000 to 2010 Cary lived in New York City and freelanced for a variety of clients, most notably The Village Voice and The New York Times. Cary lives in College Hill with his wife, Ivonne, and their son, Julian.

"Living in Deep Relation: Chris Yoder on Life and The Law"

Recently, attorney and Northfield alumnus Chris Yoder spoke to us about how he came to love the law, and how how he's made a life of deep relation with all that he loves: family, sustainable farming, rural communities, community service, philosophy, poetry, the law, advocacy, jazz, and much more.

Chris's talk is insightful and wise, integrative, and deeply inspirational. I am so glad my students got to learn from him again this year, in our deep-dive on U.S. History and Constitutional Law.

Christopher Yoder is a staff attorney at Baron & Budd. He works in their Opioid Litigation Group.

He studied philosophy and English literature at Wichita State University, receiving a bachelor of arts in each. His family history of farming closely connected him to grassroots America, and he applied to law school hoping to advocate for those living in underserved rural areas by providing ready access to legal representation.

While attending Washburn University School of Law, Mr. Yoder was a recipient of the Hansen Foundation Rural Initiative grant, which allowed him to gain experience practicing criminal defense in remote areas of western Kansas. This advocacy at such a hyper-local level in the farm community inspired in him a passion for representing those who struggle to afford legal representation that provides them with a sincere and powerful voice in the court system. Because of the great need for attorneys in rural areas, and the difficult barrier of entry for new practitioners, Mr. Yoder was motivated to found the Rural Practice Group at Washburn University School of Law to connect aspiring attorneys with established small-town lawyers and to give them a foothold in the community.

He also plays jazz guitar and studies sustainable agriculture.

Chris lives in Overland Park, KS, with his wife, Rachel, who is a cancer researcher, and their son, Caspian.

Dan E. Campbell is a Wichita native who spent over three decades living and acting in New York and Los Angeles. He created the role of Sister Dolores in ANGRY YOUNG TEEN-AGE GIRL GANG, playing the role in both the LA and NYC productions. Regionally he has played half the residents of Tuna, TX in the series of GREATER TUNA plays. Other favorite roles include Alfie in A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE and Fester in THE ADDAMS FAMILY. Behind the scenes Dan was the contestant coordinator for the game show HOLLYWOOD SQUARES and is an award winning director of such shows as THE LION IN WINTER and [title of show]. He is eternally grateful to Bill Coleman for convincing him to play Charlie in DEATH OF A SALESMAN.

Dr. Charles Parker served as drama professor and director of theatre of Friends University from 1989 to 2016. For over forty years he has taught college theatre courses and conducted workshops at conferences on playwriting, acting, and voice/speech training. He has acted in many plays, including ​Hamlet (Wichita Center for Performing Arts), Oedipus Rex (Signature Theatre) and ​Little Foxes​ (Signature Theatre).

Chicago-based writer, actor and real-estate company owner Dan Nelson inspired us by reminding us that difficult times can be profoundly generative, as can be seen in the creation of his own neighborhood of Andersonville.

Dr. Scott Cairns is the program director of Seattle Pacific University's MFA in Creative Writing program. He is also a librettist, memoirist, translator, and author of nine poetry collections. His poems and essays have appeared in Poetry, Image, Paris Review, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, Prairie Schooner, and others, and have been anthologized in multiple editions of Best American Spiritual Writing.

Dr. Cairns is a regular blogger for the Religion Section of The Huffington Post, and contributes a podcast, Flesh Becomes Word, for Ancient Faith Radio. His most recent books are Anaphora (forthcoming in 2019), Slow Pilgrim: The Collected Poems (2015), Idiot Psalms (2014), Short Trip to the Edge (spiritual memoir, 2007 & 2016), Endless Life (translations and adaptations of Christian mystics, 2007 & 2014), and a book-length essay, “The End of Suffering” (2009). He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006, and the Denise Levertov Award in 2014.

His new projects include Descent to the Heart, a verse adaptation of selections from the writings of Saint Isaak of Syria. His spiritual memoir was just released in a Greek edition, Μικρό Ταξίδι στι Μεθόριο, and a second, expanded English edition appeared from Paraclete Press in 2016; a new, Romanian edition, Scurta Calatorie Pana La Capat, was just released in 2018.

He was Curators’ Distinguished Professor of English at University of Missouri, and founding director of Writing Workshops in Greece, a program now in its 12th year.