Wednesday November 30 three time Grammy Award Winner Bill Miller came to Nichols College. It was an enjoyable hour and a half or so that he was on stage sharing his story and songs with those students and members of the community who attended.
Throughout the evening Mr. Miller shared his touching life story of growing up on the Reservation with an abusive and alcoholic father. He spoke of his college experiences of finally getting to leave home to be on his own and go to school.
He also spoke of his life now as a musician. He has met and worked with an impressive number of artisits. Each song he performed had a story behind it whether it was an original of his or just a cover. It didn’t matter what the story or song was for it to be performed beautifully. He has a great voice singing his rendition of Hallelujah and a handful of other covers as well as some of his own original pieces. Not only has Bill Miller won three Grammys he was the only Native American on the soundtrack for the movie Pocahontas being the flute player for the song Colors of the Wind.
Overall the evening was enjoyable for not knowing what to expect out of it. There were great stories and songs. It seemed as though everyone in attendance learned something about either the Native American culture or music.
Slingshot Hip Hop is an award winning documentary featuring hip hop in Palestine as an effort to gather young people to work towards having peace between Israel and Palestine. The documentary is about the performers and how they discovered American hip hop and used it to create their own new versions to perform. The film follows several different artists but focuses on the group DAM. These artists are from different parts of Palestine and speak out about the issues of their country. The film is part of the Art With Impact program. This organizations mission is to “connect people to global issues through art and media and provide opportunities to share their voices in meaningful ways”. They hope to bridge the gap between the potential for change and opportunities to act.
This is a great way to learn about the conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine. The film explains the conflict but keeps it interesting with the focus on the hip hop movement in the area.
There will be a screening of the documentary followed by a Q&A with DAM and the director of the film, Jackie Reem Salloum along with some performance. This is a cultural event put on by the Fischer Institute on Sunday November 13th at 2:00pm in the Auditorium. This is worth 2 CULTURAL CREDITS!!
This is a trailer of the movie:
On Thursday, September 15th, Nichols Campus Activities Board (CAB) sponsored the Ultimate Magic Extravaganza a magic show featuring Daniel Martin, Brian Brushwood and Nate Staniforth.
Daniel Martin came to campus this past spring semester and CAB was excited to have him back this semester and even more excited to have Brian and Nate come too. They are three good friends and don’t always get to perform together so it was a special treat for Nichols and for them to perform together.
The guys arrived on campus early and headed to the Dining Hall for some teasers before the show.
Being a Chair person on CAB I was there to work the event doing the lights and sound which was more in depth than the usual events we have where only a microphone is needed. Each of them had at least one microphone and some type of media whether it was a dvd, laptop or ipod set up. They also had a few queues where I had to change the lighting during the show. It was a great experience for me getting to learn some new things in the sound booth.
Daniel, Brian, and Nate were all amazing. From card tricks to fire eating it was definitely a show worth attending.
Photos by Marion Knight
Produced by the Bison for the Nichols College Community
Not only has Bill Miller won three Grammys he was the only Native American on the soundtrack for the movie Pocahontas being the flute player for the song Colors of the Wind.