Before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier more than 60 years ago, blacks were only allowed to play in the Negro Baseball League. Author Byron Motley will talk about this fascinating era in American sports history at a free lecture, “The Negro Baseball Leagues: An American Legacy,” Friday, Feb. 1, at 3:30 p.m. in Westmont’s Founders Dining Room Lounge. Refreshments will be served at 3:15 p.m.
Fareed Zakaria, one of the world’s leading journalists and commentators on international affairs, will speak at Westmont’s third annual President’s Breakfast, Feb. 25, at 7 a.m. in the Grand Ballroom at Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort.
Westmont theatre students will present Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” Friday, Jan. 25, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 27, at 7 p.m. in Porter Theatre. Created by seniors Suzanne Galletly and Lynne Martens, this design-based production is free and open to the public.
Conceived as a culmination of their theatre education, the play is “a very avant garde sort of piece” according to Martens, who designed the costumes. “My designs play with gender issues, disguise, and the inability to maintain disguise.”
The Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge will honor David Newton, Westmont professor of entrepreneurial finance, with one of the 31st Annual Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Awards for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education at the March 7-8 Leavey Summit and Awards Dinner in Pennsylvania. Newton was the only winner this year in the college and university category.
Local college professors, publishers and fans will remember poet William Stafford at a public gathering Saturday, Jan. 26, at 2 p.m. in the Los Padres National Forest. The second annual Remembering William Stafford: A Community Reading will be held at the First Crossing Day Use Area on Paradise Road off of Highway 154 and across the road from the Los Prietos Boys Camp at 3900 Paradise Road.
The event is free and no day use fees are necessary to attend the reading.
Professors will practice what they teach in the Westmont Art Faculty Show on display in Reynolds Gallery Thursday, Jan. 17, through Friday, Feb. 29. An opening reception Jan. 17, 4-6 p.m., is open to the public.