Martin de Porres Center Events

NEW!

Wednesday, July 9     
7:00 – 9:00 PM

Suggested donation is $5.00.
Please register by July 7

We hunger for humor and we long for laughter. Yet many don’t realize how vital these “nutrients” are for the well being of our bodymindspirits. Even Karl Barth once said, “Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.” So, let yourself come for a mid-summer evening of “edu-tainment.” We will look at humor’s various benefits and practice some hearty laughter. After priming the pump, you will receive a packet of handouts to keep the humor thermostat at a comfortable temperature. We will all leave energized with hopes that no one will actually die laughing—but what a way to go, eh?

Sister Sue Tracy, a Grand Rapids Dominican for 48 years, currently serves as staff chaplain at the Spectrum Health Butterworth Campus in Grand Rapids where she offers spiritual care to those coping with cancer and to their families. A four-time cancer survivor/thriver, a national speaker on a variety of topics, and a contributing author to the 1996 publication, Praying through Cancer: Set Your Heart Free from Fear, Sister Sue promises us an evening to remember—and laugh about long after.

Rev. Timothy Ahrens will speak about the significant impact that the Rev. Washington Gladden had on the social conscience of the Columbus area and beyond during his time as a church leader. Gladden, senior minister at First Congregational Church in Columbus from 1882 until 1914, was one of the strong early proponents of the Social Gospel, which espoused using Christian principles to address society’s problems. Gladden gained a national reputation as a preacher and a leader of adherents to the Social Gospel. He believed Christians had a duty to help others, and sought to reconcile Christian ethics with political action. Gladden served one term on Columbus City Council, from 1900 to 1902. He died in 1918.

Rev. Timothy Ahrens has served as senior minister at First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, in downtown Columbus since 2000. An adjunct faculty member at Chicago Theological Seminary, he has also lectured at the Chautauqua Institution in New York and the Lakeside Community in Ohio. Active in community affairs, Rev. Ahrens is a recent past, co-president of B.R.E.A.D. (Building Responsibility Equality and Dignity), an interfaith organization for economic justice and, in 2006, received the Norman Thomas Peace Activist Award.

In photos and stories, Growing Season: The Life of a Migrant Community celebrates the Mexican-American and Mexican migrant families that live and work on the K.W. Zellers and Son family farm in Hartville, Ohio. The project documents the religious, medical, familial, and communal experiences of these workers and offers readers a success story. Authors Gary Harwood and David Hassler will share their experiences documenting this community including the importance of access and acceptance, ethics, the storytelling process and the collaboration between photographer and writer. This program is presented in conjunction with an exhibit of photos from the book, on display August 26-September 26, and in collaboration with the Ohioana Library Association that presented Growing Season with an Ohioana Book Award in 2007.

Gary Harwood, a photographer for Kent State University, has won four national awards from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education and was named the 2001 University Photographer’s Association of America’s Photographer of the Year.  David Hassler is the program and outreach director for the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University and the author of two books of poems, Sabishi: poems from japan and Red Kimono, Yellow Barn.

Sarah Melici will perform “Fool for Christ,” a one-person play with many characters on the life of Dorothy Day. This production packs an incredibly rich and complicated life into a relatively small span of theater time, giving balanced attention to Day’s loves, spirituality and politics. Dorothy Day, who died in 1980, was one of the most influential figures in the history of American Catholicism and is now a candidate for canonized sainthood. Her work with Peter Maurin led to the formation of the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933. Its soup kitchens and hospitality houses serve as gathering spots and places of refuge not only for the poor and homeless but for the socially and religiously concerned, for intellectuals and activists, for reformers and radicals.

Sarah’s acting credits include Vaclav Havel’s “Temptation” at the New York Shakespeare Festival; “Agnes of God” and “Steel Magnolias” at the Barter Theater, Virginia.  She toured in “Driving Miss Daisy,” the production directed by Charles Nelson Reilly, and has appeared on TV in “Law and Order” and the mini series, “The Golden Years.”

Presented in partnership with the Columbus Catholic Worker Movement.

Thursday, October 23 
7:00-9:00 PM

Suggested donation is $10.00

Rescheduled from Feb. 12 due to inclement weather

This presentation will prepare participants to discuss difficult and divisive topics with family, friends and co-workers in a way that is respectful and not defensive.  We will discuss important principles for listening compassionately, restating and rephrasing so that the speaker feels heard, stating one’s feelings and beliefs assertively versus aggressively, and diffusing strong emotions.  We will identify important principles such as careful self-examination, planning to dialogue, owning one’s position and its shortcomings and finding common ground.  This will be an experiential training using demonstrations, role plays and feedback. 

Julie Hart Ph.D. is a professor of Sociology and Peace and Justice Studies at Ohio Dominican University. During the summer months she serves as a reservist with Christian Peacemaker Teams in Israel/Palestine (1997-2000) and Colombia (2004-present).  Her research and teaching interests include significant attitude change, ethnic relations, conflict resolution, and nonviolent social movements.

Exhibit Open
June 18 – August 21

Opening Reception | June 22 2:00 – 4:00 PM

Exhibit Open
August 26 – September 26

Reception/Program   September 12
7:00-9:00 PM

Exhibit Open
October 20 – December 19

Reception November 9
1:00-3:00 PM

Exhibit Open

Thursday, October 2     
9:00 AM – 8:00 PM

Friday, October 3          
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Saturday, October 4      
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Sunday, October 5        
1:00 PM  – 5:00 PM

Monday, October 6       
9:00 AM – 2:00 PM

The Martin de Porres Center has been selected as one of nine venues to showcase 20th and 21st century quilts of the Midwest during the annual seminar for the American Quilt Study Group, meeting in Columbus, October 2-6. Other venues include Ohio Historical Society, Cultural Arts Center of Columbus, Snowden Gallery (OSU), The Dairy Barn (Athens), and National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center (Wilberforce). Each site will exhibit quilts on a particular theme and maintain its own hours of operation. Our   exhibit description and hours are provided below.

This exhibit will showcase many of the entrepreneurial women and Midwest quilt companies who promoted interest in quilting with their innovative business practices and original quilt designs.  One hundred quilts will exemplify the color, design, and style prevalent throughout the past century and give a glimpse of our current art quilt movement.

Dee Dadik and Molly Butler, certified quilt appraisers, offer a range of services related to quilting through their own entrepreneurial venture, “I Have a Quilt”—classes and lectures on quilt history, dating and appraising, judging and sewing room appraisals.  They have volunteered to serve as local co-chairs for the American Quilt Study Group’s annual seminar as community service.

Ongoing Programs

Please register for the following sessions by calling the Spirituality Network614.228.8867

April 26, 2008
9:30 AM – 3:30 PM

September 13, 2008
9:00 AM - 1:30 PM