The Rocket

Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: Focus

When people hear the word "kaleidoscope," most probably think of a cornucopia of patterns, colors and shapes.

But the term can also be applied to the ongoing arts festival of the same name. The Kaleidoscope Arts Festival, which began on Wednesday, will run through April 29 on SRU's campus and throughout the town of Slippery Rock.

In its seventh year, the festival has grown into an event that showcases the best in the world of the arts including visual, music, literary and performance arts.

Rachela Permenter, an English professor at SRU, is the festival's director and has taken on a major role in coordinating the festival. Permenter said the festival was started by the College of Fine Arts and Humanities.

"It was started in order to have a regional presence of the arts here in Western Pennsylvania," Permenter said, "(and) to highlight works of art by students in the visual and performing arts."

Also, students in departments other than those related to the arts are participating in the event. For example, a marketing class plans to wear homemade masks during the festivities while some English majors are planning on reading poetry.

There are many events taking place during the festival. The opening festivities on Wednesday included an outdoor barbecue sponsored by AVI Foodsystems and a 6 p.m. performance by Coyote Run, a poetry-rock band.

Other events include a stop at SRU by Sonia Sanchez, a poet and civil rights activist, who will be coming to speak on April 21, and Shakespeare's Birthday Dinner, which will be held on April 22.

The majority of the events are free for students as well as the surrounding Slippery Rock community.

Of all of the events held during the Kaleidoscope Arts festival, Permenter said the one involving Sanchez is among the most important.

"Sonia Sanchez has always been an important social figure," Permenter said. "She was one of the most important writers of the Black Arts Movement, which was a movement that took place during the Black Power Movement."

Sanchez, who is a world-renowned poet, has been known to deliver riveting performances.

"No one walks away from a Sonia Sanchez reading unimpressed," Permenter said.

In fact Sanchez's event is such a major one that many organizations, including the Student Union for Minority Affairs, the Office of Intercultural Programs, the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. and the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., have collaborated to co-sponsor her visit.

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