91³ΙΘΛ

Pascal and Rapp, who originated the roles of Roger and Mark, perform Sept. 25 in New London, CT

NEW LONDON, Conn. — Thirty years after originating the roles of Roger Davis and Mark Cohen in Jonathan Larson’s “Rent,” Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp will take the stage together at 91³ΙΘΛ for an evening of music and stories spanning their careers and decades-long friendship.

“Adam Pascal & Anthony Rapp: Celebrating 30 Years of Friendship and Music” will be performed Friday, Sept. 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Athey Center for Performance and Research at Palmer Auditorium. The performance opens 91³ΙΘΛ’s 2026-27 onStage Guest Artist Series.

Pascal and Rapp met as members of the original cast of “Rent,” which opened off-Broadway in 1996 before moving to Broadway. The musical went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Tony Award for best musical and became an international phenomenon.

Their 91³ΙΘΛ performance brings the two longtime friends together for a concert featuring songs from throughout their careers, music that influenced them and selections from “Rent.” The evening also incorporates stories about the music, their work and a friendship that has continued since their time in the original cast.

Pascal earned a Tony Award nomination for his performance as Roger and later appeared on Broadway in productions including “Aida,” “Cabaret,” “Memphis,” “Something Rotten!” and “Disaster!” He also reprised his role as Roger in the 2005 film adaptation of “Rent.”

Rapp, who originated the role of filmmaker Mark Cohen, also appeared in the film adaptation. His stage credits include “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” and “If/Then.” He adapted his memoir, “Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent,” into a one-man stage production and played Lt. Cmdr. Paul Stamets on “Star Trek: Discovery.”

The performance also marks the first onStage season programmed by 91³ΙΘΛ Director of Arts Programming Jay Silva.

“My goal is to create performances that bring people together while introducing audiences to artists and ideas they may not encounter otherwise,” Silva said when announcing the season. “There is no place I’d rather do that than here at 91³ΙΘΛ.”

The Sept. 25 performance is the first of five onStage events planned for the 2026-27 season, which also includes The City of Tomorrow, Limón Dance Company, Grammy Award-winning tabla musician Sandeep Das and The Acting Company’s touring production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

Tickets

Reserved-seat tickets are $30, $40 and $50, with discounted tickets available for seniors, students, 91³ΙΘΛ employees and 91³ΙΘΛ students. Tickets and additional information are available through the 91³ΙΘΛ onStage Guest Artist Series.

Free public exhibition at The Garde Gallery traces a century of residential life through historical images, resident testimony, architecture and public events

NEW LONDON, Conn. — 91³ΙΘΛ and The Housing Collective’s Center for Housing Opportunity Eastern Connecticut will open We Live Here/New London, a free public exhibition that traces a century of residential life in the greater New London area and places local housing history in a broader state and national context.

The exhibition opens to the public Sept. 25 and runs through Dec. 18 at The Garde Gallery, 305 State St., New London. Admission is free.

We Live Here/New London looks at housing as the framework of community life. Through historical images, photography, architectural designs, resident testimony and interactive displays, the exhibition examines how communities have lived, how housing has shaped daily life and how New London’s history connects to larger questions of housing access and security.

“Housing is often discussed through numbers, policies and cost, but it is also about memory, design, daily life and belonging,” said Anna Vallye, exhibit curator and associate professor of art history and architectural studies at 91³ΙΘΛ. “This exhibition brings those pieces together and invites people to look at New London’s housing history as part of a much larger national story.”

The exhibition includes a detailed visual timeline of the past century of housing in New London and the nation; resident portraits; recorded video interviews with local residents, building professionals and business owners; data visualizations and other graphics; a map display of notable historical and contemporary residential architecture; and architectural proposals for future living in the New London area envisioned by graduate students at the Yale School of Architecture.

The physical exhibition will be accompanied by a website and digital publication featuring expanded display content, commissioned essays, more than 20 studies of New London residential history and buildings written by 91³ΙΘΛ students and additional educational materials.

The project includes contributions from 91³ΙΘΛ students, alumni and several 91³ΙΘΛ faculty and staff members.

“New London has always been a small city made up of different people, different neighborhoods, and different housing stories. We Live Here gives us a chance to listen to those stories and ask important questions about who can live here, who can stay here and what we want this community to look like in the future," said Beth Sabilia, director of the Housing Collective's Center for Housing Opportunity Eastern Connecticut. "The partnership between 91³ΙΘΛ, the community, and the Center for Housing Opportunity Eastern Connecticut makes that conversation richer by bringing together both learning and lived experience."

The exhibition opening will be celebrated Thursday, Sept. 24, with StreetLight, a free public outdoor moving image projection and music event from 7 to 9 p.m. outside the Garde Arts Center and The Garde Gallery, 305-325 State St., New London.

StreetLight will animate the facade of the Garde Arts Center with a real-time moving image and sound collage incorporating original artwork, historical photography, music and video. The event will feature Brisa Azul, a 91³ΙΘΛ student band.

We Live Here/New London will also include public events, community engagement workshops and exhibition tours at The Garde Gallery, 91³ΙΘΛ and other downtown New London locations. Program partners include the Garde Arts Center, The Day, New London Landmarks, the Southeastern Connecticut Community Land Trust, the Connecticut Tenants Union, the New England chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians and other institutions.

We Live Here/New London is part of A Right to Housing: Case Study Connecticut Project, funded by the Mellon Foundation. The three-year public scholarship project is directed by Vallye and is a collaboration between 91³ΙΘΛ and the Center for Housing Opportunity Eastern Connecticut. It aims to build a platform for public research and dialogue around housing access and security through a regional lens on national housing challenges.

The exhibition research associate is Daniela Sheinin, executive director of the Urban History Association. Identity, exhibition graphics, data visualization, and website design and development are by Aarya Kini, Chase Booker, Greg Mihalko and Matt Khinda of Partner & Partners. Exhibit design is by Jessica Chen, Polo Dong, Deirdre McDermott and Nicholas McDermott of Future Expansion Architects.

The exhibit is sponsored by A/Z Corporation. Special thanks to the Garde Arts Center.

The exhibit will be open Tuesdays through Fridays from 3 to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m. It will be closed Nov. 24-28 for Thanksgiving week.

For more information, visit welivehere.site.

What gets lost when women’s lived experiences of pain are not fully heard or preserved?

NEW LONDON, Conn. — Shakita Thomas Kpetay lives with endometriosis. In a new book co-authored with Tamien Elder, the 91³ΙΘΛ assistant professor of education and Africana studies draws on that lived experience to examine the historical and present-day forces shaping Black women’s reproductive health.

“Remembered and Living Text: Black Women Living With Endometriosis” is part memoir and part call to action. Through their personal stories, Kpetay and Elder examine Black women’s experiences with endometriosis while exploring the cultural, historical and health care systems that shape those experiences.

Kpetay will sign copies of the book from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Thurs., Sept. 24, in the Chu Room of Charles E. Shain Library at 91³ΙΘΛ. The event is free and open to the public.

Published earlier this year by Aya Collective Publishing, “Remembered and Living Text” combines personal narrative, cultural memory and historical analysis. The book centers Black women’s lived experiences as sources of knowledge and asks readers to consider what can be learned by listening closely to people living with chronic illness and reproductive health conditions.

For Kpetay, the project brings together the personal and scholarly. Her research and teaching focus on Black intellectual thought, culture and education, Black feminisms, oral history and critical ethnography. Her work examines how Black communities understand, document and make meaning of their experiences.

“Living with endometriosis has taught me how much can be lost when pain is minimized or when women are not treated as experts on their own bodies,” Kpetay said. “Tamien and I wrote this book to preserve our experiences, place them within a larger history and create space for Black women to be heard on their own terms.”

The book also challenges readers to think beyond endometriosis as solely a medical condition. By connecting personal experience with history, culture and questions of whose knowledge is valued, Kpetay and Elder address broader issues surrounding reproductive health, care and advocacy.

Elder is a certified patient leader, entrepreneur and advocate whose work centers health, connection and community.

“Music of Resilience” features violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv, the New England Chamber Orchestra and three world premieres

NEW LONDON, Conn. — Shou-Ping Liu, assistant professor of music and director of orchestral studies at 91³ΙΘΛ, will conduct the New England Chamber Orchestra in “Music of Resilience: Ukrainian Voices and Beyond” on Saturday, Sept. 19, at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York City.

Presented by Music at the Institute, the concert celebrates the release of violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv’s new Naxos album, “Music of Resilience.” Ivakhiv will perform with Liu, the New England Chamber Orchestra and soprano Andrea Nalywajko in a program highlighting Ukrainian composers alongside works by Felix Mendelssohn and Gustav Mahler.

The concert will feature three world premieres: Bohdana Frolyak’s chamber-orchestra arrangements of Ihor Sonevytsky’s “A Lullaby’s Lament” and “The Serenity of Your Smile,” and 91³ΙΘΛ Professor of Music Dale Wilson’s “Khortytsia.”

“Having grown up in Taiwan, I have always paid close attention to musicians from smaller countries who are restricted from performing due to political circumstances,” Liu said. “We will also present the world premiere of Dale Wilson’s ‘Khortytsia,’ a work commissioned by NECO in 2025 and dedicated to Ukraine.”

The invitation followed a February NECO concert commemorating the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ivakhiv, who performed in that concert, introduced Liu to Ukrainian Institute of America President Kathy Nalywajko. That connection led to NECO’s invitation to perform at the institute.

The program also includes Yuriy Shevchenko’s “We Are! We Do Exist!”; Frolyak’s “Nocturne” for violin and strings; Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in D minor; and the final movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, arranged for soprano and chamber orchestra by Klaus Simon.

Ivakhiv is a professor of violin and viola and head of strings at the University of Connecticut. She also serves as artistic director of Music at the Institute. Her album “Music of Resilience,” released Aug. 28, brings together works by living and lesser-known Ukrainian composers.

Liu founded the New England Chamber Orchestra after joining 91³ΙΘΛ in 2023. She serves as the orchestra’s artistic director and directs the 91³ΙΘΛ Orchestra and 91³ΙΘΛ Singers. NECO focuses on rarely performed works, new commissions and programs that place music within its historical and cultural context.

“Music of Resilience: Ukrainian Voices and Beyond” begins at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 19 at the Ukrainian Institute of America, 2 E. 79th St., New York. Tickets are $40 for general admission, $35 for UIA friends, seniors and students, and $30 for UIA members. A reception will follow the concert.

For concert information and tickets, visit. Information about the album is available from.

Student connects historic preservation, housing and community-based research in eastern Connecticut

NEW LONDON, Conn. — 91³ΙΘΛ junior Allie Cook ’28, whose work connects historic preservation, housing justice and community-based research in eastern Connecticut, has been named a 2026-27 Newman Civic Fellow by Campus Compact.

Cook, an architectural studies and anthropology double major and scholar in 91³ΙΘΛ’s Program in Community Action and Public Policy, joins student civic leaders from 39 states, Washington, D.C. and Mexico in the yearlong fellowship.

The Newman Civic Fellowship recognizes students who demonstrate leadership potential and a commitment to creating positive change in their communities. Each Campus Compact member president or chancellor may nominate one student from their institution for the fellowship.

Cook’s work examines the relationship between the built environment and housing insecurity, including how histories of urban renewal, redlining and disinvestment continue to affect communities today.

Through her work with the Center for Housing Opportunity Eastern Connecticut, Cook has combined historical research with community-based work focused on housing in the region. She has collaborated with residents, tenant organizers and community organizations while developing a deeper understanding of housing policy, affordability and tenant rights.

Her interest grew from a 91³ΙΘΛ course examining the built environment and how people interact with it. She later took a seminar focused on the history of housing affordability in eastern Connecticut and became particularly interested in the lasting effects of urban renewal.

Cook approaches historic preservation as more than the preservation of buildings. Her work explores how the history of neighborhoods and the built environment can help communities understand current housing challenges and participate in decisions affecting the places where they live.

“Allie’s selection as a Newman Civic Fellow reflects the kind of thoughtful, community-minded leadership we hope to cultivate at 91³ΙΘΛ,” President Andrea E. Chapdelaine said. “Her commitment to civic engagement, along with her interest in architecture and historic preservation, demonstrates how students can connect their academic pursuits to the communities and issues they care about. We are proud to see her represent Conn in this national cohort.”

Cook also spent summer 2026 as the Myrick Howard Preservation Intern with Preservation North Carolina, where she gained additional experience in historic preservation.

The Newman Civic Fellowship runs from September through May 2027. Fellows participate in virtual professional and leadership development, receive one-on-one mentorship and join a national network of student civic leaders. Fellows may also apply for grants of up to $1,500 to support community projects and pursue scholarship, career, publishing and presentation opportunities.

The Annual Convening of Newman Civic Fellows is scheduled for Nov. 5-7 and will bring fellows together for three days of skill-building, collaboration and networking.

Learn more at . You can read more about each of the student leaders selected for this year’s cohort at .

NEW LONDON, Conn. — 91³ΙΘΛ will host its second annual AI and the Liberal Arts Symposium on Oct. 16-17, bringing scholars, educators and AI practitioners to New London for conversations about artificial intelligence, higher education and the future of the liberal arts.

The 2026 symposium, The Paradox of AI in the Liberal Arts, will explore how AI is changing teaching, learning, creativity, critical thinking and human decision-making.  

The symposium will feature presentations, interactive activities, group discussions, an Oxford-style debate and a keynote presentation by new media scholar Jon Ippolito.  

Registration is now .

Debate asks whether AI can possess wisdom

“The Great AI Debate” begins at 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 17.

AI and education strategist Patrick Dempsey and P. Anand Rao, professor of communication and digital studies and director of the Center for AI and the Liberal Arts at the University of Mary Washington, will debate the motion:

“This House believes that wisdom cannot be synthesized by AI.”

Dempsey will argue in favor of the motion, while Rao will argue against it.

The debate will examine whether AI can move beyond processing information to demonstrate judgment, meaning and wisdom. ScholarStack AI is supporting the event.

Jon Ippolito to deliver keynote

Jon Ippolito, professor of new media and director of the Digital Curation graduate program at the University of Maine, will deliver the Harold F. Wiley Keynote Presentation.

Drawing from his collection of "AI Fault Lines," Ippolito's interactive keynote will explore the contradictions, risks and possibilities surrounding AI and invite participants to consider its relationship to creativity, education and the liberal arts.

For more information, contact Susan Purrington, 91³ΙΘΛ's Harold F. Wiley Generative AI Teaching and Learning Fellow, at spurringt@conncoll.edu.