The Star of the Dead Guy

Ljubica Gavrilovska stars in the OCC theater production of “The Dead Guy,” a play written by Eric Coble and directed by Dennis North to be shown at 8 p.m., Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, and 23.

The International Academy graduate, 23, of Oxford, joined the college’s theater program in the summer of 2013 to study theater production. She is one of three students employed as a theater technician at the Smith Theater, setting up production for music concerts, lectures and plays. In September, at the suggestion of a friend, she auditioned for the lead. Ljubica is also enrolled in voice and directing classes this fall at OCC.

What is The Dead Guy about?
The Dead Guy is a reality show where a contestant gets to spend $1 million over seven days. A camera man follows his every move and broadcasts his adventures on national television. For hard-luck Eldon Phelps, the deal is irresistible. But there’s a twist at the end that the audience determines. 

What role do you play and do you share any personality traits with her?
I play a TV producer named Gina Yaweth. She’s a shark who is very in charge and in control. In the play, she controls every single aspect of the TV show, who is cast, what is shot and where. She’s very manipulative and not very nice. Unfortunately, she acts in such a way that everyone does what she asks. She’s relatable and likeable. She is kind of mean but you still like her. I would like to say that I’m nothing like her. I’m a goofy theater kid. She’s pretty opposite from me.

What is your background in theater?
I have been performing since I was four. Initially I trained as a dancer and musician (piano and vocal; later, guitar), I discovered my true passion in high school in theatre. As a junior I portrayed Golde in "Fiddler on the Roof" and followed the next year as Amneris in "AIDA", where I also tried my hand in directing. I started college at Boston University, where I become involved in more technical aspects of theater—producing specifically.

What did you do while at BU?
I started at Boston University as an International Relations major, with a minor in French. I then changed to English, minoring in theater. Then I decided to get a full on theater degree. At BU, I was very involved in student theater. I was involved in all aspects of it -- producing, marketing, advertising, budgets for shows, hair and makeup, costumes, all background stuff. I never had the chance to get on the stage when I was there. I came back home to attend OCC. I decided to stay here. I was hired to work in as theater support. I have worked on lectures, music shows, and now I got the lead role in this play, which is kind of daunting but it’s mostly exciting and new.  

Were you interested in theater before college?
In high school, I never thought of it as a legitimate option. I was involved in forensics and drama, choir and band. I was really into performance and arts. It most certainly started in high school.

What do you see in your future?
I plan to graduate in December with an Associate’s in Theatre. I love Michigan and it is my home but I do want to go to New York City. I do like producing and would enjoy doing that sometime in the future, but my main focus now is acting. That may change, but bringing characters to life and walking in their world for that short time is something I absolutely love and don’t want to give up any time soon. So for me, that’s what the future holds.

Tickets are for sale now for “The Dead Guy.” Faculty and staff receive two complimentary tickets for all Smith Theatre productions at the college’s Orchard Ridge campus. General admission is $8. Students and seniors, 60 and over, pay $5. The curtain rises for all performances at 8 p.m. Tickets may be purchased at the OCC Raiders Store or at the Smith Theatre Box Office on the day of the performance. Tickets may also be reserved in advance by calling 248-522-3666. For more information on the array of theatre courses offered, check out the theatre website.

English? Check. Now off to pursue the rest of his dreams

Laith Arabi had completed two years toward an engineering degree in his native Syria before he, his mother and two brothers were forced to flee to the United States a year and a half ago.

Arabi wished to continue school right away after arriving in the U.S., but the English language was a challenge.

“I took an English placement test at OCC and I could barely write a paragraph,” said Arabi, 21, of West Bloomfield.

Arabi enrolled in a course known as the Bridge Course at OCC, which is designed for students who are ready to learn English but are not quite ready for English as Second Language credit classes.

The 15-week, six-hour a week, course offers instruction in reading, writing, listening, speaking, and English grammar and vocabulary. Bridge classes are offered in Farmington Hills, Royal Oak and Southfield campuses. The fee is $300.

“I can write five pages now, easily,” Arabi said. “The conversation class was so much fun for me. It gave me confidence to speak English out loud.”

Following successful completion of the Bridge Course, students can enroll in ESL classes.
Arabi completed the ESL program this summer and is now enrolled in college level academic classes to start pursuing his dream - medical school.

“Laith’s progress is typical of students who enroll in Bridge classes,” said Orchard Ridge campus ESL Department Chair Michael Khirallah, Ph.D. “Within five semesters, he went from zero level to writing multi-page essays.”
 
For more information on OCC’s Bridge Classes, contact esl@oaklandcc.edu, (248) 341-2231 or visit https://www.oaklandcc.edu/ESL/.

50 years later, conspiracy theories remain

OCC faculty Michael Vollbach, M.S., and Ron Burda, J.D., have taught a popular JFK assassination course at OCC for two decades. They are the force behind a JFK Speaker Series to take place Oct. 25 and Nov. 8 in commemoration of the 50^th anniversary of the assassination. We spent time with them recently to learn more about their fascination with the end of Camelot. 

How did you start teaching the class?

Burda: OCC’s Royal Oak campus offers special topics history classes and the topic changes every semester. There was a class on assassinations of the 1960s that covered Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy and Malcolm X. In 1992, while a part-time faculty at Orchard Ridge, I was asked to be a guest lecturer on Lee Harvey Oswald on whether his rights were violated. In 1993, the 30th anniversary of the JFK assassination, the 1960s assassinations class was changed to focus on JFK. I took over for one of the instructors who decided to not continue teaching that year. Mike was added as a co-instructor in 2002. We have taught it together ever since.  

Is the 50^th anniversary sparking renewed interest in the JFK assassination?

Vollbach: The class has always filled up and there is limited seating. There is obviously strong interest now because of the anniversary and the newly released Tom Hanks’ movie “Parkland,” which supports the single bullet theory. It is based on the theory that Lee Harvey Oswald is the only one. By the way, the majority of the U.S. population supports that there was a conspiracy.

Tell us about your class. Why and how do you teach it?

Burda: The shooting was a watershed moment in our history. It was the first time in 60 years that a president was assassinated. There were three days of funeral processions. Coverage on TV was 24-7, which was unusual at the time. Then, Oswald himself was assassinated on live television. Those images were just burned in your subconscious. A lot of our students are very removed from this, though we do sometimes get people in class who remember where they were the day JFK was shot.

During the first part of the class we talk about the presidency and what was happening at that time in history. We talk about who JFK was and some of the transitions he went through. He started as a Cold Warrior. Towards 1963, he wanted to withdraw from Vietnam. He wanted a détente from the Soviet Union. He gave a significant speech at American University where he talks about peace that some believe was the nail in his coffin.

Vollbach: We then launch into a mock trial where we assume Oswald survives and he is put on trial for murder. Witness testimony goes on for four weeks. Students are assigned parts and they get to act like a jury and vote at the end of the class. We have a list of witnesses that they role play and they also cross examine each other. Occasionally, we have a surprise witness. We draft people within the college, a former dean will play someone and my wife once came in as Fidel Castro’s lover. We have witnesses give important testimony we have culled from the Warren Commission or from books. In past semesters we’ve had Lee Harvey Oswald testify on his own behalf as a surprise witness. Students then deliberate in class.  Just like a jury, we elect someone to be the foreperson. We don’t require them to be unanimous or we’d be there for six weeks.

 
Burda: It’s a perfect trial. There are no lawyers involved!

What do you remember about the JFK assassination?

Vollbach: I was only a year and a month old when JFK was murdered. It marked my life. He was the first Catholic president; my grandmother gave me the official photograph of JFK and hung it on my bed. The picture hangs in my office right now.

Burda: I was in the 6^th grade. I remember someone came into our class between 1 and 1:30 and told us JFK had died. They let us go home early. We were shocked. I remember watching the funeral on TV. Then on Sunday morning, we watched Lee Harvey Oswald get killed on national TV. He was being transferred from the Dallas police department where they were holding him without bond. Police were escorting him six or seven blocks. Jack Ruby came out from the crowd of reporters and police, stuck a pistol in Oswald’s stomach and pulled the trigger on national TV. It was such a shock to see that. As were the images of the children at the funeral…Jackie Kennedy takes to Caroline to the coffin and she kisses the coffin. Those images are just burned in your mind, very much like 9/11.

What fascinates you about this story?

Vollbach: The JFK assassination and the neatly tied package that the Warren Commission gave us, the single shooter conclusion and ‘look how fast we caught him,’ it was just too easy to accept. It doesn’t take a long time to describe to students what happened. Once you give them the evidence that’s out there, they see he couldn’t have been the only shooter. There are several theorists out there who believe Oswald didn’t have anything to do with it.

What can you tell us about the speakers coming to lecture series?

Vollbach: Cyril Wecht is on TV a lot. CNN uses him when they cover high profile deaths. He’s been consulted on Elvis, Anna Nicole Smith and her son Daniel, Lacy Petersen and JonBenet Ramsey. He is the go-to expert. He was born in 1931. He has done over 14,000 medical autopsies. He teaches and has his own institute. Ron and I, in true JFK geekdom, will be attending his institute for a 50^th anniversary conference. They are bringing some heavy weight authors we’ve both read and we have our students read.

 

James W. Douglass is the author of JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters. The book advances the theory that, horrified by the specter of nuclear war (in part because of his experience with the Cuban Missile Crisis), JFK gradually turned away from Cold War beliefs, and this is directly responsible for his death.

Playwright Ginny Cunningham wrote a one-act play based on Douglass’s book. Actor Martin Sheen assembled a cast to do a similar dramatic reading to take place in Dallas on November 21, the eve of the 50^th anniversary of the JFK assassination.

Who do you think assassinated JFK?

Vollbach: We are conspiracy theorists. I walked into the course in 1993 as a lone gunman theorist and I taught that way. Today I teach it totally different. There is so much knowledge. And these are facts, not opinions. Hospital surgeons that took JFK’s body noted that there was wound entry in his throat, which shows there would have had to be a shooter in front, not behind. They reported this to newspaper reporters and to the White House. He was shot near his temple in the front of his head. Those Parkland hospital surgeons then recanted what they said. The Texas School Book Depository, where the Warren Commission said Oswald did all the shooting from the sixth floor window, is behind. The shot that exploded this head came from the front. I’m a hunter. I know what happens to an animal when it’s shot and the response to the body. Every time I watch footage of the JFK shooting, it sends chills up my spine and reaffirms in my head that there was shooter in front of John Kennedy.    
 

Vollbach: Something about Ron Burda that you need to know. Our OCC library has the best holdings of JFK literature in Southeast Michigan, not including Ron Burda’s personal library. Ron Burda has more books and films about this topic that he probably shouldn’t even have because they’ve been taken off the market. He’s lucky he’s a lawyer.

About the lecture series: OCC is commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the John F. Kennedy assassination with a lecture series that features presentations by JFK expert forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht on Oct. 25, and author James Douglass and playwright Ginny Cunningham on Nov. 8. Both events are at the college’s Royal Oak campus, 739 S. Washington Ave. Tickets may be purchased here and between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. at OCC’s Royal Oak Campus bookstore. Limit four tickets per customer.

Ron Burda is a divorce, criminal defense, estate and trust and will attorney from St. Clair Shores. He has been a part-time faculty at OCC since 1983, teaching history since 1993. His courses have included social science, mass media, and gerontology law.

Mike Vollbach has a Bachelor’s in History, a Master’s in History and Master’s in Geography. He is the author of “The Genesis of Urban Centers in the Ancient World.” He attended Muskegon Community College, the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University.   

 

Poetry Saves Lives

OCC invites you to the poetry festival "Poetry Saves Lives" from 12-3:30 p.m. Wednesday, October 16, in Room G240 of the Auburn Hills campus, 2900 Featherstone Road. The event features four accomplished poets who will give readings, followed by workshops and then a student open mic. The event is open and free but pre-registration is required. Email Studentlife@oaklandcc.edu to register.

A portion of the poets' fees were sponsored by Poets & Writers, a national organization for the promotion of the literary arts. The OCC Writers Block student organization will be selling festival T-shirts for $20 and buttons for $3 at the event to benefit InsideOut Literary Arts, a writing program for children in Detroit. Click here, for more information. 

Featured poets:

Airea “Dee” Matthews:

She is a Cave Canem and Callaloo fellow, a Pushcart Prize nominee, and is currently a Zell Postgraduate Poetry Fellowship recipient at the University of Michigan where she earned her MFA. She resides in Detroit with her husband and four children, and is currently working on her first full-length poetry collection.

Sean Thomas Dougherty:

He is the author or editor of 13 books including the forthcoming All I Ask for Is Longing: New and Selected Poems 1994-2014 (BOA Editions), Scything Grace (2013 Etruscan Press), Sasha Sings the Laundry on the Line (2010 BOA Editions) and Broken Hallelujahs (2007 BOA Editions). His awards include two PA Council for the Arts Fellowships in poetry and a Fulbright Lectureship for poetry to the Balkans. Known for his electrifying performances, he has performed at hundreds of venues, universities and festivals across North America and Europe including the Lollapalooza Music Festival, the Detroit Art Festival, the South Carolina Literary Festival, the Old Dominion University Literary Festival, Carnegie Mellon University, The University of Maine, Sarah Lawrence College and more. His work has also been read on PBS radio in Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Rochester and Cleveland. Sean currently works in a pool hall, and gives readings around the country.
 

Jamaal May:
A poet, editor, and educator from Detroit, where he taught poetry in public schools and worked as a freelance audio engineer and touring performer. He is the author of Hum (Alice James Books, Nov 2013), winner of the Beatrice Hawley Award, and two poetry chapbooks (The God Engine and The Whetting of Teeth). His poems have been published widely in journals such as POETRY, Ploughshares, The Believer, Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast, and New England Review. Honors include the 2011-13 Stadler Fellowship from The Stadler Center for Poetry at Bucknell University, the 2013 Indiana Review Poetry Prize, and scholarships and fellowships from Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Cave Canem and Callaloo. He teaches in the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program.

Peter Markus:
He is the author of a novel, Bob, or Man on Boat, as well as three books of short fiction: Good, Brother, The Singing Fish, and We Make Mud. His stories have appeared widely in such magazines as Chicago Review, Denver Quarterly, Black Warrior Review, Northwest Review, Massachusetts Review, Puerto del Sol, Quarterly West, etc. He was named a Kresge Arts in Detroit fellow in Literary Arts in 2012 and teaches as a poet-in-the-schools with the InsideOut Literary Arts Project of Detroit. A new book of fiction, The Fish and the Not Fish, is forthcoming in the Fall of 2014 from Dzanc Books.

 

OCC Hosts Transgender Forum

Oakland Community College is hosting a Transgender Forum from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Friday, October 11 at the Smith Theater, 27055 Orchard Lake Road in Farmington Hills.

The event will include a clip of the documentary “Trans,” followed by a panel of community members who identify as transgender or are a transgender ally.
Panelists Arlene Kish, Rachel Crandall, Colt Stacer, Mykell Price and Judith Kovach will discuss issues facing the transgender community, including relationships, dating, transitioning at school and work, discrimination in various institutions of society, and how to be an ally. They will also discuss implications for changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which last year eliminated the word disorder to describe transgender individuals.

“The goal of this event is to make OCC and the local community more educated on the matter so we can be more inclusive,” says Michelle Fether-Samtouni, M.A., chair of the college’s Committee for Diversity and Inclusion, one of the event’s sponsors. 

Fether-Samtouni is a member of the sociology faculty at the Auburn Hills campus and faculty advisor to Q-FLAG, the student group for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and intersex (LGBTQQI) community and straight allies.

The event is sponsored by the Committee for Diversity and Inclusion and Students, Staff, Administrators & Faculty for Equality (S.A.F.E.) on Campus.

The Professional Development and Training Center (PDTC) is offering 1 SDU for attendance. For more information, email Michelle Fether-Samtouni at mdsamtou@oaklandcc.edu.

Resources:

Trans, the documentary:

http://www.transthemovie.com/
 

OCC transgender forum details:

https://www.oaklandcc.edu/Posters/TrangenderForum.pdf

Additional statistics, definitions and resources can be found on the GLAAD website. GLAAD is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) media advocacy organization.

See your counselor! Have a plan!

Did you know that you can work with a counselor to create an educational plan? A plan will help you stay on track to earn your degree or transfer. Now is a perfect time to see a counselor for a customized guide. Registration for winter will begin in November and class schedules will be online in mid-October. Please call any campus counseling office to schedule an appointment.

Auburn Hills: 248-232-4350

Highland Lakes: 248-942-3050

Orchard Ridge: 248-522-3450

Royal Oak: 248-246-2464

Southfield: 248-233-2750

Get caught being a Raider, win prizes

Are you a Raider fan? Get caught wearing Raider wear and win prizes.

An OCC Raider Spotter will be roaming the halls of all OCC campuses between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month - Oct. 10, Nov. 14, Dec. 12, Jan. 9 and Feb. 13.

If you get selected, you will receive a token. Tokens collected can be entered in a drawing at the Feb. 19, 2014 Raider Men and Women’s home basketball game at 7 p.m. in Building H of the Auburn Hill campus.

The OCC Raider Spotter will take a photo of you in your Raider wear and will post it on the OCC Facebook page announcing you as the "Raider Fan of the Month."

Raider gear is defined as having the words Oakland Raiders visibly displayed on an article of clothing purchased from the Raider bookstores.

Extra prizes for those displaying the official OCC Raider logo.

*Students only. Student athletes do not qualify for this promotion.

Follow us on Twitter #OCCRAIDERS.

OCC and Rotary give high school students a boost

OCC’S Southfield campus and the Southfield Rotary Club are partnering for a year-long program to motivate high school students to pursue college careers.

The year-long program S.T.R.I.V.E. or Students Taking Renewed Interest in the Value of Education, targets high school juniors and seniors considering attending college and currently enrolled in Southfield Public High Schools or Oak Park High Schools.

Students are identified by their high schools to join the program and sign a form making a commitment to improve class attendance, attitude, grade point average and participation.  

STRIVE will host programs throughout the year, including a one-day summit from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, October 5, in the Student LIFE Center, Room A-129, on the Southfield campus.

The program features breakfast and lunch, a tour of the campus and a variety of panels to include: “The Keys to College Success” and “Using Technology for Academic Success.” The program will feature a career pathways panel featuring moderator Niko Dawson, attorney David Jones, architect James Jenkins, dentist Matthew Gray, politician Kiesha Speech, community advocate Leslie Love Smith, Washtenaw Community College business faculty member Kimberly Hurns and police chief Eric Hawkins. Students will hear keynote speaker Dr. Tanya Martin, a licensed psychologist and life coach, speak about motivation and self-assurance.

 

“We want to get these students acclimated to college and thinking about getting their grades together to start school in the coming years,” said Southfield Dean of Campus Affairs Lloyd Crews, Ph.D. and president of the Southfield Rotary Club.

Rotary’s involvement is a service project with sights on helping students in the community, Crews said. The program is starting with 50 students and hopes to build from there.

“Everyone benefits when OCC partners with the community and the school system to help students,” he added.