Nicolet Live!
Arts & Speakers Series

An evening of arias, art songs and an insider’s view of how opera works with renowned tenor Bill Bastian. A Wisconsin native currently teaching music at Saint Scholastica College in Duluth, Bill has been performing the leading roles in opera, oratorio and symphonic works for three decades.

He will entertain while he explains, turning us all into opera buffs for an evening. Bill is accompanied by his wife Laurie, the principal second violin for the Duluth/Superior Symphony and the violinist for the Gitchigammi Trio, and Sam Black, the Trio’s pianist and the classical music critic for the Duluth News Tribune.

Comics and graphic novels written for adults? Does that mean I can read a comic book and still respect myself in the morning? Shane Teter, instructor of the popular Graphic Novel class at Nicolet College, will help us understand the origins of this newest of literary forms, the fastest-growing sector of the book publishing industry.

Using visuals and drawing upon two decades of studying comics, Shane will discuss classics such as the Maus books, Persepolis and Watchmen and demonstrate how pictures and words work together to move a narrative.

In the depths of the Great Depression, President Roosevelt sent 202 families (1,000 people) from northern Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin – including families from Oneida County – to far-away Mantanuska County in Alaska to begin their lives afresh.

This award-winning documentary tells the story of these ordinary folk and the controversy that dogged their attempts create a farming community. Eye-witness accounts and interviews, including with Kris Gilbertson of the Rhinelander Daily News, portray this little-known, heart-warming story of courage about America’s last pioneering community. The evening will be hosted with commentary by Paul Hill or Joan Juster, the film’s producer/directors.