Under the baobab: Happy Valley celebrates Indigenous Peoples Day, Hispanic Heritage Month & more

Bezon nikanaki, Happy Indigenous Peoples Day. There will be a resistance day rally in front of Old Main at noon Monday and a First Nation feast at Heritage Hall in the HUB-Robeson Center at 7:30 p.m.

Many are discussing age and aging these days. When President Biden runs for reelection he will be in his early 80s. His likely opponent will be 78. I will be somewhere in between. Questions have come up about the ability of our age cohort to stay reasonably healthy and make good decisions. So far, the President and I are doing OK as we bring a deeper perspective to the table. Just don’t ask either of us to run the Boston Marathon or play Jeopardy. Age was once associated with wisdom. Nowadays it is more often associated with mental frailty. But a good way to assess a leader’s competency is to survey the people around them. Good managers build organizations with bright, insightful associates who are not afraid to challenge them if necessary. Autocrats believe they can govern by themselves.

It’s a football bye week. The arts community has filled the void. Led by Dean B. Stephen Carpenter II, the College of Arts and Architecture celebrated its 60th anniversary. Alumni Awards for outstanding achievement were presented by various departments to William Holloway (architecture), Ilenia Colon Mendoza (art history), David Heasty (graphic design) Matthew Sean McMahon (landscape architecture), Ian Saunders (music), Heather Augustine (theater), Ron Hand (art education) and Mark Shulman (integrative arts).

At the annual donor luncheon, the Blue Band, directed by Greg Drane, opened its rehearsal hall to several hundred supporters, boosters, donors and volunteers in the arts to recognize some exceptional student accomplishments: Sophie Marks, Megan Needy, Taylor Kuszyk, Emma Manwiller, Andrea Gavidia, Jasmine Ward, David Kunisch, MacKensie Bronk, Stiphany Ta Tieu and Grace Tran. In the lobby, grad and undergraduate design students exhibited their work.

Friday evening the School of Theatre (SOT), under artistic director Rick Lombardo, opened its season with a sold-out production of “Hit the Wall” directed by Robert Schneider, choreographed by Chris Campbell, scenic design by Anna Lustig, lighting by Vinny Pilone and costumed by Sky Sandner. The play takes place in New York City in 1969 and tells the story of the uprising at the Stonewall Inn, which initiated and inspired the gay rights movement. It featured: Korey Grecek, Michael Reed, Shane Troxell, Chas Mrlack, Mia Gomez Montero, Jasz Ward, Alex Iozzio, Kade Leous, Trinity Jackson and F. Antonio Urrutia. These gifted young actors did an extraordinary job of creating an important historical event that occurred a generation before they were born. Performances continue at the Pavilion Theatre until Oct. 12.

This week the Center for Performing Arts is hosting the residency of Las Cafeteras, who mix roots music with Afro-Mexican rhythms and powerful rhymes for a “uniquely Angeleno mishmash of punk, hip-hop, beat music, cumbia and rock.” Born and raised in East Los Angeles, the contemporary Chicano troubadours — Jose Cano, Denise Carlos, David Flores, Hector Flores, Daniel French and Leah Gallegos — fashion a patchwork quilt of “urgent, relevant music” with infectious live performances. They will perform at Eisenhower Auditorium on Tuesday night. On Saturday, they were dancing on Fraser Street by the hundreds as the 3rd Happy Valley Latin Festival helped conclude Hispanic Heritage month.

SOT alum Jerrell Henderson co-produced and co-directed “Little Amal Drifts Off to Sleep” for a thousand young people in Maggie Daley Park in Chicago. The 12-foot puppet of a Syrian refugee child is touring the world to highlight the experience and treatment of millions of refugees and displaced persons, half of whom are children.

These are dangerous times. Several of our Jewish neighbors have had their homes pelted with Nazi propaganda. The cast of “Hit the Wall” were verbally assaulted from the audience during previews. As the bullies aim low, we must remain high by standing up for each other and our democracy.

Charles Dumas is a lifetime political activist, a professor emeritus from Penn State, and was the Democratic Party’s nominee for U.S. Congress in 2012. He lives with his partner and wife of 50 years in State College.