Quick 2021 Fall Schedule

The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University first launched The Quick Live (thequicklive.com) as a new virtual platform in spring 2020. With more than 30,000 viewers in its first year, the platform returns this fall with classic audience favorites, insightful speakers, and thought-provoking, real-time panel discussions that seat virtual audience members right at the panelist table to engage and ask questions.

The Quick’s fall 2021 season boasts a robust lineup of 40+ virtual events spanning arts, culture, and education. The bulk of programming will be offered free to the global digital audience. Registration is required for all events.

“We have been through a lot as a community this year — locally, nationally, and globally. We believe it is our role as an arts center to be flexible so that we are not only meeting the needs of our community as a venue, but also as a window to the world around us,” said the Quick Center’s Executive Director Peter Van Heerden. “In this season we bring you critical perspectives, information, and conversations that we hope will help us move forward as a society, but we also bring the cultural performances and discussions that provide a much-needed balm in unprecedented times.”

In addition to the Premiere Events noted below, the Quick Center will draw on the incredible resources and faculty at Fairfield University to present local and national guest panelists. Complementing the acclaimed Open VISIONS Forum series’ stellar lineup of interdisciplinary speakers, The Quick Live will feature the Open MINDS Institute, the OVF Espresso series, Fairfield University Art Museum programming, the statewide multi-university CT Dance Now series, the Fairfield University MFA program’s Inspired Writers Series, the Fredrickson Family Innovation Lab series, and The Literary Salon – the virtual 'book club hour' for Fairfield University in association with Meryl Moss Media of Westport.

This small sampling of what the Quick has to offer this fall is representative of the holistic, multidisciplinary programming upon which Fairfield University prides itself — and there is so much more. For complete information about performing arts programming at the Quick Center and Fairfield University, view the fall 2021 Season online at quickcenter.com.

Premiere Events Schedule:

Tickets are required for the nine events below. Quick Center Members, Fairfield University President’s Circle Members, and Bellarmine Society Members can enjoy all nine events for free.

The First Annual President’s Lecture | Open VISIONS Forum
Michael Eric Dyson, PhD and John H. McWhorter, PhD: “Race, Liberty & Justice: Diverging Perspectives With Eyes on the Prize”
Thursday, September 30, 2021 | 7:30 p.m.

Discussing issues of racial justice in America today is not an easy conversation, but absolutely necessary. Our University mission statement’s concern “…for scholarship, justice, truth, and freedom ” demands pathways toward constructive dialogue in a wide-ranging exchange of viewpoints. Kicking off our season, we engage two leading academics and public intellectuals with diverging attitudes on how the Black community can positively face its ongoing struggles.

Vanderbilt University’s Centennial Chair and University Distinguished Professor of African and Diaspora Studies Michael Eric Dyson, PhD is an ordained Baptist minister and a prominent commentator on major media outlets. Dr. Dyson’s opinion articles appear regularly in The New York Times and The New Republic, and he has authored 20 books including Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America, his most recent study of the insidious nature of systemic racism.

John H. McWhorter, PhD, an associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, is a regular contributor to The New Republic and The Atlantic. He recently published a provocative Op-Ed in The New York Times, “Examining the Use of the N-Word.” Taking an independent position, Dr. McWhorter’s article questions the impact of “microaggressions” and “infantilization” upon the Black community, suggesting it has “dehumanized us.” He challenges “victimization, separatism, and anti-intellectualism” as underlying problems hindering racial equality in the eyes of the American public.

Open VISIONS Forum
Jim Acosta: “The Enemy of the People: A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth”
Presented in Affiliation With the Communications and Media Studies Institute
Wednesday, October 6, 2021 | 7:30 p.m.

Jim Acosta is currently CNN’s anchor for weekend programming and the network's chief domestic correspondent, based in Washington, D.C. Previously, Acosta served as CNN's chief White House correspondent, where he covered the Trump administration and the Obama administration from the White House and around the world. He regularly covers presidential press conferences, visits by heads of state, and issues impacting the Executive Branch of the federal government. Acosta also reported from the 2016 campaign trail, following Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

In 2019, he was honored with the annual "Truth to Power" award from the New York Press Club, which is given to individuals "whose body of work challenges the power establishment and/or defends journalists."

Open VISIONS Forum
Dr. Regina Benjamin: “Combating Health Disparities: Narrowing the Gap”
Presented in Affiliation With the Marion Peckham Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies
Thursday, November 4, 2021 | 5 p.m.

Regina Benjamin, MD, is a national leader in preventative health, fighting health disparities, and developing innovative community-based strategies for low-income and rural communities. Americans painfully learned from the Covid-19 pandemic about the dramatic inequalities of issues of race, class, and health care. As a rural family doctor serving poor communities, Dr. Benjamin has witnessed first-hand the impact of healthcare disparities — and the social determinants of health — on generations of patients in her community. She knows it’s well-documented and researched that one’s zip code is a better predictor of health and longevity than one’s genetic code. As Surgeon General and founder and CEO of the Gulf States Health Policy Center, Dr. Benjamin has been the driving force behind research and policies to promote healthcare equity and access.

Open VISIONS Forum | 24th Annual Jacoby-Lunin Humanitarian Lectureship
LaTosha Brown: “Black Voters Matter: Our Obligation to Democracy and Equality”
Presented in Collaboration With the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies
Tuesday, November 9, 2021 | 7:30 p.m.

LaTosha Brown is a co-founder and the executive director of Black Voters Matter, a social activist, a political strategist, and a jazz singer. Working at the intersection of social justice, political empowerment, human development, and the cultural arts, Brown is passionate about leading social change to create a more equitable redistribution of wealth around the globe. A 2018 Bridge Jubilee Award and Liberty Bell Award recipient, she is best known for her philanthropic efforts as an effective fundraiser and resource person.

Brown continues to lead efforts by Black Voters Matter (BVM) to fight voter suppression and to educate and empower Black communities. She helped create BVM’s 2021 Covid-19 Mutual Aid and Emergency Relief Self-Determination Fund, to provide more than $150,000 to a variety of community-based efforts, including local food delivery and mobile grocery programs, and emergency relief aimed at such populations as the families of Black immigrant communities (documented and undocumented). All of these efforts are based on concepts of “solidarity, not charity.” Currently she is a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics.

Orin Grossman Presents Afternoons at the Piano: Paris and Ragtime: Claude Debussy Does the Two-Step
Friday, October 22, 2021 | 4 p.m.

The ragtime craze that swept the United States in the late 1890s and early 1900s reached Europe as well. American entertainers came to Paris and amused sophisticated Parisians, including Claude Debussy, who captured his impressions of American popular culture in three piano pieces. Many people know Golliwog’s Cakewalk, but few have understood the humorous compliment Debussy paid to the U.S. in two of his piano preludes. Orin Grossman, PhD’s presentation will feature all three of Debussy’s piano tributes to the new popular American style: Golliwog’s Cakewalk, Minstrels, and General Levine, Eccentric.

Orin Grossman Presents Afternoons at the Piano: Tangos and Habaneras: Spain and the New World, Part 1
Friday, October 29, 2021 | 4 p.m.

In the 1850s, a dance from Cuba came back to Spain, where its ancestor had originated, changed in the New World by African influence. Europeans called the new dance the habanera, which literally means “that thing from Havana.” The habanera from Bizet’s Carmen is the most famous of a number of European habaneras. In the New World, the dance begins a related series of great dance rhythms, including the tango, and what early jazz musicians called “the Spanish Tinge.” Dr. Grossman’s presentation will feature Debussy’s habanera, The Gate of Wine, and include habanera/tango music by Scott Joplin (Solace) and the great Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth (Perigoso—Dangerous).

Orin Grossman Presents Afternoons at the Piano: It’s Safe to Travel: Claude Debussy’s International Impressions
Friday, November 5, 2021 | 4 p.m.

Just as French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters like Gauguin, Monet, and Degas depicted scenes in Italy, England, and far-off Tahiti, so Debussy sketched beautiful impressions of foreign lands and cultures. The difference is that Debussy rarely left Paris to do so. This presentation will feature three piano preludes that take us to England (Homage to S. Pickwick, Esq.), Italy (The Hills of Anacapri), and India (The Terrace for Audiences by Moonlight).

Orin Grossman Presents Afternoons at the Piano: Beyond Malaguena: Ernesto Lecuona, “The Cuban Gershwin”
Friday, November 12, 2021 | 4 p.m.

The perennial popularity of Ernesto Lecuona’s Malaguena obscures the beauty and significance of his many other compositions. A talented pianist, Lecuona wrote more than 150 piano pieces as well as theater works, film scores, and songs. His music spans multicultural Cuba, with compositions from the late 1920s through the ’50s that highlight the Spanish and African roots of much Cuban music. This presentation will focus on his Afro-Cuban dances, as well as the lovely song, “Why Must You Go?”

Orin Grossman Presents Afternoons at the Piano: Frederic Chopin: The Last Piano Works
Friday, November 19, 2021 | 4 p.m.

After a tumultuous nine years, the strange relationship between Chopin and author George Sand (pseudonym of the Baroness Amandine Aurore Lucile Dudevant) came to a bitter end. Chopin made one final journey to England and Scotland where he met his final patroness, Jane Stirling. Totally in love with Chopin, Stirling arranged for his medical care and provided him with much-needed financial assistance during his last years. Too sick with tuberculosis to engage in a romantic attachment, Chopin famously remarked that he was “closer to a coffin than a bridal bed.” Still, he wrote one final extended composition, his great barcarolle based on the flowing rhythm of Venetian gondoliers’ songs. This presentation includes a performance of Chopin’s final masterpiece, The Barcarolle Opus 60.

Each of the above ticketed performances is available to patrons through the following special offers:

Become a Quick Member to enjoy all fall 2021 events for free.
Or, purchase single event tickets for $10 or $20.

Tickets go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, September 7, 2021. All events, ticketed or free, require registration. For more information about performing arts programming at the Quick and Fairfield University, please visit quickcenter.com.

The Quick Live Returns With Multidisciplinary Virtual Fall 2021 Season