Ithaca College

For Wednesday to Friday of this week, our guests on Fine Artists at Five are Sandra Steingraber (Wednesday), Christine Kitano (Thursday), and John White (Friday).

Join us at 5PM for 15-20 minutes to celebrate faculty artistry. https://ithaca.zoom.us/j/489986662?pwd=QUZDL1BXeHRDUHkwVkwraW92dkEzUT09

Fine Artists at Five is hosted by the Center for Faculty Excellence.

 Biologist, author, and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber, writes about climate change, ecology, and the links between human health and the environment. Her highly acclaimed book, Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment was the first to bring together data on toxic releases with data from U.S. cancer registries and was adapted for the screen in 2010. Called “a poet with a knife” by Sojourner magazine, Steingraber has received many honors and awards for her work as a science writer. She has been named a Woman of the Year by Ms. Magazine, a Person of the Year by Treehugger, and one of 25 “Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World” by the Utne Reader. She is the recipient of the biennial Rachel Carson Leadership Award and the Jenifer Altman Foundation’s Altman Award for “the inspiring and poetic use of science to elucidate the causes of cancer.” 

Christine Katano was born in Los Angeles, CA. Her mother is a first-generation immigrant from Korea, and her father is nisei (second-generation) Japanese American. Christine earned an MFA in Creative Writing (poetry) from Syracuse University and a PhD in English and Creative Writing from Texas Tech University. She is an assistant professor at Ithaca College where she teaches creative writing, poetry, and Asian American literature. She is the author of the poetry collections Sky Country (BOA Editions) and Birds of Paradise (Lynx House). 

John W. White is a professional pianist specializing in diversity and is equally at home in the worlds of jazz, classical, and popular music. Highlights of his performing experience include:  duo and small group collaborations with jazz vocalist and free improviser Rhiannon; appearances with jazz vocalist Kim Nazarian (of the New York Voices) and jazz instrumentalists performers Wycliffe Gordon, Tony Baker, and Paul Hanson;  workshop accompaniment for Dr. Barbara Baker (choral director and scholar of Black Gospel music); accompaniment for and free-improvisation collaboration with choreographer Jeanne Goddard; and frequent freelance appearances with numerous musicians in the upstate New York region spanning numerous vernacular styles (jazz, funk, R&B, soul, latin, rock). Recently John concluded a 16-year tenure as the Music Director and Organist for St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Ithaca, NY. Currently he sings bass with the Ithaca-based Bel Lago Chorale.