Category: Events and Recreation

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion is excited to partner with the Tallgrass Film Festival and present the Gordon Parks Double Feature Gala Oct. 23 at the Orpheum Theatre (200 N. Broadway #102). The double-feature screening includes the following:

• 5:30 p.m. Oct. 23 “A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks” (Directed and produced by John Maggio)
• 8 p.m. Oct. 23 “Shaft” (Directed by Gordon Parks and produced Joel Freeman)

The double-feature will include a conversation with Gordon Parks’ son, David Parks, which will take place between the two films. 

University Libraries Savvy Scholar Workshop series continues with a Discovering Search Engine Bias webinar noon-1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 22 via Zoom. This no-cost webinar will explore how algorithmic biases influence search results and provide strategies for minimizing biased results.

Health professionals are invited to attend the Live Well with Diabetes Day of Discovery 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5 at the Wichita State Metropolitan complex. The event is hosted by Wichita’s Great Plains Diabetes, with support from Health ICT—Kansas Business, the KU School of Pharmacy, Dillons and the Wichita State University Physician Assistant Department.

This course is a one-day, interactive, case-based workshop that provides health professionals with up-to-date, evidence-based information to enhance a health professional’s ability to provide diabetes care and prevention for all ages.

For more information, call (316) 440-2802 or go to Great Plains Diabetes website.

If you are an innovator, researcher, or small business, apply by Nov. 1 to take advantage of this virtual event which brings the United States Air Force and the small business community together to connect and collaborate. This enables the opportunity for small business innovation to quickly deliver advanced technologies to the Air Force. The event also offers participants the following:

• An opportunity to connect innovators with potential Air Force customers.
• An opportunity for potential direct contracted purchases or Small Business Innovation Research.

Selected companies will be invited to pitch their technology to Air Force representatives from McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas; Altus AFB, Oklahoma, Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, Whiteman AFB, Missouri, Offutt AFB, Vance AFB, Oklahoma, and Scott AFB, Illinois, in December 2021. 

For more information, contact Wichita State Strategic Initiatives at 316-978-5363 or strategicinitiatives@wichita.edu.

The Writing Now, Reading Now series returns this Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Ulrich Museum. For this edition, award-winning poet and member of the Wichita State Creative Writing Faculty Sam Taylor will read from his latest book “The Book of Fools: An Essay in Memoir and Verse.”

The program begins at 5:30 p.m. with a reception followed by the poetry reading at 6:00 p.m. The event is free to the campus community. Taylor has requested that guests wear masks.

“The Book of Fools” is a sweeping elegy about Earth—and our plastic-choked oceans. Visually arresting and formally innovative, it marries global, ecological themes of loss, centered around the Great Pacific Garbage Gyre, to personal, confessional ones, surrounding a mother’s early death to cancer.

Writing Now, Reading Now is a series curated by the Wichita State Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program that brings celebrated poets and writers from around the country to read in the Ulrich Museum. Recent readings have been given by such noteworthy writers as Jericho Brown, Ilya Kaminsky, Samantha and Lee Chang. Writing Now, Reading Now is sponsored by the Department of English and the Ulrich Museum.

Wichita State’s Department of Human Performance Studies will host another HPSeries-Mental Health and Human Performance at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 20 at Lindquist Hall (Room 100) or via Zoom (Meeting ID: 95722177028 Passcode: 072032).

Featured guests include Dr. Briana Ward, WSU Athlete Mental Health coordinator, Dr. Jessica Grossnicklaus, WSU Outreach coordinator, and Raquel Rios-Reed, 3x Olympic Trials Marathon qualifier and co-owner of First Gear Running Company.

Please join us for our next seminar at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 20 via Zoom. at Jabara Hall featuring Dr. Tapio Schneider, professor at the California Institute of Technology.

The American Chemical Society Student Chapter at Wichita State University (ACS-WSU) will host a member meeting at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 19 at McKinley Hall (Room 108).

The meeting will cover future ACS-WSU events and volunteer opportunities. For more information, contact wsu.acs@wichita.edu.

The Live Well with Diabetes event will take place 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Nov. 6 at the Wichita State Metropolitan Complex (5015 E 29th St N). The event is hosted by Wichita’s Great Plains Diabetes, with support from Health ICT—Kansas Business, the KU School of Pharmacy, Dillons and the Wichita State University Physician Assistant Department.

The event will offer including the following:

• free diabetes screenings
• free lipid tests
• free foot checks
• free medication and supplements reviews
• free blood pressure checks
• COVID and flu vaccinations

There will also be ask-the-experts presentations, healthcare company representatives available for questions and a diabetes support walk beginning at 10 a.m.

For more information, contact 316-440-2802.

Come test your luck on the roulette wheels and the blackjack tables at the Student Activities Council’s (SAC) Casino Night 7-9 p.m. Oct. 28 at the Rhatigan Student Center (first floor). Win big in craps or on the slot machines.

Prizes will be awarded to top-performing Wichita State student players and include AirPods, mini projectors, Shocker gear and more. Chips can also be cashed in for prizes. Admission is free to the campus community, however, prizes are limited to WSU students.

For more information about SAC-sponsored events, please visit the SAC website or contact us at sac@wichita.edu.