WVC Speaks returns with poetry, philosophy, history and more

WENATCHEE — Poetry and guitar music will open a new season of Wenatchee Valley College's WVC Speaks Lecture Series this month, beginning a seven-event lineup that will range from ancient philosophy and regional history to Hitchcock, language loss and the geology of North Central Washington.

The free series begins Sept. 30 with “6 Strings and Two Pens: A Poetry Reading Woven with Guitar Music,” featuring Washington State Poet Laureate and WVC English professor Derek Sheffield, English and philosophy professor Jack Johnson and retired accounting and business professor Michael Choman.

Sheffield and Johnson will combine poetry with music from Choman, a jazz guitarist who performs with the Confluence Jazz Trio. Choman retired from WVC in spring 2026.

All WVC Speaks events will be held in Grove Recital Hall in the Music and Art Center on WVC's Wenatchee campus. Receptions begin at 5 p.m., followed by lectures at 6 p.m. and question-and-answer sessions.

The series continues Oct. 22 with humanities professor Saxon Spillman's “Ancient Philosophers: Socrates and Buddha,” examining ideas about living a good life through a contemporary, cross-cultural perspective. Spillman, who joined WVC in 2024, specializes in cross-cultural philosophy, with research interests including Buddhist philosophy, emotion theory and the philosophy and history of therapy.

On Nov. 19, author and WVC English professor Ana Maria Spagna will present “PUSHED,” drawing from her 2023 book, “Pushed: Miners, a Merchant, and (Maybe) a Massacre.” Spagna's research examines the so-called Chelan Falls Massacre and the history of Chinese immigrants in North Central Washington, including connections to contemporary immigrant communities. She will also discuss her new essay collection, “Coiled: Essays on Urgency and Kinship,” scheduled for release this fall.

The series resumes Jan. 28 with humanities professor S. Hart Johnson's “Escaping the Rear Window: Voyeurism, Confinement, and Miss Torso.” The three-hour event will include a screening of Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film “Rear Window,” followed by a lecture examining how the film's confined perspective shapes the audience's experience.

Kelenda Mendall will present “From Orchard Worker to Honorary Doctorate: A First-Generation Graduate's Journey of Resilience, Leadership, and Service” Feb. 25. Mendall, a first-generation WVC graduate who grew up in Orondo and worked in orchards as a young person, now serves as the college's Passport to College Navigator, supporting foster youth and students experiencing homelessness.

Spanish professor René Baca will present “Linguistic Repression and Generational Language Loss: The Case of Spanish Heritage Language Learners” March 4. Baca's presentation will examine how assimilation pressures, language stigma and educational practices have affected the transmission of Spanish across generations in the United States.

The season concludes April 15 with geology professor Gregory Stewart's “Floods, Faults, Fire, and Time,” a visual exploration of the geology visible throughout the region. Stewart is a fluvial geomorphologist and licensed geologist who teaches Geographic Information Systems at WVC.

WVC Speaks was originally launched in 2015 and ran annually through 2019 before returning during the 2025-26 academic year with an expanded emphasis on bringing college faculty, staff and students together with the broader community.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media