PORT ANGELES —Peninsula College’s Studium Generale series will present 11 free public programs this fall in the Little Theater on the Port Angeles campus, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
The first program in the series starts at 12:35 p.m. Thursday with the Teatro Milagro — Miracle Theater — of Portland, Ore., and a free performance of “Frida: Un Retablo.”
In this play, the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) appears in all her glory, wearing her traditional Tehuantepec dress and telling her story. It’s one of life and art intertwined, from the streetcar accident that left her crippled to her torrid relationship with muralist Diego Rivera. And it all happens within the 50-minute Studium Generale.
The series continues at 12:35 p.m. each Thursday into December, with three programs dedicated to a theme: the United Nations’ declaration of 2013 as “The International Year of Water Cooperation.”
These Studium programs are:
■ Jon Riedel: A geologist with the National Park Service, Riedel will speak on “Vanishing Ice: Where Will Our Water Go As Our Glaciers Go?” on Thursday, Oct. 10.
This program is co-sponsored with Climate Action Olympic, a local group formed to study the issue of climate change.
■ Robert Steelquist, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration education and outreach coordinator for the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, will present “Our Changing Ocean” on Thursday, Nov. 7.
Steelquist will outline some of what is known and much of what is unknown about the Olympic coast of the future.
■ Artist Karen Hackenberg will present “The Floating World” on Thursday, Dec. 5. The Port Townsend resident will discuss her art, some of which has been purchased for the Washington State Art Collection at Peninsula College.
Other Studium Generale programs this season include presentations by Peninsula College faculty Rich Riski and Jim Fisher, the Storytellers of Clallam County, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Healthy Families, Olympic National Park anthropologist Jacilee Wray and the Peninsula College Drama Department.
For information on these and other public events, visit www.pencol.edu or www.facebook.com/PeninsulaCollege.