By Shaun Booth

Staff Writer

George W. Bush, Maya Angelou, Dave Matthews, John Updike, William Renquist, Ben Harper, Jan Karon, Grammy Award Winners, Pulitzer Prize winners. Has this been the line up over the last couple of years at Harvard or Yale University, you ask? No, all of these people have actually visited the same campus where you are now reading this article, your very own Calvin College. While Calvin is not an Ivy League university, it does seem to have a ridiculous amount of star drawing power. Why? And also how are these people relevant to this Christian campus? Well, allow me to explain.

The concert series here at Calvin along with the Festival of Faith and Writing have drawn a fair amount of star power in the past years. But Calvin's decision makers do not bring these people here for the sake of having celebrities on campus. There seems to be a well thought out process of reasoning behind the decision making. Both the concert series and the Festival are organized by people who are conscious of the fact that these events take place on the campus of a Christian college, but at the same time do not use their presentation of the arts for a meeting of the super pious sub-culture.

English professor Dale Brown , the director of the Festival of Faith and Writing, says, ``Everyone that is a serious American writer will pursue in one way or another the question of faith.'' So even if the writers are not Bible toting Christians, they have perspectives on faith.

Often the roles of the concert series and the writing festival are misunderstood, both by the writers and musicians that Brown and Student Activities Director Ken Heffner pursue and by the people that attend the events. Brown says that he ``catches a lot of flack'' for some of the writers that he brings to the Festival. For example, the 2000 Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Dunn is a self-proclaimed infidel, yet he was invited to this year's Festival and was part of the opening session. The goal of the festival is to bring accomplished writers to campus, or at the very least writers and artists that are on the cutting edge of their art. This goes for the musicians who come to campus as well.

Brown says he also hears comments to the effect of ``Jesus was not lifted up enough in this festival.'' This is when it is Brown's job to point out that this is a festival of faith and writing, not Christianity and writing, so the writers are not forced to speak about the Christian faith if they are comfortable with it.

Johanna Dean, a leader of the student activities board suggests, ``Once one controversial speaker or musician, assuming they are respected in their community of artists, is brought to campus (i.e. Ben Harper, Stephen Dunn), it not only brings respect to the collective showcases for art, it also easies any apprehensions that a non-Christian artist may have.''

And that is just the point: Calvin does not have these artists on campus simply for the sake of controversy, but because first and foremost they are respected in their respective fields as artists and have something to offer to Calvin students.

For every critical remark that Brown hears about the Festival, he also hears a testimonial or inspiring story that lets him know he is pursuing the right goals. Whether it is attendees of the conference getting to meet a writer they have been reading for years, or a student being introduced to an important writer that they have never read, there are nourishing experiences that make the Festival an exciting event for lovers of literature. This shows why Brown tends to the needs of the ticket purchasers first; without them the Festival would not happen.

Now to the question of why artists bother with Calvin, this small liberal arts college in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For the musician, Calvin seems to be a breath of fresh air from the tired club scene that they confront night after night.

Heffner runs down some of the differences: ``First, the crowd is sober, which might not seem like a big deal, but it makes a huge difference in the crowds behavior; second, there is no smoking in the [FAC], so the artists don't have to deal with the smoke in their eyes and sing in that smoky air; and third, all of the artists notice from the moment they step into the [FAC] that it is a beautiful room.''

Like Heffner said these might not seem like a big deal, sometimes it is the absence of the rowdiness of the crowd or the smoke that can be a nice change of pace for the artist. When all of these distractions disappear, the focus is drawn back to the music, and don't think that the artists don't notice this about Calvin. These aspects of change thrown along side the pre-show conversations with the artists that Heffner has created makes for an atmosphere that the artists surprisingly are not used to.

The conversations with the artists, for those of you who are not familiar with the format, are set up for the students to learn more about the artists' music, with Heffner filtering out the fan questions (about girlfriends, tour buses, and drinking stories). These conversations usually take place the in the afternoon, just hours before the artists perform.

Calvin's unique atmosphere is what it's all about. The Festival of Faith and Writing creates an atmosphere for the writers that is what Brown calls ``a rock star atmosphere, with people crowded in rooms, willing to sit on the floor, just to hear these writers speak.'' How can writers resist this atmosphere, where again the focus is completely on their work and their thoughts, as it should be?

When the Festival started in the early `90s, Brown was working on compiling a book of interviews with American writers. He was able to use his meetings with some of the writers to start building the first list of speakers at the Festival. The big names that the Festival is now able to draw seem to be a result of momentum. When Brown was able to get Annie Dillard for the `96 Festival it was then easier to get John Updike (two time Pulitzer Prize winner) in `98 when he heard that Annie Dillard had been there. It was then easier to get Oscar Hijuelos (Pulitzer Prize winner), w3ho rarely does these kinds of lectures, to come and speak, seeing the long list of accomplished writers that had been established.

The list of next year's concerts already includes two Grammy award winners. Blues man Keb Mo' will perform September 13. Decorated gospel singer Kirk Franklin will also perform early in the semester. As far as the Festival of Faith and Writing, work has already begun in pursuing the 2004 speakers. The list of speakers that Brown is planning to pursue includes: Jimmy Carter, Robert Duval, Stephen King, John Grisham, Oprah Winfrey, and American poet Donald Hall.

Before you dismiss this wish list as a clever way to drum up attention, consider Brown's prestigious connections. When Jan Karon was here this past weekend, she enjoyed the city and campus so much that she said she would try to line up John Grisham for the 2004 festival; Grisham just happens to be her neighbor back in North Carolina. Karon also made a substantial contribution to the budget for the Children's writing festival. Oprah is a good friend of Maya Angelou (who was a part of the 2000 festival), so that could be an avenue to pursue her. Brown admits that Oprah may be a long shot, but it would be worth pursuing because of the impact that she has had on the book industry with her television book club.

The single thing that has the most impact is the word of mouth in the artists' communities. The only way to make sure that it is positive word of mouth is to put on a quality Festival and concert series. This way as the speakers and musicans move on and perform across the country, their words about their experience here not only reflect well on the Festival and concerts, but on the Calvin community as a whole. So as the speakers celebrity status comtinues to increase more people come from off campus to hear the artists share their visions. Also, remember not to worry that it will ever outgrow the Calvin campus, because the people planning these events have time, money and their jobs, invested in the quality of the program that they are compiling.