“Theatre is a highly collaborative art form.”

After over a year without live performances for Lipscomb Theatre, audiences are finally back! The crowd-pleasing jukebox musical Mamma Mia! is a hit on campus. We spoke with Beki Baker, the chair of the theatre department and the director of Mamma Mia about returning to the stage, all the behind the scenes work that goes into a production of this caliber (including the music direction, the choreography, the set construction, the costume design, and more!), and how you can see the show this weekend.

On Monday the Department of Fashion and Design will kick off Lipscomb’s inaugural Fashion Week. But what exactly can students expect from this brand new event? On this episode, we have Charlotte Poling, the Fashion Executive-in-Residence and Assistant Dean in the College of Entertainment and the Arts. We discussed her career in the fashion industry, the work that went on behind the scenes to make Lipscomb’s inaugural Fashion Week happen, and all of the events that are taking place next week.

On Monday the Office of Intercultural Development will begin their flagship event, the Welcome to Our World Week, or WOW for short. So what exactly can students expect from WOW Week and what role does the OID play on campus? Today we have Candace Williams, the Director of Community Life and Student Organizations, specifically with the OID here on campus, as well as Heleena Kabtimer, a student representative for OID here to give us a preview of what’s to come at this year’s WOW week and explain the role of the OID at Lipscomb.

Here's how you can get in contact with the OID:

Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @OIDlipscomb
Phone: 615-966-6134
Office: Bennett 180 (lower level)

September is National Recovery Month. Last week Lipscomb hosted the campus’ first-ever Colleiegate Recovery Academy. So, what exactly is a recovery academy and how does it advance the goals of National Recovery Month? Today we have a panel of experts to answer those questions and more as we welcome Dr. DeAndrea Witherspoon Nash, the lead faculty for the addiction specialization in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program, Nathan Payne, the coordinator of the Tennessee Collegiate Recovery Initiative, and Jaime Harper, an alum of the addiction specialization program and the faith-based coordinator in Tennessee’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.

In this episode of Bison Talk we spoke with Dr. Willie Steele, Lipscomb English professor, author, and the world’s foremost W.P. Kinsella scholar. During our conversation, we worked our way through Steele’s career, including his road to becoming a Kinsella expert, what it’s like to write a biography, attending the Field of Dreams game, the experience of being interviewed for a documentary, editing the baseball history and culture journal Nine, and more! We even talk a little about Steele’s time as a student-athlete at Lipscomb.

Quest Week - it’s one of the most notable events every year on the Lipscomb calendar. It’s an essential part of becoming a member of the Purple and Gold herd. And it wouldn’t happen without the Quest Team.
Welcome to Bison Talk!
Today we interviewed Jordan Williams and Zach Walker, the 2021 Quest Team Co-Directors. Jordan and Zach answer all our questions about the week ahead, give some behind-the-scenes insight into the process of producing such an event, and even share some tips for incoming freshmen.

After a year-long delay the 2020 Summer Olympics kick off this week in Tokyo, with the opening ceremony taking place on Friday. With the Games set to take over everyone’s attention for the next three weeks, we wanted to localize the coverage with some Lipscomb Olympic connections. We’re beginning this week’s episode with Assistant Vice President of Public Relations and Communications Kim Chaudoin and Communications Coordinator Logan Butts, who both had the opportunity to work a past Olympic Games, discussing their experiences. Then, I spoke with Lipscomb track and field star Shane Streich about running at this year’s US Olympic Trials as well as the NCAA National Championship, and more!

In today's episode, we talk with Tom Bancroft, the Artist in Residence in the Lipscomb College of Entertainment and the Arts. During our conversation, we worked our way through Tom’s entire career, including his time at the prestigious California Institute of the Arts, his 12 years as a supervising animator at Disney where worked on films like The Lion King, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and Mulan, and his stint with Big Idea Productions, where he was a director for eighth episodes of VeggieTales. We also delve into what made Tom want to become an educator and the newly created MFA program in Animation here at Lipscomb.

Can you celebrate something that is flawed? Is it possible to admit there are problems with an institution, while also praising the things that make it beautiful? JP Conway, a professor here at Lipscomb in the College of Bible and minister at Acklen Avenue Church of Christ, set out to do just that, exploring one of today’s toughest challenges when it comes to the church with his new book Broken But Beautiful, Why Church is Still Worth It. During our conversation, we spoke about his book, the importance of in-person church interaction, and even talked a little baseball.

College can be a crucial time for young adults when it comes to taking care of and learning about mental health. Between balancing academics, jobs, and social lives, and simply entering a period of great upheaval and transition, stress, anxiety, and more can rise to the surface. With May being Mental Health Awareness Month, we wanted to find out how college students can form healthy habits. On this episode of Bison Talk we talked to Andrea Mills, the director of the Counseling Center here at Lipscomb University. During our conversation, we spoke about all the amenities and services the Counseling Center has to offer, tips for college students who are struggling with mental health, and the goals of Mental Health Awareness Month.