From staff reports
PennWest Clarion is once again hosting a week’s worth of Autumn Leaf Festival and university homecoming events beginning Monday.
Leading up to next weekend’s homecoming is the annual Cultural Nights celebration, which is a four-day legacy community event that will observe its 28th year next week.
Daily entertainment is planned at 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday in front of the Clarion County Courthouse.
Monday — Linda Littleton and Karen Hirshon, known as Simple Gifts, will perform a range of ethnic music on 12 instruments.
The two – often accompanied by a third member, Rachel Hall – have released six CDs, two of which have won national awards.
Tuesday — The Tamburitzans ensemble will perform a wide variety of folk dance and music representing international cultures.
The young musicians, singers and dances are full-time students who continue the Tamburitzans’ legacy by bringing international cultures to the modern stage.
Wednesday — Rocker Mitch Littler of Oil City, a singer and guitar and harmonica player, will perform.
Littler started playing with his family’s bluegrass band at the age of 14, and he spent three years as a full-time traveling blues entertainer performing at venues and festivals across several states. He performs frequently in and around Oil City.
Thursday: There will be a pep rally followed by Human Spotify John Rush, whose one-man show takes audiences on a musical journey.
Rush plays original music and performs with a loop machine that allows him to record a guitar loop on the fly, then play lead, bass, harmonica, piano and percussion over it. He has won Campus Entertainer of the Year and Campus Awards Musician of the Year.
New this year will be a comfort station those three days on the lawn by the courthouse hosted by PennWest’s Clarion International Students Association.
The station will provide a place for mothers to breastfeed and parents to change diapers.
Homecoming weekend festivities begin with the Oct. 6 dedication of the John S. Shropshire Hall. The former Egbert Hall has been fully renovated and refurbished as the PennWest Clarion admissions welcome center.
The hall has been renamed in honor of Shropshire, a 1961 Clarion University graduate and former Clarion dean of admissions who devoted his life and work to serving students.
He was the first Black dean at Clarion and advocated for equality, knowing that education was essential in that quest.
The Tournament of Leaves parade and university homecoming football game are on Oct. 7.
The day will begin with Eggs with Ernie for alumni, family and friends from 10 a.m. to noon in the Hart Chapel parking lot. Ernie, the Golden Eagles mascot, will be present.
The parade, one of Clarion’s longest-standing traditions, gets underway at noon along Main Street.
At 2 p.m. at Memorial Stadium, the Golden Eagles football team will play Seton Hill.
The homecoming royalty will be crowned at halftime.