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www.lizphair.com Liz Phair’s display of profanity sparked much community reaction

The Liz Phair concert that took place in the FAC on Monday night, featuring a new song titled “Don’t Apologize,” has forced members of the Calvin administration to publicly apologize. While the audience was relatively small, with approximately 600 people attending, the reaction to the concert has been great.

In a review of the show in the Grand Rapids Press Tuesday, John Serba referred to the “hilarious, liberating lyrics that we can’t even think of printing in a family newspaper” of the song “Flower.” He also pointed to “the naughty persona she slips into during more profane, funny moments…”

In the conclusion of his review, Serba wrote: “Phair’s frankness won’t make her a platinum-selling artist, but she leaves the listener fulfilled in a way that almost redefines honesty; the bottom line is, she turns forbidden thoughts into exhilarating songs…”

President Byker and Director of Student Activities, Ken Heffner, have received phone calls from confused members of the Calvin community who are wondering what these forbidden thoughts were doing on the FAC stage.

These phone calls have been met by apologetic responses. Byker said that the administration “supports what the Student Activities Office is trying to do, but Liz Phair was a mistake and we are going to issue a public apology.”

Vice President of Student Life, David Hoekema who attended the concert, referred to the concert as regrettable” and the language as “needlessly offensive.”

While Hoekema disagreed with Phair’s means of getting her message across, he held that her message “is not mindless and does not intend to undermine moral responsibility.”

Hoekema pointed out that Phair’s most recent album “whitechocolatespaceegg” is more “more mature and less confrontational” than her first album, from which she played “Flower” and “F*** and Run.” He noted that she was invited with the assumption that “we would get an example of her most recent work.”

Hoekema noted that Calvin has made a “conscious decision to have a varied concert program. We don’t want to invite only those we agree with.”

In the case of the Liz Phair concert, however, Byker, Hoekema and Heffner agree that the offensive nature of the concert made Calvin an inappropriate venue.

Heffner apologized for any offense that the concert may have caused.

He said that he regrets the fact that “we didn’t look at her whole repertoire, but focused on her new album.”

He also noted that her lyrics were “so offensive that is was difficult for many to get to the meaning.”

Heffner made it clear that the apology being made is not an apology for the entire concert series. “We are not apologizing for the unique and brilliant perspective that this college has on how to engage with culture and on how to be in this world, but not of it,” he said. “In other words, we are not apologizing for the spirit that drives the concert series, but we are apologizing for this specific concert which went beyond the edge.”

Ann Speyer, a member of Student Activities Board, was among the audience members Monday night. “I don’t regret the decision to bring Liz Phair to Calvin,” she said. “It was difficult to look past her lyrics and find her message at times, but she has a valid perspective when it comes to relationships and sexuality, and her voice deserves to be heard.”