Author: Marty Morrison

BLACK HISTORY IS…

Celebrate and Educate

Black History Month celebrates the journey that African Americans have traveled over time. Their path has been filled with struggles and acts of perseverance. We come together this month to honor, celebrate, and educate everyone about the movements and achievements that have transformed society. The James Farmer Multicultural Center, the Black History Month committee, and the Black Student Association (BSA) invite you to reflect on this journey and join us in celebrating all the progress that has been made. We continue to hope that, as a people and a society, we will further strive to achieve a nation where social justice and equal opportunity become a reality for all Americans.

*Cuisines of Black Cultures,  Seacobeck Hall

Cost: one meal-plan meal or $7.75 for lunch, $9.90 for dinner (plus tax)
Feb. 7 – dinner; Feb. 21 – lunch, Select Mondays in February
Campus Dining Services will celebrate Black History Month by featuring
dishes from African, Caribbean, Creole, and Southern soul cuisines.

*My Journey: African-American Stories

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011
6 p.m., Lee Hall, Room 411
An open-panel discussion of the journey of several African-American
UMW and Fredericksburg community members who will relate
personal experiences in their professions. Refreshments provided.

*Celebration Keynote Performance: Saul Williams

Friday, Feb. 4, 2011
7 p.m., Dodd Auditorium, George Washington Hall
Experience the lyrical force of Saul Williams’ spoken word art. Williams
is a former Grand Slam Champion and HBO Def Poetry Jam performer
who explores social consciousness through his poetry.

*Eric Etheridge – Breach of Peace: Portraits of
the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders

Monday, Feb. 7, 2011
7 p.m., Great Hall, Woodard Campus Center
Reception to follow.
Etheridge is the author, journalist, and photographer behind Breach
of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders, a “then-and-now”
memoir of individuals who took part in the Freedom Rides of 1961.
Part of the James Farmer Visiting Professor Lecturer Series,
in collaboration with Freedom Riders 50th Anniversary Commemoration.

*“The Negro Zone” Discussion

Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011
6 p.m., Lee Hall, Room 411
Panel members will discuss this short, satirical film that addresses
stereotypes African-American men face in the United States. Refreshments
provided. Co-sponsored by Brothers of a New Direction (BOND) and BSA.

*Comedy Performance featuring Jordan Carlos

Friday, Feb. 11, 2011
8 p.m., Great Hall, Woodard Campus Center
Jordan Carlos is a Brooklyn-based comic raised in suburban North
Dallas where he was the only black kid in class and at all the bar mitzvahs.
He has appeared as Stephen Colbert’s black friend, “Alan,” on the Colbert
Report and performed on Comedy Central’s Live at Goth. Sponsored by
GIANTProductions.

*Step Show

Saturday, Feb. 12, 2011
6:30 p.m. – doors open, 7 p.m. – show begins
Dodd Auditorium, George Washington Hall
Cost: $7; $5 with UMW ID
Join an array of the most talented area step teams performing in this high
energy, entertaining competition. Co-sponsored by Women of Color, BOND,
and the Fredericksburg Area Boys and Girls Club.

*Candido: Hands of Fire

Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011
6 p.m., Lee Hall, Room 411
Ivan Acosta directed Candido: Hands of Fire, a documentary about a well-known
Afro-Cuban percussionist, Candido Camero. The audience will be
treated to a viewing of this documentary followed by a discussion led by
Mr. Acosta. Co-sponsored by the departments of Modern Foreign Languages
and English.

*HIV/AIDS in the Black Community: A Panel Discussion

Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011
6 p.m., Lee Hall, Room 411
Black Americans have been disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS and
that disparity continues to grow. Sponsored jointly by BSA, People for the
Rights of Individuals of Sexual Minorities (PRISM), and Fredericksburg’s
Home of Miracles and Embraces (H.O.M.E).

*A Night of Jazz: Performance and Discussion

Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011
8 p.m., The Underground, Lee Hall
Join Doug Gately for a discussion of jazz music in the African-American
community and enjoy a performance by the UMW Faculty Jazz Sextet. Co-sponsored by the UMW Department of Music.

*Gospelfest

Sunday, Feb. 20, 2011
6 p.m., Great Hall, Woodard Campus Center
Enjoy an evening of gospel music and spiritual uplift with choirs, singing
groups, and praise dance teams as they display their musical talents.

*Coming Out? African-American Culture and Sexuality

Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011
6 p.m., Lee Hall, Room 411
A candid discussion about stereotypes surrounding black homophobia and
non-heterosexual lifestyles. Co-sponsored by BSA and PRISM.

*Gay Rights versus Civil Rights

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011
7 p.m., Lee Hall, Room 411
Involved in the struggle for both GLBT and civil rights equality,
Fredericksburg musician and activist Gaye Adegbalola presents a unique
and personal interpretation. Sponsored by PRISM.

The first joint program between the Asia Society and the Washington Friends of International Society for Iranian Studies was held at the Whittemore House in Washington, D.C on January 15.  Despite the frigid weather more than 40 people attended.  Guests were welcomed into the historic mansion adorned in holiday decorations by the Asia Society Cultural programmer, Szuhan Chen, and the founder of the Washington Friends of International Society for Iranian Studies (ISIS), Mona Khademi.

Asia Society is the leading global and Pan-Asian organization working to strengthen relationships, promote understanding and address cultural issues across the fields of policy, business, education, arts and culture among the people, leaders, and institutions of the United States and Asia.  They co-hosted the event for this evening with Washington Friends of International Society for Iranian Studies which was founded in 2006 to support and promote the field of Iranian Studies at the international level. ISIS, an affiliated member of the international Middle East Studies Association (MESA), is a private, not-for-profit, non-political organization of persons interested in Iranian Studies in the broadest sense.

The traditional Persian pastries and tea set an appropriate stage to introduce Dr. Mehdi Aminrazavi’s book, The Wine of Wisdom; The Life, Poetry and Philosophy of Omar Khayyam. Dr. Aminrazavi is a professor of philosophy and religion and the director of the Center for Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at UMW.  His areas of specialization are medieval Islamic philosophy and theology, philosophy of religion, and non-Western philosophical and religious thought.  Dr. Aminrazavi has published 10 books and numerous articles including the five volumes of An Anthology of Philosophy in Persia and Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination. He began by providing a synopsis of Omar Khayyam’s life, his mentors and students, and moved on to offer his interpretation of The Rubaiyat.  By attempting to place Omar Khayyam in his own historical context, Aminrazavi elaborated on how the Rubaiyat can be viewed as the literature of resistance against the rise of religious orthodoxy during the Seljuk period.  Omar Khayyam lived at a time when the golden era of Islamic civilization was coming to an end and the age of philosophy, theology and rational thought and the influence of philosophers were being increasingly curtailed.  Dr. Aminrazavi made a correlation between the times in which Omar Khayyam lived and the rise of religious orthodoxy in the present day Islamic world.  He brought his remarks to an end by tracing the odyssey of Omar Khayyam and his Rubaiyat to the West through the translations of Edward Fitzgerald and the Omar Khayyam Club of America in the 1920’s.  Aminrazavi helped to stress his remarks with poetic excerpts from the Rubaiyat in both Persian and English.

The lecture was well received by a diverse audience who clearly had an appreciation and familiarity with literature and poetry.  In an interactive question and answer session, such themes as the poetic quality of Fitzgerald’s translation, the relevance of the Rubaiyat to the contemporary world and the relationship between Khayyam’s philosophical writings and his poetry among others were investigated.  The lecture was followed by a reception and book signing ceremony.

The University of Mary Washington Galleries will host two new exhibitions to welcome the new year.

“Part of a Bigger Picture”, featuring the work of Michael Wsol, will run Friday, January 14 through Friday, January 28 in the duPont Gallery. On Thursday, January 13, there will be a gallery talk by the exhibition artist from 4 to 5 p.m. followed by an opening reception with refreshments from 5 to 7 p.m.

Michael Wsol creates artworks inspired by the methods in which people live and function in developed societies.  More specifically, he studies the structural, social, and economic systems that have been developed to create and support contemporary culture.  Wsol looks for systems in the areas in which he lives and works to provide the subject matter of his investigations.  These artworks simplify infrastructural and cultural systems into studies of their specific functions and potential adaptations.

Mr. Wsol teaches Three-dimensional Studies at Georgia State University.  He exhibited in New York, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, and Miami, among other cities, including the recent “Exit Art Biennial” at the Exit Art Gallery in New York City and “Landscaping” at Fusebox in Washington D.C.  He is represented by the Solomon Projects gallery in Atlanta, Georgia and has work in numerous private collections.  Michael Wsol earned a MArch degree from The University of Virginia, a MFA in sculpture from The University of Georgia, and a MA in sculpture and a BA in sculpture from Eastern Illinois University.

“Shades of Gray: Drawings in Graphite” will run Friday, January 21 through Friday, February 25 in the Ridderhof Martin Gallery.  On Thursday, January 20, there will be an opening reception with refreshments from 5 to 7 p.m.  On Sunday, February 26, at 2 p.m., there will be a gallery talk presented by Joann Moser entitled “Why Draw?” at the Ridderhof Martin Gallery.  Joann Moser is the Senior Curator of Graphic Arts at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  This is the first lecture of the “2011 Spring Lecture Series.”  Advance registration is required.  Admission is free.

“Shades of Gray” presents the work of six artists from Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. while exploring a variety of ways that graphite is used by contemporary artists. The artists featured are Lea Anderson, Matthew Ballou, Gianluca Bianchino, Elaine Kaufmann, Darice Polo, Lana Stephens, and Christine Weir.

In the past, graphite was relegated to use as a medium for preparatory studies that would later be reworked into more finished work in other media.  However, due to a renewed interested in drawing among contemporary artists, it is no longer only a means to an end.  As seen in this exhibition, the use of graphite provides a surprisingly common ground for the realization of each artist’s vision despite such diverse inspiration sources as architecture, contradiction, filtered memories, irony, isolation, obsession, phobias, scale, scientific inquiry, and social consciousness.

The University of Mary Washington Galleries (UMWG), composed of the Ridderhof Martin Gallery and the duPont Gallery, is dedicated to advancing the educational goals of the University through the collection, preservation, exhibition, and interpretation of works of art in accordance with the highest professional museum standards. While the primary mission is to promote and enhance student awareness and understanding of the visual arts, UMWG also serves as a significant academic resource contributing to the intellectual and cultural enrichment of the entire University community, the local community, and, in a broader sense, the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Admission to the University of Mary Washington Galleries is free.  The UMW Galleries is located on the University of Mary Washington campus at 1301 College Avenue and is open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m.

For directions and more information, call (540) 654-1013 or visit the gallery website at www.galleries.umw.edu.

UMW Libraries is pleased to announce the digitization of the university’s yearbook The Battlefield. Volumes from 1913-2010 are now in full color and searchable from cover-to-cover. The public can view the digital format of The Battlefield online through the Internet Archive.

Alumni and the campus community will have ready access to former college days through these online volumes with pages relating to sports, clubs, faculty members, advertisements, and Mary Washington traditions. Campus and historical events affecting students and the local community can now also be easily researched online. Only editions for 1908-1912 and 1918 are unavailable online as The Battlefield was not published during those years.

The site allows for multiple methods of researching the history of the university. The user can page through a book choosing the “read online” option, download the entire yearbook in PDF format, and search the full text version.

This exciting project was made possible through the LYRASIS Mass Digitization Collaborative, a Sloan Foundation grant-subsidized program, LYRASIS’ scanning partner Internet Archive, and UMW Libraries. LYRASIS is the nation’s largest regional non-profit membership organization serving libraries. Through this collaborative partnership, digitization is easier and affordable for libraries and cultural institutions across the country.

On Saturday and Sunday, December 18 and 19, the UMW Faculty Brass Quintet, led by UMW Philharmonic Director Kevin Bartram, will perform two free holiday shows. The Saturday performance is from 1-2 p.m. at the Spotsylania Towne Centre Food Court. The show will be repeated on Sunday outside of Joseph-Beth Booksellers also at the Towne Centre.