Whitman String Quartet opens 49th Concert Series Season

Chestertown, MD, September 8, 2000 — Washington College will kick off the 2000-2001 Concert Series season on Monday, September 25, with a performance by the Whitman String Quartet on Monday, September 25, at 8 p.m. in Gibson Performing Arts Center, Tawes Theatre. The group's appearance will mark the opening of the 49th Concert Series season.

Since its 1995 Lincoln Center debut, the Whitman String Quartet has played to critical acclaim throughout the United States and Japan and is the winner of the 1998 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award. The quartet has been featured on Japan's NHK television network and the CBS newsmagazine "60 Minutes," and is heard regularly on National Public Radio. The New York Times has praised the quartet's performance as " . . . remarkably transparent, with each line carefully focused and perfectly balanced against the others," and The Miami Herald lauded the group's playing "with such freedom yet hair-raising collective control . . . It has the seeds of true greatness."

Washington College will also welcome lyric soprano Laura Danehower Whyte on November 14 as the Concert Series season continues. Spring 2001 performers will include folk dance ensemble Mandala, The Amsterdam Guitar Trio, and pianist Rachel Franklin. Admission to all performances is $12 for adults and $5 for youth 18 and under. For more information or for season tickets, call 410-778-7839.

Talk to Address State of the Bay

Chestertown, MD, September 8, 2000 — Can the Chesapeake Bay be rescued from the ravages of pollution, over-harvesting and development? John Page Williams will discuss the state of the Bay's health and provisions for its future when he presents "Is the Bay Savable? What Needs to be Done" on Tuesday, September 19 at Washington College.

Senior naturalist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Williams will address the Chesapeake 2000 Bay Agreement—a contract designed to nurture and sustain the Bay, protect it as a habitat, restore and conserve watersheds, wetlands and forests, and improve water quality—and what it means for the Bay's future. He is author of two books, Exploring the Chesapeake in Small Boats and Chesapeake Almanac. In addition to a bi-weekly newspaper column, he has also written columns on fishing and natural history.

Williams's talk begins at 7:30 p.m. in Litrentra Lecture Hall, Dunning Hall. Sponsored by the McLain Program in Environmental Studies, it is free and open to the public.

Civil Rights activist to speak

Chestertown, MD, September 8, 2000 — Charged with dissonance, violence and a passionate struggle for equality, the Civil Rights Movement both changed and created history. Activist, educator and award-winning film producer Judy Richardson will discuss the Movement's history, its lessons, its current relevance, and its future when she speaks on "The Civil Rights Movement: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" at Washington College on Tuesday, September 26.

A staff member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the early 1960s, Richardson worked on SNCC projects in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, including the "Freedom Summer" of 1964 when volunteers traveled throughout the South to help register African American voters. In 1965, she joined current NAACP Chairman Julian Bond's successful campaign for the Georgia House of Representatives. During the 1970s, Richardson directed a study of racism in African American children's books for Howard University; conducted a national study of political prisoners in the United States; and directed a Washington, D.C., scholarship agency for African American students. She also organized a residential freedom school that brought together young people from civil rights struggles in both the North and the South in order to discuss common concerns and strategies.

Richardson is co-producer of the acclaimed television series "Eyes on the Prize," a photojournalistic history of the Civil Rights Movement, and of "Malcolm X: Make It Plain," an in-depth film portrait of the Civil Rights leader. She speaks nationally on the Civil Rights Movement and the making of "Eyes on the Prize," speaking with young people about the values of the Movement and their relevance to current issues. Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., national director of the Million Man March, has called her "not only an authentic voice of the past, but a vibrant voice of the future."

Richardson's talk, sponsored by the Goldstein Program in Public Affairs, begins at 7:30 p.m. in Norman James Theatre. It is free and open to the public.