Martin Luther King Remembrance And Celebration Set For January 19

Chestertown, MD, January 12, 2004 — Washington College will host “MARTIN LUTHER KING: A DAY OF CELEBRATION,” Monday, January 19, in honor of the memory and the legacy of the late Civil Rights leader. A program of remembrance will be held at 1:30 p.m. and the film Separate But Equal will be shown at 6:30 p.m., both in the Norman James Theatre, William Smith Hall. The events are free and the public is invited to attend.

At 1:30 p.m., students, faculty and other members of the Washington College community will reflect on the “Power Of Integration” and the life of Dr. King through anecdotes and readings in a service of remembrance and celebration in the Norman James Theatre. At 6:30 p.m., the College will show the 1991 film Separate But Equal that documents the legal and moral struggle to desegregate America's public schools. The film features Sidney Portier as the future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall—then a lawyer for the NAACP—and the case that lead to the Supreme Court's 1953 decision to abolish racial segregation in schools. Both events are sponsored by Washington College's Martin Luther King Celebration Committee, Black Student Union and Cleopatra's Daughters.

Speaker To Discuss Choices And Challenges Faced By Minority Business Women

Chestertown, MD, March 28, 2003 — Washington College presents “CHOICES AND CHALLENGES OF A MINORITY BUSINESS WOMAN,” a lecture by Dr. Adrienne McCollum, President and CEO of Research Assessment Management, Inc., on Wednesday, April 2, at 4:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Dr. McCollum has operated her management consulting firm for 20 years, doing business with the private sector and performing contractual work for a variety of government agencies and organizations, including the Agency for International Development, Department of Transportation, National Institute of Mental Health, Bureau of Education for the Handicapped, the Office of Child Abuse and Neglect, the While House Conference on Aging, the Head Start Bureau, and the United States Postal Service Office of the Inspector General. With a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and as a minority business woman managing a full-time staff of 45, in addition to numerous contractual consultants, Dr. McCollum understands the importance of teamwork and diversity in modern business and has developed and implemented workshops on “Working In A Diverse Work Force.”

In addition to her other activities, Dr. McCollum teaches at the University of Phoenix and has made presentations at American University, the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority and Benedict College. She has received honors and awards from the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped, the National Council of Negro Women, and the White House Conference on Aging, and she has served on the Board of Trustees of Benedict College for 10 years and on the Board of Directors of the William L Clay Research and Education Scholarship Fund. Dr. McCollum's other business experiences include the ownership of Burger King franchises, and presently, with her spouse Dr. R. Dale McCollum, four gas and convenience stores, and she is currently in the process of patenting a new invention.

Dr. McCollum's talk is sponsored by Washington College's Department of Business Management, the Goldstein Program in Public Affairs, the Campus Events & Visitors Committee, the Black Student Union and Cleopatra's Daughters.

Writer, Performer and Blues Singer Arthur Flowers to Perform at Washington College February 14th

Chestertown, MD, January 31, 2002 — In celebration of Black History Month, writer, storyteller and blues singer Arthur Flowers will present an evening of performance literature and music, Thursday, February 14, 2002, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the Washington College's Norman James Theatre, William Smith Hall. The concert is free and the public is invited to attend.

Flowers is the author of two novels, De Mojo Blues and Another Good Loving Blues, a children's book Cleveland Lee's Beale Street Band, and the forthcoming nonfiction book, Mojo Rising: Confessions of a 21st Century Conjureman. He writes and performs as a "literary hoodoo man" to bridge the gap between Western literary culture and African oral traditions. He is the co-founder of the New Renaissance Writer's Guild and teaches creative writing at Syracuse University.

Flowers considers himself a contemporary griot, referring to the storytellers of ancient African societies who passed on the history of their people to future generations through the oral tradition. Using "performance literature" as the medium, Flowers accompanies his presentations with African instruments and rhythms.

Although a native of Memphis, Flowers did not discover blues music and culture until he moved to New York to become a writer after serving in Vietnam. While researching the blues and the Hoodoo religious tradition, he became more deeply dedicated to uncovering the African traditions that have influenced American culture and to making the African vernacular a greater power and living part of our nation's literary tradition and language forms.

The performance is sponsored by the Sophie Kerr Committee, the Washington College Chapter of Cleopatra's Daughters and the Office of Campus Events.

For more information on these or other events at Washington College, call the Campus Events Office at 410-778-7888.

Author of Nappy Hair to Speak on the Contexts of Women's Beauty

Chestertown, MD, March 7, 2001 — Carolivia Herron, author of the award-winning children's book Nappy Hair(Knopf 1997), will speak on "Nappy Hair and the Contexts of Women's Beauty" on Wednesday, March 21, 2001 at 7:30 p.m. in Washington College's Norman James Theatre.

Dr. Herron is a scholar in the field of classical epic and African-American literature and an Assistant Professor of English at California State University, Chico. Nappy Hair is an award-winning, vibrantly illustrated children's book that uses the African-American call-and-response tradition, as a family talks back and forth about the main character, Brenda's, hair. The family delights in poking gentle fun with their hilarious descriptions, all the time discovering the beauty and meaning of Brenda's hair. The book encourages the recognition and celebration of beauty in racial diversity and the diversity of beauty.

The talk is sponsored by the Center for the Study of Black Culture, the Sophie Kerr Committee, the Diversity Planning Task Force, the International House, the Black Student Union and Cleopatra's Daughters. The public is invited to attend.