Concert Series Opens with Adaskin String Trio

Chestertown, MD, September 14, 2007 — The Washington College Concert Series begins its 2007-2008 season with a performance by the Adaskin String Trio at the Norman James Theatre on Saturday, September 22, at 8 p.m. The acclaimed trio will be joined in concert by Thomas Gallant, oboe.

The Adaskin String Trio is the premier ensemble of its kind in North America. Founded in 1994, the trio has performed extensively throughout the United States and Canada, including performances at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and in Montreal, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Nashville, Boston, Florida, Oklahoma and Oregon. In addition, the trio's concerts have been recorded for broadcast by CBC Radio, Radio-Canada and National Public Radio.

The trio has become renowned for its interpretations of works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert as well as masterpieces by 20th-century giants such as Villa-Lobos and Schnittke. The Boston Globe enthused, "Not only was the Adaskin's technical mastery never in question, they brought to the music a focus and intensity that was all the keener for its selflessness...Always...you felt, they were directing the listener to the heart of the matter."

Award-winning Thomas Gallant is one of the world's few virtuoso solo and chamber music performers on the oboe. Gallant has been praised by The New Yorker as "a player who unites technical mastery with intentness, charm and wit."

Now in its 56th season, the Washington College Concert Series will continue with performances by guitarist Alex de Grassi on October 27; the flute/piano duo "2" on February 2, 2008; the Cambodian Classics Ensemble on March 2, 2008; and harpist Elizabeth Hainen on April 26, 2008. All concerts are held at the College's Norman James Theatre in William Smith Hall. Single tickets can be purchased at the door, $15 for adults and $5 for youth and students. Season tickets are available for $50 per person in advance or at the box office on performance nights.

For more ticket information and a 2007-2008 season brochure, call 410-778-7839.

Washington College Hosts Two-Day Book Prize Celebration

Winner of $50,000 Award Coming to Chestertown September 27, 28

Chestertown, MD, September 12, 2007 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience will host Charles Rappleye, winner of the 2007 George Washington Book Prize, during a two-day celebration of the $50,000 award for the best book on the founding era in American history.

The winning book, Sons of Providence: The Brown Brothers, the Slave Trade, and the American Revolution, is the story of one of the great sibling rivalries in American history. The youngest sons of a prominent Providence family, John and Moses Brown were rascals in the great American Revolutionary tradition. They were pirates and smugglers, John was a war profiteer, and Moses engaged in industrial espionage, stealing one of Britain's most closely-guarded secrets to launch the first competitive American cotton mill. Together they made a fortune and helped shape the political and economic character of a region. They founded Brown University and Rhode Island's first bank. But one subject divided them bitterly and publicly: Moses was an ardent abolitionist and John an unrepentant slave trader. John was even prosecuted under a law banning the slave trade that Moses helped lobby Congress to pass.

"They emerged as American archetypes," Mr. Rappleye writes, "the robber baron and the social reformer, thunder and light, a dichotomy in the American character that echoes to this day."

The Book Prize celebration begins Thursday, Sept. 27, at 2 p.m. on Martha Washington Square, with Revolutionary War reenactors and a parade by the New Ark Colonial Fife & Drum Corps. At 4:15, Mr. Rappleye will appear on the square to sign copies of Sons of Providence.

The centerpiece of the celebration will take place at 5 p.m. in Hynson Lounge, Hodson Hall, when Mr. Rappleye will deliver the 2007 Book Prize Lecture—"Brothers Divided: An Abolitionist, a Slave Trader, and the American Revolution."

Mr. Rappleye will return to Hynson Lounge the following day, Friday, Sept. 28, at 10:30 a.m., for an onstage discussion with Adam Goodheart, Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the C.V. Starr Center, which administers the Book Prize. In "Making History: A Public Conversation on the Historian's Craft," Mr. Rappleye will talk about how he pieced together the story of John and Moses Brown, interviewing descendants and sifting through public records, family documents, and historic archives, and about some of the remarkable discoveries he made—including new information about George Washington and his famously conflicted feelings about slavery. There will also be an opportunity for the audience to ask Mr. Rappleye questions about his work.

Book Prize festivities will conclude at 6 p.m., Friday, Sept. 28, when Mr. Rappleye will appear at Book Plate in downtown Chestertown to read and sign copies of his winning book. The book prize events are part of Washington College's year-long 225th anniversary celebration.

Charles Rappleye is a veteran newspaperman who lives in Los Angeles with his wife, journalist and art critic Tulsa Kinney. His first book was All-American Mafioso: The Johnny Roselli Story. Mr. Rappleye and Ms. Kinney recently founded an edgy new magazine—Artillery—to cover the Los Angeles fine arts scene.

The George Washington Book Prize was created in 2005 by Washington College, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and George Washington's Mount Vernon. It is one of the largest literary awards in the country. For more information, visit gwprize.washcoll.edu.

About the Prize Partners

Established in 2000 with a grant from the New York-based Starr Foundation, the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience draws on the special historical strengths of Washington College and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Through educational programs, scholarship, and public outreach, the Starr Center explores the early republic, the rise of democracy, and the manifold ways in which the founding era continues to shape American culture. In partnership with other institutions and with leading scholars and writers, the Center works to promote innovative approaches to the study of history, and to bridge the gaps between historians, contemporary policymakers, and the general public. Washington College was founded in 1782 under the patronage of George Washington, and was the first college chartered in the new nation.

Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History promotes the study and love of American history among audiences ranging from students to scholars to the general public. It creates history-centered schools and academic research centers, organizes seminars and enrichment programs for educators, produces print and electronic publications and traveling exhibitions, and sponsors lectures by eminent historians. In addition to the George Washington Book Prize, the Institute also sponsors the Lincoln Prize in conjunction with the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College and the Frederick Douglass Prize in cooperation with the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University.

George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens, open to the public since 1858, communicates the character and leadership of Washington to millions of Americans each year through a variety of interpretive programs on the Estate and in classrooms across the nation. Mount Vernon is owned and operated by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, founded in 1853, making it America's oldest national preservation organization. The George Washington Book Prize is an important component in the Association's aggressive outreach program, which engages millions of teachers and students throughout the nation.

Washington College Rallies Support for Relay for Life

Chestertown, MD, September 10, 2007 — As part of its 225th Anniversary Celebration, Washington College is assembling a group of 225 students, faculty, and staff to participate in Relay for Life, a community gathering where everyone can participate in the fight against cancer. The Relay begins at Kent County High School September 14 at 6 p.m. and concludes September 15 at 11:00 a.m. Support the faculty, staff, and student participants from Washington College in their effort to raise funds for the American Cancer Society through donations or by attending the event.Check the progress of campus community members who are participating in Relay for Life.

Schedule for the Relay

September 14

6:00 p.m. The Survivors Lap
The traditional cancer survivor lap is everyone who has survived cancer. They take the ceremonial first lap around the track. Once the survivors go half way around the track, family members and caretakers may join the survivors for the second half of the lap. Upon finishing the lap, you and your loved ones are invited to the survivor reception.

7:00 p.m. The Relay officially begins

8:30 p.m. The Luminaria Ceremony

Saturday, September 15, 2007

10:30 a.m. The Closing Ceremony

Penny Wars

In support of the American Cancer Society and the Kent County Relay for Life, "Penny Wars" is a competition between the freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, and the faculty/staff. The object is to get as many points as possible through monetary donations for the Relay for Life event.

Penny Wars Rules

1. The project is run from Friday, September 7 - Friday, September 21
2. There will be 1 container for each class (freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior), including one for faculty/staff. Each container will have a slit at the top so coin and paper money can be inserted.
3. The containers will be labeled for the appropriate class and located just inside the Dining Hall entrance beside the cash register.
4. Students from their respective class, and Faculty/Staff should put pennies in their class' container; with one point being received for every penny in the container.
5. You may put other coins and paper currency into other containers. Each silver coin or bill will reduce the number of points from that container by the amount of the coin (e.g. a nickel reduces the points by five, a dime by ten, a dollar by 100, etc...).
6. Containers will be emptied and counted every other day and the totals for each class and the faculty/staff will be posted daily, on the containers, as well as the webpage, for people to see.

The Raffle

As part of a campus effort to raise money, $1.00 raffle tickets are being sold in the dining hall during lunch and dinner for the following prizes:

• A hooded Washington College Under Amour sweatshirt
• A hooded Under Amour Sweatshirt
• A Gift Certificate to Galena Blooms
• A Gift Certificate to The Granary
• An iPod Nano
• Gift Certificate for two lunches (including dessert and drinks) at Feast of Reason.
• Two Under Amour t-shirts
• Vase/Candle from Rachel's Flower Power

The drawing for the raffle and the announcement of which class has won the Penny Wars will take place at the Waterfront Festival September 22 in Wilmer Park.

If you have questions or would like to make a donation, sign up to volunteer/participate, or register, please contact Tessa Miskell, at 410-778-7888 or e-mail tmiskell2@washcoll.edu.

'Interrogation Palace' Poet Wojahn to Give Reading at Washington College

Chestertown, MD, September 5, 2007 — Award-winning poet David Wojahn, a 2007 Pulitzer Prize finalist, will read from his works in Washington College's Sophie Kerr Room on Wednesday, September 19, at 4:30 p.m.

Wojahn is the author of seven books of poetry and has been the recipient of many awards and prizes: the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship, the William Carlos Williams Award and the Celia B. Wagner Award from the Poetry Society of America, Vermont College's Crowley/Weingarten Award for Excellence in Teaching, Poetry magazine's George Kent Prize and three Pushcart Prizes.

This year Wojahn was one of two finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for his bookInterrogation Palace. Wojahn said he was both surprised and honored by the recognition, especially considering that Interrogation Palace was selected from among the hundreds of books of poetry published in 2006.

"To have that sort of recognition from your peers means a lot," said Wojahn, "and it was especially gratifying that they recognized this book, which published both new work and a selection of poems from my previous six collections."

Professor of English and director of the creative writing program at Virginia Commonwealth University, Wojahn has had his poems appear in The New Republic, The New Yorker, Poetryand elsewhere. For subject matter in his verse, he often looks to moments of historical significance, such as the assassination of John Lennon. Wojahn has expressed the hope that his poetry is considered "activist," and Publishers Weekly has praised his "remarkable and well-informed protest poems."

Wojahn's poetry reading is the opening event in the 2007-2008 Sophie Kerr Lecture Series. The series honors the legacy of its namesake, a writer from Denton, Md., whose generosity has enriched Washington College's literary culture. When she died in 1965, Kerr left the bulk of her estate to Washington College, specifying that one half of the income from her bequest be awarded every year to the senior showing the most "ability and promise for future fulfillment in the field of literary endeavor"—the famed Sophie Kerr Prize—and the other half be used to bring visiting writers to campus, to fund scholarships and to help defray the costs of student publications.

Admission to Wojahn's reading is free and open to the public. The Sophie Kerr Room is located in Miller Library. For more information, call 410/778-7879.

'Latin American Populism' At Washington College

Chestertown, MD, August 31, 2007 — South American popular movements have taken multiple forms through the years, and a visiting professor from Argentina is here to provide some insight. Professor Santiago Alles will discuss "Latin American Populism: Left vs. Right" at Washington College's Hynson Lounge on Wednesday, September 12, at 7:30 p.m. The lecture is presented by the Goldstein Program in Public Affairs.

Professor Alles is currently a Visiting Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Washington College as part of the faculty exchange program.

Professor Alles graduated from the Catholic University of Argentina with a degree in political science and a specialization in international affairs. He has an M.A. in Latin American studies from the University of Salamanca, Spain. He is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Political Science and International Affairs at the Catholic University of Argentina.

The Louis L. Goldstein Program in Public Affairs was established in 1990 to encourage students to enter public service by introducing them to exemplary leaders, both in and out of government. The Goldstein Program has hosted journalists, political activists, foreign policy analysts, diplomats, military commanders and government officials of both national and international stature.

The Goldstein Program sponsors lectures, symposia, visiting fellows, student participation in models and conferences, and other projects that bring students and faculty together with leaders experienced in developing public policy.

Hynson Lounge is located in Hodson Hall. Admission to "Latin American Populism: Left vs. Right" is free and open to the public.

Cell Phones + Audience = Interactive Performance Artistry at Washington College

Chestertown, MD, August 31, 2007 — Fueled by advances in technology, art continues to morph into new and interesting forms—and even cell phones can lead to a collective creativity. "SimpleTEXT," a cutting-edge combination of technology, artistry and performance that gets the audience involved, will be presented by Family Filter at Washington College's Casey Academic Center Forum on Tuesday, September 11, at 7:30 p.m.

"SimpleTEXT" is a collaborative audio/visual public performance that relies on audience participation through input from mobile devices such as cell phones or laptops. The performance creates a dialogue between participants who submit messages that control the audio/visual output of the installation. These messages are parsed according to a code that dictates how the music is created, and then rhythmically drive a speech synthesizer and a picture synthesizer in order to create a compelling, interactive celebration of sight and sound.

"SimpleTEXT" was originally funded by a commission from Low-Fi, a new-media arts organization based in the U.K. Since 2003, "SimpleTEXT" has been shown 16 times in eight countries across Europe and North America.

The Washington College presentation of "SimpleTEXT" is sponsored by the Rose O'Neill Literary House, the Office of Information Technologies and the Office of Student Activities.

The event is part of "Storytelling in the Digital Age," a semester-long theme jointly presented by the Rose O'Neill Literary House and the Office of Information Technologies. For more information, visit lithouse.washcoll.edu and oit.washcoll.edu/storytelling.php.

Admission to "SimpleTEXT" is free and open to the public.

Poetry, Film Noir and a Pulitzer Winner: Washington College's 2007-2008 Sophie Kerr Series Announced

Chestertown, MD, August 28, 2007 — From celebrated poets to Washington College's film-noir connection to a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, the 2007-2008 Sophie Kerr Lecture Series at Washington College is rich with literary offerings open to the public.

The series honors the legacy of the late Sophie Kerr, a writer from Denton, Md., whose generosity has enriched Washington College's literary culture. When she died in 1965, Kerr left the bulk of her estate to Washington College, specifying that one half of the income from her bequest be awarded every year to the senior showing the most "ability and promise for future fulfillment in the field of literary endeavor"—the famed Sophie Kerr Prize—and the other half be used to bring visiting writers to campus, to fund scholarships and to help defray the costs of student publications.

The 2007-2008 Sophie Kerr Series will feature:

Poetry Reading with David Wojahn

Sophie Kerr Room, Wednesday, September 19, 4:30 p.m.

David Wojahn is the author of seven books of poetry and has been the recipient of many awards and prizes: the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship, the William Carlos Williams Award and the Celia B. Wagner Award from the Poetry Society of America, Vermont College's Crowley/Weingarten Award for Excellence in Teaching, Poetry magazine's George Kent Prize and three Pushcart Prizes. This year Wojahn was one of two finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for his book Interrogation Palace His poems have appeared in The New Republic, The New Yorker, Poetry and elsewhere.

R. Barton Palmer Film Lecture, "James M. Cain and the Coen Brothers"

Sophie Kerr Room, Thursday, October 4, 4:30 p.m.

Perhaps the most famous scribe to emerge from Washington College was pioneering hardboiled author James M. Cain, who along with Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler rewrote the rule book on crime fiction, creating a uniquely terse, tough American style that influenced literature, cinema and pop culture in general. As part of a two-day celebration of Cain and his legacy, the Sophie Kerr Series will present a talk by R. Barton Palmer, author ofHollywood's Dark Cinema: The American Film Noir, a standard in the field. He also is the author of a recent book on the Coen brothers' films and, interestingly, several books about medieval literature.

Poetry Reading with Josh Weiner

Sophie Kerr Room, Thursday, November 15, 4:30 p.m.

Josh Weiner is the author of two books, The World's Room and From the Book of Giants. He has won the Whiting Award and the Rome Prize. His poems appear in The New York Review of Books, Poetry, Slate, Threepenny Review and elsewhere. The poetry editor of Tikkun, Weiner is an associate professor at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Huston Diehl Reading, "Dream Not of Other Worlds"

Sophie Kerr Room, Monday, February 25, 2008, 4:30 p.m.

When Huston Diehl began teaching a fourth-grade class in a "Negro" elementary school in rural Virginia, the school system's white superintendent assured her that he didn't expect her to teach "those children" anything. It was the waning days of the Jim Crow South, and Diehl soon discovered how low expectations impeded her students' ability to learn. With its overcrowded classrooms and poor facilities, her segregated school was vastly inferior to the county's white elementary schools, and the message it sent her students was clear: "Dream not of other worlds."

In her memoir Diehl reveals how her students reached out to her, a young white Northerner, and shared their fears, anxieties and personal beliefs. She reflects on what the students taught her about the hurt of bigotry and the humiliation of poverty as well as dignity, courage and resiliency.

Today, Diehl is professor of English at the University of Iowa and a widely published authority in the field of Renaissance literature. Her memoir, Dream Not of Other Worlds: Teaching in a Segregated School, 1970, chronicles an important moment in American history and the struggle to integrate schools in the South. The presentation at Washington College will be a reading from her memoir. Professor Diehl will be joined in the reading by Polly Sommerfeld, Lecturer in Drama at Washington College.

Fiction Reading with Jane Smiley

Norman James Theatre, Friday, March 28, 2008, 4 p.m.

The jewel in the crown of the Sophie Kerr Series each year is Sophie Kerr Weekend, and the keynote event of Sophie Kerr Weekend 2008 will be a much-anticipated reading by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jane Smiley. Smiley, who holds an M.F.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, is the author of 11 novels, including A Thousand Acres, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1992. She also is the author of four books of nonfiction, includingThirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel (2005). Her essays have been published in Vogue, The New Yorker, Harper's, the New York Times, The Nation and many other publications.

Smiley's latest novel, Ten Days in the Hills, was published earlier this year by Knopf/Random House. A re-imagining of Boccaccio's Decameron set among the Hollywood crowd in the opening days of the Iraq War in 2003, Ten Days in the Hills has enjoyed universal acclaim. "The book is generating early buzz," observed The Wall Street Journal. In a starred review,Publishers Weekly hailed the hot new novel as a "scintillating tale... Smiley delivers a delightful, subtly observant sendup of Tinseltown folly, yet she treats her characters ... with warmth and seriousness." The Philadelphia Inquirer praises the author for "delivering a Tinseltown classic." The Los Angeles Times Book Review declared the novel "a blazing farce, a fiery satire of contemporary celebrity culture and a rich, simmering meditation on the price of war and fame and desire." The Times U.K. called it a "highly entertaining yet thoughtful examination of postmillenial America."

Dubbed "the reigning master of social satire" by Elle magazine, Smiley received the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature in 2006.

Poetry Reading with Erin Murphy

Sophie Kerr Room, Wednesday, April 9, 2008, 4 p.m.

Washington College graduate Erin Murphy (class of 1990) is the author of Dislocation and Other Theories, Science of Desire (a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize) and Too Much of This World (winner of the Anthony Piccione Poetry Prize). Her poems have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including Random House's 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day. Murphy has received the Foley Poetry Award, the National Writers' Union Poetry Award, a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award and a $5,000 Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize.

Valerie Traub Lecture, "The Nature of Norms: Anatomy, Cartography, King Lear"

Sophie Kerr Room, Wednesday, April 16, 2008, 4:30 p.m.

Valerie Traub is professor of English and Women's Studies at the University of Michigan, where she is Director of the Women's Studies Program. Her publications include Gay Shame, The Renaissance of Lesbianism in Early Modern England, Feminist Readings of Early Modern Culture: Emerging Subjects and Desire and Anxiety: Circulations of Sexuality in Shakespearean Drama. Traub's essays have appeared in the GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, English Literary Renaissance, Feminist Studies, Shakespeare Quarterly, Shakespeare Studies and elsewhere. Her book in progress is Mapping Embodiment in the Early Modern Text: The Prehistory of Normality.

Admission is free to all Sophie Kerr Series events. For more information, call 410-778-7879.