UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 5, Page 4
October 1, 1992
Up and coming
Royal Shakespeare member in Kirkbride
Sonja Dosanjh, company manager for the Royal Shakespeare Company,
will speak at 4:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 8, in Room 205 of the
Kirkbride Lecture Hall.
Her talk, free and open to the public, is entitled "The Royal
Shakespeare Company in the 1990s." It will trace the company's
two-year work cycle from an actor's view, a stage manager's view and
an administrator's view and give insights into practical aspects of
performance, using slides for illustration.
Dosanjh has been with the Royal Shakespeare Company since l982.
Prior to that, she was company and stage manager for the Oxford
Playhouse. She began her career with the Cambridge Theatre in England
in the early 1970s as assistant stage manager. She later joined the
Actors Company led by Ian McKellan, which toured England and visited
the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.
Her Delaware talk is sponsored by the offices of Women's Affairs
and International Programs and Special Sessions and the departments of
English and Theatre.
For information, call 831-1974.
Resident quartet in concert Oct. 9
The Mendelssohn String Quartet, which has a reputation as one of
the most imaginative and exciting quartets of its generation, will
perform at 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 9, in the Loudis Recital Hall of the
Amy E. du Pont Music Building.
Cost is $6 for adults; $4 for University faculty, staff and
senior citizens; and $2 for students. Tickets are available in advance
in Room 209 of the music building or through the mail by calling
831-2577. Remaining tickets will be sold at the door. Proceeds will be
used to provide scholarships for students in the 1993 University of
Delaware Winter Institute for String Quartets.
The program on Oct. 9 will include String Quartet Op. 54, No. 2
by Haydn; Quartessence, composed in l990 by Stephen Paulus; and
Beethoven's String Quartet in C sharp minor, Op. 131.
The Mendelssohn String Quartet has been in residence at the
University since l989. Its members are violinists Ida Levin and
Nicholas Mann, violist Katherine Murdock and cellist Marcy Rosen.
As quartet-in-residence at Merkin Concert Hall since its
formation in l979, the ensemble gives three concerts in New York each
year.
Additionally, the quartet annually tours the U.S. and Europe and
has appeared in concert with such distinguished artists as pianists
Rudolf Firkusny, Ursula Oppens and Peter Serkin; soprano Evelyn Lear;
cellist Janos Starker; flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal; and clarinetist
Richard Stoltzman.
The Mendelssohn String Quartet has a strong interest in
contemporary music and has given world premieres of works commissioned
by and for it. Composers who have written for the ensemble include
Bruce Adolphe, Stephen Paulus, Tobias Picker, Shulamit Ran, Tina
Davidson and Ned Rorem.
Talk on impact of Columbus discovery
Have crabgrass on your lawn? Bothered by dandelions? Blame it on
Christopher Columbus and the European settlers to the New World.
They're the ones who brought most of our weeds into the country. So
says Alfred Crosby, one of the first scholars to look at the negative
impact of the European discovery of the Americas.
Crosby will speak on "Ecological Imperialism" when the University
of Delaware's lecture series on "The Consequences of 1492: A New World
Perspective" continues on Thursday, Oct. 8.
A professor of American studies at the University of Texas,
Crosby will speak at 7 p.m. in Room 120 Clayton Hall.
He will discuss what happened when plants, animals and diseases
were exchanged across the Atlantic after the European discovery of
America.
His observations include:
* The spectacular equine culture developed by the Sioux and
Comanche Indians after the European introduction of the
horse to the New World;
* The population explosion in northern Europe, which followed
the introduction of the potato from the New World.
* The crossover of diseases like smallpox and their impact on
native Americans, which Crosby's calls "the worst
demographic tragedy in the history of the human species."
Crosby's path-breaking book, The Columbian Exchange: Biological
and Cultural Consequences of 1492, introduced a generation of students
to an important aspect of New World history that had previously been
ignored. His most recent book, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological
Expansion of Europe, 900-1900, has had a similarly profound impact.
Running concurrently with the lecture series is an exhibition of
photographs, "Peru Mestizo" which will be on view in Clayton Hall. The
exhibit features photographs of colonial paintings, the scenery and
people of Peru from 1540 to the early 1880s.
Sponsored by the University's Department of History, the lecture
series has been partially funded by the Delaware Humanities Forum,
which receives its major funding from the National Endowment for the
Humanities.
Mandela assistant to speak Oct. 15
Noted black activist Randall Robinson, who is Nelson Mandela's
spokesperson in the United States, will discuss "Africa and USA
Foreign Policy" at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 15, in Clayton Hall.
The free public talk is being presented by the University's
African Studies Program.
Robinson, who is executive director of TransAfrica USA in
Washington, D.C., has played a crucial role in the anti-apartheid
movement and has lobbied hard for sanctions against South Africa.
In 1984, Robinson and two companions entered the South African
Embassy in Washington, D.C., and announced that they wouldn't leave
until apartheid was abolished. They spent the night in jail, and
Robinson became a national figure. Countless demonstrations ensued,
and eventually sanctions were implemented against South Africa,
culminating in Mandela's release from prison.
As Mandela's spokesperson, Robinson has said that he believes
that, since only some of the many restrictions on blacks in South
Africa have been lifted, Mandela has "only left a small prison to go
to a larger one," noting that Mandela still cannot vote.
As executive director of TransAfrica, a $700,000 lobbying group
for Africa and the Caribbean, Robinson has become this country's most
visible activist against apartheid.
A graduate of Harvard Law School, he was active in the Southern
African Relief Fund, which raised money for groups fighting the
Pretoria government. After working in Tanzania as a Ford Foundation
fellow, he became a public interest lawyer in Boston for several
years. In 1975, he went to Washington, working first as an aide to
Missouri's Rep. William Clay and later for Michigan's Rep. Charles
Diggs.
Robinson has published articles in several major publications.
He also has received numerous honors and recognition, including
the Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Service and Humanitian
Awards, the Congressional Black Caucus Humanitarian Award, the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference Drum Major for Justice Award
and an honorary doctorate from Chicago's Columbia College.
The Oct. 15 talk is sponsored by the departments of Anthropology,
History and Political Science and International Relations; the Black
American Studies Program; the Center for Black Culture; the Office of
International Programs and Special Sessions; the colleges of Arts and
Science, Education and Urban Affairs and Public Policy; and the
Delaware Humanities Forum.
Art school founder to lecture Monday
Tim Rollins, New York artist and educator, will offer an
illustrated slide lecture at 5:30 p.m., Monday, Oct. 5, in 112
McDowell Hall.
Rollins is founder of an alternative after-school program called
"The Art and Knowledge Workshop," at a community center in South
Bronx. The center focuses on teenagers identified as "at-risk"
students by the New York City public school system.
They read classic literature, make collaborative paintings and
learn how to use visual correspondence in their daily lives.
Rollins' interest lies in reaching children and helping them
realize their own potential. Their creative works are owned by many
museums, including the New York Museum of Modern Art and the Saatachi
Collection in London.
Campus to host Don Quixote expert
James A. Parr, professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the
University of California, Riverside, will speak on "Don Quixote: On
Scribes and Inscription" at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 15, in Room 006
of the Kirkbride Lecture Hall.
The free public lecture, which will be presented in English, is
part of the Distinguished Scholars Series of the University's
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.
Parr is the author of Don Quixote: An Anatomy of Subversive
Discourse, which "contains major challenges to all existing Quixote
criticism." He has written eight other books on 17th-century drama and
is the editor of Bulletin of the Comediantes.
Partial support for this talk has been provided by the University
Faculty Senate Committee on Cultural Activities and Public Events and
the Valbuena Institute of Spanish Literature Inc.
Southern Delaware reception in Milford
The Southern Delaware Academy of Lifelong Learning (SDALL) will
hold a wine and cheese reception from 2-4 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 11, at
the University of Delaware Milford Center, 15 Southwest Front St.
All academy members and friends are invited.
The reception will feature a display of sample work from the
academy's classes in pottery and oil painting.
For more information, call the Milford Center at 424-5000.