Friends of the Library & Gallery Events of 2005 and Earlier Years

Saturday, December 3, 2005 , 6 PM : UMBC Theatre

Location: Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

Event: The Love of Don Perlimplín for Belisa in the Garden, by Federico García Lorca; Directed by Xerxes Mehta

Theatre with Dinner

The event began with a wine and soft drinks reception (provided by the Libby Kuhn Endowment) on the 7th floor of the Library at 5:00 p.m. followed by Dinner at 6:00 p.m. and then remarks by Xerxes Mehta and discussion.

The play was performed in the UMBC Theatre, a short walk from the Library, at 8 p.m.

Cost was $35 per person, including the theatre ticket.

The UMBC Department of Theatre's description of the performance:

A delicious little tragic farce by Spain’s greatest modern playwright, Don Perlimplín rings sly and shocking changes on that comic staple—the rich old man with the sexy young wife. A small masterpiece from Lorca’s surrealist period, when he was collaborating with his friends Bunuel and Dali, this fantastical parody of the classical Spanish “honor” tragedy plays lighthearted games with color, shape, language, the human form, and “reality” in general. With songs and music.

Set and Costumes: Elena Zlotescu

Lighting: Terry Cobb.

Dinner Choices:

#1: Grilled Tuna Steaks with Tomato Basil Relish
#2: Beef Burgundy Braised Stew with Carrots, Onions & Mushrooms
#3: Risotto with Wild Mushrooms

All entrees were preceded by a spinach salad with egg, cheese & onion, and balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Parsley red bliss potatoes, tempura vegetables and dinner rolls with butter rosettes accompanied each menu choice.

Dessert was All American Chocolate Cake.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005, 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. : BookNotes and ArtsNotes Events

Location: Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

Event: BookNotes Faculty Author Talk, by Dr. Christel N. Temple

UMBC Africana Studies Department

The lecture centered on the topics of Dr. Temple's recent book, Literary Pan-Africanism: History, Contexts, and Criticism.

Dr. Temple's book was the winner of the 2005 Award for Best Scholarly Book at the Cheikh Anta Diop Conference. Through analysis of history and literature, it examines the dynamics of the relationships between African Americans and Africans since the separation of the Middle Passage.

Abstract of the lecture: Literary Pan-Africanism describes how creative writing serves as a vehicle for the transmission of ideas about Pan-Africanism, or unity and cooperation among people of African descent. Some critics suggest that Africans do not have a psychological need to identify with African-Americans, however West African literature written since the 1960s suggests otherwise. In a disscussion of the history of Literary Pan-Africanism and the role of both imagination and speculation, this talk features, as a comparative point of departure, the significance of African American playwright, Lorraine Hansberry's African character "Asagai" from the reknown 1959 play, A Raisin in the Sun.

Free and open to the public; followed by a reception provided by the Libby Kuhn Memorial Endowment.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005 : Friends of the Library & Gallery Council Meeting

Location: Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

Event: BookNotes Faculty Author Talk, by Dr. Christel N. Temple

Friends of the Library & Gallery Council Meeting

• Tuesday, October 18, 2005, preceding the BookNotes Event (above)
  
  Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery, President's Room (768)

  1:45 p.m.: Gathering & Refreshments
  2:00-3:45: Friends Council meeting
  

  For more information call 410.455.2356 or email aok@umbc.edu.

  
  

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  Thursday, September 22, 2005, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. : Library Seminar

  Location: Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery, Room 767

  Event: Behind The Scenes Tour and Discussion of the UMBC Library in the 21st Century by Library Faculty

  A behind the scenes tour and discussion of the UMBC Library in the 21st Century

  Presented by the Library Faculty
  Thursday, September 22, 2005, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
  Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery, Room 767
  

  1:00 Gathering; welcome (Library 767)
  Refreshments
  Introductions
  

  1:15 Context (from handouts):
  UMBC Mission
  Library Mission & Goals, Statistics, Planning
  Consortia (from web pages: USMAI – Research Port, MDL, BAROC, BALC)
  

  1:30 Walk-through tour of changing Library public service locations:
  1. Circulation: self-check, copying & printing
  2. Reference: computer workstations; online services from the Reference Desk.
  3. Serials & Media: new workstations; new media
  

  1:45 Demonstration of New Services: the Online Library
  1. Live Real-Time Online Reference Services
  2. Online Selection and Ordering from Anywhere
  

  2:45 Walk-through - Behind the Scenes: tour
  1. Gifts and New Book Processing
  2. Special Collections: special treatment for rare and valuable resources
  

  3:15 Friends roles in supporting the Library & Gallery:
  Discussion in Special Collections
  

  4:00 Closing
  

  Free and open to the public; light refreshments will be provided by the Libby Kuhn Memorial Endowment.
  

  To reserve your place in this seminar and for more information call 410.455.2356 or email aok@umbc.edu.
  
  

Thursday, April 28, 2005, 4:00 - 5:00 : Arts Notes

Location: Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

Event: New Music from Japan, and the Clarinet of the 21st Century by Library Faculty

BookNotes and ArtsNotes Events

A discussion and performance of excerpts from music written by Japanese composers for E. Michael Richards, utilizing his research on extended clarinet techniques.

Free and open to the public; followed by a reception.

Reception provided by the Libby Kuhn Memorial Endowment.

For more information call 410.455.2356 or email aok@umbc.edu.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005, 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. : Faculty Talk

Location: Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

Event: BookNotes Faculty Author Talk by Dr. James Mohr

A Public Health Catastrophe and How It Came About

The lecture, entitled "A Public Health Catastrophe and How It Came About," was based on his new book, Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown.

"James Mohr is not just content to tell a compelling story. He connects Honolulu's plague and the fire of 1900 to the great themes of the day: empire, race, power, and fear. I am now convinced that disasters are key historical moments when societies reveal their most fundamental truths. It all comes together here."--Elizabeth Fenn, author of Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82.

"An excellent work of scholarship and a lively read. Professor Mohr has done exhaustive research in primary sources to document his fascinating tale of public health, politics, and racial relations. The book is a significant contribution to the history of medicine and public health and to American history more broadly."-- John Parascandola, author of The Development of American Pharmacology: John J. Abel and the Shaping of a Discipline.

"Plague and Fire is a riveting account of why, how and with what consequences physician leaders in Hawaii a century ago assumed emergency health powers. Mohr's themes have contemporary resonance, especially his analysis of the effects of scientific uncertainty on policy, competing perceptions of private interests and the common good, and the potential for public health interventions to become vectors for disaster."--Daniel M. Fox, President, Milbank Memorial Fund.

Free and open to the public; followed by a reception.

Co-sponsored by the UMBC History Department.

Reception provided by the Libby Kuhn Memorial Endowment.

For more information call 410.455.2356 or email aok@umbc.edu.

More Information on Dr. Mohr

James Mohr

Saturday, December 4, 2004, 5:00 – 6:00 p.m. : Theatre with Dinner

Location: Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

Event: Fashen by David Hare; Directed by Xerxes Mehta

Information Call 410.455.2356 or email aok@umbc.edu. Cost was $35 per person, including theatre ticket.

Saturday, December 4, 2004.

The event began with a wine and soft drinks reception on the 7th floor of the Library at 5:00 p.m. followed by Dinner at 6:00 p.m. and then remarks by Xerxes Mehta and discussion.

The play was performed in the UMBC Theatre, a short walk from the Library, at 8 p.m..

The Department of Theatre's description of the performance:

A fascinating play from one of England's greatest playwrights, David Hare's Fanshen is, in his own words, "a play for Europe, for the West. Besides trying to explain as deftly as possible the aim and operation of land reform in China, to show how it changed souls as well as bodies, the play is much concerned with political leadership, with the relationship in any society between leadership and led." Brutal, tender, violent, reasoned, and all-absorbing, Fanshen throws a brilliant light on the critical years in the late 1940s that gave birth to modern China by focusing on one village's struggle to survive war, want, oppression and corruption, until it finally learns how to take control of its own destiny. Set and costumes by guest designer Holly Highfill; lighting by Terry Cobb; vocal director Lynn Watson; dramaturg Susan McCully; directed by Xerxes Mehta.

Violence, nudity, explicit language.

For Mature Audiences.

Dinner Choices:

#1: Chicken Marsala
#2: Seared Tuna Steaks with Mango-Pinapple Salsa
#3: Roasted Vegetable Lasagne

All entrees are preceded by a salad of fresh greens with pears, walnuts and mozzarella cheese dressed with balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Parsley red potatoes, green beans and dinner rolls with butter rosettes will accompany each menu.

Dessert was All American Chocolate Cake.

Tuesday, October 19, 2004, 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. : BookNotes and ArtsNotes Events

Location: Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

Event: BookNotes Faculty Author Talk by William Rothsetein, Professor of Sociology, UMBC

BookNotes Faculty Author Talk: "How Healthy are Healthy Lifestyles"

The idea of healthy lifestyles based on risk factors was the most important innovation in public health and preventive medicine in the twentieth century. Food and pharmaceutical companies have sold hundreds of billions of dollars worth of foods and drugs that claim to produce healthy lifestyles or modify risk factors. This talk will examine the development of the healthy lifestyle theory and the role of commercial and other interests in its application.

Monday, March 15, 2004, 4:00 pm : BookNotes and ArtsNotes Lecture

Location: Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

Event: Renaissance and Antiquity Face-to-Face: Four Meetings Across the Gap of Time by Leonard Barkan

Saturday, November 22, 2003 : Theatre with Dinner

Location: Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

Event: Buried by Conceived and Directed by Colette Searls

Reserve by November 7, 2003.

The event began with a wine and soft drinks reception on the 7th floor of the Library at 5:00 p.m. followed by Dinner promptly at 6:00 p.m. and then remarks by Colette Searls.

The play was in the UMBC Theatre, a short walk from the Library, at 8 p.m.. A brief "talk back" will be offered following the performance, in the Theatre.

Note: While puppets are used in this production, there is adult content; the performance is not suitable for children.

The Department of Theatre's description of the performance:
The Department of Theatre presents Buried, an original puppet performance about the casualties of war. Looking at war through the eyes of its victims, Buried uses puppetry to imagine what happens to the suspended thoughts and intentions of those who don’t survive. Artfully mixing actors with animated objects and humanoid puppets, Buried takes us into a world where spirits enter objects, long-scattered bones rejoin and abandoned possessions reach out to the living. Conceived and directed by Colette Searls, Buried features commissioned puppets by artist Don Becker, with set design by Greggory Schraven, sound design by Terry Cobb, lighting design by Damon Meledones and costume design by Claire Cantwell.

Dinner Choices:
#1: Baked Southwest Mahi-Mahi
#2: Chicken Vienna w/ gorgonzola & Walnut stuffing, marsala wine mushrooms
#3: Grilled portobello mushroom served on baby greens with vinaigrette dressing
All entrees are preceded by a caesar salad with caesar dressing. Accompanying each entree: Garden blend rice with winter roasted and marinated vegetables, rolls with butter rosettes.
Dessert will be All American Chocolate Cake.
Please contact us regarding any special dietary needs.

*Funds will be administered by the University of Maryland Foundation, Inc., for the benefit of the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery. A copy of the Foundation's current financial statement is available by writing to the University of Maryland Foundation, Inc., 3300 Metzerott Road, Adelphi, MD 20783, or by contacting the Secretary of State, referenceing #5471.

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Wednesday, November 5, 2003, 4:00 p.m. : Booknotes and Artnotes Events

Location: Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

Event: Faculty Author Talk: "Breaking Loose Together" by Marjoleine Kars, Associate Professor of History, UMBC

Dr. Kars’ research interests are Native American history, women’s history, and early U.S. history. Her recent book investigates the Regulator Rebellion in pre-Revolutionary North Carolina. The implications of this event for our understanding of social structure and ideology at the time of the American Revolution are great.

Co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities

Free and open to the public.
For more information call 410.455.2356.

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Thursday, October 16, 2003 : Friends of the Library

Location: President's Room, Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery, Room 768

Event: Faculty Council Meeting

Friends of the Library & Gallery Council Meeting for Fall, 2003

Thursday, October 16, 2003.
Convene at 2:45 p.m. in the President's Room, Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery, room 768.
Council meeting: 3 p.m.
Open to all members of the Friends of the Library & Gallery.
Followed by two alternative events:

(1) Opening Symposium for Intermedia: The Dick Higgins Collection, will be held from 4 to 6 pm, featuring Hannah Higgins (University of Illinois at Chicago), Chris Thompson (Maine College of Art), Owen Smith (University of Maine), and co-moderators Kathy O’Dell and Lisa Moren. A reception followed from 6 to 7 pm.

(2) Lecture by David Dunaway, "Oral History in the 21st Century," at 4:30 p.m. on the Library 7th floor, followed by a reception to celebrate the UMBC Oral History Project and the dedication of the Martha Ross Center for Oral History, 5:30 - 6:30 p.m.

David Dunaway is Associate Professor of English at the University of New Mexico. He is a national figure in the study of oral history. He holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of California Berkeley. He has made a specialty of broadcasting literature and history via radio and televeision documentaries including "Writing the Southwest," and "Across the Tracks: A Route 66 Story," for National Public Radio and Public Radio International. His talk will explore the history of oral history and the next directions it might take: automatically transcribed, used in broadcast Internet, and courts, presented in multimedia in schools and colleges. He will also highlight ways in which UMBC is serving as a role model for other institutions of higher learning.

This event was co-sponsored by the Martha Ross Center for Oral History, the Center for Hisory Education and the Department of History.




Both of the above events were free and open to the public.

For more information call 410.455.2356.

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Wednesday, September 17, 2003 @ 4 PM : Booknotes and Artnotes Lecture

Location: Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

Event: "Chaos" by James Yorke, Professor of Mathematics and Physics

Abstract of Lecture: Chaos affects many aspects of our lives. Chaos as an area of science is quite similar to the chaos in our lives. Dr. Yorke discussed several examples, including pendulums and space craft trajectories. Dr. Yorke is Distinguished University Professor of Mathematics and Physics 
Institute for Physical Sciences and Technology (IPST) 
University of Maryland, College Park 
Professor Yorke's current research projects range from chaos theory and weather prediction and genome research to the population dynamics of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

He is perhaps best known to the general public for coining the mathematical term "chaos" with T.Y. Li in a 1975 paper entitled "Period Three Implies Chaos". "Chaos" is a mathematical concept in non-linear dynamics for systems that vary according to precise deterministic laws but appear to behave in random fashion. The University's Chaos Research Group is one of the best in the world. The objective of Dr. Yorke's chaos research is to describe those robust properties that are common in the dynamics of physical, biological, and chemical systems. Sometimes the phenomena can be described using rigorous mathematics, and sometimes only phenomenological descriptions can be obtained from intensive numerical studies. Most often, the research is a blend of numerical and rigorous techniques. For more information call 410.455.2356.

Free and open to the public.

James Yorke

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April 3, 2003 at 4:00 p.m. : Booknotes and Artnotes

Location: Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

Event: "Inside Picture Books" by Ellen Handler Spitz

Previous ArtsNotes: Ellen Handler Spitz, April 3, 2003 at 4:00 p.m. in the Library Gallery.
Dr. Spitz discussed her book, Inside Picture Books. Her lecture was entitled “Picture Books and the Inner World of the Child.”

This free event was followed by a reception and was open to the public. It was preceded by a meeting of the Friends of the Library & Gallery Council at 2 p.m. in the Library, room 768.

Mention a name from a beloved childhood picture book---Madeline, Corduroy, Peter Rabbit, Max and his "wild things"---and most adults can recollect a bright image, fragments of a story, the timbre of a certain reading voice, the sensation of being held, and best of all being together with someone and enveloped in fantasy. Why do picture book images shown to us as young children linger in our minds? How do picture books shape our lives early on and even later into adulthood? How can we better understand the profound impact of reading to children? This lecture explored these questions and illustrated ways in which classic picture books transmit psychological wisdom, convey moral lessons, shape tastes, foster imagination, and also implant subtle prejudices.

Ellen Handler Spitz is a Professor in the Honors College as well as in the Department of Visual Arts. She was educated at Barnard College and at Harvard and Columbia Universities; in addition, she studied at the Art Students League in New York, at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and at SUNY, Purchase, under Antonio Frasconi. She has held year-long fellowships at the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities in Santa Monica, the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University (formerly, the Bunting Institute), and at the Center for Advanced Study, Stanford University. She has taught and/or lectured in England, France, Italy, Israel, the Netherlands, Austria, Spain, Russia, Canada, and the Peoples Republic of China. She is the author of Art and Psyche (Yale, 1985), Image and Insight (Columbia, 1991), Museums of the Mind (Yale, 1994), and Inside Picture Books (Yale, 1999). With several colleagues, she co-edited Freud and Forbidden Knowledge (1994) and Bertolucci's Last Emperor (1998), and she has published numerous articles, chapters, and reviews. At UMBC, she teaches interdisciplinary seminars that involve philosophy, psychology, literature, and the performing arts as well as visual culture.

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November 20, 2002 at 4:00 p.m. : Library Gallery

Location: Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

Event: "Modernist Fiction, Cosmopolitanism and Politics of Community" by Jessica Berman

Dr. Berman discussed her recently published book, Modernist Fiction, Cosmopolitanism and the Politics of Community. This free event was followed by a reception and was open to the public.

In her talk, entitled “Cosmopolitan Tendencies,” Dr. Berman discussed the connection between modernism and cosmopolitanism and its legacy for thinking about global identities today. Modernist writers of the early decades of the twentieth century are often understood to present a simplistic version of cosmopolitan identity, abandoning local community for connection to the “world at large” or to an idealized International Style. It is against this monolithic internationalism that many recent critics of modernism have rebelled. Berman has argued in her book that many modernist texts create subtly nuanced versions of cosmopolitanism that remain deeply bound to the value of community. Her talk examined the implications of this new cosmopolitanism for reading literary modernism and for our re-working of cosmopolitan identities in the twenty-first century.

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Monday, April 15, 2002, 4 p.m. : Library Gallery

Location: Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

Event: A Reading by Michael Collier, Poet Laureate of Maryland

Monday, April 15, 2002, 4 p.m. in the UMBC Library Gallery.
This free event was followed by a reception and was open to the public. It was preceded by a meeting of the Friends of the Library & Gallery Council.

Michael Collier press release

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Wednesday, May 1, 2002. 4 p.m. : Library Gallery

Location: Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

Event: Tom Goldstein
Free and open to the public. Followed by a reception.
Tom Goldstein:

Tom Goldstein press release

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Saturday, December 7, 2002 : Dinner Theatre Events

Location: Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery 7th Floor

Event: A Performance of Two Plays by George Bernard Shaw

Previous Dinner Theater: December 7, 2002.

Saturday, December 7, 2002: a performance of two plays by George Bernard Shaw!

Reservations by November 27, 2002.
The event began with a wine and soft drinks reception on the 7th floor of the Library at 5:30 p.m., followed by Dinner at 6:00 p.m. and then remarks by Colette Searls, the Director of the plays. For Dinner, there was a choice of entrees: grilled hallibut with fresh fruit salsa, gremolata (parsley, garlic and lemon zest) stuffed chicken with tomato relish, and roasted vegetable lasagna. The plays themselves began at 8:00 p.m. in the UMBC Theatre.
Cost $35 per person. Further information and reservations available from the UMBC Library offices at 410.455.2356 or by emailing Library Administrative Offices.

Here is the Theatre Department description of the performance:

The Department of Theatre presents An Evening of Adultery, two one-act plays by George Bernard Shaw: Overruled and Passion, Poison and Petrifaction, on the ironies of infidelity, directed by Colette Searls. Bored by countless treatments of adultery on the European stage, Bernard Shaw offered Overruled as his own "demonstration." What might happen if two married couples, caught red-handed, try to duke it out in a proper honest chat? From the opposite side of the Shawian brain, we present Passion, Poison & Petrifaction as its wayward companion. A parody of tragic melodrama, this "tomfoolery" unleashes the romance of love and vengeance with no such civilized restraint. The production features the work of Elena Zlotescu as costume & scenic designer, Terry Cobb as lighting and sound designer, Lynn Watson as vocal and dialect coach, and Greggory Schraven and technical director.


(Even More Previous - 2001) Dinner Theater: The Good Woman of Setzuan, a play by Bertholt Brecht.

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Monday, September 23, 2002, Lecture at 4 p.m. : Dinner Theatre Events

Location: Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

Event: "Islam and Modernity: Radical Versus Reformist Islam" by Barbara Stowasser

Monday, September 23, 2002, Lecture at 4 p.m. In the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery. Followed by a reception. Co-Sponsored by the Humanities Forum.
Dr. Stowasser is a scholar of international renown. Her published works include several books, including Women in the Qur'an: Traditions and Interpretation (NY: Oxford, 1994), and many articles published in Arabic, Turkish, German and American journals. She is Professor of Arabic in the Department of Arabic, College of Arts and Sciences, Georgetown University. She served as Director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies in Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service since 1993. CCAS recently published Dr. Stowasser's A Time to Reap: Thoughts on Calendars and Millennialism, an exploration of how Islam, Christianity and Judaism have historically treated periods of apocalyptic imminence.
Free and open to the public.

Barbara Stowasser

Films Recommended as Preparation for this lecture

September 17 Film: (also showing September 18; see below) Islam: Em pire of Faith Part One, "The Messenger" 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. Library Gallery. This video covers the life of Mohammed and the founding of the Muslim religion, as well as the early struggle for the acceptance and expansion of the Muslim Religion.

September 18 Film: (also showing September 19; see below) Islam: Empire of Faith Part Two, "The Awakening" 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. Library Gallery. This video picks up after the death of Mohammed and deals with the many advances and inventions by the Muslim world at the time, the Crusades, and the Mongol invasion.

September 18 Film: (repeat of September 17 showing) Islam: Empire of Faith Part One, "The Messenger" 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. The Commons 328. This video covers the life of Mohammed and the founding of the Muslim religion, as well as the early struggle for the acceptance and expansion of the Muslim Religion.

September 19 Film: (repeat of September 18 showing) Islam: Empire of Faith Part Two, "The Awakening" 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. The Commons 328. This video picks up after the death of Mohammed and deals with the many advances and inventions by the Muslim world at the time, the Crusades, and the Mongol invasion.