News

WORCESTER, Mass. – For the second year in a row, a Holy Cross Moot Court team placed second in the National Moot Court Competition, making them among the top competitors in the nation.

The team was made up of the same two students as last year. They are: Elizabeth Letak ’06, a Chinese language and religious studies major from Plymouth, Minn., and Erin Robert ’06, a political science major from Broad Brook, Conn.

Sixty-two teams from around the country entered the competition, which was hosted by the University of Texas-Arlington from Jan. 21-22, 2004.

Moot Court is appellate argument. Unlike Mock Trial which emphasizes legal procedure, strategy decisions, and clarity of presentation, Moot Court tests substantive law. Students must master the nexus of dozens of cases and be able to answer to judges who challenge their application of legal rules or principles.

This year’s case involved the role of government in child abuse.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Acclaimed hip-hop artist Talib Kweli will be speaking on Feb. 2 at 6:30 p.m. in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom at the College of the Holy Cross as the Black History Month keynote speaker. The talk is titled “Just to Get By: Hip-Hop as a Tool for Participation and Activism” and will be followed by a question-and-answer session.

The event, sponsored by the Black Student Union, is free to Holy Cross students. There is a $5 charge for students in the Colleges of Worcester Consortium. Students must present their ID to gain admittance.

Critics have praised Kweli for his exceptional rhyme skills and his work as an activist – both on and off the mic. Kweli, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., has been interested in lyrical rhyming since his teen years. He befriended Dante Smith, now known as Mos Def, who shared his passion for hip-hop. The two would hang out in Washington Square Park in downtown Manhattan and battle aspiring MCs.

Kweli and Mos Def collaborated and released Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star, which was hailed as one of 1998’s best albums. Putting his money where his socially provoking words are, Kweli and Mos Def purchased the financially ailing Nkiru Books, Brooklyn’s oldest black-owned bookstore, and eventually converted it into the Nkiru Center for Education & Culture. Today, the non-profit organization promotes literacy and multicultural awareness.

In 1999, Kweli and Mos Def teamed up again to produce Hip-Hop for Respect, a four-song single disc featuring 41 emcees who collaborated to protest the murder of Amadou Diallo who was shot 41 times by New York City police. Police falsely thought Diallo was drawing a pistol against them.

Kweli’s most recent album, The Beautiful Struggle, was released in September 2004.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture at the College of the Holy Cross is sponsoring two lectures concerning the crisis in the Catholic Church. The talks, part of the series “Beyond Brokenness: Healing, Renewal and the Church,” are free and open to the public.

The first of the talks is the annual Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan Lecture on Religion and Public Affairs, taking place Feb. 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library. Judge Anne Burke, of the Illinois Appellate Court, First District and former Interim Chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People, will speak on “Lay Catholics and the Future of the American Church.”

Throughout her career in public service as a children’s advocate and legal professional, Burke has endeavored to provide a voice to society’s most fragile citizens. For more than two years serving as Interim Chair, she directed the efforts of the National Review Board of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops investigating the causes and effects of the clergy abuse scandal and helped establish guidelines and policies for effectively responding to this issue.

The Bishop Flanagan Lecture series was started in 1991 in an effort to build a relationship between the Diocese of Worcester and Holy Cross on social justice and peace issues. It is named in honor of the late Bishop of Worcester, a member of the Holy Cross Class of 1928, who was known for his lifelong dedication to peace, social justice and ecumenism. Each year the Bishop Flanagan Lecture brings scholars, pastoral leaders or leaders of important apostolic movements to Holy Cross. Their presence stimulates discussion of important problems facing the American Church and provides an opportunity for dialogue and collaboration between the local churches and the College.

Janine Geske, Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Marquette University Law School and former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice, will give a talk titled “Restorative Justice: A Model for Response to Clergy Abuse” on Feb. 9 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library.

At Marquette Law, Geske spearheads the Restorative Justice Initiative which “serves as a resource for victims, communities, and restorative justice organizations, as a restorative justice clinical experience for law students, and as a program promoting scholarship, research and dialogue on restorative justice,” according to the Marquette Law School Web site.

Requiring offenders to take responsibility for their actions, Restorative Justice is a worldwide movement committed to supporting communities and victims in the healing process. Geske will discuss the aims and values of Restorative Justice, and will specifically talk about how this could serve as a model for healing in many instances of clergy abuse.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Ithamar Gruenwald, professor of Jewish Philosophy at Tel Aviv University and an internationally renowned specialist in apocalyptic, mysticism, Gnosticism and ancient ritual, will lecture on “How Holy are Holy Wars?” on Feb. 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross.

Gruenwald will explore the uses of the notion of “Holy War” in the ancient texts and in current politics. He will also lead a three-day faculty seminar on the Zohar, a book on the Jewish Kabbalistic teachings, from Feb. 8 to Feb. 10. He is the author of three books and more than 40 articles on early Judaism.

The talk is sponsored by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding, which supports campus and community-wide educational initiatives that foster understanding of Judaism and Jewish culture, and dialogue between Jews and Christians.

WORCESTER, Mass. – An opening reception for “A Child Artist in Terezin: Witness to the Holocaust,” an exhibit featuring drawings by Helga Weissova-Hoskova, will be held on Feb. 9, 2005 from 4 – 6 p.m. in the Rehm Library of Smith Hall at the College of the Holy Cross.

The guest speaker at the event will be Edgar Krasa, of Newton, another Terezin survivor who shared a room with Hoskova in the ghetto.

Terezin, a city located northwest of Prague, was originally presented as an “old people’s camp” for elderly Jews. Indeed, Nazis tried to use Terezin for propaganda even producing a film titled “Führer Gives the Jews a Town.” Hitler sent Jews from Czechoslovakia, Germany, France, Netherlands and Belgium with the pretense they would be safer there. In reality, it was a place of starvation and brutality. Krasa and Hoskova are among an estimated 100 children from Terezin to survive.

Hoskova was born in Prague on Nov. 10, 1929. She was deported to the Terezin camp with her parents on Dec. 17, 1941. Her brushes and paints packed among her limited luggage, the 12-year-old Hoskova created a personal diary of her images of life in Terezin. She was sent to Auschwitz with her mother on Oct. 14, 1944, and then to the work camps at Freiberg and Mauthausen. She survived and returned to Prague, where she studied painting with the Czech artist Emil Filla. Hoskova lives and is still working as an artist in Prague. This collection of artwork chronicles life during the Holocaust seen through the eyes of a young artist facing an uncertain future.

Krasa volunteered to go to Terezin to work in the barracks. He later formed a chorus with follow prisoners as a means of forming resistance and lifting spirits. He was deported to Auschwitz and later liberated by the Russian army.

The drawings by Hoskova, on display since Jan. 19, are open to the public through March 18 in Smith Hall. Viewings hours are: Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. – 9 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

The exhibit is co-sponsored by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, the Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies, and the Cantor Art Gallery.

The exhibit is in collaboration with Clark University’s Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies exhibit “Forging a New Life: The Jewish Experience in Central and Eastern Europe on the Cusp of a New Millennium.” The exhibit features photographs of Jewish communities from post-Communist countries by Karel Cudlin. An opening reception will be held Feb. 16, 4 – 6 p.m. in the Rose Library of the Cohen Lasry House at Clark.

The photos by Cudlin will be on display to the public from Feb. 16 – May 25 in the Cohen Lasry House at Clark. Viewings hours are: Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Sundays, 1 – 4 p.m.

For more information on Hoskova’s exhibit, call Holy Cross’ Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies at 508-793-2497.

For more information on Cudlin’s exhibit, call Clark University’s Center for Holocaust Studies at 508-793-8897.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross will present Terri Priest Interactions: Paintings and Works on Paper, from Feb. 16 – April 13, 2005.

The exhibit will feature a career-long survey of paintings, drawings and screen prints, made between 1960 and the present, by Worcester artist and retired Holy Cross professor, Terri Priest. Priest was on the faculty of the Visual Arts department at Holy Cross from 1978 to 1993. Spanning four decades of the artist’s career, many of the paintings contained in the Gallery exhibition haven’t been shown publicly since their creation in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. Several recent selections from 2004 will also be shown for the first time. An illustrated catalog will be available with essays by Roger Dunn, professor of art history at Bridgewater State College and Roger Hankins, director of the Cantor Art Gallery.

A series of public events in conjunction with the exhibit will be held at the Cantor Art Gallery:

* Artist Talk, “Terri Priest: Stripes to Light”: Feb. 16, 5 – 6 p.m.
* Opening Reception: Feb. 19, 4:30 – 6 p.m.
* Gallery Talk,  Roger Hankins, Director, Cantor Art Gallery: Feb. 22, Noon
* Artist Talk, “Early Work and Social Change”: March 3, Noon
* Artist Talk, “Vermeer Women and Recent Paintings”: March 16, Noon

About the Artist

Priest’s interest in art began in childhood, when she was inspired to “draw like an artist” in the late 1930s by copying Harold Foster’s comic strip “Prince Valiant.” Becoming an artist remained her goal through high school and young adulthood as she enrolled in several painting and art history courses at the Worcester Art Museum School of Art and at Assumption College. Her first professional experience as an illustrator/artist was at the Worcester manufacturing company, Wyman Gordon Co., where in 1954 she designed and produced commercial advertisements, display graphics and company signage. During this same time, as she worked at Wyman Gordon Co., Priest continued to make paintings that were informed by modernist art she had encountered at museums from Worcester to New York.

By 1960, Priest had taken her painting to new levels of conviction. Her skill and execution sharpened, she was well versed in the language of contemporary American art and she had a message she wanted to convey through her painting. Priest had become actively engaged in the Civil Rights movement. Motivated by Civil Rights activism, Priest pressed her painting to achieve a presence that would be optically challenging and metaphorically consistent with her strong political and spiritual beliefs. Priest thus began what would become a seven-year series of paintings titled “Organic Interaction,” six of which will be contained in the Gallery exhibition.

Priest then began, in 1967, a second large body of work, titled “Static Variations” that followed closely the “Organic Interaction” series in form and theme. In these multi-paneled and sometimes unconventionally shaped canvases, the “Static Variations” paintings, some measuring as big as 6 feet high, 15 feet long, Priest further developed her vocabulary of strict geometric elements coupled with a reductive palette, but now introduced a new set of challenges. In the “Static Variations” series Priest produced a number of large sculpture-like objects made up of two to five separate canvases that assembled into irregular geometric shapes mounted to the wall, ceiling, floor or corner of a room. Priest also allowed – and encouraged – the paintings to be exhibited within set parameters decided by anyone hanging them, thus creating a dynamic collaboration between artist and installer (hence the title of the series “Static Variations”).

By this time, Priest, 47, a mother of two teenage sons, and an established artist who had her work included in several museum exhibitions in Massachusetts – including the Worcester Art Museum, DeCordover Museum, and the Springfield Museum – began a graduate degree program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Priest received her MFA degree in 1977.

In 1978, Priest was hired to teach in the Visual Arts Department at Holy Cross as a part-time instructor and then in 1979 as a full-time instructor. The exhibition will include more than 20 paintings and works on paper Priest produced during the years of her appointment at the College. In 1993, Priest retired from her associate professorship in order to devote more concentrated time to her own painting, as well as to managing and directing the Fletcher/Priest Gallery, a Worcester-based contemporary art gallery. The gallery remained open from 1990 until 2003. During the 13 years of operation, the gallery developed a widely respected contemporary venue for nationally and regionally known artists through monthly exhibitions and events. In 2003, Priest turned her full attention to her own painting career, and closed the Fletcher/Priest Gallery.

In the mid-’90s, Priest again turned her attention to a new body of work that addressed issues of personal loss, illness and transcendence. The “Angel Series” was a series of paintings done between 1995 and 1998 as a direct response and homage to the death of Priest’s sister in the early ’90s. The “Angel Paintings” offers a contrast to Priest’s earlier work of purely geometric abstraction and experimental optical paintings of the 1960 – 1980s, where her subjects became infused with recognizable objects such as agave plants or Greek architecture.

Recent paintings that will be included in the Cantor survey of Priest’s career are “Fragments,” based solely on the paintings of Jan Vermeer, the great 17th century Dutch painter. Other works on view are paintings also based on Vermeer paintings coupled with an appropriation of late 20th century artists’ depictions of women or vernacular images such as still life’s of rows of lipsticks by Wayne Thiebaud, or the pop imagery of Roy Lichtenstein’s.

Priest’s recent solo and group exhibitions include: Terri Priest: Reprise, 1963-1976, (solo) Hampden Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2002; and Terri Priest, Vermeer Women Making Choices, (solo) Clark University Art Gallery, 2001; Revering Vermeer, (group) Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MA. 2000; Classical Vision/Personal Obsession, (group) Freddie Fong Gallery, San Francisco, 2004. In 2003, Priest received a commission to paint Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622), the patron Saint of Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, Va., where the painting now resides. Throughout her career, Priest’s devoted considerable volunteer time and energy to issues of civil rights, opposition to the Vietnam War and fund raising for a variety of social causes in the Worcester community.

Gallery Information

The hours for the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery are Monday – Friday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. Located in O’Kane Hall, 1st Floor, College of the Holy Cross, 1 College Street, Worcester, MA, 01610. Admission to the gallery is free. Public parking is located on Linden Lane, gate 2, off College Street.

The gallery will be closed to the public March 5 and March 12.

For more information, call the Cantor Art Gallery at 508-793-3356 or visit the Gallery’s Web site at: www.holycross.edu/departments/cantor/website/index.html.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The College of the Holy Cross will host a scholarly panel titled “Tsunami Symposium: Making Sense of the Asian Devastation” on Jan. 27, along with other events concerning the tsunami that devastated parts of Asia and east Africa.

The scholarly panel will be held from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at Mary Chapel in St. Joseph Memorial Chapel, and will feature presentations by experts in the region. Following the symposium, there will be a 45-minute interfaith prayer service in Mary Chapel. At 8 p.m. an All-Bach recital dedicated to the victims of the earthquake and the tsunami titled “The Partitas of J.S. Bach” at the Brooks Concert Hall will be performed by Sarah Grunstein, assistant professor in the music department at Holy Cross.

The speakers of the panel and the titles of their talks are:

Professor Alan Kafka, Boston College seismology professor and chair in the College’s Department of Geology and Geophysics; “Earthquakes, Plate Tectonics, and Tsunamis in the Indian Ocean.”

Professor Susan Rodgers, Holy Cross anthropology professor and Asian studies director; “Sumatran Poverty, Politics, and Vulnerability to Natural Disasters.”

Dr. Daniel Libraty, M.D., UMass Medical School Center for the Study of Viral and Infectious Diseases; “Infectious and Communicable Disease Threats after Natural Disasters: Focus on the South and Southeast Asia Earthquake and Tsunami” (Dr. Libraty has four years of work in Bangkok with the Thai Public Health Service, concerning dengue fever).

Professor Diane Bukatko, Holy Cross psychology professor; “Children of the Tsunami Disaster: Development Risks.”

Professor Maurice Weinrobe, Clark University Economics Department Chair; “Housing and Housing Finance in the Wake of Natural Disasters – Indonesia.”

All the above events are open free of charge to the public.

Members of the student body will be holding a “Sundown to Sundown Fast” beginning at sundown on Jan. 27 until sundown on Jan. 28. The fast, open to all members of the College community, will provide an opportunity for the College to be in solidarity with the people of South Asia who are hungry for so many things – food, clean water, housing, livelihoods, and, of course, loved ones who were lost. Money otherwise spent on food or coffee will be donated to the Holy Cross Tsunami Relief Fund. All the money raised for the fund will be evenly distributed among Oxfam, Catholic Relief Services and Save the Children.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Renowned novelist Alice McDermott will receive an honorary degree from the College of the Holy Cross on Jan. 24 at 4:30 p.m. in St. Joseph Chapel. The degree and academic hood will be presented to her by Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., president of the College, and Stephen C. Ainlay, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College.

McDermott was originally scheduled to receive her honorary degree at the College’s May 2004 Commencement, but a family illness prevented her from attending that ceremony. The presentation will be part of the Senior Convocation program, an event designed strictly for students to reflect on their college careers and look toward the future after graduation from Holy Cross.

Earlier in the day, at 2:30 p.m., McDermott will deliver a talk titled “Suffering, Loss, and the Work of a Writer” in Rehm Library.

The author of five acclaimed novels, Alice McDermott has won critical praise and a devoted readership with her deft perceptions of love, loss, family and faith. Her debut novel, A Bigamist’s Daughter (1982), announced the arrival of an exciting new talent and her follow-up book, That Night (1987), was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. At Weddings and Wakes (1992), her third novel and New York Times bestseller, was called “a haunting and masterly work of literary art” by The Wall Street Journal. Charming Billy (1998) won the National Book Award. Her most recent novel, Child of My Heart, was published in 2002. McDermott received her bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Oswego, and a master’s degree in writing from the University of New Hampshire. She and her husband, research neuroscientist David M. Armstrong, have three children, Will, Patrick and Eames.

NOTE TO PHOTOGRAPHERS: Please call Nikolas Markantonatos at 508-793-2419 to make arrangements to attend either of these events.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Three students – all members of the Class of 2005 at the College of the Holy Cross – have been selected as Senior Convocation Scholars after submitting speeches in a competition open to the entire class. They will deliver their talks as part of the program at Senior Convocation on Jan. 24 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in St. Joseph Chapel. The three students are Emily Cura of Winchester, Mass., Brendan Kearney of Haddonfield, N.J. and Joanna Wusinich of Downingtown, Pa.

Seniors were asked to write speeches reflecting on the academic, spiritual, service, athletic and leadership experiences they have had over the past three and a half years, and describing how those experiences will play a role in their life after graduation.

A committee of faculty, administrators and students selected the winning speeches.

Senior Convocation is an opportunity for seniors at the College to come together as a class for the last time before Commencement, to reflect on the past few years, think about the future and how to better themselves. In addition to the speeches, the program includes musical performances by students and a talk by Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., president of the College.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Three alumni of the College of the Holy Cross who have enjoyed successful careers in the field of journalism will share their insight and offer advice to students during a talk titled “Careers in Broadcast and Print Journalism” on Jan. 25 from 7 to 9 p.m in the Hogan Campus Center, Room 304.

The three guests, along with a brief biography, are:

Jim Farrell ’81 writes primarily about education for the Hartford Courant and is also a writing teacher at Manchester (Conn.) Community College. The experience he gained working at The Crusader helped Jim land a job in journalism as a sportswriter at the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire. He went on to work at the Miami Herald and has held a number of reporting and editorial positions during almost 20 years in Hartford, including deputy editor of Northeast Magazine in the Sunday Courant.

Annie Rourke ’93 is a reporter for NBC30 in Hartford, Conn., covering stories throughout the state for the evening newscasts. She worked at KVBC in Las Vegas as the MSNBC anchorwoman and producer. She served as an anchor at an ABC affiliate in Charleston, S.C., covering stories such as Hurricane Floyd and the detention of POWs at Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Joe Shortsleeve ’79 is chief correspondent for CBS4 News in Boston, developing and reporting stories of long-term significance such as the proposed wind farm in Nantucket Sound. At Holy Cross, Joe was involved at WCHC all four years, rising to news director and assistant general manager. Joe held a number of positions as a reporter, producer and weekend anchor before joining CBS4 in 1990.

The panel will be moderated by Gary Santaniello ’79 who works as a freelance writer and adjunct professor at Elms College in Chicopee. At Holy Cross, Gary was sports editor of The Crusader and worked part time at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and summers at the Norwich Bulletin. He was a sportswriter for the Syracuse Herald-Journal, Telegram & Gazette and Detroit Free Press before starting the alternative weekly newspaper Casco Bay Weekly in Portland, Maine, with a partner in 1987. He was a managing editor at Beckett Publications in Dallas for six years starting in 1991, and then returned to New England in 1997 as an editor and managing editor at the New York Times Magazine Company’s golf publications in Trumbull, Conn.

NOTE TO PHOTOGRAPHERS: Please call Nikolas Markantonatos at 508-793-2419 to make arrangements to attend this event.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Featuring an enormous cake, Holy Cross Dining will hold its 10th annual dinner event to celebrate the birthday and “unbirthday” of each student in Kimball Dining Hall on Jan. 27 from 5 to 7:30 p.m.

Titled “Mad Hatter’s Tea Party,” the dining hall will be transformed into a whimsical forest-like atmosphere as portrayed in Lewis Carroll’s book “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” The main event will feature the cake, spanning 36 feet in length and approximately 4 feet in height, assembled to look like the hat the Mad Hatter wore. The characters of the story will be featured onto the cake in edible form. The cake cutting ceremony will begin at 6 p.m. by a special guest to remain secret until the party.

Although the event is centered on celebrating birthdays, it is also an opportunity to welcome students back from winter break and celebrate the beginning of a new year, according to Margaret Rollo, assistant general manager of Kimball Dining Hall.

As part of the décor, there will be a guest table in the forest, where each place setting will include the name of six Holy Cross students (Noah McPike ’05, Katherine Healy ’07, Nicholas Mormando ’07, Erica McKeever ’08, Parnell Ormiston ’08 and Christopher Wilterdink ’08) all of whom will celebrate their birthdays on Jan. 27. All other attendees will celebrate the day as their “unbirthday.”

The construction of the cake, which is also open to photographers, will begin at 10 a.m. in the Kimball Sweet Shoppe. The theme was conceived by Walter Niemi, Kimball Sweet Shoppe supervisor.

NOTE TO PHOTOGRAPHERS: Please call Nikolas Markantonatos at 508-793-2419 to make arrangements to attend this event.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Holy Cross Alternate College Theatre (ACT) will present Damn Yankees from Thursday, Jan. 27 through Sunday, Jan. 30, in Fenwick Theatre (O’Kane Hall). The musical is directed by Eric Butler ’06. Performances are nightly at 8 p.m., with 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $7 for members of the Holy Cross community and $10 for the general public. For additional information or to reserve your tickets call the ACT box office at 508-793-3536.

Middle-aged baseball fanatic Joe Boyd trades his soul to the Devil (the charming but devious Mr. Applegate) for a chance to lead his favorite team to victory in the pennant race against the New York Yankees. As young baseball sensation Joe Hardy, he transforms the hapless Washington Senators into a winning team, only to realize the true worth of the life (and wife) he’s left behind. With the help of a handy escape clause and a guilt-ridden temptress named Lola, Joe outsmarts Applegate, returns to his former self and shepherds the Senators to the World Series.

Musical numbers include “Heart,” “Whatever Lola Wants,” “Shoeless Joe from Hannibal M.O.” and “Two Lost Souls.”

The original “Damn Yankees,” which won seven Tony Awards, ran for 1,019 performances after it opened at the 46th Street Theatre on May 5, 1955, bucking the trend that had plagued other baseball related shows.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Thomas Doughton, historian from the College of the Holy Cross, will give a talk and tour to open the “Enslaved in the Americas” exhibit on Jan. 15 at 3 to 5 p.m. in the Saxe Room of the Worcester Public Library, 1 Salem Square.

On display on the second floor of the library, the exhibit is open free of charge to the public through March 31 during normal library hours: Tuesday – Thursday, 9 a.m. – 9 p.m.- Friday – Saturday, 9 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.- and Sunday 1:30 -5:30. A dance and live music will also be among the events at the opening.

The exhibit will include papers written during the Fall 2004 semester by Doughton’s students in the Africana Studies course “Africans and the Atlantic: An Introduction to the African Diaspora,” an interdisciplinary seminar which explores the practices and experiences of people of African descent throughout the African Diaspora in the Atlantic world. The papers, written to fulfill the community-based learning portion of the seminar, contribute additional information and perspectives on the topic of the history of enslavement in the Americas.

The exhibit is a prelude to the Willis Center Cultural Institute’s 8th Annual African American Festival, which will held at Mechanics Hall Feb. 4-6. The exhibit will include artifacts, documents and antiquarian books related to enslavement in the Americas as well as documented local family histories.

Docent tours will be available Feb. 9, 16 and 23.

The exhibit is a collaborative project of the Willis Community Center, Holy Cross’ Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies and the College’s Donelan Office of Community Based Learning.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Six employees of the College of the Holy Cross, all Worcester area residents, have received the 2004 Claire B. Burns Awards. The Awards program, now in its eighth year, was established and endowed in 1997 by Donal J. Burns ’49 in honor of his wife, Claire, an alumna of the Class of 1990. The awards are presented annually to active and retired hourly and full-time employees who best demonstrate a commitment to fostering a spirit of family both in their conduct of their campus duties, and in their interaction with coworkers and other members of the Holy Cross community.

The honored employees have a combined total of 94 years of service to the College.

This year’s recipients are:

Zofia M. Burzynski, of Worcester, who works in Dining Services and has been a Holy Cross employee since February 1988.

Henry E. Corazzini, of Worcester, Physical Plant/Trades & Shops; employee since September 1986.

Maureen A. McCann, of West Brookfield, Public Safety; employee since February 1993.

Antone J. Ponte, of Millbury, Human Resources; employee since June 1991.

Robert S. Smith, of Auburn, Physical Plant/Building Services; employee since June 1991.

Matthew J. Wright, of Worcester, Physical Plant/Building Services; employee since August 1983.

The recipients will be honored at an awards banquet on Jan. 13 at the College.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The following films will be shown at Kimball Theatre at the College of the Holy Cross. All films are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. For additional information, please call the Kimball Theatre Box Office at 508-793-2455.

“Ray”
Wed., Jan. 19: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated PG-13.

“Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”
Fri, Jan. 21 and Sat., Jan. 22: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated PG.

“Vanity Fair”
Wed., Jan. 26: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated PG-13.

“Friday Night Lights”
Fri., Jan. 28 and Sat., Jan. 29: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated PG-13.

“The Motorcycle Diaries”
Wed., Feb. 2: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

“Ladder 49”
Fri., Feb. 4 and Sat. Feb. 5: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated PG-13.

“I Heart Huckabees”
Wed., Feb. 9: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

“Alexander”
Fri., Feb. 11 and Sat. Feb. 12: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated R.

“Birth”
Wed., Feb. 16: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

“National Treasure”
Fri., Feb. 18 and Sat., Feb. 19: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated PG.

“Vera Drake”
Wed., Feb. 23: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

“The Incredibles”
Fri., Feb. 25 and Sat., Feb. 26: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated PG.

“Closer”
Wed., Mar. 2: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

“Kinsey”
Wed., Mar. 16: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

“Lemony Snicket’s a Series of Unfortunate Events”
Fri., Mar. 18 and Sat., Mar. 19: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated PG.

“Finding Neverland”
Wed., Mar. 30: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated PG.

“Ocean’s 12”
Fri., April 1 and Sat., April 2: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated PG-13.

“Hotel Rwanda”
Wed., April 6: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

“Spanglish”
Fri., April 8 and Sat. April 9: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated PG-13.

“The Sea Inside”
Wed., April 13: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated PG-13.

“The Life Aquatic with Steve Sizzou”
Fri., April 15 and Sat., April 16: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated R.

“Sideways”
Wed., April 20: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m. Rated R.

“The Phantom of the Opera”
Fri., April 22 and Sat., April 23: Showing 7 p.m. Rated PG-13.

“The Aviator”
Wed., April 27: Showings at 3 and 8 p.m.

“Because of Winn-Dixie”
Fri., April 29 and Sat., April 30: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated PG-13.

“Assault on Precinct 13”
Fri., May 6 and Sat., May 7: Showing at 7 p.m. Rated PG-13.

A complete listing of films is also located at:
http://www.holycross.edu/publicaffairs/features/kimball_films_spring05

WORCESTER, Mass. – Robert Cording, professor of English at the College of the Holy Cross, has received a Literature Fellowship in Poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts in the amount of $20,000. The fellowship, awarded to only 45 writers nationwide, is intended to encourage the production of new works of poetry by affording recipients the time and means to write.

Cording has published four collections of poetry including Life-list, which won the Ohio State University Press/Journal award, in l987; What Binds Us To This World (Copper Beech Press, l991); Heavy Grace (Alice James, l996); and Against Consolation (CavanKerry Press, 2002); and has contributed more than 300 poems to magazines such as the Nation, Image, Georgia Review, Kenyon Review, New England Review, Poetry, DoubleTake, Orion, Paris Review and The New Yorker.

His work has appeared in several anthologies, including The Best Spiritual Writing of 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2004; the Pushcart Anthology, 2002; and Godine’s Poets of the New Century. He has received a number of awards and grants including a previous fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as fellowships from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. In 1992, he was poet-in-residence at the Frost Place in Franconia, N.H.

A member of the Holy Cross faculty since 1977, Cording was honored with the College’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 1995. In 2002, he was named the James N. and Sarah L. O’Reilly Barrett Endowed Chair in Creative Writing.