Arts Array Schedule spring 2012
Sunday with Friends - Free for Everyone
Naomi Benaron: Author of Running the Rift
Sunday, February 5, 3:00 p.m.
Washington County Public Library
Meet Naomi Benaron, whose debut novel is gaining a lot of international attention, including winning the Bellwether Prize for the best first novel about social justice. The biennial prize is sponsored by Barbara Kingsolver. The novel is set in Rwanda, before the genocide, and follows the dreams of one hopeful young African runner Jean Patrick who dreams of competing in the Olympics. As he tries to ignore his Tutsi ethnic identity, his world grows increasingly restrictive for his people and violent for his family. Jean Patrick wants to believe that his running career can deliver him from the conflict.
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Black Film Festival: Films of Sidney Poitier
A Raisin in the Sun
Tuesday, February 7, 7:30 p.m.
Executive Auditorium at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center
Free for Everyone
A Raisin in the Sun stars Poitier in a film adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s famous play as Walter Lee Younger, a young man with big dreams for economic success. When his father dies and leaves a $10,000 inheritance, Walter’s dream has to compete with his wife’s, his mother’s and his sister’s dreams.
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Civil War Series: "The War Intensifies - 1862"
“1862—The Glory To Be Won!”—Lecture by Michael Shaffer
Thursday, February 9, 7:30 p.m.
Executive Auditorium at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center
Free for Everyone
The Civil War continued amid a series of military defeats and triumphs for the Confederacy. From Jackson's Valley Campaign to the coldness of Fredericksburg, soldiers from Washington County endured the trials of war. Whether lamenting the ever-increasing price of goods, or grieving over the loss of the fallen, citizens of Washington County maintained a determined spirit. New recruits answered the call, as the promise of "Glory to be Won" proved strong. This lecture by Michael Shaffer, Assistant Director ? Lecturer with Kennesaw State University’s Civil War Center, will be a general overview of military action during the war's second year, augmented with local observations about 1862 in the county and region.
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Black Film Festival: Films of Sidney Poitier
A Patch of Blue
Tuesday, February 14, 7:30 p.m.
Executive Auditorium at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center
Free for Everyone
In A Patch of Blue, Poitier stars as Gordon Ralfe, a thoughtful young postal worker who one day in the park befriends a lonely blind white girl. They continue to meet every afternoon and he teaches her to get along in the city. When her domineering mother finds out about the relationship, she is determined to end it.
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1862—The War Intensifies: Civil War Series
“Guerrilla, Divided Families, and the Horrors of War”—Lecture by Brian McKnight
Thursday, February 16, 7:30 p.m.
Executive Auditorium at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center
Free for Everyone
While people often discount the local Civil War and prefer instead to visit places like Gettysburg and Shiloh, towns like Abingdon experienced the war every day. With guerrilla warfare, food shortages, and constant enemy contact, the mountains and valleys were hotbeds of activity. On the farms and within the homes, the war became even more complex as families struggled to choose the right side, knowing that a wrong choice might doom them in the postwar world. Our region proves that it does not take great battles and heroic leaders to have a very real war. McKnight teaches history at UVA--Wise and is the author of Contested Borderland.
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The Spencer-Miller Memorial Concert Series
The Paramount Chamber Players: Winter Journey
Sunday, February 19, 3:00 p.m.
Sinking Spring Presbyterian Church
Free for Everyone
The Paramount Chamber Players will present Winter Journey featuring the Piano Quartet in C minor, op. 45 by Gabriel Faure preceded by the 17th-century Music for the Humors of the Age by Gottfried Finger and selections from the intimately emotional songs of Franz Schubert’s Winterreise. Appearing in this performance will be Mark Davis, voice; Cherylonda Fitzgerald, cello; George Figueroa and Alice Keith Knowles, violin; Vicki Fey, harpsichord; Craig W. Combs, piano; and guest artist, Luis Casals, viola.
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Black Film Festival: Films of Sidney Poitier
To Sir, With Love
Tuesday, February 21, 7:30 p.m.
Executive Auditorium at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center
Free for Everyone
In To Sir, With Love Poitier stars as Mark Thackeray, a young engineer hired to teach an undisciplined class at a London East End school, while he waits to get a job of his choice. He starts implementing discipline, getting involved in their lives,and winning over even the most incorrigible students.
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1862-The War Intensifies: Civil War Lecture Series
“Minerals, Railroads, and Civil War Battles in Southwest Virginia”--Lecture by Robert Whisonant
Thursday, February 23, 7:30 p.m.
Rooms 103-104 at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center
Free for Everyone
During the Civil War, southwestern Virginia’s mineral resources became extremely important to the Confederate war effort. An estimated one-third of the lead and two-thirds of the salt consumed by the South during the entire conflict were produced here, as well as substantial amounts of niter, iron, and coal. Moreover, the region’s Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, over which many of these mineral products and other strategic materials moved, became one of the most critical supply routes for the military forces and civilians in eastern Virginia. Consequently, a number of battles occurred in Southwest Virginia as Union and Confederacy struggled for control of the mineral operations and railway.
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Sunday with Friends - Free for Everyone
Doug Ogle: Author of Whitetop: The Great Meadow Mountain of Virginia
Sunday, February 26, 3:00 p.m.
Washington County Public Library
Meet Doug Ogle, who has written the first book devoted exclusively to a single mountain peak in Virginia. Few mountains have as long and pivotal a record of human and natural history in the Commonwealth, from early boundary surveys in the 1700s to being a part of the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area today. In Ogle’s narrative, natural history details are intertwined with anecdotes about human history from the bear hunters, scientists, and entrepreneurs who have left descriptions and photographs of this unique place. Ogle, one of the area’s leading botanists and retired professor from Virginia Highalnds Community College, especially knows intimately the diverse ecology of the mountain.
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Black Film Festival: Films of Sidney Poitier
In the Heat of the Night
Tuesday, February 28, 7:30 p.m.
Executive Auditorium at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center
Free for Everyone
In In the Heat of the Night, Poitier stars as detective Virgil Tibbs who is caught up in the racial tensions in the South when he is arrested after the murder of a prominent businessman. When the local police chief learns that Tibbs is Philadelphia’s leading homicide expert, he reluctantly asks for his assistance.
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1862—The War Intensifies: Civil War Series
“Confederate Reckoning”--Lecture by Stephanie McCurry
Thursday, March 1, 7:30 p.m.
Executive Auditorium at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center
Free for Everyone
Dr. Stephanie McCurry, Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, has written one of the most influential new books about the Civil War. Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South strips the Southern cause of myth and romance. Dedicated to the proposition that all men were not created equal, the Confederacy had to fight a two-front war—not only against Union armies, but also slaves and poor white women who rose in revolt across the South. This lecture is sponsored by the Washington County Public Library, funded by a grant from the organization of American Historians in their distinguished Lectureship Program.
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Sunday with Friends - Free for Everyone
Cindy Lovell: "Tom Sawyer - The Real Life Behind the Fiction."
Sunday, March 4, 3:00 p.m.
Washington County Public Library
Meet Cindy Lovell, the Executive Director of the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum in Hannibal, Missouri, who will kick off the community Big Read on Tom Sawyer, by giving an illustrated lecture on ”The Real Life Behind the Fiction.” Twain grew up in Hannibal in the 1830s and 1840s, and Lovell will show images from Hannibal today that are reflected in Tom Sawyer as well as discussing the biographical details that Twain incorporated into his novel: his childhood friends and adventures and some of the real events from his life in Hannibal.
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The Spencer-Miller Memorial Concert Series
Quintango: Classical Tango
Sunday, March 11, 3:00 p.m.
Sinking Spring Presbyterian Church
Free for Everyone
Quintango, a favorite of Abingdon audiences for many years, is one of the premier tango ensembles in the United States. Based in Alexandria, Virginia, Quintango will feature two violins, cello, bass, and piano in an afternoon of classical tango, with back stories about the music to connect it to its roots in Argentina. Quintango has toured internationally, has performed at a Command Performance at the White House, and is an annual participant at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina.
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Sunday with Friends - Free for Everyone
Jim Minick: Author of The Blueberry Years
Sunday, March 18, 3:00 p.m.
Washington County Public Library
Meet Jim Minick whose book The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family has become a regional favorite since it was published last year. It captures the story of one family’s decade-long venture of creating the mid-Atlantic’s first certified-organic, pick-your-own blueberry farm. Like his mentor Thoreau, Minick universalizes his experiences and has wonderful digressions about everything blueberry as well as national farming issues and “new farmers” in America today. Minick is also the author of two books of poetry, Her Secret Song and Burning Heaven as well as collection of essays, Finding a Clear Path.
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Sunday with Friends - Free for Everyone
Regional Poetry Celebration: Jeff Mann and Other Poets
Sunday, April 15, 3:00 p.m.
Washington County Public Library
To help celebrate National Poetry Month, Jeff Mann, creative writing professor at Virginia Tech, will read from his poetry, followed by readings from several members of the Appalachian Center for Poets and Writers. Mann is a Covington, Virginia native, with degrees in forestry and English from West Virginia University. He has published three full-length books of poetry: Bones Washed with Wine, On the Tongue, and Ash: Poems from Norse Mythology as well as two collections of personal essays, several volumes of fiction, three poetry chapbooks, and a book of poetry and memoir.
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The Spencer-Miller Memorial Concert Series
The Paramount Chamber Players: Mostly Mozart
Sunday, April 29, 3:00 p.m.
Sinking Spring Presbyterian Church
Free for Everyone
The Paramount Chamber Players will present Mostly Mozart, the first all-composer concert ever performed by the group. Featured in the concert will be selections from the Church Sonatas for Organ and Strings, Bass Arias sung by Mark Davis, as well as the Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K851; the Flute Quartet No. 1 in D Major, K 285; and the Piano Concerto in A Major, K414. Additional performers in the concert will be Eugene Jones, clarinet; Rebecca Paluzzi, flute; Cherylonda Fitzgerald, cello; George Figueroa, violin; Vicki Fey, organ; Craig W. Combs, piano; and guest artist, Luis Casals, viola.
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Sunday with Friends - Free for Everyone
Robert Morgan: Author of Lions of the West
Sunday, May 6, 3:00 p.m.
Washington County Public Library
Known for his bestselling fiction, his poetry and his acclaimed biography of Daniel Boone, in his new work Robert Morgan uses his skill at characterization to give life to the personalities of 10 Americans who followed Thomas Jefferson’s dream that the United States would stretch across the North American continent, from ocean to ocean. Besides Jefferson, the other men include Andrew Jackson, “Johnny Appleseed.” Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, James K. Polk, Winfield Scott, Kit Carson, John Quincy Adams, and Nicholas Trist (Jefferson’s son-in-law).
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