College of Charleston News
Stories
February 2005
February
25, 2005
Washingtonian
Growing
Up Buchanan
When
your uncle is Pat Buchanan and you've played field hockey against Al Gore's
daughter, it's nice to go someplace where names don't matter as much as who you
are
A month before my graduation from
Kensington's Academy of the Holy Cross, I ran into a classmate's mother at
White Flint Mall. Though I'd met her only once at a mother-daughter tea,
she
hugged me and told me about her daughter's admission to a Northeastern college. I said I'd gotten into the College
of Charleston.
"My dentist's niece is going there!" she said. "They're
Buchanans, you know. Her name is Elizabeth, but I think she goes by Liz. You
should get in touch with her."
She was name-dropping my own name--telling me I needed to get in touch with me!
February
25, 2005
Charleston
Post and Courier
As
Federico Garcia Lorca's title "Blood Wedding" suggests, Thursday's
production by the College of Charleston at the Robinson Theatre distances
itself far from comedy.
A runaway bride, a
cheating husband, ill-fated lovers, murder, vendettas, plus additional
convoluted themes accelerate the plot. Rather prophetically, Lorca's play
opened in Madrid in 1933, and three years later the Spaniard was murdered.
http://www.charleston.net/stories/Default.aspx?newsID=12705§ion=localnews
February
24, 2005
Providence
(RI) Journal
Egyptian myth inspires composer's chorus-percussion
work
Ma'at is a little like
the Egyptian version of St. Peter. She weighs a feather against the heart of
the dead. If the heart is the heavier, the deceased is in trouble.
Somehow, composer Trevor
Weston became intrigued with this myth for his latest piece, Ma'at Musings,
scored for chorus and percussion. The 20-minute work was commissioned by the
Providence Singers.
"It's a very, very
cool piece," said Julian Wachner, artistic director of the Singers, who'll
be conducting the piece.
The idea behind Ma'at
Musings, said Weston, who teaches at the College of Charleston in South
Carolina, is that we have a responsibility to the order of the cosmos, not just
to ourselves.
Weston's piece, which
uses translations of ancient and modern Egyptian poetry, is part of a program
of new music slated for tomorrow night and Sunday afternoon.
http://www.projo.com/music/content/projo_20050224_trevor.1e2bdd5.html
February
24, 2005
Miami
Herald
Last month, in South
Carolina, an archive and collection of oral histories opened at the College of
Charleston, exploring Jewish Southern history. In North Carolina, two authors
are documenting Jewish life in Asheville from the mid-19th century to the
present. The Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina is producing Down
Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina, a traveling multimedia exhibit, film, book and school
curriculum.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/10975799.htm
February
23, 2005
Charleston
Post and Courier
Cuban
pianist Jorge Luis Prats dazzled Tuesday night in the College of Charleston's
School of Fine Arts International Piano Series at the Sottile Theatre.
Prats was magnificent. He
presented a wide-ranging program, from serious drama to salon morsels, all in a
grand romantic style. An international award winner, Prats has played with
European and South American orchestras and toured worldwide.
http://www.charleston.net/stories/Default.aspx?newsID=12455§ion=localnews
February
23, 2005
Charleston
City Paper
For the
past eight years, the College of Charleston has tried to subtly shade our
perceptions of the French with its annual French Film Festival, which kicks off
this Thursday (see City Picks, page 36). And if American pop culture finds
French people hard to take, just imagine the kind of reserves of antipathy we
have stored up for their film. Talky, snooty, arty, subtitled, they were the
very antithesis of what movies are about here in the good old U.S. of A., and
it’s been that way for at least a hundred years. While we were busy setting up
populist realism and action-packed chase scenes (not to mention the movie industry’s
penchant for historical revisionism) with Birth of a Nation, George Meliés was
making fruity trips to the bottom of the ocean and fanciful dances on the moon.
Stylistically speaking, we seemed separated by more than just an ocean. A
galaxy was more like it.
http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/layout.asp?id=42407&action=detail&catID=1274&parentID=1254
February
23, 2005
Charleston
City Paper
Give an
infinite number of college professors a typewriter and infinite time, and
eventually they’d figure out how to use it. But what would an infinite number
of monkeys come up with if supplied with three weeks and an artist’s tools?
Retired CofC art professor John Michel suspects that the results would be
wayward, with some intriguing elements recognizable from nature. “I’m not
slighting monkeys,” says Michel, referring to the title of his upcoming Halsey
show, Monkey Paintings. He simply wants to convey a sense of freeform energy
that can be found in his series of monotypes.
http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/layout.asp?id=42408&action=detail&catID=1276&parentID=1254
February
23, 2005
Charleston
Post and Courier
Writer-activist
Secours to speak at C of C
Writer, filmmaker and
activist Molly Secours will speak about racial disparities and social justice
at 7 tonight at the College of Charleston. Secours is noted for tackling
controversial issues that are often left untouched by others. Her speech at the
Sottile Theatre is expected to address the hushed tones she says whites often
use when referring to race.
http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=12421§ion=stateregion
February
22, 2005
Charlotte
Observer
More than a dozen blacks are on the steering committee,
which is led by Clyburn. The team of consultants hired to develop the
preliminary and strategic plans include, as a key player, College of Charleston
history professor Bernard Powers, who is black.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/10959136.htm
February
21, 2005
Charleston
Post and Courier
Scholarship
fund
Being the mother of a
College of Charleston student, I want to inform you of a happening in a small
downtown restaurant by the name of Bubba Slye's Deli that is commendable.
Beginning this spring semester, college students are being rewarded for hard
work and good grades with free food.
Calling it the Austin
Scholarship Fund, students merely have to bring in a copy of their fall
semester grades [which is then posted on the wall] and, depending on the grade
point average, they are entitled to complimentary food with a hearty
"congratulations!"
http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=12269§ion=letters
February
20, 2005
Charleston
Post and Courier
Last
year's front-page photograph of dead Americans hanging from a bridge in
Fallujah, Iraq, still evokes anger toward Muslims in many Americans.
Is it really possible to
react to such a violent image with understanding?
Andrew Aghapour, a
student in Zeff Bjerken's religious seminar at the College of Charleston,
explains how this can be accomplished. Look at the image objectively, putting
aside nationalism, patriotism and emotion. Feeling angry and emotional prevents
understanding. Take a scholarly stance and focus on what motivated such
violence, rather than how to respond. Try not to identify those in the
photograph by race, nationality or religion. Ask why these people were put in
the situation.
http://www.charleston.net/stories/Default.aspx?newsID=12070§ion=faithvalues
February
20, 2005
Charlotte
Observer
An O.J. Simpson coloring
book? Could there be a wackier
idea? Before you jump to that
conclusion, follow Colin Quashie's reasoning.
Every artist looks for
ways to tell a story. The coloring book format, the S.C. painter believes, does
that perfectly, breaking a narrative into simple chunks.
Born in London and raised
in the West Indies, Quashie, 42, served on a U.S. Navy submarine (discharged in
1987 in Charleston, he still lives there) and written for MAD TV. A documentary
on civil rights he helped write for the College of Charleston -- "Where Do
We Go From Here?" -- won a regional Emmy in 2001.
But in a life of doing
different things, he's always come back to art -- or, as he says, "Art has
always come back to me."
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/entertainment/performing_arts/10947457.htm
February
20, 2005
Charleston
Post and Courier
BLOOD
WEDDING
Inspired by an actual
event, Federico Garcia Lorca's "Blood Wedding" opens Thursday at the
College of Charleston's Robinson Theatre. The story follows the path of a young
bride who becomes engaged to one man while she's truly in love with another.
Having premiered in 1933
in Madrid, "Blood Wedding" is known for emulating a classic tragedy.
It has a nearly mythic tone, yet deals with common people.
"The play is a blend
of surreal elements and tones that presents an eerie look at the traditional
values of people and of rural Spain," says director Mark Landis of the
college's theater department.
http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=12068§ion=artstravel
February
20, 2005
Charleston
Post and Courier
LOWCOUNTRY
DOINGS
Dr.
Trevor Weston of College of Charleston lectures Monday night at 7 on "A
Musical Dawn: African-American Musicians in Charleston, 1900-1930." It's
at St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, 405 King St. and it's Our Favorite Price.
http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=12023§ion=localnews
February
17, 2005
Charleston
Post and Courier
IT WAS
PLUTO
The search for Pluto had
been started in 1905 by Percival Lowell, the wealthy founder of the
observatory. He built it to look for life on Mars. Lowell's obsession with
Martians influenced H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds."
Lowell died in 1916, but
the observatory continued to look for Pluto.
When Tombaugh found it,
the tiny planet about two-thirds the size of our moon was named for the god of
the underworld because it is so far away from the sun and so dark. But its
symbol, PL, is made up of Lowell's initials.
Friday night at 7, Jon
Hakkila will give a lecture on Tombaugh and the discovery of Pluto in the Rita
Hollings Science Center on the C of C campus. It's free.
http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=11549§ion=localnews
February
16, 2005
Charleston
City Paper
The
Carolina Gold Rice Foundation will make its case for a continued emphasis on
the heirloom grain at a public roundtable discussion sponsored by the College
of Charleston’s Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World program. The roundtable
is open to the public and will feature a vast range of rice cultivation,
culture, food, and history experts, including Campbell Coxe of Carolina
Plantation Rice, Charles H.P. Duell of Middleton Place Foundation, and B. Merle
Shepard, director of Clemson University’s Coastal Research and Education
Center.
http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/layout.asp?id=42150&action=detail&catID=1256&parentID=1256
February
16, 2005
Charleston
Post and Courier
Episodes 3 and 4 of
"Slavery and the Making of America," a four-part PBS series, air
tonight on SCETV.
They are "Seeds of
Destruction," the story of the phasing out of slavery in the northern
states and the simultaneous expansion of slavery in the southern states, and
"The Challenge of Freedom," a look at the Civil War and
Reconstruction through the eyes of Lowcountry slave Robert Smalls.
Smalls' story, for those
who don't know it yet, is compelling.
College of Charleston
history professors Dr. Marvin Dulaney, Dr. Scott Poole and Dr. Bernie Powers
appear in this documentary.
http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=11439§ion=localnews
February
15, 2005
Charleston
Post and Courier
I knew I was in trouble
when I took my seat in the student section at John Kresse Arena. I turned to
the cute little co-ed next to me and said, "So we stand up until the
Cougars score their first points, right?" Jen turned to me with an
incredulous look and said, "We stand for the whole game." Uh-oh. There was no chance I was going to pass
for a College of Charleston student, so I fessed up early. I was sitting there
because I wanted to see firsthand if these kids are as foul-mouthed as they
sometimes seem.
http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=11388§ion=sports
February 15, 2005
Charleston Post and
Courier
Graduate students work as
assistants at the N.E. Miles Early Childhood Development Center at the College
of Charleston. Education majors work with the children, and psychology majors
observe. The center serves 60 children ages 2-5. First priority goes to
siblings of children already enrolled. Second priority goes to the children of
faculty, staff and college students. Remaining slots are open to the community,
said Interim Director Dick Latham.
"The baby has to be
born to get on the waiting list," he said. "I've had parents fill out
the application in the hospital."
http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=11383§ion=education
February
13, 2005
Charleston
Post and Courier
Upward Bound students
meet twice each month at the College of Charleston. The college has hosted the
program for nearly 30 years. "Unfortunately, I believe these students
would fall through the cracks and not receive the information and services
needed to enter college," said Joyce Coakley, program director.
http://www.charleston.net/stories/Default.aspx?newsID=11070§ion=localnews
February
11, 2005
Chronicle
of Higher Education
If political cartoonists
were to draw Chris Lamb, it might be as their knight, charging into battle.
There's no mistaking the passion in Drawn to Extremes: The Use and Abuse of
Editorial Cartoons
(Columbia University Press).
Armed with 150 cartoons
to illustrate his arguments, Mr. Lamb champions cartoonists as social critics
at a time when fewer and fewer American newspapers have an inkster on staff. If
editors and publishers plead poverty in this era of declining circulation, he
argues that a provocative cartoonist can attract readers -- angry ones,
maybe, but readers just the same. He also reserves criticism for the artists.
Too many, he says, are going for the easy gag in lieu of incisive social
commentary.
Mr. Lamb, an associate
professor of communication at the College of Charleston, opens with the attacks
of September 11, 2001, which he says changed the rules of engagement for
cartoonists. Initial, understandable, responses included weeping Statues of
Liberty and the like. However, with the rise of the Patriot Act and other
controversial measures, Mr. Lamb chides some cartoonists for continuing to
produce work with "all the bite of recruiting posters." The author
then explores cartoonist-politician feuds, including that between Doonesbury's Garry Trudeau and both Bush
presidents. Of course, such tensions span the history of editorial cartooning.
Take Thomas Nast, who drew Boss Tweed with a moneybag for a face. "Let's
stop them damn pictures," the Tammany Hall politician fumed. "I don't
care what the papers write about me -- my constituents can't read; but
damn it, they can see pictures!"
http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v51/i23/23a02101.htm
February
9, 2005
Charleston
City Paper
There’s
big news on the independent airwaves coming in from left of the dial. According
to evening disc jockey Brady Welch, the College of Charleston’s student-run
radio station has officially switched locations on the dial from 97.5 FM to
90.3 FM and significantly increased its wattage. The station’s broadcast ,
previously accessible only via the internet, can now be heard (if a bit fuzzy)
across the downtown area.
http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/layout.asp?id=41954&action=detail&catID=8715&parentID=8457
February
9, 2005
Charleston
City Paper
Downtown,
there’s another restaurant facing a similar dilemma. Yo Burrito on Wentworth
Street. There’s a good chance you’ve heard about owner Nick Powers’ plight,
and, as the Deadhead bumper sticker reads, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not
paying ATTENTION!” Holding a perfectly legal lease, which outlines his right to
rent the property on Wentworth Street through the year 2010, Powers is being
evicted through the College of Charleston’s invocation of the “right to eminent
domain.” What it boils down to is that the College has decided that they need
the property on which Yo Burrito sits to build a new building.
http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/layout.asp?id=41969&action=detail&catID=1256&parentID=1256
February
9, 2005
Charleston
City Paper
Bill
Moore, a College of Charleston political science professor and one of the most
astute political watchers in the state, says Sanford has done little to
effectively reach out to the General Assembly but has been currying great favor
amongst the masses.
“His first years in office, he did not endear himself to the legislature by
embarrassing and humiliating them, like when he brought the pigs last year,”
potentially hobbling his chances of getting his chunks of his agenda passed,
says Moore. “It outraged the General Assembly ... He can’t embarrass fellow
political figures and then turn around and say, ‘Do this for me.’”
http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/layout.asp?id=41972&action=detail&catID=8257&parentID=8257
February
9, 2005
Charleston
Post and Courier
CAROLINA
GOLD RICE
The public is invited to
learn about the past, present and future of Carolina Gold rice at a round table
Feb. 17 at the College of Charleston's Avery Research Center for
African-American History and Culture.
The 7 p.m. program,
presented by the Carolina Lowcountry & Atlantic World Program at the
college, includes members of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation, academics,
historians, rice growers, millers and local rice enthusiasts. The discussion
will focus on the grain's place in shaping the region's past as well as the
reintroduction and production of Carolina Gold rice in the Carolina and Georgia
Lowcountry.
http://www.charleston.net/stories/Default.aspx?newsID=10609§ion=food
February
9, 2005
The
State Newspaper
Myrtle
Beach Sun News
Hilton
Head Island Packet
Greenville
News
“It may be the only race,” said College of Charleston
professor Bill Moore, who does not participate in partisan efforts. “The
governor’s race doesn’t look like it is going to be very exciting.”
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/10851779.htm
February
8, 2005
Charleston
Post and Courier
IT'S
NOT ALL SEX AND SHOOTERS
It is Darwin Week at the
College of Charleston, to celebrate the 196th birthday (Saturday) of Charles
Darwin, the father of evolutionary biology. Dr. Jerry F. McManus of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
talked Monday on climate instability.
The lecture series
continues today at 5 p.m. in Room 121 of the C of C Science Center (corner of
George and Coming). Dr. Matt Cartmill will talk about "Evolution, Creation
and Eternity" or "what's wrong with the 'creation' part of creation
science." Cartmill is a professor of biological anthropology and anatomy
at Duke University.
http://www.charleston.net/stories/Default.aspx?newsID=10451§ion=localnews
February
6, 2005
Charleston
Post and Courier
MUSIC
AND POETRY
The
College of Charleston's Italian Program and the Dino Olivetti Foundation will
present Grammy Award winners Glen Velez and Lori Cotler in "The Waters of
Hermes -- A Journal of Poetry, Imagination and Traditional Wisdom" at 6
p.m. Friday in Room 2005 at the Physicians Auditorium on campus.
http://www.charleston.net/stories/Default.aspx?newsID=10210§ion=artstravel
February
6, 2005
Charleston
Post and Courier
College of Charleston
history professors Dr. Marvin Dulaney, Dr. Scott Poole and Dr. Bernie Powers
also appear in the documentary. "It is designed, I think, to give people
some insight that they have not had heretofore readily available," Powers
said.
http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=10239§ion=artstravel
February 6, 2005
Winston-Salem Journal
The Fabric of Life
It was at that point that
Smith began thinking about combining examples of these two culturally different
but thematically similar types of textile art in an exhibition. Then a
colleague - Mark Sloan, director of the College of Charleston's Halsey Gallery
- told him about the story cloths made by the Hmong, an Asian cultural group
that suffered persecution in China, Laos and Vietnam before many of them
settled in Thailand and, later, the United States.
February 6, 2005
Charleston Post and
Courier
Yet his pictures will
survive, once again, this time protected in a beach-gray filing box among the
College of Charleston's Jewish Heritage Collection. They are part of new
Holocaust archives the college is collecting.
Dale Rosengarten stops
reading. The archivist still gets choked up. "They're little shreds, but
they have this power. It's something I've come to learn and respect about
archival collection."
Rosengarten is curator of
the College of Charleston's Jewish Heritage Collection. She and three
fieldworkers have spent five years so far searching for Holocaust witnesses,
survivors and family members -- anyone who may have materials that will help
preserve the memory.
http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=10247§ion=faithvalues
February
4, 2005
Palm
Beach Sun-Sentinel
A
tradition wanes as Jewish merchants vanish from American South
Though
Jews arrived in the South as early as the 17th century, their stories have been
largely untold. That changed last month, when an archive, including a
collection of oral histories, opened at the College of Charleston, shedding
light on Jewish Southern history and its role in U.S. society.
February
4, 2005
Myrtle
Beach Sun News
The Justice Department successfully
sued Charleston County in 2002 to switch to single-member districts, said Bill
Moore, a political science professor at the College of Charleston. The
department offered the compromise of the hybrid system, but the county refused
the offer, Moore said.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/local/10813949.htm
February
4, 2005
Los
Angeles Times
IQ as
a Matter of Life, Death
Denis
Keyes, a professor of special education at the College of Charleston in South
Carolina, was asked to determine whether convicted murderer Robert Alton
Harris, who had killed two San Diego teenagers, was mentally retarded before
his execution in 1992. Keyes said he found that Harris had an IQ of 86.
February
4, 2005
Charleston
Post and Courier
Powers said the College
of Charleston cited eminent domain in canceling the restaurant's lease, which
wasn't due to expire until 2010. Scott declined to comment on the eminent
domain issue.
http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=9982§ion=localnews
February
3, 2005
The State
Newspaper
Trevor Weston, a
composer and instructor at College of Charleston, succeeded Feinstein as music
director in late 2003. Although the idea of using original compositions was
still being discussed at that point, it soon became clear the project was going
in another direction. “It sort of morphed into me doing more consulting,”
Weston says. “I think it just seemed more feasible to use prerecorded pieces
that reflected the region and the culture.”
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/living/10798793.htm
February
3, 2005
Myrtle
Beach Sun News
"A combination could
be the best of both worlds," said Bill Moore, a professor of political
science at the College of Charleston. The change from at-large voting to
single-member districts has been discussed for years in Myrtle Beach.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/local/10803687.htm
February
1, 2005
Charleston
Post and Courier
"To see it, I think
in a very stark way, drives home the contradictory position slaves were placed
in. These are human beings with names, and at the same time they were
property," said Bernard Powers, a College of Charleston history professor
who consulted on the exhibit.
"In one of the most
beautiful plantation settings in the Lowcountry, you get a sense of what these
people created with their ingenuity and tremendous respect for what it took to
survive. It's a critically important part of the visit."
http://archives.postandcourier.com/archive/arch05/0205/arc02012137131.shtml
February
1, 2005
Editors
and Publishers
Syndicates:
'Drawn' Focuses on an Endangered Art
After writing a book about editorial cartooning past and present,
Chris Lamb is worried about eh profession’s future.
Lamb, an associate professor of communication at the College of
Charleston in South Carolina, said there are workable solutions to all these
challenges.