April 5, 1999
Middlebury College Presents 4th
Annual Peace Symposium April 9-18
“Speaking of Race” is This Year’s
Topic
Beginning on Friday, April 9 and ending on Sunday,
April 18, Middlebury College will hold the 1999 Peace Symposium,
now in its fourth year. This year’s topic is “Speaking of
Race,” and will feature various guest orators, panel discussions
and films. Events are free—except where noted—and open to the
public.
On Friday, April 9, the symposium will begin at 7:30
p.m. with a presentation of two dramatic monologues, “An
Extra Jar of Molasses” and “Black Diamond,” by
Middlebury’s Twilight Scholar Afi-Tiombe Kambon in the Grand Salon
of the College’s Chateau, off Route 125. Kambon is an actor and
oral historian of African-American history. Based on her research,
“An Extra Jar of Molasses” and “Black Diamond”
will confront the topics of sexual abuse in the slave community,
and the role of the disabled in society.
On Saturday, April 10, at 12:30 p.m. at the Middlebury
College PALANA Center at 7 South Street, Kambon will hold a special
children’s reading of “The Wishing Flower,” a story
geared for children under the age of ten which addresses race
and gender issues. The storytelling will include a complimentary
lunch for anyone who has made a reservation ahead of time by calling
Mary S. Duffy at (802) 443-5937 by April 8.
The symposium will continue on Wednesday, April 14,
at 5:30 p.m., with a dinner honoring guest lecturer David Shipler
in the Grand Salon of the Chateau. Tickets for the dinner are
$8 and may be obtained by calling Faye Leone at (802) 443-6978.
Following the dinner, at 7:30 p.m., Shipler will
give a talk in the main hall of the McCullough Student Center
on Old Chapel Road, off Route 30. Shipler, a former senior associate
at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former foreign
correspondent for the New York Times, is the author of several
novels on cultural relations and foreign affairs. His newest book,
“A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America,”
will be the subject of his Wednesday lecture, and a book-signing
session will immediately follow.
On Thursday, April 15 at 4:30 p.m. in the Grand Salon
of Le Chateau, a presentation and discussion on “Race and
Education” will be led by Professor of Education at the University
of Vermont Graduate School of Education Dolores Sandoval.
At 7 p.m. on Friday, the Spike Lee film, “Do
The Right Thing,” will be shown in the Hemicyle of the Warner
Science Building, on Route 125. The film contextualizes racial
and ethnic tensions in a small African-American community in Brooklyn.
Saturday, April 17, at 2 p.m., a talk titled “Concept
of Racism” will be given by Jorge Garcia in the library of
the Middlebury College Geonomics Center for International Studies
on Hillcrest Road, off Route 125. A professor of philosphy at
Rutgers University, Garcia’s areas of interest include normative
ethical theory, action theory, applied ethics, and African-American
philosophy.
At 7 p.m. on Saturday, a solo dance performance by
former Alvin Ailey dancer Elbert Watson will be set to Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr.’s well-remembered address, “I Have a Dream.”
Watson teaches dance at Norfolk Academy in Virginia. Location
of the dance is still to be announced. Contact Julie Crosby at
802-443-6747 for updated information.
On Sunday, April 18, at 11 a.m., a community roundtable
discussion will be held in the Coltrane Lounge of Adirondack House,
on Route 125. Titled “Speaking of Race: What Now?,”
the discussion will be facilitated by Middlebury alumnus Ed Woodson
(Class of 1976), who is currently a middle school teacher at Norfolk
Academy in Virginia.
At 7 p.m. on Sunday, a screening of the California
Newsreel film “Skin Deep” will conclude symposium events
at the Middlebury College PALANA Center, 7 South Street. The film
tracks students from several universities who attend a challenging
racial awareness workshop and confront each other’s innermost
feelings on race and ethnicity. A discussion will follow.
For more information on the Peace Symposium, call
Julie Crosby at 802-443-6747.