PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 23, No. 14, Feb. 19, 2004

brief notes

WILL-FM’s ‘Classically Black’
‘The Creole Romantics’ rediscovered
Free black men found it increasingly difficult to compose music in 19th century New Orleans in the period around the Civil War. Three pioneering African-American composers left New Orleans for the relative freedom of Paris, where black American artists traditionally were welcomed with open arms.

These men, Charles Lucien Lambert, his son Lucien-Leon Guillaume Lambert and Edmond Dede, along with the white Creole composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk, are the focus of WILL-FM host Roger Cooper’s new “Classically Black” program, “The Creole Romantics.” The program will be broadcast on WILL-FM (90.9/101.1 in Champaign-Urbana) at 4 p.m. Feb. 20, with repeats at 7:06 p.m. Feb. 24 and 4:06 p.m. Feb. 29.

The program provides a generous sampling of their artistry, a cross-cultural blending of western European concert music with Afro-Caribbean rhythms and harmonies.

Aside from Gottschalk, the composers are not that well known, but have been rediscovered in part by Richard Rosenberg, who found their music in the French National Library and transcribed it. Cooper interviews Rosenberg, who created the name “The Creole Romantics” and who featured their music in his Hot Springs Music Festival in Arkansas.

American Liszt Society
Music conference comes to UI
Opportunities for “listening to Liszt” will be many and varied next month as the UI School of Music plays host to the 2004 conference of the American Liszt Society March 4-6.

This year’s conference and festival, which includes lectures, recitals and concerts, is a celebration of the society’s 40th anniversary. Many of the events are free and open to the public.

“Featured on this year’s program will be a variety of world-renowned performers and scholars whose presentations will range from lecture-demonstrations on specific repertoire and various aspects of Franz Liszt’s creative genius to duo-piano, chamber music and solo recitals,” said Edward Rath, associate director of the school and festival coordinator.

The conference’s opening address will be presented by William Kinderman, a UI professor of musicology, at 10:30 a.m. in the recital hall of Smith Memorial Hall. Kinderman’s talk is titled “The Diabolical and the Sacred in Liszt: From the ‘Totentanz’ to ‘The Bells of Strassburg Cathedral.’ ” Kinderman has arranged for the manuscript of the “Totentanz” and some of Liszt’s other piano works to be available for viewing in the university’s Music Library, 2136 Music Building.

Also participating in the conference, as presenters or performers, are UI School of Music faculty members Timothy Ehlen, William Heiles and Sherban Lupu.

“Of special interest will be two concerts including all of the works written or arranged by Liszt for piano and orchestra,” Rath said. Those concerts, at 7:30 p.m. on March 4 and 6 in the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, will feature Sinfonia da Camera, conducted by Illinois music professor Ian Hobson. Joining Sinfonia during each performance will be four different world-class piano soloists.

Annual Recruiting Trends Report
Hiring trends explored Feb. 26
Phil Gardner, director of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University, will speak from 3 to 5 p.m. Feb. 26 in Illini Union Room A on the findings of the institute’s 2003-2004 study of the hiring trends of 450 employers.

The Annual Recruiting Trends Report examines the types of academic majors the employers are looking for, their recruiting strategies, and how hiring differs between industrial sectors and geographical regions. Gardner also will discuss the nation’s changing economy and job exportation.

“Phil is suggesting that because our economy is changing, our old criteria and benchmarks aren’t working anymore,” said Gail Rooney, director of the UI Career Center. “As we move from a manufacturing-based economy to an information-based economy, we’re having to struggle with revising our indices and means of projections. We hope the event will help everyone look at the considerations regarding the economy and how we think that’s going to impact our students in the near future and the long term.”

The event, which is sponsored by the Career Services Council, is free and open to faculty and staff members and students.

Elder Law Lecture
Future of Medicare explored March 1
Marilyn Moon, vice president of the American Institutes for Research, will deliver the annual Elder Law Lecture on Medicare’s clouded future at 12:30 p.m. March 1 in the Max L. Rowe Auditorium at the College of Law.

Medicare is the nation’s largest health insurance program, covering nearly 40 million Americans aged 65 and older. Moon’s lecture will discuss how last year’s Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act may alter the program. Specifically, she will examine how the new law, which brings more choices in health care coverage, may over time change Medicare into a less comprehensive health benefit, segregating Americans into plans on the basis of their ability to pay.

Before joining the AIR, Moon was the senior health policy fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington and a former public trustee of the Medicare Trust Fund. She has prepared numerous policy briefs, research reports and Congressional testimony on Medicare and is considered a national authority on health-care issues.

The Elder Law Journal, a publication produced by the UI College of Law, is sponsoring the free lecture that is open to the public.

Champaign-Urbana Symphony
Concert for Families is Feb. 29
The Champaign-Urbana Symphony will perform its first family concert, ‘Once Upon A Time,’ at 3 p.m. Feb. 29 at the Virginia Theatre, 203 W. Park St., Champaign.

The concert will feature music based on classic children’s literature while the Champaign-Urbana Theatre Company will narrate the program and act out selected scenes. Highlights will include excerpts from John Williams’ film score to “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” and Bill Elliot’s adaptation of “The Remarkable Farkle McBride,” a popular children’s book written by actor John Lithgow. In addition, the concert will include several familiar classical works from Bizet’s “Carmen,” Grieg’s “Peer Gynt,” and others.

Before the concert at 2 p.m., there will be an “instrument petting zoo” in the lobby where families can try out live instruments under the guidance of musicians.

For information about this concert and upcoming events, contact the symphony office at 351-9139.

Van Arsdell Lecture
Lawyers, human dignity to be discussed
David J. Luban of the Georgetown University Law Center will deliver the Paul M. Van Arsdell Jr. Memorial Lecture on Litigation and the Legal Profession at 4 p.m. Feb. 24 in the Max L. Rowe Auditorium at the College of Law.

His lecture, “Lawyers as Upholders of Human Dignity (When They Aren’t Busy Assaulting It),” will look at the moral foundations of advocacy, confidentiality and pro bono service from the standpoint of human dignity. Luban is the author of “Legal Modernism” and “Lawyers and Justice” as well as more than 100 articles on legal and philosophical topics. The event is free and open to the public.

Campus Recreation
CPR class covers all bases
UI Campus Recreation is offering instruction in adult and pediatric CPR as well as how to use a Heartsaver Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) in classes this semester.

The course, being offered from noon-6 p.m. March 7 and April 18 in 100 IMPE, will teach the basic techniques of adult and child CPR and how to give first aid to a choking adult, child and infant along with the proper way to handle an AED device. The course also will teach students to recognize the signs of four major emergencies: heart attack, stroke, cardiac arrest and foreign body airway obstruction. A practical and written test is given at the end of the course and a certificate of completion is given to those who pass all areas.

The class requires advance registration and the cost is $30 for one class session. For registration or additional information, call 333-3806, or stop by Member Services, 140 IMPE.

Campus Recreation
Fit Fest features group fitness sessions
UI Campus Recreation will host Fit Fest ’04 from 4-8:30 p.m. Feb. 26 at IMPE. People who attend will be able to participate in unlimited group fitness sessions throughout the evening for $5. Classes include Step Express, Functional Strength, Pilates, Sports Conditioning, Turbo Kickboxing, Precision Cycling, Hip Hop, Cycle Yoga and Tai Chi.

Tickets will be available from 4-8 p.m. Feb. 19 in the IMPE lobby and at the door. Proceeds from the event will go to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Champaign County.

Campus Recreation
Facility renovations continue
UI Campus Recreation continues to undergo renovations throughout the winter months. In response to having closed Gym 1 during Phase One of the renovation project, IMPE has extended its hours until 12 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and Gym 4 is now available for volleyball reservations. There also are expanded offerings for group fitness classes.

Freer Gym has extended its hours for badminton play in hopes of freeing up more basketball courts at IMPE. Four courts are available in 310 Freer Hall with open play times 5-10 p.m. Sundays and Fridays; 7-10 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays; 9-11:30 p.m. Wednesdays; and 2-6 p.m. Saturdays. Reservations are accepted in person beginning at 5 p.m. daily. Also, IMPE will no longer accept reservations for badminton courts. Kenney Gym will now be open for basketball from 7:15-10 p.m. Sundays; 9:15-11:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday; and from 1-5 p.m. Saturdays.

For more information, call 333-3806 or stop by 140 IMPE.

Entomology
Insect Fear Film Festival
The world’s latest most-feared technological nightmare comes true Feb. 28, but only for about six hours. Genetically engineered insects will be running amok – though just on the big screen – during the 21st annual Insect Fear Film Festival at the UI.

The festival is an evening of entertaining but scientifically implausible insect-monster films mixed with a bit of entomological education for all ages. It begins at 6 p.m. at Foellinger Auditorium with an hour of exhibits, a petting zoo, a children’s art contest and other activities. Welcoming remarks begin at 7 p.m., and feature films begin at about 8, 9:30 and 11 p.m. Admission is free.

“There’s no keeping us down,” says May Berenbaum, the head of the entomology department who created the event in 1984. She and the Entomology Graduate Student Association plan the festival. “Hollywood keeps providing us with cannon fodder,” Berenbaum said.

This year’s feature films are “The Tuxedo” (2002), “Mimic” (1997) and “Tail Sting” (2001). Among short films to be shown, beginning about 7:20 p.m., are two from the Cartoon Network: “Bus of the Undead,” an episode of “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” featuring super-hero fast foods and Monstermothman; and “Insect Inside,” in which the Power Puff Girls confront a villainous engineered giant cockroach.

CAS/MillerComm
Spring lecture series begins
Civil rights leader Julian Bond, National Public Radio commentator Andrei Codrescu and composer Don Davis, who wrote scores for “The Matrix” movies, will all be among the speakers this spring in the Center for Advanced Study/MillerComm lecture series at the UI.

Among the topics in other lectures: the Harlem Renaissance; Western and Asian thought; Iranian politics and U.S. foreign policy; the unpredictability of science and its consequences, women’s rights in Nigeria, and the university in the 21st century.

The series, begun in 1973 and supported with funds from the George A. Miller Endowment and several co-sponsoring campus units, provides a forum for discourse on topics spanning the university’s many disciplines.

The series opens at 4 p.m. Feb. 23 with the lecture “The Remains of the Name: The Origins of the Harlem Renaissance in the Discourse of Egyptology, 1922-1925,” presented by Robert A. Hill, a professor of history at the University of California at Los Angeles. His talk, the seventh annual W.E.B. DuBois Lecture, will take place on the third floor of the Levis Faculty Center.

Upcoming lectures:

• Feb. 25, “Cross-Currents Between Film and Concert Music,” by Don Davis, a Los Angeles composer and conductor. (4 p.m. in the auditorium of the Music Building)
• Feb. 27, “Far Afield: Experiencing Landscape,” by Lucy Lippard, an independent writer and activist. (3:30 p.m. in the Plym Auditorium, Temple Hoyne Buell Hall)
• March 3, “The Impact of Race on Theater and Culture,” by Woodie King Jr., founder and producing director, New Federal Theatre, New York City, considered a leading theater for minority drama. (5 p.m. on the third floor of the Levis Faculty Center)

CAS/MillerComm talks are free and open to the public.

Government and Public Affairs
Illinois Statistical Abstract available online
The 2003 Illinois Statistical Abstract can now be accessed free online at www.igpa.uiuc.edu/abstract/. The abstract is a comprehensive collection of economic and demographic data concerning Illinois and includes information and statistics on such categories as agriculture, wholesale trade, crime and education.

Created by the UI Institute of Government and Public Affairs, the abstract also may be ordered on CD for $50.

Dee Brown Symposium
Panel to discuss Native Americans
Dee Brown played an influential role in reshaping perceptions about American Indians and westward expansion with his 1970 book “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.” For more than two decades leading up to its publication, Brown, who died in 2002, was a librarian and professor at the UI.

On March 4, a panel of professors, including Brown’s grandson, Nicolas Proctor, a professor of history at Simpson College in Iowa, will hold a symposium in his honor. “Dee Brown and Media Depictions of Native Americans” will examine how the media have helped craft attitudes about American Indians. The symposium will start at 7 p.m. in the Champaign City Council chambers, 102 N. Neil St., Champaign.

The event is part of the university’s yearlong Brown v. Board of Education Jubilee Commemoration, which marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision desegregating public schools. The symposium is co-sponsored by the commemoration organizing committee and the City of Champaign Human Relations Committee. It is free and open to the public.

The organizer of the symposium is Louis Liebovich, professor of journalism at Illinois, who also will serve as the moderator.

Urban and Regional Planning
Planning Institute talks ‘innovation’
The latest, greatest ideas for building better communities will be showcased March 4-5 at the 2004 Planning Institute, hosted by the UI department of urban and regional planning.

With the theme “Innovative Community Planning,” this year’s program will include a number of lectures, panels and workshops packed with appeal for all citizens interested in enhancing the quality of life in their neighborhoods and communities. Topics will include: renewable energies, traffic calming, co-housing and cooperative housing, and bicycling as an alternative mode of transportation.

Also on the program are guest lectures by nationally known authors Jim Bouton and Richard Florida, and Mary Kay Peck and Maxine Griffith, leading authorities from the planning profession. Other presenters include faculty members from Illinois and elsewhere, along with state and municipal officials, citizen planners and professionals from business and nonprofit organizations.

Kicking off the event will be a “pre-institute” talk by Bouton, at 4 p.m. on March 3 in Plym Auditorium, Temple Buell Hall. The former New York Yankees pitcher and author of “Ball Four” will talk about his most recent book, “Foul Ball: My Life and Hard Times Trying to Save an Old Ballpark.” A book-signing, sponsored by the Illini Union Bookstore, will follow Bouton’s talk in the gallery adjacent to Plym Auditorium.

The planning institute gets under way the following day, with registration beginning at 7:30 a.m. in Room 406 Illini Union. At 8:30 a.m., following opening remarks by Olshansky, Peck will present the keynote address. Peck, an Illinois alumna, is president of the American Planning Association and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Wrapping up the institute will be a free, public talk by Florida in the lobby of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Among other points, said Pattsi Petrie, event coordinator, Florida “will emphasize that there are other innovative, cultural, economic development options than building another big-box store to create a vibrant community.”

Most institute sessions will be held at the Illini Union.

A complete program, as well as registration information and a fee schedule, is available online or by contacting Petrie, 244-7424.

Landscape Architecture
Colloquium honors emeritus professor
Robert Riley, a UI professor emeritus of landscape architecture, will be recognized for his contributions to the department, the university and to the study of the cultural landscape during a colloquium Feb. 27.

The colloquium, “Experiencing the Landscape: Intersections Between the Cultural and the Personal,” will begin at 3:30 p.m. in the Plym Auditorium, Temple Buell Hall. The colloquium is free and open to the public, but advance registration is requested. The public also is invited to attend a reception in Riley’s honor immediately following the colloquium in the Temple Buell Hall atrium. Riley joined the Illinois faculty in 1970; he retired from full-time teaching in 1996.

“The focus of the colloquium is the complexity of the landscape experience, and the breadth of disciplines and approaches involved in its study,” said organizer Carla Corbin, a professor of landscape architecture at Illinois.

The colloquium’s keynote speaker is writer, activist, curator and art critic Lucy Lippard, who is known for her boundary-crossing work that embraces concepts of landscape and place; environment and art; tourism and the local, urban-rural relationships; gender and ethnicity; and community and culture. Following her address, a panel will respond to Lippard’s remarks and discuss issues of cultural/individual experience in the landscape.

Lippard’s talk is co-sponsored by the Center for Advanced Study/MillerComm lecture series.

For more information or to register, contact Corbin, 333-7731

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