Posts tagged ‘Umass Lowell’

March 14th, 2012

Human Rights Activist John Prendergast, 2012 UMass Lowell Greeley Scholar for Peace Studies

by PaulM

Actor and activist Don Cheadle with John Prendergast

From UMass Lowell Public Affairs Office:

“Today, human rights activist John Prendergast is testifying with actor George Clooney before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on conditions in Sudan and South Sudan. In two weeks, he will be at UMass Lowell for a series of events, including the annual Day Without Violence on Tuesday, April 3.

“International activist Prendergast – one of those featured in the “KONY 2012” documentary by Invisible Children that has been viewed more than 76 million times on YouTube – is UMass Lowell’s 2012 Greeley Scholar for Peace Studies. The honor will bring him to campus in April to share his work with students, faculty, staff and community organizations. Last year’s honoree, Leymah Gbowee, went on to win the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.

“Prendergast’s 25-year effort to stop human rights violations around the world and foster peace in Africa includes serving as a board member and adviser to Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Don Cheadle’s international advocacy and humanitarian aid group, Not on Our Watch. Prendergast previously served in the Clinton administration and the U.S. Department of State and has worked for members of Congress, UNICEF, Human Rights Watch, the National Intelligence Council, the International Crisis Group and the U.S. Institute of Peace, among others. He is the co-founder of the Enough Project, an initiative affiliated with the Center for American Progress that seeks to end genocide and other crimes against humanity. He appears in “KONY 2012” to help raise awareness of Invisible Children’s efforts to bring Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony, indicted for war crimes, to justice.

“Prendergast was chosen as the Greeley Scholar for Peace Studies by the Greeley Scholar Advisory Committee and the UMass Lowell Peace and Conflict Studies Institute (PACSI). The scholar’s role includes spending time in residency at the university and presenting programs for students, faculty, staff and the public. Prendergast’s visit includes the following events that are free and open to the public:

·     “Day Without Violence” on Tuesday, April 3. From 12:30 to 1:45 p.m., Prendergast will speak about his human rights work at the annual program for the campus and community that will also feature UMass Lowell Executive Vice Chancellor Jacqueline Moloney and Provost Ahmed Abdelal. This event will be followed by a program for UMass Lowell students with Prendergast where he will hold a dialogue with them about his work in Africa, the Enough Project and other groups, including Invisible Children and Not on Our Watch. O’Leary Library Learning Commons, Room 222, UML South, 61 Wilder St., Lowell.

·     Film screening and community conversation on Monday, April 9. From 7 to 9 p.m., Prendergast will present a film about his international human rights work and discuss the issues with members of the public. UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center, 50 Warren St., Lowell.

“John Prendergast is an excellent example of someone who is trying to make a difference for the good of the world,” said Paul Marion, UMass Lowell’s executive director of community and cultural affairs and a member of the Greeley Scholar program advisory committee. “We see John as someone who will inspire UMass Lowell students and other young people who meet him and hear about his impressive work around the globe and learn how they can make a difference, too.”

“I am honored by the appointment and really looking forward to working and interacting with the UMass Lowell students, whose stellar reputation precedes them,” said Prendergast.

“Prendergast has launched several initiatives through The Enough Project, including the Satellite Sentinel Project with Clooney, the Darfur Dream Team Sister Schools program with NBA star Tracy McGrady and the Raise Hope for Congo Campaign. He has written two books with Cheadle, including “Not on Our Watch,” a New York Times best seller and NAACP nonfiction book of the year. He has been featured on “60 Minutes” four times and helped create African characters and storylines on topics including child soldiers for episodes of “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.” Prendergast has received numerous honors including the United Nations Correspondents Association’s Citizen of the World Award, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Moral Courage Award and the U.S. State Department Distinguished Service Award.

“We are fortunate to have one of the world’s leading human rights activists as our Greeley Scholar this year,” said UMass Lowell Chancellor Marty Meehan. “John Prendergast’s visit will build on the unforgettable experience last year of having 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee on our campus to talk to students and the community about her work to bring an end to the Liberian Civil War. Programs like these are an example of how UMass Lowell students are learning to be world-ready.”

“I have been following The Enough Project for several years and I have been impressed by their work to end genocide, to stop the conflict minerals trade and more. The work John Prendergast has done is also impressive,” said Robert Gamache, dean of the UMass School of Marine Sciences, who serves as PACSI co-director and on the Greeley advisory committee. ”Being able to bring people of the stature of John Prendergast and the other Greeley scholars to the university and community is something I believe our students and community will benefit from greatly.”

“In addition to PACSI and the Greeley Scholar program, Prendergast’s visit to UMass Lowell is sponsored by the UMass Lowell Center for Middle East Peace, Development and Culture and the Center for Arts and Ideas. More information on Prendergast and his visit is available at www.uml.edu/centers/pacsi/Greeley-Scholar.html.

“The Greeley Scholar for Peace Studies is conferred annually to a distinguished peace advocate, acclaimed humanitarian or faith leader who is chosen on the basis of their ability to effectively promote peace and conflict resolution at the local, regional, national or international level. The program is funded by the Greeley Endowment for Peace Studies, established with a gift from the Concord-based Dana McLean Greeley Foundation for Peace and Justice and contribution from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts via the UMass Foundation. The honor is named for Rev. Dana McLean Greeley, an internationally respected advocate for peace, human rights and civil rights, and a longtime Unitarian Universalist minister in Concord.”

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March 12th, 2012

MRT & UMass Lowell Team Up for Kerouac Play Premiere

by PaulM

Jen Myers of the Sun got the scoop on today’s announcement by Merrimack Repertory Theater and UMass Lowell that they will team up on the world premiere of Jack Kerouac’s only full-length play, “Beat Generation,” as the centerpiece of the Jack Kerouac Literary Festival this October. The news leaped across wires and through media nets all day, from the Boston Globe to Associated Press to NYTimes.

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March 8th, 2012

Get Your Hockey @ the Tsongas–River Hawks v. Prov. Tonight

by PaulM

Our friends at leftinlowell.com posted lively about the Hockey East playoffs starting tonight at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell with the River Hawks taking on Providence College. Click here for all the details.

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February 26th, 2012

X Fest and Puck Fest

by PaulM

Somebody once said that Lowell is a “little big city,” and that character is due in part to the spectrum of activities on any given day: small to large, low to high, basic to extravagant, local to global, traditional to experimental, common to cosmic — you get the idea. Yesterday was a “little big city” experience for me from afternoon to evening, with the activity tipping the scales toward the “big city.”

In the storefront art space that announces itself with blaring color on Chelmsford Street in the Lower Highlands, the second day of 119 Gallery’s XFest got going around 2 p.m with an opening set featuring Lowell writers Ryan Gallagher and Derek Fenner, accompanied by Walter Wright on drums (whose array of percussion components included an upside down cupcake pan atop one of his tom-toms), Rick Breault on laptop (yes, he was operating this device for sonic effect), and Stephanie Lak on another electronic audio instrument that was a cross between a keyboard-synth and a short-wave radio. Ryan approached the standing mike and proceeding to unroll a short epic poem from his inner drive that pulled the audience toward him in held-breath mode for at least a third of a scuba tank of air. He kept saying his long lines with images of marmalade and jazz, his sentences surround-sounded by the rumble and snap and melodic static and voicings of the trio backing him.

Next up was Derek Fenner who crouched at a portable typewriter wired to a speaker that turned the machine into an alternative drum, bang-banging as he punched out a poem on the spot. When his poem-on-paper rolled off the typer, he picked it up and stood up at the microphone to read that one and ten other short pieces, many of them Lowell-inflected in the way Sandburg’s early poems spoke Chicagoan, strange and reverent vignettes of life on the local run. He closed with two poems, one a howler, from a friend who couldn’t be there. On the howler, the musicians raised the volume roof with their post-mod version of a Salvation Army band.

In the compact gallery a couple of dozen people from Lowell and beyond were locked in on the performances. For this festival, 119 Gallery is the magnet to which the iron filings of edgy cultural taste are drawn. For the weekend in Lowell, visiting artists traveled from Berlin, Montreal, Asheville N.C., Brooklyn N.Y., and other places.

In the second set, musicians Chris Welcome (guitar) and Shayna Dulberger (upright bass) of Brooklyn and sax and flute player Ras Moshe put music to the smooth testimony of spoken-word artist Anthony Febo, one of Lowell’s favorite poets, a master of performance, who, like Ryan Gallagher, has a lucid memory of his own compositions. Anthony and I alternated in our set, each of us putting four poems on the table. Mine were the audience participation piece “December Canticle,” “Crazy Horse” (about the maker of a huge stone monument out west), “Make Words,” and “The Sandbank on Riverside” (set in Pawtucketville).

For Part Two of the day, the location shifted to downtown and the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell, where the high-achieving River Hawks wouldn’t let the nearly 6,000 people go until they had tied the Merrimack College Warriors, who had whipped the locals the night before. I sat with four friends two rows behind the Merrimack bench, where the ice action is in your face, including the random clearing shot plunking off the break-free glass. The Tsongas has become everything the campus leadership imagined was possible in the complex and daring days when the transition from City to University was being worked out. It is a full on sports experience in sound, light, video, and live athletic drama. This is big-time college sports. Nationally ranked. Top tier in all respects. The student shouters were out in force. The seating bowl was the definition of family entertainment. The Lowell Bank Pavilion was jammed. In the lobby a dozen or more Star Wars characters posed for pictures with the kids and parents. Rowdy the River Hawk starred in a clever film mash-up that turned the Death Star into a war ship of down river Merrimack College that got obliterated on the jumbo-screen high over center ice.

Each time UMass Lowell tied the score the building rocked on its pins. We would have liked to walk down Martin Luther King Way with a win in our pockets, but it could have been worse. It’s been a super season, with more to go. What a difference a couple of years makes. And kudos to the traffic controllers. They got the jambo crowd off the property in good order and time.

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February 19th, 2012

Upcoming Cultural Events at UMass Lowell

by PaulM

New World Jazz Composers Octet (Music on the Merrimack series), featuring UMass Lowell faculty member Walter Platt on trumpet and flugelhorn. Feb. 23, 7.30 pm, Durgin Concert Hall, 35 Wilder St, UMass Lowell South Campus. Free and accessible.

Columbinus, a performance by the Off-Broadway Players student theater group at UMass Lowell. Written by Stephen Karam and P.J. Paparelli. March 1, 2 & 3, 7.30 p.m.; March 3 & 4, 2 p.m, Comley-Lane Theater, 370 Broadway St. UMass Lowell South Campus. Tickets: $5 for students and seniors; $10 adults (special $1 student tickets on opening night). Advance tickets: Student Information Center, McGauvran  Student Center, South Campus. Call 978-934-5001. Regular tickets: Comley-Lane box office one hour prior to performances. This is an accessible venue.

Eric Church, the Blood, Sweat & Beers Tour. March 2, 7.30 p.m., Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell, 300 Martin Luther King Way. See this exciting Grammy nominee whose latest studio release, “Chief,” topped the Billboard chart with more than 145,000 albums sold in the first week. Tickets are $42.50 and $34.75. Visit TsongasCenter.com to order.

“Lowell Blues,” a film screening and discussion of a lyrical film version of Jack Kerouac’s novel “Doctor Sax,” with director Henry Ferrini, the Spring 2012 Artist-in-Residence at the UMass Lowell Center for Arts and Ideas.  March 5, 3.30 p.m., Coburn Hall, Room 210, Broadway St., UMass Lowell South Campus. Free, but note that this venue does not have an elevator. This event is part of the weeklong celebration Kerouac’s 90th birthday. For the full schedule, visit www.lowellcelebrateskerouac.org

Wind Ensemble in Concert, featuring winners of the Concerto Composition and music by Hindemith, Holsinger, and Margolis. March 5, 7.30 p.m., Durgin Concert Hall (see details above). Free and accessible.

The AD Show, featuring advertising campaign projects from the Design Studio students of UMass Lowell. March 5 – 30, Dugan Gallery, Dugan Hall, 883 Broadway, UMass Lowell South Campus (hours are Mon-Thurs, 11 a.m – 4 p.m.). Free and accessible.

Mothers of Rock Benefit Concert, a tribute to women in the music industry with performers from UMass Lowell and the community playing songs originally written and performed by women musicians. The event benefits the Music & Entertainment Industry Student Assoc. chapter at UMass Lowell and Girls Inc. of Lowell. March 6, 7.30 p.m., Durgin Concert Hall (see details above). Free and accessible.

“Fufu & Oreos,” a one-woman performance by Obehi Janice (who grew up in Lowell), “who contemplates her multiple identities (Nigerian-American, Black female, Christian) while reflecting on depression, identity, and faith with inventive prose and incredible wit.” March 8, 7 p.m., Alumni Hall, One University Ave., UMass Lowell North Campus. Free and accessible. This event is presented by the Multicultural Affairs Office on campus.

The Lindsays (Music on the Merrimack series), ”a husband-wife Celtic duo that for more than ten years has created an eclectic fusion of Irish ballads, traditional jigs and reels, and contemporary rock and folk for an honest acoustic delivery, with an edge. Their unapologetic songs explore humanity’s darker corners, while upbeat Irish traditional tunes celebrate the joy and intensity of life.” March 8, 7.30 p.m, Durgin Hall (see details above). Free and accessible.

For the full schedule of cultural activities at UMass Lowell this semester, visit www.uml.edu/artsandideas.

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February 18th, 2012

COOL Send-Off for LZ Nunn; Long G’bye Starts for M. Creasey

by PaulM

Last night there was a flurry of farewells instead of white stuff from Cobblestones upstairs to the Talon Room of UMass Lowell’s Tsongas Center as scores of friends, co-workers, and admirers gathered to pay tribute to departing city cultural affairs chief LZ Nunn and National Park Supt. Michael Creasey.

The Cultural Organization of Lowell (COOL) invited the ground troops of the arts and heritage front to thank and offer best wishes to LZ Nunn for her seven years of accomplishments and leadership at COOL. LZ poured herself in to projects like the world premiere of the Cambodian opera “Where Elephants Weep,” two editions of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival in Lowell, the Destination World/Discover Lowell series, and the start-up of a new City Hall administrative unit called Cultural Affairs and Special Events (CASE). Her time coincided with the Creasey years at the National Park.

UMass Lowell Chancellor Meehan hosted the packed reception at the Tsongas Center, where the air was supercharged in anticipation of the River Hawks hockey game against Boston University. Particularly with the Tsongas Industrial History Center education program, the University and National Park are long-standing collaborators. From the Public Matters leadership development program and the Kerouac scroll manuscript museum exhibition to Canalway construction projects and expansion of the Folk Festival, we saw big things happen on Michael’s shift at the Park.

LZ is going to the Greater Lowell Community Foundation for her next stage of work, and Michael is heading to a National Park post in Vermont. Both of them will be missed in the roles they filled so effectively.

The Park Service has its own going-away party for Michael planned for mid-March, where all the Park’s community partners and friends will have an opportunity see him.

 

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December 19th, 2011

Gov. Huntsman Gains in NH; Daughters at UMass Lowell Today

by PaulM

Former Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah is gaining in NH according to Glen Johnson’s report in the Globe. Huntsman’s three smart and spunky daughters will be at UMass Lowell today at 12 noon (O’Leary Library) talking about what it’s like to campaign for the Presidency when the candidate is your dad. Don’t count him out.

 

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December 14th, 2011

Joel-Lowell Rhymes

by PaulM

Just back from an inspiring “performance” by Billy Joel in Durgin Concert Hall on UMass Lowell’s South Campus. For two hours the music mega-star engaged in a lively conversation with the audience, using a green laser pointer to call on this or that eager person in a sea of hands. The stage talk format is Joel’s preferred situation for college visits these days. He says he found his route into the music business by trial and error, with a lot of mistakes, so this is his way of giving back to those who are thinking of music as a way to make a living or to make a life. There was no “book” to follow back in 1964 when he joined his first band in the days of Beatlemania. He says he “fell hard” for the music life and didn’t look back, playing obsessively during his teenage years, so much so that he didn’t finish high school. He doesn’t point to himself as a model of anything, he says, but he has plenty to offer from the school of learning-by-doing.

Joel was at ease, joking with the audience and making himself the butt of most of the fooling, including the unlikely pairing of an “incredibly not good-looking guy” who used to be five-foot seven and supermodels like Elle McPherson (six-foot two inches) and the Brinkley woman who actually agreed to marry him, the “Innocent Man.” He goofed on some of his classic songs like “Piano Man” and “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” But in between the banter and storytelling, Billy Joel did his best to give up some of the trade secrets of his business and tell the truth about what it took for him to become a rock star. He said luck and timing were key ingredients, on top of the dogged performing night after night that sharpened his artistic genius and allowed him to master the craft.

As he responded to questions he hopped from the standing mike to one of the two pianos, illustrating at times the point he was just making. When a guy in the balcony asked if he started with music or words, Joel said, “Ninety-nine percent of the time it was music, which was and is what I like best.” But he had an example of starting with words, the lyrics to “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” a recitation of key names and phrases that summarize his life and times up to that point in 1989. He must have played all or part of about a dozen songs, including “Piano Man” and Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind.”

For me, the highlight of the night was near the end when a young guy, I presume a UMass Lowell music major, hollered out “Leningrad,” hoping that Joel would play the song, one I had never heard. Joel had earlier replied to a woman who asked about his greatest achievement, saying he was proud of his visit to the USSR in 1987 when Gorbachev was the nation’s leader. He said the Russians went crazy when they heard his songs on the supersonic sound system Joel had brought from the USA. When Joel heard “Leningrad,” he paused and, I think, said, “I haven’t played that live.” Maybe he said he hadn’t played it live for a while. Anyway, the student yelled out, “Let me play it.” Joel, who had been a good sport all night with all kinds of requests, said OK and invited the student on stage to take the smaller piano while he sat at the grand piano. Joel asked the student if he knew the intro. “Of course,” came the answer, and they were off. The audience hung on every note and word of the song about an American who grew up during the Cold War with the Soviets finally meeting face-to-face a Russian of about the same age. It was exhilirating to watch the two piano players, note perfect as far as I could tell. When the song ended the audience erupted, some standing and cheering. Joel said, “He played it better than I did,”  and called him over to the microphone and announced the student’s name—I missed it in the uproar.  Not about to miss his opportunity, the tall, thin young guy handed Joel a CD in a case, no doubt his own recordings. Nobody who was there will forget that duet.

Joel closed out the evening with a few Christmas songs, starting with a rich version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and then inviting the music student-loaded audience to harmonize on a sing-along as he played and sang “Angels We Have Heard on High” and another whose title escapes me.

It was a big night at the University—a major coup to have earned the rare visit by Billy Joel. We in the audience saw and heard a huge artist of our time, telling and showing how he makes art and sharing with us what it’s been like living an artist’s life. The power of what he has created was reflected back to him in the sincere applause and warm statements made by many of those he called on tonight.

 

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December 10th, 2011

Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Laureate, at UMass Lowell: Video

by PaulM

In this news release from UMass Lowell, see links to Leymah Gbowee’s talk on campus last April and related articles.

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December 10th, 2011

Leymah and Friends Receive Nobel Peace Prize

by PaulM

Nobel Peace Prize

Read the AP news story about Leymah Gbowee, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and Tawakkul Karman receiving the Nobel Peace Prize today. Leymah was the 2011 UMass Lowell Greeley Scholar for Peace Studies.

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