Release Date Feb. 25, 2008
More than 150 students and employees gathered in the performance hall to celebrate the Harlem Renaissance at the ninth annual Rhythms and Sounds of Poetry. Selena Stewart-Alexander, developmental writing professor, and Bill Sigsbee, world languages professor, coordinate the yearly event that features employee and student performers celebrating the music and literature of Africans and African-Americans. This year, faculty members Hazel Carlos, Adrien Cuellar-McGuire, Ricky Reeves, Chris Cyriaque, Roy Allen, Hurshel Burton, and Sam Govea, assistant dean of distance learning, contributed poetry readings and musical performances along with several students who gave readings. Rhythms and Sounds is the college’s link to the African-American Read-In and was the second event recognizing Black History Month. “Portraits of Courage,” a two-person performance highlighting unsung African-American historic figures drew more than 100 students on January 29th.
Two professors at Brookhaven College have pieces in an exhibit at the African American Museum through April 6th, for “Snapshots: Black Dallas/Fort Worth Contemporary Photographers At A Glance.” Edleeca Thompson, humanities professor, served for six years as the curator of exhibitions and collections at the African American Museum, and started her career in the district as a photography instructor at Mountain View College. The photos she has in the exhibit were taken on recent trips to Mexico and Boston. A photo taken by Giraud Polite, visual communications professor, was one featured on the front page of the February 1st Dallas Morning News Metro section with an article focusing on the exhibit for Black History Month. He has four photos in the exhibit with two more that should be added next week, all from a 2007 trip to the Dominican Republic.
Ricky Reeves, humanities and music professor, will be a clinician at the Duncanville High School’s Clarinet Choir demonstration at the Texas Music Educators Association convention in San Antonio on February 15th. The demonstration will be part of a program highlighting the role of private instruction in band programs. Each of the clinicians will talk about their curriculum as it relates to students’ progress in band.
Without a concerted, national effort to bolster the role of two-year institutions and expand access to them, the United States is in jeopardy of losing its status as an economic and global leader. That is the urgent message of a new study released January 31st by the College Board’s Center for Innovative Thought in which the function of community colleges is analyzed in the context of the nation’s labor force and economic growth. Dr. Sharon L. Blackman, president, is one of the authors of the study that is titled “Winning the Skills Race and Strengthening America’s Middle Class: An Action Agenda for Community Colleges.” The report is being distributed to candidates in the race for U.S. president and in the educational community across the country. Dr. Blackman’s work on the Commission is being acknowledge at the Achieving the Dream Institute that she is attending this week in Atlanta, Ga. The College Board is a not-for-profit membership association whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity.
Founded in 1900, the association is composed of more than 5,400 schools, colleges, universities, and other educational organizations. The full report can be found online at the following address.
http://www.collegeboard.com/communitycollege/prof/nccc.html.
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Editor's note: for interviews, photo opportunities and media support, please contact Meridith Danforth, public information coordinator, 972-860-4823, or the Brookhaven College Public Information Office, 972-860-4827. To get news updates via e-mail from Brookhaven College, please send an e-mail to bhcNewsList@dcccd.edu with your name and e-mail address for text-only news items.
Educational opportunities are offered by Brookhaven College without regard to race, color, age, national origin, religion, sex, disability or sexual orientation. Brookhaven College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097, telephone 404-679-4500, Web site: www.sacscoc.org, to award the associate degree.
