Admission is free.

Reception immediately following the concert in Orange Hall Gallery

Ken Butler is musician who plays many of his hybrid instruments. He has performed in numerous concerts on his instruments on both the east and west coasts. Ken, who is a resident of Brooklyn and originally from Portland, Oregon, will give a free concert on them accompanied by percussionist Bill Buchen and bassist Roger Lipson.

Ken Butler studied viola as a child and maintained an interest in music while studying visual arts in France, at Colorado College (BA in studio art), and Portland State University where he completed his MFA in painting. He has performed with John Zorn, Laurie Anderson, Butch Morris, The Soldier String Quartet, The Tonight Show Band, and The Master Gnawa musicians of Morocco. His CD, Voices of Anxious Objects is on Zorn's Tzadik label.

Bill Buchen has studied percussion with Kadar Khan, Pandit Samir Chattergee,  Anand Kumar Mallick, South Indian Percussion with T.S. Nandakumar and most recently with Ustad Zakir Hussein.  He has performed with Indofunk.Steve Gorn, Gigi, and Drala. He may be heard on the following CDs:  Indofunk,  Bill Laswell's Sacred System Nagual Site, Sacred System II, and  Revelator with Raoul Bjorkenheim & N. Skopelitis, Drala, David Van Tieghem, Jay Clayton and Laurie Anderson. He performed on Broadway for the musical Bombay Dreams. Along with his wife Mary Buchen, he is  co-director of Sonic Architecture and designs interactive sculptural installations for science museums,  public plazas, children's museums and art galleries throughout the world.

Roger Lipson is a multi-instrumentalist who specializes in the music of India. He has been playing the sitar since 1988 and has studied most recently with Pandit Krishna Mohan Bhatt (a disciple of Ravi Shankar).  He has been studying the shehani (Indian oboe) since 2001 and is studying with Ustad Fateh Ali Khan (a family member of the legendary Bismillah Khan).  He has recorded for  PBS Nova series; Tipping Point by The Cringe (distributed by Sony/Red); soundtrack for a Japanese Anime short; Bollywood demos.  He has performed at The Rubin Museum; B.B. King's; The State Theater - New Brunswick, NJ; The Highline Ballroom; Symphony Space; The World Cafe - Live (Philadelphia). He has been playing bass since 1987 and has played in a wide variety of musical settings including: Blink (trio playing originals & jazz) &  currently, Love Me Do - The Beatles Tribute.

Also, a master class, which is free and open to the public, is scheduled for Friday, January 30, 2009 at noon in Orange Hall, Room 23. The topic of the master class is The Creation of Hybrid Instruments: Their Art and Sound.

More images related to this performance can be found here.

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Admission: $9-adults; $7-senior citizens/alumni/faculty/staff; free all students; group rates. See below for more ticket information.

Hector Martignon and his ensemble, Foreign Affair will present a concert of Latin, Brazilian, and World Jazz in Orange Hall Theater on Friday, February 20, 2009 at 8pm.

The ensemble is comprised of Hector Martignon, piano; Armando Gola, bass; Ludwig Afonso, drums; Chistos Rafalides, vibraphone; and Samuel Torres, percussion.

Hector Martignon was pianist for the late Ray Barretto's various ensembles. During his eight-year association with Barretto, his contributions as pianist, arranger, and composer were fundamental in shaping the sound of the now famous New World Spirit Sextet. One of his last collaborations with Barretto, "My Summertime," was a favorite nominee for a Grammy award. His versatility has also made him extremely active in the film and television industries. Besides playing all piano parts, he arranged and produced many parts of the score for the Oscar-nominated film Eat, Drink, Man, Woman by Ang Lee and performed the piano and keyboard parts for the movie scores Gloria and Relativity. He is composer of the original music of Septimo Cielo, which won international prizes. He also collaborated in the production of many Broadway musicals (Chronicle of a Death Foretold, The Capeman, Selena Forever) as conductor, arranger, and co-composer.

His group has developed a sound which is both eclectic and electric. The group has performed on BET television festivals, at jazz clubs in Manhattan, and in clubs and open-air festivals in his native Colombia and in Europe.

Hector Martignon has a varied background of musical genres and plays both classical music as well as jazz. He is on the faculty of Lucy Moses School of Music and the Special Music School at the renowned Kaufman Center, NYC.

Also, a master class, which is free and open to the public, is scheduled for Friday, February 20, at noon in Orange Hall, Room 23. The topic of the master class is Experiencing Musics of the World with Hector Martignon.

More images related to this performance can be found here.

Tickets are available at the Student Activities desk in the George F. Shepard Student Center, corner of South St and East Conkling Ave, Middletown, 9am to 7:30pm Monday through Thursday and on 9am to 4:30pm Friday. General seating: $9-adults; $7-senior citizens/alumni/faculty/staff; free all students; group rates Tickets will also be available at the Orange Hall box office the evening of the performance starting at 7pm.

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This event is also listed under Poetry.

Admission: Free & open to the public

Readings & Musical Interlude: Celebrating Black Cultural History in Orange History

A Reading of Langston Hughes Poems and Writings by Samuel Wright, actor

and A Reading of Poems by James Weldon Johnson by Greer Cooper

with Musical Interlude of John Rosamond Johnson/James Weldon Johnson works by Beverly Poyerd, pianist & Clarence Cooper, EdD, tenor & Greer Cooper, alto

and Introduction on Greenwood Forest Farms by Paul Kwame Johnson

The Orange County Citizens Foundation annual exhibit Read All About It displayed books written by present or past residents of Orange County. As an extension of this exhibit and to bring the works “alive,” readings of selections are being scheduled in several venues in Orange County.

Cultural Affairs/Lyceum at Orange County Community College is co-sponsoring an event during which writings by Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson, and music by John Rosamond Johnson with lyrics by his brother James Weldon Johnson will be featured. In addition, an introduction will be presented on Greenwood Forest Farms.

The program will take place in Morrison Hall Mansion, 115 South St, Middletown, NY on the college campus at 3pm on Sunday, February 22, 2009. Admission is free. Orange County Community College campus is ADA compliant.

Present-day Orange County residents will read and play. “Lion King” Actor Samuel Wright, of Walden, will read selections of poems and writings of Langston Hughes. Beverly Poyerd, pianist of Washingtonville, and Clarence Cooper, tenor and Greer Cooper, alto, of Newburgh will perform a musical interlude of music and lyrics written by the Johnson brothers, including “Lift Every Voice and Sing” which has come to be known in the United States as the African-American National Anthem. Greer Cooper will also read a selection of poems by James Weldon Johnson.

Hughes and the Johnsons were part-time residents of Greenwood Forest Farms, an early 20th C resort community for African- Americans in southern Orange County. They also were active in the Harlem Renaissance.

Paul Kwame Johnson of Warwick, will give an introduction on Greenwood Forest Farms. Paul Kwame Johnson is the Coordinator of the Visual and Performing Arts Institute at the Glenn E. Hines Memorial Boys and Girls Club of Newburgh. Dr. Clarence Cooper is the Assistant Principal of Newburgh Free Academy. Greer Cooper is a free-lance writer and events coordinator. Beverly Poyerd is a music therapist and piano instructor.

Admission: $5-adults/senior citizens/alumni/faculty/staff; free all students; group rates

Swimming with the Polar Bears

—one man confronts his powerlessness—

~ a play about the environment and sustainability by playwright/actor: Mel England

In a funny, poignant, and devastatingly personal look at the dangers of global warming, playwright/actor Mel England returns to 'one-man land' with his new Swimming with the Polar Bears. Exploring the parallels between contemporary life, ancient Eskimo mythology, and the horrifying threat of the loss of an endangered species and  in the tradition of Spalding Gray, England's monologue reveals his personal story, using his own battles with extinction—from overcoming cancer to surviving childhood abuse—as a backdrop for larger questions of how we all can survive on our precious planet.  England's fantastical journey brings Polar Bears to life—and in the process, we find out how we are all Swimming with the Polar Bears.

Mel England wrote and developed this play to promote SUNY Orange’s 2009 theme-sustainability.  This performance is the play’s premiere!

Mel England will also be conducting a workshop/master class called Creating a Play on Thursday, April 2, from 2-4pm in Orange Hall Theater.

Mel England was a Tisch School of the Arts Trustee Scholar at NYU’s BFA Acting Program, who also studied with Stella Adler, Terry Schreiber, and with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company at the British American Theatre Institute. He  starred in the NY premiere of Israel Horovitz's one-man play about September 11th, 3 Weeks After Paradise at the Cherry Lane as well as Orange Hall Theatre in 2002. He also performed in his own one-man show Navajo Memoirs at the NY Fringe and Los Angeles.  Off-Broadway he's appeared at the Pearl Theatre in Hecuba, Misanthrope (understudy) and Marriage (understudy).  He's the recipient of the NY Fringe Festival's "Best Acting Ensemble Award" for Lucky Man, and "Best Play of the Year" in Denver for the Regional Premiere of A Shayba Naudel. He has been a part of several original New York productions, including Midsummer Night's Dream in Washington Square, Honeysuckles, developed for television by FOX, and King of Connecticut with Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Admission: free and open to the public and no registration is required

On Fateful Waters: Where New Worlds Meet Old Ambitions

by Robert Spiegelman, PhD

Sponsored by the New York Council for the Humanities, Speakers in the Humanities

The Newburgh campus of Orange County Community College at One Washington Center is the venue of a lecture presentation on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 7pm. Entitled On Fateful Waters: Where New Worlds Meet Old Ambitions, Dr. Robert Spiegelman puts history and motivation into perspective in a lecture rich with examples and his excitement for the subject.

Famed explorers Henry Hudson and Samuel de Champlain and acclaimed inventor Robert Fulton are luminaries of North American and New York history. These adventurers braved and entered the “unknown” – respective realms of forests, waterways, and native peoples – propelling and enacting their visions of a “New World.” As New York launches its gala 400th and 200th Anniversary Celebration, Robert Spiegelman, PhD asks whether this is just a great excuse for a year-long party. And, if so, what is it? Searching for answers, he offers a multimedia presentation to explore what is being celebrated, what might get overlooked, and what this convergence of voyages might mean for us today.

Hudson and Champlain’s journeys have traditionally been cast as heroic “voyages of discovery.” By putting a potentially strategic region on Europe’s map, Hudson would forever stamp his name into the New York/New Netherland landscape. Champlain’s efforts anointed him as the “Father of New France.” Fulton’s Steamboat would so challenge wind-and-tide, so shrink space-and-time that his so-called “Folly” became young America’s leading icon. All three were carriers of powerful passions—Discovery, Settlement, Westward Expansion, and Prosperity.

Dr. Spiegelman talks about Hudson’s complex encounters with Lenape groups, helps the audience rediscover Champlain’s rivalry with the Iroquois Six Nations in his struggle to win a Fur-Trade Empire for Old France, and also touches on the impact of Fulton’s vision – “Steam Commerce” – on native peoples and nature, and on Manhattan’s climb to global prominence.

While regarding these trips as dramatic adventures, Dr. Spiegelman uses remarkable excerpts from their journals as revealing windows on the early encounters between Europeans and indigenous “New Yorkers.” Attendees will better understand the fateful dance of progress and nature that continues to shape the environmental crossroads today.

Robert Spiegelman is President, Real-View Media, LLC. He is a sociologist, multimedia artist, writer, and a college instructor. He holds a Doctorate in Sociology from CUNY Graduate Center.

This Lyceum lecture is sponsored by the New York Council for the Humanities, Speakers in the Humanities and is free and open to the public and no registration is required.

Admission: free and open to the public and no registration is required

Hanging Captain Gordon: The Government, Lincoln, and the Slave Trade by Ron Soodalter, author, artist

Sponsored by the New York Council for the Humanities, Speakers in the Humanities.

On February 12 at 7pm, Lecturer Ron Soodalter of Chappaqua will make a presentation on Nathaniel Gordon and the slave trade and Lincoln.  Therefore, it seems appropriate to have this program on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.  The lecture is entitled, Hanging Captain Gordon: The Government, Lincoln, and the Slave Trade.

Despite having passed a series of stringent laws banning the Atlantic slave trade, the U.S. government did nothing to enforce them, from the presidency of George Washington to the Civil War. Finally, one man--a young slave ship captain and family man from Portland, Maine, Captain Nathaniel Gordon--faced the gallows, and it fell to Abraham Lincoln to either pardon or hang him. The presentation examines the reasons behind the laws, and America’s shameful negligence in enforcing them, in the context of the horrors of the African trade. Fortunes were made through trafficking in “black gold,” while millions suffered, until the election of the one man who was resolved to put an end to the traffic once and for all. With thousands pressuring him to pardon the slaver, and thousands more seeking the man’s death, Lincoln was forced to make a hard decision.

Ron Soodalter is an author, an artist, a flamenco guitarist, and a former teacher and museum curator. He has a BA in History, Boston University, an MA in Education, NYU, and an MA in American Folk Culture from SUNY Oneonta at Cooperstown. His book, Hanging Captain Gordon: the Life & Trial of an American Slave Trader, is published by Simon & Schuster.

This Lyceum lecture is sponsored by the New York Council for the Humanities, Speakers in the Humanities and is free and open to the public and no registration is required.

Admission: free and open to the public and no registration is required

The Underground Railroad has been an interesting historical phenomenon that aided thousands of African-American slaves to gain freedom. It was, indeed, a “Freedom Trail,” a vast network of people who helped fugitive slaves escape to the North free states and to Canada, by giving safe-havens along the way.

The presentation will cover:

• the “Freedom Trail”
• the experience of enslaved people during the antebellum period
• views of African-Americans in free states like New York
• various attitudes in the Hudson Valley about African-Americans before the Civil War
• the profile of the typical runaway
• challenges runways faced

Frederick Douglass Opie received a BS in Education, and a PhD in History from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. His interest has led him to research African Diaspora History–the capturing of  Africans and their enslavement and dispersal through the New World. In addition, he is an accomplished athlete having been on the 1990 United States Men’s National Lacrosse Team and been inducted into The Hudson Valley Lacrosse Hall of Fame. His position at Marist College is Associate Professor of History and Director of the African Diaspora Program in the School of Liberal Arts. Before earning his doctorate degree, he was public school teacher at the elementary and high school levels, and an instructor at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

Books authored by Dr. Opie

• HOG AND HOMINY: Soul Food from Africa to America (Columbia University Press, 2008)
• Black Labor Migration in Caribbean Guatemala, 1882-1923 (University of Florida Press, 2009)
• Black and Latino Relations in New York, 1959-2008.  –forthcoming-- (Columbia University Press)

Admission: free and open to the public and no registration is required

Sponsored by the New York Council for the Humanities, Speakers in the Humanities

“Are New Yorkers stewards of nature or lords of nature?” During this vivid lecture/multimedia presentation entitled Cooling Mother Earth: New York's Footprint in Nature, Then and Now, Robert Spiegelman, PhD probes the question by revisiting key moments in the Empire State’s development history—especially its Indian, Infrastructure, and Conservation legacies. He then links them to today’s environmental crises. To find answers, Dr. Spiegelman unearths the hidden roots of New Yorkers’ conflicting views of nature, development and civilization—both then and now. Accordingly, the presentation highlights some key links among New York’s indigenous, development, and environmental histories. The first encounters of explorers and settlers with the Iroquois of central New York and the Delaware-Lenape of the Hudson Valley will be discussed alongwith core beliefs and urgent warnings of New York’s great forgotten Naturalists.

Robert Spiegelman is President, Real-View Media, LLC. He is a sociologist, multimedia artist, writer, and a college instructor. He holds a Doctorate in Sociology from CUNY Graduate Center and lives in NYC.

This Lyceum lecture is sponsored by the New York Council for the Humanities, Speakers in the Humanities and is free and open to the public and no registration is required.

Admission: free and open to the public and no registration is required

Geo-Thermal Heating & Cooling  ~ Using the Earth to Save the Earth by Warren Allmon, PhD

This lecture fulfills a PDH/CEU (Professional Development Hour/Continuing Education Unit)

As Director of the Museum of the Earth, Ithaca, NY, Dr. Allmon has first-hand, daily knowledge and experience, as the museum building is a fine example of geo-thermal heating and cooling.

The lecture presentation will cover:

• the development and future of geo-thermal systems for heating and cooling
• assessing the advantages and challenges associated with harnessing energy from the Earth
• a comparison of different types of systems around the world
• the system installed at the Museum of the Earth/Paleontological Research Institution

Warren D. Allmon, PhD, is the Director of the Paleontological Research Institution and the founder and developer of the Museum of the Earth. He is the Hunter R. Rawlings III Professor of Paleontology at Cornell University. Dr. Allmon received his BA in Geology from Dartmouth College and his PhD in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Harvard University.

His research specialties include the systematics of Cenozoic gastropods and the interaction between ecology and macro-evolution, particularly speciation and bio-diversity.

Click here for a larger version of the photograph.

Admission is free.

In addition to the master class, Ken Butler will give a free concert on his hybrid instruments accompanied by percussionist Bill Buchen and bassist Roger Lipson. The concert, which is entitled Voices of Anxious Objects  is scheduled for Friday, January 30, 2009 at 7:30pm.

Ken Butler studied viola as a child and maintained an interest in music while studying visual arts in France, at Colorado College (BA in studio art), and Portland State University where he completed his MFA in painting. He has performed with John Zorn, Laurie Anderson, Butch Morris, The Soldier String Quartet, The Tonight Show Band, and The Master Gnawa musicians of Morocco. His CD, Voices of Anxious Objects is on Zorn's Tzadik label.

More images related to the master class can be found here.

For related events, click here.

Admission is free. This event is open to the public and no registration is required.

Hector Martignon will present a free master class from noon to 1:30pm in Orange Hall, Room 23, on Experiencing Musics of the World. No registration is required, and the public is invited.

In addition, Hector Martignon and his ensemble, Foreign Affair will present a concert of Latin, Brazilian, and World Jazz in Orange Hall Theater on Friday, February 20, 2009 at 8pm.

Hector Martignon was pianist for the late Ray Barretto's various ensembles. During his eight-year association with Barretto, his contributions as pianist, arranger, and composer were fundamental in shaping the sound of the now famous New World Spirit Sextet. One of his last collaborations with Barretto, "My Summertime," was a favorite nominee for a Grammy award. His versatility has also made him extremely active in the film and television industries. Besides playing all piano parts, he arranged and produced many parts of the score for the Oscar-nominated film Eat, Drink, Man, Woman by Ang Lee and performed the piano and keyboard parts for the movie scores Gloria and Relativity. He is composer of the original music of Septimo Cielo, which won international prizes. He also collaborated in the production of many Broadway musicals (Chronicle of a Death Foretold, The Capeman, Selena Forever) as conductor, arranger, and co-composer.

Hector Martignon has a varied background of musical genres and plays both classical music as well as jazz. He is on the faculty of Lucy Moses School of Music and the Special Music School at the renowned Kaufman Center, NYC

More images related to the master class can be found here.

Admission is free. This event is open to the public and no registration is required.

Creating a Play by playwright/actor Mel England ~ a workshop/master class

Also, on Friday, April 3, at 8pm in Orange Hall Theater, Mel England will be presenting the premiere of his new play about the environment and sustainability:

Swimming with the Polar Bears
—one man confronts his powerlessness—

Mel England was a Tisch School of the Arts Trustee Scholar at NYU’s BFA Acting Program, who also studied with Stella Adler, Terry Schreiber, and with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company at the British American Theatre Institute. He  starred in the NY premiere of Israel Horovitz's one-man play about September 11th, 3 Weeks After Paradise at the Cherry Lane as well as Orange Hall Theatre in 2002. He also performed in his own one-man show Navajo Memoirs at the NY Fringe and Los Angeles.  Off-Broadway he's appeared at the Pearl Theatre in Hecuba, Misanthrope (understudy) and Marriage (understudy).  He's the recipient of the NY Fringe Festival's "Best Acting Ensemble Award" for Lucky Man, and "Best Play of the Year" in Denver for the Regional Premiere of A Shayba Naudel. He has been a part of several original New York productions, including Midsummer Night's Dream in Washington Square, Honeysuckles, developed for television by FOX, and King of Connecticut with Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Admission: Free & open to the public

Nationally-recognized Poet Chase Twichell is coming Earth Day–Wednesday, April 22–to give a reading of her original works and to share experiences on writing poetry and getting it published, during two events. Both presentations are free and open to the public, and no registration is required. The campus is ADA compliant.

The Secret Life of Poetry by Chase Twichell, poet ~a Master Class on approaching and writing poetry, and getting published, is scheduled to begin at noon in the Gilman Center for International Education which is located in the Library, at the corner of South Street and East Conkling Avenue.

An Adirondack Poet–Chase Twichell ~ a Reading of her original works will take place at 7pm in Morrison Hall Mansion at 115 South Street. See this entry for more biographical information.

Chase Twichell has devoted herself to writing poetry since her early teenage years.   During her college years, she continued to write poems while studying with Richard Wilbur at Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT and Hugh Ogden at Trinity College, Hartford, CT from which she graduated with a BA in 1973. She attended Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, where she obtained her MFA in 1976. That was a very fertile, competitive atmosphere particularly because of the diverse group of poets there at the time.

She has taught at five colleges/universities and lived in the serene cold of the Adirondacks and the warm climes of the Gulf Coast and in the islands of the Caribbean as well as New Jersey, and produced poetry relative to each environment.  She has written and published seven books of poetry and co-edited a book on the writing of poetry.

Chase Twichell has been the recipient of numerous poetry honors and has also been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Her coming on Earth Day is quite appropriate as she is concerned about this planet/this world as demonstrated in her book The Ghost of Eden, a visionary sequence of interlocking meditations on the death of nature as we know it. These poems were directly influenced by both the New Jersey and the Adirondack landscapes.

This event is also listed under Performances.

Admission: Free & open to the public

Readings & Musical Interlude: Celebrating Black Cultural History in Orange History

A Reading of Langston Hughes Poems and Writings by Samuel Wright, actor

and A Reading of Poems by James Weldon Johnson by Greer Cooper

with Musical Interlude of John Rosamond Johnson/James Weldon Johnson works by Beverly Poyerd, pianist & Clarence Cooper, EdD, tenor & Greer Cooper, alto

and Introduction on Greenwood Forest Farms by Paul Kwame Johnson

The Orange County Citizens Foundation annual exhibit Read All About It displayed books written by present or past residents of Orange County. As an extension of this exhibit and to bring the works “alive,” readings of selections are being scheduled in several venues in Orange County.

Cultural Affairs/Lyceum at Orange County Community College is co-sponsoring an event during which writings by Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson, and music by John Rosamond Johnson with lyrics by his brother James Weldon Johnson will be featured. In addition, an introduction will be presented on Greenwood Forest Farms.

The program will take place in Morrison Hall Mansion, 115 South St, Middletown, NY on the college campus at 3pm on Sunday, February 22, 2009. Admission is free. Orange County Community College campus is ADA compliant.

Present-day Orange County residents will read and play. “Lion King” Actor Samuel Wright, of Walden, will read selections of poems and writings of Langston Hughes. Beverly Poyerd, pianist of Washingtonville, and Clarence Cooper, tenor and Greer Cooper, alto, of Newburgh will perform a musical interlude of music and lyrics written by the Johnson brothers, including “Lift Every Voice and Sing” which has come to be known in the United States as the African-American National Anthem. Greer Cooper will also read a selection of poems by James Weldon Johnson.

Hughes and the Johnsons were part-time residents of Greenwood Forest Farms, an early 20th C resort community for African- Americans in southern Orange County. They also were active in the Harlem Renaissance.

Paul Kwame Johnson of Warwick, will give an introduction on Greenwood Forest Farms. Paul Kwame Johnson is the Coordinator of the Visual and Performing Arts Institute at the Glenn E. Hines Memorial Boys and Girls Club of Newburgh. Dr. Clarence Cooper is the Assistant Principal of Newburgh Free Academy. Greer Cooper is a free-lance writer and events coordinator. Beverly Poyerd is a music therapist and piano instructor.

Admission: Free & open to the public

Nationally-recognized Poet Chase Twichell is coming Earth Day–Wednesday, April 22–to give a reading of her original works and to share experiences on writing poetry and getting it published, during two events. Both presentations are free and open to the public, and no registration is required. The campus is ADA compliant.

An Adirondack Poet–Chase Twichell ~ a Reading of her original works will take place at 7pm in Morrison Hall Mansion at 115 South Street.

The Secret Life of Poetry by Chase Twichell, poet ~a Master Class on approaching and writing poetry, and getting published, is scheduled to begin at noon in the Gilman Center for International Education which is located in the Library, at the corner of South Street and East Conkling Avenue.

Chase Twichell has devoted herself to writing poetry since her early teenage years.   During her college years, she continued to write poems while studying with Richard Wilbur at Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT and Hugh Ogden at Trinity College, Hartford, CT from which she graduated with a BA in 1973. She attended Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, where she obtained her MFA in 1976. That was a very fertile, competitive atmosphere particularly because of the diverse group of poets there at the time.

She has taught at five colleges/universities and lived in the serene cold of the Adirondacks and the warm climes of the Gulf Coast and in the islands of the Caribbean as well as New Jersey, and produced poetry relative to each environment.  She has written and published seven books of poetry and co-edited a book on the writing of poetry.

Chase Twichell has been the recipient of numerous poetry honors and has also been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Her coming on Earth Day is quite appropriate as she is concerned about this planet/this world as demonstrated in her book The Ghost of Eden, a visionary sequence of interlocking meditations on the death of nature as we know it. These poems were directly influenced by both the New Jersey and the Adirondack landscapes.

Chase Twichell has received degrees from:

• BA, Trinity College, Hartford, CT, 1973
• MFA, University of Iowa, 1976

Has has taught at:

• Princeton University
• Goddard College
• Warren Wilson College
• University of Alabama
• Hampshire College

Her Books of/on Poetry:

• Horses Where the Answers Should Have Been: New and Selected Poems  (forthcoming—2010)
• Dog Language (2005)
• The Snow Watcher (1998)
• The Ghost of Eden (1995)—a series of rages and elegies for the dying planet, influenced by both the New Jersey and the Adirondack landscapes
• Perdido (1991)—infused with her time in the south, especially the Gulf Coast and in the islands of the Caribbean
• The Odds (1986)
• Northern Spy (1981)
• co-edited (with Robin Behn) The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises From Poets Who Teach (1992)

Received Awards from:

• Artists Foundation, Boston, MA,
• New Jersey State Council on the Arts
• American Academy of Arts and Letters
• Alice Fay DiCastagnola Prize from the Poetry Society of America for The Snow Watcher

Fellowships from:

• Guggenheim Foundation
• National Endowment for the Arts

Admission: $2 general; free all students from any institution

This film is part of the "Orange County Connections" series and will be introduced by Chris Farlekas, columnist & arts advocate.

Starring: Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones

Director: Henry King

Book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Carousel was released as a film in February 1956. The book of the 1945 stage musical and the lyrics were written by Oscar Hammerstein II who lived in Tuxedo Park. The musical score was written by Richard Rodgers who, in his autobiography Musical Stages, said it was his favorite musical.

Not your typical 1950s musical, this often overlooked Rodgers and Hammerstein classic takes an abusive husband and gives him one last chance to make things right with his wife and daughter. Gordon MacRae stars as Billy, a lowlife carny barker, and Shirley Jones plays his wife, Julie, an innocent girl who's fallen for the wrong guy. After getting himself killed, Billy is allowed out of purgatory for one last shot at redemption.

Carousel was adapted from Ferenc Molnar's 1909 play Liliom, transplanting the Budapest setting of Molnar's play to a New England fishing village. Some of the scenes were shot in Boothbay, ME. The show includes the hit musical numbers "If I Loved You," "June Is Bustin' Out All Over," and "You'll Never Walk Alone." Carousel was innovative for its time, being one of the first musicals to contain a tragic plot. It also gave the opportunity for Oscar Hammerstein II to explore societal attitudes and prejudices in a musical play. The main social themes are social class, hypocrisy, and conduct.

Carousel was adapted as a Cinemascope 55 film in 1956. Frank Sinatra was originally cast to play Billy Bigelow. He even pre-recorded part of the soundtrack. But when he arrived on the set, Sinatra discovered that he had to shoot the scenes two times: one for regular Cinemascope and the other for CinemaScope 55. Sinatra, who never liked to do two takes of a scene, walked away from the set and said: “You’re not getting two Sinatras for the price of one”. Ironically, just after he left, the producers found a way to film the scene once on 55mm, then transfer it onto 35mm; thus, the film did not have to be shot twice.  

Harriman Hall 111 Film Theatre is at the corner of Wawayanda and East Conkling Avenues, Middletown, NY. It is ADA compliant.

Admission: $2 general; free all students from any institution

This film is part of the "Orange County Connections" series and will be introduced by Barry Plaxen, D&H CANVAS managing editor.

Starring: Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra

Director: Charles Walters

Written by John Patrick

The screenplay writer of High Society was John Patrick who lived part-time in Cornwall.

High Society was released in July 1956. In this musical reworking of The Philadelphia Story, Newport, RI blueblood Bing Crosby tries to win back his ex-wife, "ice goddess" Grace Kelly, while Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm (reporters for Snoop Magazine) gum up the works. The movie portrays the lifestyles of the rich with a good dose of humor. Cole Porter wrote the score (which includes the Oscar-winning song "True Love"), and Louis Armstrong and his band are on hand to syncopate all the shenanigans.

Harriman Hall 111 Film Theatre is at the corner of Wawayanda and East Conkling Avenues, Middletown, NY. It is ADA compliant.

This event has been rescheduled from January 28, due to inclement weather.

Admission: $2 general; free all students from any institution

This film is part of the "Orange County Connections" series and will be introduced by Germain Lussier, Times Herald-Record writer.

Cop Land is a 1997 film written and directed by James Mangold who grew up in the Worley Heights section of the Town of Blooming Grove and attended Washingtonville High School. Much of the background material is based on Mangold’s acquaintances in his teenage years as many of his neighbors were NYPD officers.

The setting is Garrison, a small town in New Jersey, not far from Manhattan, where many NYPD officers reside. Sylvester Stallone plays hearing-impaired Sheriff Freddy Heflin. Robert De Niro is NYPD Internal Affairs Investigator Mo Tilden.

James Mangold studied film/video at the California Institute of the Arts, and acting at CalArts School of Theater. After finishing his degree there and working for Disney as a writer/director, Mangold studied and secured an MA from the Film Division of Columbia University's School of the Arts.

Harriman Hall 111 Film Theatre is at the corner of Wawayanda and East Conkling Avenues, Middletown, NY. It is ADA compliant.

Admission: $2 general; free all students from any institution

This film is part of the "Orange County Connections" series.

6pm - Reading by Paul Ellis of "The Night I Died," a Mickey Spillane short story-radio play

7pm - Screening of the film I, The Jury

A dramatic reading of "The Night I Died" will be given by Paul Ellis at 6pm, followed by a screening of the film I, The Jury, at 7pm. Both the radio play and the film are based on works by Mickey Spillane.

Radio plays, also known as radio drama, are a form of audio storytelling broadcast on radio. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the story.

Radio plays achieved widespread popularity within a decade of their initial development in the 1920s. By the 1940s, they were a leading international popular entertainment. With the advent of television in the 1950s, however, they lost some of their popularity.

Paul Ellis is the producer/director of the Air Pirates Radio Theater. He is a resident of Sugar Loaf.

I, the Jury is a 1982 film based on the best selling detective novel of the same name by Mickey Spillane who lived in Newburgh. The film screening begins at 7pm.

The plot involves Private Eye Mike Hammer discovering that his best friend, Jack Williams, a one-armed detective, has been murdered. Hammer's subsequent investigation has him become a one-man vigilante squad who seeks vengeance on the person responsible for Williams' death.

Then, a serial rapist is involved as well as a sex therapy clinic headed up by sexy Dr. Charlotte Bennett. The film plot also contains elements not in the novel, such as government conspiracies and mind-control techniques by the CIA and the Mafia.

The film initially received mixed reviews, and was criticized for having too much nudity and violence.

Starring in the film are Armand Assante as Mike Hammer and Barbara Carrera as Dr. Charlotte Bennett. Armand Assante has a residence in Blooming Grove.

The Newburgh Campus is located at One Washington Center.

The venue is Assembly Room 221 (ADA compliant).

Admission: $2 general; free all students from any institution

This film is part of the "Orange County Connections" series and will be introduced by Steve Harpst, Student Activities Director.

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) is a biographical film about George M. Cohan who lived in Highland Mills. The actor-singer-dancer-playwright-songwriter-producer-theatre owner-director-choreographer was known as “The Man Who Owns Broadway.”  Starring James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston and Richard Whorf, and featuring Irene Manning, George Tobias, Rosemary DeCamp and Jeanne Cagney, the movie was written by Robert Buckner and Edmund Joseph, and directed by Michael Curtiz. This nostalgic, shamelessly-patriotic movie is considered to be one of Hollywood's greatest, grandest, and slickest musicals.

The film won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (James Cagney), Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture and Best Sound Recording. It was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Walter Huston), Best Director, Best Film Editing for George Amy, Best Picture and Best Writing, Original Story. In 1993, Yankee Doodle Dandy was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

The black and white film was the first computer-colorized film released by entrepreneur Ted Turner in 1985.

Harriman Hall 111 Film Theatre is at the corner of Wawayanda and East Conkling Avenues, Middletown, NY. It is ADA compliant.

Admission: $2 general; free all students from any institution

The 2009 Lyceum Winter-Spring Film Series is being presented in conjunction with the Orange County Citizens Foundation.  Orange County Connections features films which have been written by or about present or past residents of Orange County.

6:15pm - Introduction by Frank D. Gilroy, playwright, screenwriter, author

7pm - Screening of the film The Subject Was Roses

The Subject Was Roses is a 1968 film by Frank D. Gilroy adapted from his 1964 play of the same title. The film director was Ulu Grosbard. The film is a rare faithful adaptation of the play, employing most of the cast and crew of the stage play.

In the screenplay, two of the play's three original actors, Jack Albertson and Martin Sheen, starred in the film version. Nettie is played by Patricia Neal who won a nomination for Best Actress. Albertson won an Oscar for best supporting actor.

The play The Subject Was Roses was written by Frank D. Gilroy and opened on Broadway in 1964 with Jack Albertson, Martin Sheen, and Irene Dailey. This was his first Broadway play, and it received high praise from critics and, indeed, won many awards, including the Outer Critics Circle Award, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, a Tony Award for best play, and the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1965.

The play/screenplay is a realistic drama, and the set makes an important contribution to the theme. Since this is a family that has difficulty talking openly with each other, Gilroy uses a technique whereby in conversations they talk completely across each other—that is, one person is barely listening to the other and carries on his own line of thought.

Timmy Cleary returns home from his service during World War II. While he seems to vindicate himself in his father's eyes for surviving the war, his drinking and cursing disturb his mother. Though his parents, John and Nettie, seem to be happy, the peace proves to be a facade. Soon old emotional wounds and unresolved marital problems resurface. Caught in the middle, Timmy feels responsible for their squabbling, but can see no way to resolve their problems.

Frank Daniel Gilroy was born on October 13, 1925, to Bettina Vasti and Frank B. Gilroy in the Bronx, New York. He was graduated from De Witt Clinton High School in the Bronx in 1943, after which he joined the US Army. During World War II, he served for two and a half years with the eighty-ninth infantry division, including eighteen months in Europe. A magna cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College, Frank D. Gilroy completed his education at the Yale School of Drama with a grant he received from Dartmouth. He entered television as a writer in the early 1950s, contributing to the many live dramatic anthologies of the era such as Kraft Theatre, Omnibus, and Playhouse 90. In 1962, he won the Obie Award for his off-Broadway piece Who'll Save the Plowboy?. Then, in 1970, Frank Gilroy made his movie-directing bow with the Manhattan-filmed Desperate Characters. He has since directed such films as the revisionist western From Noon Till Three (1976), and the serio-comedy The Luckiest Man in the World (1989). He has also written many short plays and made independent films and, from that experience, he wrote a book I Wake Up Screaming –everything to know about independent filmmaking. His latest book is Writing for Love and/or Money. Frank D. Gilroy is a longtime resident of Blooming Grove. His screenwriter/director son Tony used his house for scenes in the 2007 film Michael Clayton.

The Newburgh Campus is located at One Washington Center.

The venue is Assembly Room 221 (ADA compliant).