Acclaimed Choir Director and Religious Music Scholar Comes to UCR

Acclaimed Choir Director and Religious Music Scholar Comes to UCR

On Thursday October 29, 2009, the Black Voice News will host a lecture and book signing with distinguished religious music scholar and choral director James Abbington. Co-sponsored by the Gospel Music History Project and the University of California, Riverside’s Department of Ethnic Studies and African Student Programs, the special engagement will take place at UCR’s new Highlander Union Building (HUB) in Room 302 South at 7pm. An Associate Professor of Church Music and Worship at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University in Atlanta, Dr. Abbington is also the Executive Editor of GIA Publishers’ African American Church Music Series and has served as the musical co-director of the legendary Hampton University Ministers’ and Musicians’ Conference since 2000. According to Dr. Daniel E. Walker, Founding Director of the Gospel Music History Project and Research Associate at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California, “Dr. Abbington is a real heavyweight when it comes to the study and performance of Black Sacred Music.” Added Dr. Dylan Rodriguez, chair of UCR’s Department of Ethnic Studies, “I hope we can keep co-sponsoring and endorsing this type of work. It is vital and inspiring.” The former National Director of Music for both the Progressive National Baptist Convention and the NAACP, Dr. Abbington holds an undergraduate degree in Music from Morehouse College and a Masters of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Michigan. An acclaimed performer, recording artist, and passionate presenter, his skills as an organist, conductor, arranger, and educator are unparalleled. As Rickerby Hinds, Associate Professor of Playwriting at UCR, comments, “It is very seldom that you get someone of Dr. Abbington’s status who makes the connection between theory and practice. He not only teaches it, he lives it.” Previously a Professor of Music in the Department of Fine Arts at Morgan State University, Dr. Abbington was also the former Chair of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Among his publications include; Let Mt. Zion Rejoice! Music in the African American Church (Judson Press) and Readings in African American Church Music and Worship (GIA). He is also an associate editor for the best-selling African American Heritage Hymnal (GIA). During his visit to UCR Dr. Abbington will be speaking on his new work Let the Church Sing On: Reflections on Black Sacred Music. The book explores “TheSpiritual”, “Pioneering and Contemporary Hymn Writers”, and “Pastoral Considerations and Worship Resources.” In the words of Kenneth Simons, Director of African Student Programs, “Get ready to be educated and inspired!” For more information contact the African Student Programs Office at (951) 827-4576.

UCR Presents Maya Angelou Oct.22nd

http://culturalevents.ucr.edu/artist2.htm

An Evening with Maya Angelou Dr. Maya Angelou is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary literature. Over her lifetime, she has achieved the highest honors for her work as a poet, playwright, author, actor, composer, director and civil-rights activist. Dr. Angelou is best known for her autobiographical writings I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970) and All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986). Her volume of poetry Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Die (1971) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. In 1993, she became the second poet in U.S. history to have the honor of delivering the dedicatory poem, On the Pulse of Morning, at President Bill Clinton’s Inaugural ceremony. A mentor to Oprah Winfrey and one of the greatest speakers of our time, Dr. Angelou will share her inspirational message of hope, courage and survival. Speaker: Dr. Maya Angelou is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary black literature and as a remarkable Renaissance woman. A mesmerizing vision of grace, swaying and stirring when she moves; Dr. Angelou captivates her audiences lyrically with vigor, fire and perception. She has the unique ability to shatter the opaque prisms of race and class between reader and subject throughout her books of poetry and her autobiographies. Dr. Angelou, born Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis was raised in segregated rural Arkansas. She is a poet, historian, author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director. She lectures throughout the U.S. and abroad and is a lifetime Reynolds professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina since 1981. She has authored twelve best selling books and numerous magazine articles earning her Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominations. In 1993, Angelou became the second poet in US History to have the honor of writing and reciting original work at the Presidential Inauguration. On the Pulse of Morning, at Bill Clinton's presidential inauguration, was an occasion that gave her wide recognition for which she was awarded a Grammy award (best spoken word). Dr. Angelou, who speaks French, Spanish, Italian and West African Fanti, began her career in drama and dance. She married a South African freedom fighter and lived in Cairo where she was editor of The Arab Observer, the only English-language news weekly in the Middle East. In Ghana, she was feature editor of The African Review and taught at the University of Ghana. Dr. Angelou, poet, was among the first African-American women to hit the bestsellers lists with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , a chronicle of her life up to age sixteen (and ending with the birth of her son, Guy), which was published in 1970 with great critical and commercial success. In the sixties, at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr. Angelou became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and in 1975 she received the Ladies Home Journal Woman of the Year Award in communications. She received numerous honorary degrees and was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the National Commission on the Observance of International Woman's Year and by President Ford to the American Revolutionary Bicentennial Advisory Council. She is on the board of the American Film Institute and is one of the few female members of the Director's Guild. In the film industry, through her work in script writing and directing, Dr. Angelou has been a groundbreaker for black women. In television, she has made hundreds of appearances. Her best-selling autobiographical account of her youth, I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings, won critical acclaim in 1970 and was a two-hour TV special on CBS. She has written and produced several prize-winning documentaries, including Afro-Americans in the Arts, a PBS special for which she received the Golden Eagle Award. She was also nominated for an Emmy Award for her acting in Roots, and her screenplay Georgia, Georgia, which was the first by a black woman to be filmed. In theatre, she produced, directed and starred in Cabaret for Freedom in collaboration with Godfrey Cambridge at New York's Village Gate; starred in Genet's The Blacks at St Mark's Playhouse; and adapted Sophocles Ajax, which premiered in Los Angeles in 1974.

Event details Where: Highlander Union Building Room 302 When: Thursday, October 22, 2009 Time: 8:00 p.m. Priority Seating: 7:15 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Prices: General: $55 Fulltime Student: $30 UCR Faculty/Staff/Alumni: $53 Senior (65+): $53 General Seating: 6:45 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Prices: General $45 Fulltime Student: $25 UCR Faculty/Staff/Alumni: $43 Senior (65+): $43 Links Official Maya Angelou site poemhunter.com/maya-angelou/

Fall Preview

We hope that you had a great summer. This fall is about to get off to a great start!

The UCR Block Party & welcome back activities start on campus
Proceeds to benefit African Student Programs http://rside.ucr.edu/blockparty/

If you lived in the A&I Halls it's time for the 50th Anniversary Celebration. Participate and take the survey here:Aberdeen Inverness 50th Anniversary Contact Form

Calling all UCR Black Alumni:

We need volunteers for the 2010 UCR Black Homecoming weekend held during UCR's Homecoming week celebration.

Looking for old and new school NPHC members, Soul on Sundays DJ's for a special event during that weekend.

Don't forget we are on twitter.com/ucrblackalumni, facebook.com/ucrblackalumni and on Linkedin!

Email ucrblackalumni (at) gmail.com

UCR SweeneyArtGallery

Exhibitions: Current

Uncovered
A Pageant of Hip Hop Masters

July 30, 2009 - August 08, 2009

Public performances will be from the Thursday through Saturday weekends of July 30, 31 and August 1, 6, 7, 8.

Tickets are available now! To make reservations please RSVP.

The gallery is closed to the public from June 13 to July 22 for rehearsals.

In conjunction with UCR’s Center of Hip Hop Theater, UCR Sweeney Art Gallery presents Uncovered: A Pageant of Hip Hop Masters, a dynamic collision of the traditional and the contemporary. Drawing from the spirit of the appreciation of art history embodied in the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach, Uncovered will recreate, through the use of the tableau vivant, life-sized versions of classic album covers from several hip hop artists including: Run DMC, Queen Latifah, LL Cool J and Salt and Pepa. Live actors, dancers, and a DJ will turn the gallery into a stage where the unbridled creativity of one the most distinctive American cultural movements in this generation takes flesh, stands up, and is recognized. The recreations will be accompanied by a DJ’s mix of songs from each album as well as dances that were popular during the album’s release. Organized by UCR Sweeney Art Gallery, Hindsight Productions and curated by associate professor Rickerby Hinds with assistance of Sweeney Art Gallery assistant director Shane Shukis.

Website Available

Regents' committee endorses fiscal plan, furloughs

Regents' committee endorses fiscal plan, furloughs

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Date: 2009-07-15
Contact: University of California Office of the President
Phone: (510) 987-9200
Email:

The University of California Board of Regents' committee on finance and compensation today (July 15) endorsed a plan proposed by UC President Mark G. Yudof to enact systemwide furloughs as one of a set of actions to offset an anticipated $813 million reduction in support from the state general fund. The full board will vote on the plan tomorrow (July 16).

More than 108,000 full-time-equivalent positions out of a total of 135,000 are affected. Under the plan, UC faculty and staff will be required to take from 11 to 26 furlough days -- amounting to a salary reduction of 4 to 10 percent -- with higher earners being forced to take more furlough days and steeper pay cuts. The specific number of furlough days each employee will take is based on a sliding scale across seven pay bands, ranging from those who make under $40,000 to those who earn more than $240,000.

Reduced work days for members of UC's senior management group will be restricted to a maximum of 10 furlough days per year, even though their actual pay cuts will be among the highest. Additionally, senior managers who agreed to a voluntary five percent pay cut in May will have their salaries cut an additional five percent under the furlough program.

Yudof said the plan was guided by a principle of shared sacrifice.

"There is no doubt that these reductions will be painful for our faculty and staff," Yudof said. "Unfortunately, the university is facing a financial crisis unprecedented in the past quarter century, and everyone is going to be called on to be part of the solution. No plan is perfect, but we have worked hard to make it as fair as possible while preserving, to the extent possible, excellence and access to opportunity for students, researchers and patients."

The overall goal of the plan is to achieve an estimated $184.1 million in payroll savings from general funds for the 12 months beginning Sept. 1, 2009.

The furlough plan will help UC fill approximately a quarter of the $813 million budget shortfall for fiscal years 2008-09 and 2009-10. The cuts represent a 20 percent decline in state funding for the university in 2009-10 when compared with the 2007-08 levels.

On top of actual state budget reductions, UC faces an additional gap of $335 million over the two-year period by virtue of increasing costs that have not been funded by the state, including increases in student enrollments, and health benefit and utility costs, among others.

Implementation of the plan for union-represented employees -- 35 to 40 percent of the UC workforce -- will be subject to collective bargaining agreements and all applicable laws.

In addition to the furlough savings, the overall budget gap will be filled as follows:

• A quarter of the $813 million gap will be filled in the form of a previously approved student fee increase.
• Through the refinancing of debt and further administrative cost controls, the university will gain another $100 million offset against the $813 million shortfall.
• The remainder of the gap to be closed -- $300 million in all -- will come from cuts spread across the university's 10 campuses. The specifics of those cuts will be left to individual chancellors.

Across the system, campuses already have implemented cost-cutting efforts and have more in the works. They will result in fewer faculty, lecturers and staff, elimination of some courses and programs, larger class sizes and cuts to student services.

Specifically, most campuses are deferring at least 50 percent of planned faculty hires. UC Berkeley, for example, expects to reduce faculty recruitment from a typical 100 positions a year to 10. Already, 724 campus staff members have been laid off systemwide, with more expected. In advance of these cuts, the UC Office of the President already had cut annual costs by $67 million and reduced payroll by one-third.

UC Board of Regents Chairman Russell S. Gould said the furlough plan will help UC weather the immediate financial crisis it is facing, which has been severe not only in terms of the size of the cuts but the speed with which the university has had to absorb them. Looking to the long term, he announced plans to create the Commission on the Future of UC to reexamine everything from future funding to delivery of educational services and the size and shape of the institution.

"We will gather the best minds available inside and outside our system and ask that they use this moment of crisis to reexamine, reset and take a hard, critical look at how we face the future," Gould said.

"The charge will be to develop a vision for the future of the University that will reaffirm our role in ensuring the excellence of the educational experience in the system, to help sustain California's economy and cultural life while recognizing that our limited state resources require us to be creative and strategic in meeting our mission."

Although the furlough plan will affect the majority of faculty and staff in the UC system, the retirement benefits of all employees will be protected by using pre-furlough salaries to calculate pension benefits.

It will also provide wide flexibility for the campuses to manage the schedules of public safety employees such as police, fire and security personnel and clinical care workers at the medical centers and hospitals.

Because of UC's organizational diversity, special consideration was required for certain employee groups:

• Faculty furlough days will vary depending on academic or 12-month calendars.
• Berkeley Lab employees are exempted under UC's contract with the U.S. Department of Energy.
• Most student employees, such as graduate students, also are exempted, as well as personnel whose funding comes entirely from contracts and grants.
• To ensure essential patient services are not disrupted, alternate plans for achieving the required savings for some or all of the medical centers may be considered.
• Employees working reduced hours under the START program also may be exempt, if their reduced pay under START is already equal to or greater than the proposed cuts.
• Implementation of the plan for represented employees will be subject to collective bargaining agreements and all applicable laws.

The full proposal is at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/jul09/j2.pdf.

Linkedin: UCR Black Alumni Page.

Are you on linkedin? If so join the UCR Black Alumni Linkedin page. We will be starting discussion groups based on career path.

Alumni Mixers starting up in LA soon

Seems the majority of Alumni want it in LA but undergrads are in Riverside. We are going to alternate the professional mixers between LA and Riverside. Starting with Los Angeles first. Thank you everyone for your feedback.