The North Carolina Central University Department of Music will begin its Faculty Recital Series with violoncellist Dr. Timothy Holley on Friday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. in the B.N. Duke Auditorium. Holley will perform, “Sacred Circles…Drawing Closer…” a series of Negro spirituals and sacred music. Among the composers represented will be Betty Jackson King, Arthur Benjamin, William Grant Still, Barbara Logan Cooke and Margaret Bonds. NCCU faculty members Ed Paolantonio and Derison Duarte will accompany Holley on piano.

In addition, Holley will premiere two works — a recently discovered piece written for piano by Gwendolyn Bell Conley, and a work for solo cello by African-American composer Adolphus Hailstork. Conley’s composition, “Gwen’s Little March and Waltz,” was discovered by the composer’s daughter, who requested that it be recorded for Conley’s 80th birthday last month. Conley created the piece as a composition exercise and recital piece while still a child studying piano in Chicago in the 1940s.

Hailstork’s “Draw the Sacred Circle Closer” was composed just last year. Holley, after reviewing the composition, asked Hailstork’s permission to give the first public performance. Hailstork has composed music for more than 47 years and is currently Professor of Music and Eminent Scholar at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.

The deadline for applications to march in North Carolina Central University’s 2010 Homecoming Parade is near, the head of the parade said Thursday.
The parade down Fayetteville Street is a popular annual event in Durham. It will be held on Oct. 30, and the deadline for applications is Oct. 22, said Michael Bailey, chairman of the university’s parade committee.

The grand marshal this year is Jeffrey Throop, president of the Tournament of Roses, the organization in Pasadena, Calif., that sponsors the famed Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl football game. NCCU’s Marching Sound Machine marching band will be featured in the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day 2011.
Applications for NCCU’s parade must be returned to the school by 5 p.m. on Oct. 22. Off-campus groups and units pay a $50 registration fee. The parade committee must approve each applicant. Applications not accompanied by the fee are rejected, Bailey said.

To obtain an application, call (919) 530-5058 or send an e-mail request to mabailey@nccu.edu <mailto:mabailey@nccu.edu> or ccoleman@nccu.edu <mailto:ccoleman@nccu.edu> .

The parade route begins at W.G. Pearson Magnet School on Fayetteville Street across from Beechwood Cemetery and ends behind NCCU’s Biomanufacturing Research Institute and Technology Enterprise building on Lawson Street.

The School of Law will host the second lecture in the R.J. Reynolds series, with Judy Scales-Trent, Professor Emeritus, SUNY Buffalo School of Law on Wednesday, Oct. 20, in the Turner Law Building Moot Courtroom at 6 p.m. Scales-Trent will speak on the topic “Women and the Law in Senegal.” RSVP to Natasha Ester at nester@nccu.edu or 530-6525.

To the outside observer, the Alfonso Elder Student Union on the campus of North Carolina Central University looks the same as it did in 1968 when it first opened. But step inside and the interior tells another story — from the new information desk that greets each visitor to the updated stage, baby grand piano and the wall of mirrors. But the greatest change is not in the brick and mortar but in the revitalized spirit of this 42 year-old campus hub. The Student Union staff will open the facility to the public on Oct. 19 at 9 a.m. when they host “Giving Voice: A Celebration of Student Leadership and Campus Life.”

Chancellor Charlie Nelms and SGA President Dwayne Johnson will deliver remarks, after which guests will be encouraged to tour the 22,000 square-foot facility. Among the new elements are a Centennial Salon and Barbershop; Eagle Embassy, which pays tribute to the many international students enrolled at NCCU, and a Student Leadership, Training and Development Library and Training Room. Durham Mayor William Bell will also attend and present a proclamation to the university. The Chuck Davis African-American Dance Ensemble will perform and breakfast will be served.

Dr. Maria Lumpkin, Student Union director, said the makeover serves a far deeper purpose. “This stage is more than wood and metal,” she said. “It is a platform for activism. The wall of mirrors is all about reflections, personal reflections that challenge the students to see the world and their place in it.” The idea for the reflections mirror came from Brian Kennedy, SGA vice president. Periodically, the Student Government Association will post provocative questions on the mirror. Kennedy’s hope is that students will post their answers directly to the mirror, creating a literal reflection of what students think.

Lumpkin is also a new addition to the Student Union; she became director in June. She said the Student Union is poised to become the preferred place on campus for students to congregate, express themselves and illuminate their best gifts.

Lumpkin says she is thrilled when in the middle of a workday, she hears a student playing the piano and singing. She also recognizes a need to reconnect the Student Union to the surrounding community. Civic organizations can rent the space for meetings and luncheons. And the Union hosts Monday Night Jazz. “Jazz Night is our gift to the community every Monday night,” said Lumpkin.

Four offices are housed in the Student Union: Student Activities, Student Leadership, Training and Development, Greek Life and the Student Activities Fund Office.

The NCCU community notes with sadness the passing of Ruth Russell Williams, 78, an acclaimed North Carolina folk artist. A resident of Henderson, she died Friday at Durham Regional Hospital. Her work was showcased at the NCCU Art Museum in a 2009 exhibit, “Ruth Russell Williams: Master Storyteller.” When the exhibit opened, Museum Director Kenneth Rodgers described Ms. Williams as “one of North Carolina’s most original artists.”

Ruth Russell Williams was born in 1932 in the Vance County community of Townsville. Her parents were sharecroppers. At age 8, she began picking cotton to earn enough money to go to the State Fair. Later, her paintings would portray scenes from this early work and from many other childhood experiences, including memories of going to work with her grandmother to the home of a plantation owner. She developed her talent along a path that took her from these humble beginnings to beauty salon owner and cosmetologist to national recognition as a self-taught artist.

In 1948 she married Odell Russell and they had four children but would later divorce. In 1974 she married building contractor Samuel Williams. Initially drawn to ceramics, she taught ceramics at Vance-Granville Community College. When her children were mostly grown, she began painting, although she initially thought her paintings lacked merit. At an art exhibit at Kerr Lake in 1985, Williams was quite satisfied showing her work to laymen and women, but when she learned that North Carolina A & T art professor James McCoy was nearby, she grabbed her paintings and hid behind bushes, fearful of presenting her work before a professional. McCoy, however, immediately recognized Williams’ unique aesthetic sensibility. He told Williams that she was a gifted folk artist and predicted that she would one day become widely recognized. For the next two decades, Williams produced hundreds of paintings, each one telling a story of life as she saw it, in a simple, straightforward — and vividly colorful — way.

Her work is now prized by collectors and museums throughout the United States and Europe. One of her best-known works, “Baptism,” appeared on the cover of Smithsonian magazine in 1993.