University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Clarke to speak at UB

One of Canada's best-known political novelists, Austin Clarke, author of "The Polished Hoe," a sensual, hypnotic work about the pain and social hatred resulting from colonialism, will speak at on March 3 as a guest of the Department of African American Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences.

CLARKE

Clarke's talk, "History or Memory: The Construction of the Narrative in 'The Polished Hoe,'" will take place at 4:10 p.m. in 322 Clemens Hall, North Campus. It will be free and open to the public.

A resident of Canada since 1955, Clarke has worked as a journalist and broadcaster, and as a visiting professor at several North American universities. He is the author of five short-story collections and 10 novels, including "The Polished Hoe," an eloquent, evocative murder novel set nearly 50 years ago on the fictional Caribbean island of Bimshire—a stand-in for Clarke's native Barbados.

Critic Latha Viswanathan described the novel as one that "balances the exotic setting with the harsh realities of poverty and deprivation, and with themes of color and race…(and) offers catharsis through violence."

It also is one, says Clarke, in which everything fell into place.

"I felt the freedom and the liberation from all of the things that could influence the writing of a book negatively. I was not anxious for anything," he says. "I was in a very good mood. I was healthy. I was cheerful. And I had retained my sense of humor. And I thought…that they are the ingredients that an author must experience and realize if he or she is going to write something that is great and good."

"The Polished Hoe" is great and good. It won Canada's 2002 Giller Prize, the largest annual Canadian prize for fiction, and the 2003 Commonwealth Prize for best book of the year. In 1999, Clarke received the W.O. Mitchell Prize for his outstanding body of work and service as a mentor to other writers. His other novels include "The Origin of Waves" and "The Question."

Clarke's visit is made possible by support from the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Canadian-American Studies Committee, the Butler Chair in the Department of English, the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, and the Buffalo Theory Graduate Group.

CATE to co-sponsor student conference

The third annual Student Cisco Networkers' Conference for area high school students and adult learners will be held March 19 at the City Campus of Erie Community College.

The day-long event will be co-sponsored by UB, the UB Center for Applied Technologies in Education (CATE) and Cisco Systems, Inc. It is designed to introduce local public school students to the atmosphere of a professional conference and give them the opportunity to expand their technical knowledge while networking with their peers.

More than 150 students, teachers and administrators from across the region, along with a number of Cisco Systems' engineers, will participate in the event, which will begin with registration at 8 a.m. and continue until 3 p.m. Participants will include students from the Buffalo Public Schools, the Ken-Ton School District, Orleans Niagara BOCES, Niagara Falls Public Schools, Chautauqua County schools, the Clarence and Sweet Home School districts and adult learners from UB's Educational Opportunity Center.

The keynote address will be presented by Darren Strickland, executive director of Friends of Night People. His talk will be followed by a skills competition led by Robert Errington of Buffalo's Hutchinson Technical High School and breakout sessions led by Cisco Systems' technicians and focusing on the topics "Internet Security," "IP Telephony," "Internet Protocol is Everywhere" and "Wireless Technology in Today's World."

Additional sponsors of the conference include the Department of Telecommunications Technology at ECC, the Buffalo Public Schools and Buffalo Prep Tech, HSBC Bank and Computer Plus Staff Solutions (CPPS).

CATE, part of the UB Graduate School of Education, became a Cisco Regional Academy in Fall 1999. The Cisco Networking Academy Program is a comprehensive, e-learning program providing students with Internet technology skills. While it originally supported "local" academies within five school districts, it now serves 14 "local" academies in urban, suburban and rural school systems, as well as at ECC and UB's EOC.

Giordano dance company to perform

The Center for the Arts will present Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago at 8 p.m. March 5 in the Mainstage theater in the CFA, North Campus.

The performance is sponsored by KeyBank.

Currently in its 41st season, Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago (GGJDC) continues to bring the excitement of American jazz dance to cheering audiences in Chicago, across the United States and around the world. Continually expanding the boundaries of jazz dance while diversifying the repertoire, GGJDC's new works have received critical and audience acclaim.

Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago began in 1962 as Dance Incorporated Chicago. In 1966, the company became the Gus Giordano Dance Company and went on to gain international attention. In 1974, the group became the first jazz dance company to tour the Soviet Union.

This focus on jazz dance led to a new name—Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago—and its current mission to develop and preserve the indigenous American art form of jazz dance, thereby creating an awareness of jazz dance as a true artistic expression of American life.

In addition to performances across America and around the world,

Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago has an active outreach and education program, including school performances in the Chicago area and teaching residences on many college campuses.

Tickets for the March 5 performance are $22, $18 and $16, and are available at the CFA box office from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and at all Ticketmaster locations.

For more information, call 645-ARTS.

Iranian film to be screened

"The May Lady," a film by Iranian documentary filmmaker Rakhshan Bani-Etemad will be screened at 7 p.m. March 4 at the Market Arcade Film and Arts Center, 639 Main St., Buffalo.

The film, featured as part of the International Women's Film Festival sponsored by the Institute for Research and education on Women and Gender at UB, will be introduced by Behi (Behjat) Henderson, a lecturer in the Center for the Americas who is affiliated with the Gender Institute.

Henderson, who interviewed Bani-Etemad at the Montreal World Film Festival, says the director is interested in making films that reflect social conflict situations. Bani-Etemad is recognized by the film industry not only as an Iranian woman filmmaker, but rather as a top Iranian filmmaker, Henderson notes, adding that her documentaries expose the excluded side of civic society—the poor, the jobless, the disabled and drug addicts.

"The May Lady" is the story of Forough, a 42-year-old divorced Iranian woman who finds her desire for adult love and companionship conflicting with the needs of her troubled teenage son, Mani.

Tickets for "The May Lady" are $7.50 for general admission, $5.50 for students and $5 for seniors and Hallwalls members.

"Dance & Percussion" to be presented

The departments of Theatre & Dance and Music will present "Dance & Percussion"—a collaboration designed to explore the relationship of dance and percussion in American culture—at 8 p.m. March 6 in the Mainstage theater in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.

This collaborative production is sponsored by a grant from the Interdisciplinary Research and Creative Activities Fund. Tressa Gorman Crehan, assistant professor of theatre and dance and co-director of the dance program, and Anthony Miranda, adjunct assistant professor of music and director of percussion studies, will serve as concert directors.

Students from the UB Percussion Ensemble and UB Dance Program will perform works ranging in style from Red Norvo's "Rag Suite" to the "Tarantella" to contemporary compositions by Miranda.

Guest choreographers for the concert will include Terri Filips, Karen Georger, lecturer, and Thomas Ralabate, associate professor of theatre and dance, as well as Crehan. Alessandra Belloni, world-renowned hand drummer and expert in traditional Italian songs and dance, will be a special guest performer.

The concert will open with the explosive sounds of Miranda's "Overture," accompanied by Crehan's choreographic work "American Landscapes." Guest Director Magnus Mårtensson, visiting assistant professor of music and musical director and conductor of the Slee Sinfonietta, UB's professional chamber orchestra, will direct this textural work performed by Miranda and members of the UB Percussion Ensemble. Ralabate will bring a whimsical vision to "Rag Suite"—a composition featuring xylophone, marimba and piano—shaping a fun, playful work using American social dance.

The concert will conclude with an original work by Crehan and Miranda entitled "Human Percussion," a piece that turns the tables—percussionists provide the movement and the dancers become the instruments.

Tickets are $10 for the general public and $5 for students and seniors. They are available at the CFA box office from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and at all Ticketmaster locations.

For more information, call 645-ARTS.

Law School sets minority visitation program

The UB Law School will hold its fifth annual Minority High School Visitation Program from 8:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow in the Center for Tomorrow, North Campus.

The program, designed to expose promising minority high school students to the possibility of attending law school, is co-sponsored by the Law School Admissions Council and the associations of Asian-American Law Students, Black Law Students and Latino American Law Students.

"According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 7 percent of lawyers in the U.S. are from minority groups," says Lillie Wiley-Upshaw, associate dean for admission and financial aid in the Law School. "Only 3 percent are African-American, 2 percent Latino and less than 1 percent Asian-American. We want to send a strong message to students, faculty, administrators and the legal community: UB Law School is committed to achieving meaningful diversity within our community and the legal profession."

The program will include presentation on "How to Prepare for Law School" by Jacqueline Hollins, assistant director of student advisors services at UB. Charles Carr, adjunct professor of law, will present a mock class in criminal law.

Participating students will have the opportunity to ask current law students about their experiences, both before becoming law students and during law school, and will present their answers to an interactive problem in the Law School's Francis M. Letro Courtroom on the first floor of O'Brian Hall.

Panasci competition enters final round

Five teams of students and alumni from UB will compete for a $25,000 prize in the final round of the Panasci Entrepreneurial Competition, to be held from 4-6:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the Jacobs Executive Development Center, 672 Delaware Ave.

The team that devises and presents the best plan for a viable business will win $25,000 to launch its enterprise in Western New York. It then will advance to the Southwest Business Competition at Rice University in Houston.

The Panasci competition, now in its fourth year, was created to encourage the entrepreneurial interests of UB students and recent alumni. The competition is organized by the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and funded with a $1 million endowment from School of Pharmacy alumnus Henry A. Panasci Jr., chairman of Cygnus Management Group and past chairman and CEO of Fay's Inc.

This year's finalists, chosen from among 17 entrants, are drawn from a variety of academic disciplines at UB, including business administration, communication and engineering. The finalists were chosen based on the content of their written business plans.

Each of the five teams will deliver 10-minute presentations where they will be evaluated on how well they describe the feasibility and marketability of their venture, prove the need for their product or service, and present potential sources of capital.

Representatives from Health Transaction Network; Jaeckle, Fleischmann & Mugel; M&T Investment Group; Rand Capital Corp.; Seed Capital Partners, and Strategic Investment & Holdings, Inc. will judge the competition. Winners will be announced at the event shortly after the last presentation.

Any one interested in attending the presentations should register with the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at 645-3000 or mgt-cel@buffalo.edu.