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Ford to speak at King event
Harold E. Ford Jr., chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, a nonprofit corporation promoting a moderate-conservative platform within the Democratic Party, will be the keynote speaker for the 32nd Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Event, to be held Feb. 7 in the Mainstage theater in the Center for the Arts, North Campus. Lecture sponsor is the UB Minority Faculty and Staff Association.
Described by President Bill Clinton as “the walking, living embodiment of where America ought to go in the 21st century,” Ford built a reputation on Capitol Hill as a consensus builder while serving on the House Budget Committee, the House Committee on Financial Services and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Known to his colleagues as a fiscal watchdog conservative, he played an active role as a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate and fiscally conservative Democrats seeking middle-ground, bipartisan answers to the current challenges facing the nation. While in Congress, he was also a member of the New Democrat Coalition and the Congressional Black Caucus. In 2006, Ford lost the closest Senate race in Tennessee history to Republican Bob Corker by less than three percentage points.
In addition to heading the Democratic Leadership Council, he serves as a visiting professor of public policy at Vanderbilt University and is vice chairman and senior policy advisor for Merrill Lynch & Co.
Tickets are available at the CFA box office and at all Ticketmaster outlets, including Ticketmaster.com.
For more information, click here.
Bluestone to speak
Political economist Barry Bluestone will speak on “The New Growth Theory and the Prosperity of U.S. Cities” at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 13 in 147 Diefendorf, South Campus.
The lecture, which will follow a reception at 5 p.m., is part of the ongoing Distinguished Lecture Series presented by the Office of the Vice President for Research. Co-sponsors of Bluestone’s lecture are the Regional Institute and the School of Architecture and Planning.
Bluestone is Stearns Trustee Professor of Political Economy, director of the Center for Urban and Regional Policy, and dean of the School of Social Science, Urban Affairs and Public Policy at Northeastern University. He has been instrumental in Northeastern’s efforts to build a broad consortium of regional universities and colleges that tackle local social and economic problems.
Bluestone has written widely in the areas of income distribution, business policy, labor-management relations, higher education finance, and urban and regional economic development. He contributes regularly to academic and popular journals, and is the author or co-author of nine books, including “Growing Prosperity: The Battle for Growth with Equity in the 21st Century” (Houghton Mifflin, 1999) and “The Boston Renaissance: Race, Space, and Economic Change in an American Metropolis” (Russell Sage Foundation, 2000).
Bluestone lectures and consults with various union, trade, industry and governmental groups. He served as executive adviser to the Governor’s Commission on the Future of Mature Industries in Massachusetts. A founding member of the Nommos Consulting Group, Bluestone has helped develop multimedia productions used in training sessions for labor/management groups and for public school teachers. He is a founding member of the Economic Policy Institute, along with Robert Reich, Lester Thurow, Robert Kuttner, Ray Marshall and Jeff Faux.
All lectures in the OVPR Distinguished Lecture Series are free and open to the public.
Music to present free events
Budget-conscious music lovers at UB can find much to keep them busy in February.
The free monthly Brown Bag Concert, which will take place at noon on Tuesday in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus, will feature a performance of Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók.
Rarely performed due to its technical and logistical complexity, this piece features four musicians with two grand pianos and seven percussion instruments creating a huge, unfolding rhythmic sound that captivates and intrigues. It will be performed by Bryan W. Boyce (piano), Ivan Docenko Jr. (piano) and Bradley J. Fuster (percussion) of the Buffalo State College Music Department, and Dinesh Joseph, assistant principal timpanist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Coordinated by UB faculty member Cheryl Gobbetti-Hoffman, the Brown Bag series of free, informal concerts presented during the lunch hour allows patrons to catch a glimpse of the kind of programming offered on a regular basis by the Department of Music. Patrons are encouraged to bring their lunch and enjoy a complimentary cup of Starbucks coffee. Each attendee will receive a pair of complimentary tickets to a more formal concert within the following month.
The lineup of free music events also includes the following student concerts:
Junior Recital: Erin Waite, flute, 8 p.m. Feb. 15, Baird Recital Hall, 250 Baird Hall, North Campus.
Junior Recital: Rebecca Sheppard, soprano, and Kofi Hayford, bass-baritone, 8 p.m. Feb. 16, Baird Recital Hall
Honor’s Presentation: Tracy Stepien, soprano, and Sarah Ajaeb, soprano, 3 p.m. Feb. 23, Baird Recital Hall
Flute Studio Recital: Students of Cheryl Gobbetti-Hoffman, noon Feb. 26, Baird Recital Hall
UB Symphony Orchestra: Christian Baldini, conductor, 8 p.m. Feb. 27, Lippes Concert Hall, Slee.
Voice Studio Recital: Students of Tony Arnold and Alex Hurd, noon Feb. 28, Baird Recital Hall.
Public Interest Law program to hold auction
The Buffalo Public Interest Law Program (BPILP) will host its 13th annual auction at 6 p.m. Feb. 15 in the Pearl Street Grill & Brewery, 76 Pearl St., Buffalo. Tickets are available for $35 at the door and include drinks and hors d’oeuvres.
Organized by UB Law School students, the event is the primary fundraiser for fellowships that allow UB law students to accept unpaid summer positions in public-interest law.
"Public interest" encompasses many areas of the law, including domestic violence, child advocacy, human rights, poverty law, elder law and environmental law. While many organizations are in need of legal assistance offered by law students, many cannot afford to pay for students for their services.
BPILP is a not-for-profit organization at the UB Law School.
Up for auction is a box at Madison Square Garden for a New York Knicks game and tickets for the New York Mets. Items for silent and live auction, as well as raffle items, will include fine art; theater, concert and sporting-event tickets; restaurant and salon gift certificates; themed gift baskets; jewelry; and many other objects.
Fellowship recipients have interned at the Kenya Human Rights Commission, the Erie County District Attorney's Office, New York State Office of the Attorney General, the Innocence Project, Capital Post Conviction Unit and many others.
For more information contact Britten Cosgrove or Robert Steinwachs at 645-6726, or at ublaw_bpilp@yahoo.com.