Music, Literature and More Highlight Spotlight UB's Spring 2017 Season
January 27, 2017
Contact: Public Affairs
Phone: 410.837.5739
The University of Baltimore's spring Spotlight UB series features a mash-up of musical and literary events that are as socially aware as they are entertaining. This season, one of the busiest in the decade-plus history of the series, will showcase local and international artists as well as University of Baltimore voices. All Spotlight UB events are held in the acoustically ideal Wright Theater, located in the UB Student Center, 21 W. Mt. Royal Ave.
The spring season begins with the African-American Arts Festival's literary focus and wraps up with the Emerging Voices Project, a platform for new UB work. Powerful musicians from the jazz and classical genres will take the Wright Theater stage throughout the semester, while dramatic poetry and prose readings allow the UB community to be the first to hear new works from both students and established writers.
Spotlight UB is proud to continue its partnerships with the Diversity and Cultural Office and the MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts in UB's Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences, as well as the Enoch Pratt Free Library. The University continues to supply Baltimore's student population and the Mt. Vernon community with a varied and engaging performance arts selection.
Spotlight UB's spring 2017 schedule is as follows:
Spotlight UB partners with the Enoch Pratt Free Library, the UB Diversity and Culture Office, and, in a continuing effort to link arts programming to academic curriculum, with the MFA, to present the 9th Annual African-American Arts Festival. Bowie State University Professor and PEN American Literary Award finalist Rion Amilcar Scott kicks off the festival with his reading from his newest work, Insurrections, an exploration of growing up and growing old in an African-American community.
Monday, Feb. 13
6 p.m.
Free
Continuing the African-American Arts Festival and in celebration of Valentine's Day, UB writers gather to read the romantic sections of Pulitzer-prize winning author Toni Morrison's work in Steamy Morrison. This reading is part of Prof. Diedre Badejo's African-American literature course.
Tuesday, Feb. 14
5:30 p.m.
Free
Continuing the African-American Arts Festival, local promoter A.D. Sennaar of Ellika Music gathers a trio of powerful musicians to sing the jazz music of American female composers. Musician/composers include: Diana Wharton, Karen Lovejoy and Amy K. Bormet. Bormet, a prolific composer who frequently combines improvisation with concert music, has been commissioned to write for Wild Up's Work, the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and the Brad Linde Ensemble, among others. Lovejoy has spent more than 20 years in the greater Washington area honing her craft. Headliner Wharton, a founding member of Sweet Honey in the Rock, has composed songs for Bill Withers and Jon Lucien as well as the theatrical dance masterpiece, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. Wharton's work as a composer has garnered her prestigious awards including the Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Maryland State Arts Council, a Meet the Composer Grant, and New Music America.
Wednesday, Feb. 15
7 p.m.
$10 general, $5 students
Closing the African-American Arts Festival, MFA Creative Writing & Publishing Design candidate and local poet Lady Brion hosts The Color of Truth, an evening of local slam poets paired with a visual artist.
Thursday,
Feb. 16
7 p.m.
$5 general, free to students
Playwright/Arts and Theater Manager Kimberley Lynne's play about the ratification of the 19th Amendment, The Last Battle of the American Revolution, will be performed as part of a fundraiser for the local Baltimore chapter of the League of Women Voters. The performance will be followed by a reception.
Wednesday, Feb. 22
7 p.m.
$15 general, $10 senior/LWV members, and $5 students
Partially funded by the Gordon Trust Grant, Spotlight UB and the Klein Family School of Communications Design, flutist Rebecca Jeffreys and pianist Alexander Timofeev combine talents for a concert of Poem and Dreams: Exploring American Composers. Jeffreys holds a master's degree in performance from Catholic University and teaches in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. She is a founding member of the nationally recognized Woodbridge Flute Choir and has performed concerts at the Kennedy Center and the White House. Timofeev has appeared as piano soloist with Iasi Philharmonic Orchestra of Romania, Radio-Television Orchestra of St. Petersburg, the National Philharmonic of Moldova, the National Chamber Orchestra of Moldova, the Eastman School of Music Orchestra and the Rowan University Orchestra. Timofeev placed third in the MTNA Young Artist Piano Competition in Toronto in 2007, and earned first prize at the Nis Piano Competition in Serbia in 2006 and the Margaret Guthman Piano Competition in Atlanta in 2006.
Tuesday, Feb. 28
7 p.m
Tickets $10 general and $5 senior/staff, free to students
Belfast journalist and memoirist Malachi O'Doherty will conduct workshops and then open up the Wright Theater to the public for a reading from his book, The Telling Year, which includes stories about being a cub journalist with the Belfast Telegraph in 1972. O'Doherty is also working on a biography of Sein Finn president Gerry Adams and can speak to the convoluted and changeable politics of Northern Ireland. O'Doherty is a writer, teacher and activist; follow him on his blog, www.malachiodoherty.com.
Thursday, April 6
7 p.m.
Free
Local pianist composer Robert Hitz returns to the Wright stage for an evening of dueling pianos with fellow pianist Felicia Clarke and vocalist Lee Moore in their trio ensemble, Numinous.
Tuesday, April 11
7 p.m.
$10 general, $5 senior/staff and free to students
UB is partnering with Everyman Theatre and the Hippodrome Foundation to develop a Performance Studies specialization through the Integrated Arts program. Interested students enroll in the University and audition into the ensemble in spring. For an audition time, please contact Arts & Theater Manager Kimberley Lynne and/or visit www.ubalt.edu/performancestudies.
Monday and Tuesday, April 17-18
Noon-8 p.m.
Free
As part of the new Performance Studies program, Everyman Theatre company member Bruce Nelson is teaching improvisation this spring semester. His students will perform a capstone show at the end of the semester.
Monday, May 15
9:30 a.m.
Free
Emerging Voices Project: Spotlight UB's summer season begins with free readings of new UB work with Professor Jane Delury's Skelter class book release party on May 10.
May-June
Free
For tickets and additional information about these performances, visit www.ubalt.edu/spotlightub or call 410.837.4053. Online ticketing available via www.etix.com.
The University of Baltimore is a member of the University System of Maryland and comprises the College of Public Affairs, the Merrick School of Business, the UB School of Law and the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences.