April 16, 1998
Contact:
Helen Dalrymple (202) 707-1940
Media Advisory: Events at the Library of Congress: May-June 1998
May - June 1998
(Events Subject to Change)
ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
May 1
Friday
CONFERENCE
The European Division and the American Romanian Academy
sponsor a one-day conference on "Romanian-American
Connections in History and Literature" in the Librarian's
Reception Room, LJ 119 of the Jefferson Building, from 10:15
a.m. to 4 p.m. The morning panel discussion focuses on
"Imaginative Intercrossings: American and Romanian Literary
Dialogues," with four panelists from Romania and the United
States; "Historical Connections: Historiography About
Romania Before and After 1989" is the topic for the
afternoon session with four other panelists. The conference
is open to the public with no registration required;
however, seating is limited. Public contact: (202) 707-5859
May 1
Friday
EXHIBITION
Opening today in the European Reading Room in the
Jefferson Building is "The Romanian Presence in America," a
small display of some 25 books, photographs, a map showing
the Romanian communities in the United States and other
materials from the Library's collections that highlight the
history of Romanian-Americans and their contributions to
American scholarship and culture. Hours for the display are
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday, through July 31. Public
contact: (202) 707-5859
May 1
Friday
ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH EVENT
Lecture and piano performance of music from the
Philippines, by Raul Sunico, winner of the silver award
in the Viotti International Piano Competition in Vercelli,
Italy, and the Henry Cowell Prize at the University of
Maryland International Piano Competition, Mumford Room,
11 a.m. Public contact:
(202) 707-6668
May 1
Friday
CONCERT
Anthony Braxton brings his "Ghost Trance Music" to
the Coolidge Auditorium for an evening that "transcends
genre and integrates performance traditions." Winner of a
1994 MacArthur Fellowship, Anthony Braxton is a musical
philosopher, saxophonist and master improviser. All Library
of Congress concerts are free and begin at 8 p.m. Tickets
are required and may still be available at TicketMaster
outlets or by calling (202) 432-SEAT. Public contact:
(202) 707-5502
May 4
Monday
ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH EVENT
Lecture and book-signing by Cynthia Chin-Lee, author of
the children's book A is for Asia; who will speak on "An
Asian Pacific American's Perspective on Literary Culture,"
West Dining Room, 1 p.m. Public contact: (202) 707-6668
May 4
Monday
LECTURE
Award-winning American journalist and biographer
Susan Quinn will read from her recent work Marie Curie:
A Life to commemorate the centenary of the discovery of
radium and polonium. Her biography of one of the century's
greatest scientists has been nominated for the Fawcett Book
Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award and is being
translated into seven languages. The program will be held
in the Mumford Room, sixth floor of the Madison Building,
at 7 p.m. Public contact: (202) 707-8484
May 5-6
Tuesday-Wednesday
CONFERENCE
Leading neuroscientists discuss their research at a
two-day conference on "Discovering Our Selves: The Science
of Emotion," sponsored by the Library of Congress and the
National Institute of Mental Health of the National
Institutes of Health, with major funding from the Charles A.
Dana Foundation. Tipper Gore, the president's mental health
policy adviser, will address the conference at 9 a.m. on May
6. The conference, which is free and open to the public,
will be held in the Mumford Room, sixth floor of the Madison
Building, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, and from 9 a.m.
to 4 p.m. on Wednesday. Public contact: (202) 707-1513
May 6
Wednesday
CONCERT
Versatile violinist, fiddler and composer Mark O'Connor
performs a variety of music with five good friends from
Nashville in tonight's 8 p.m. concert in the Coolidge
Auditorium. The evening's program includes music from his
score for the recent six-part PBS series Liberty! The
American Revolution as well as selections from his latest
CD, Midnight on the Water, and the premiere of a new work
commissioned by the Library. "Thomas Jefferson" (actor Clay
Jenkinson) will also put in an appearance. See May 1 entry
for ticket information. Public contact: (202) 707-5502
May 7
Thursday
ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH EVENT
Two films: "Sa-I-Gu" deals with ethnic relations
and racism in the United States; "The Bhangra Wrap" is a
documentary of a vibrant youth subculture that fuses
hip-hop, rap and Bhangra music in a unique blend of old
and new, South Asian and American styles, Pickford Theater,
noon. Public contact: (202) 707-6668
May 7
Thursday
READING
Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry Robert Pinsky reads
from his poems in the Library's final program of the 1997-98
literary season. Featured in this evening's reading is work
from The Figured Wheel, which was recently selected for the
1997 Lenore Marshall Prize for the best book of poems for
the year. The event will take place in the Montpelier Room,
sixth floor of the Madison Building, at 6:45 p.m. Public
contact: (202) 707-5394
May 8
Friday
CONCERT
Continuum, led by founding directors Joel Sachs and
Cheryl Seltzer, presents an evening of music from the
Caucasus republics as well as the world premiere of a Sonata
for Violin and Piano by Oleg Felzer, which was commissioned
by the Library's McKim Fund. See May 1 entry for ticket
information. Public contact: (202) 707-5502
May 11
Monday
ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH EVENT
Inspired by Jack Kerouac's novel On The Road, Tajima-
Pena embarks on a free-wheeling cross-country mission to
survey the changing face of Asian America. Her film, My
America (... or Honk If You Love Buddha) features home
movies and archival footage from her family's beginnings in
L.A., where her grandfather settled, to the present, where
she discovers a multicultural landscape populated by
colorful characters that is shaped by shared experiences,
Pickford Theater, 11:30 a.m. Public contact: (202) 707-6668
May 12
Tuesday
LECTURE
Bill Lann Lee, Acting Assistant Attorney General for
Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, will deliver
the keynote address for Asian Pacific American Heritage
Month at the Library of Congress. Mr. Lee, one of the
country's leading civil rights attorneys, will speak in the
Mumford Room, sixth floor of the Madison Building, at 10
a.m. Public contact: (202) 707-6668
May 13
Wednesday
ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH EVENT
"Bontoc Eulogy," a film directed and produced by
Marlon E. Fuentes, Pickford Theater, noon. Public contact:
(202) 707-6668
May 13
Wednesday
READING
Greek novelist Nicholas Papandreou reads from his work
in the fifth program of the "New Literature from Europe"
series in the Mumford Room, sixth floor of the Madison
Building, at 6:45 p.m. The program is sponsored by the
Office of Scholarly Programs, the European Division, the
European Union and the Greek Embassy. Mr. Papandreou's
novel, A Crowded Heart, broke sales records when it was
published in Greece in 1995; it has since been published in
English (Penguin 1996). Public contact: (202) 707-3302
May 16
Saturday
CONFERENCE
The second day of a two-day conference on "Caricature
and Cartoon in Twentieth Century America," jointly sponsored
by the Library and the National Portrait Gallery, will be
held from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Mumford Room, sixth
floor of the Madison Building. Topics to be discussed
include "The Masses and the Revolution in Cartooning,"
cartoonists Ollie Harrington and Bill Mauldin, and
"Oliphant's Anthem," an exhibition currently on view in the
Jefferson Building, with cartoonist Pat Oliphant. The
conference is free, but reservations are required. Call the
National Portrait Gallery about Friday's program, at (202)
357-1356, and the Library of Congress about the program
described above, at (202) 707-9115.
May 16
Saturday
DANCE CONCERT
The Martha Graham Dance Company, directed by Ron
Protas, will premiere a new work based on the music of
George Gershwin, But Not for Me, by well-known Broadway
choreographer Susan Stroman. The work was commissioned by
the Library as part of a five-year joint project of the
Library and the Graham Trust. Ms. Stroman received the Tony,
Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for the 1993
Broadway show Crazy for You, which is also based on Gershwin
music. The evening's second program is a reconstruction of
Appalachian Spring, the ballet created for Martha Graham by
Aaron Copland, which was commissioned by the Library and
which premiered in the Coolidge Auditorium in 1944. The
program will begin at 8 p.m. in the Coolidge Auditorium. See
the May 1 entry for ticket information. Public contact:
(202) 707-5502
May 19
Tuesday
ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH EVENT
"Asian Pacific Americans in Local Politics," a
discussion with Delegate David M. Valderrama (D-Prince
George's County), Deputy Majority Whip in the Maryland House
of Delegates, and Samuel T. Mok (R), Commissioner on the
Montgomery County Liquor Board, Dining Room A, noon. Public
contact: (202) 707-6668
May 21
Thursday
ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH EVENT
"Asian Pacific Americans in Organized Labor," a
presentation by Gloria T. Caoile, Special Assistant to the
International President, American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), sponsored by AFSCME
2910 and AFSCME 2477, West Dining Room, noon. Public
contact: (202) 707-6668
May 26
Tuesday
READING
Poetry at Noon presents James Taylor, author of Poetic
Knowledge, who will discuss his new book about this form of
knowledge, which was prevalent from ancient times until the
age of Descartes, when "scientific knowledge" gained the
ascendancy. The program will be held in the Pickford
Theater, third floor of the Madison Building, at noon.
Public contact: (202) 707-1308
May 26
Tuesday
ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH EVENT
"Contemporary Issues for Asian Pacific Americans," a
discussion with Lena Sun, staff writer for The Washington
Post, West Dining Room, 1 p.m. Public contact: (202) 707-
6668
June 4
Thursday
EXHIBITION
A major exhibition, "Religion and the Founding of
the American Republic," opens in the Northwest Gallery
and Pavilion, Jefferson Building, through Aug. 22. The
comprehensive collections of the Library of Congress,
which include the major collections of the papers of
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, those founders most
instrumental in establishing the church-state policy of the
new nation, comprise a unique national resource for an
exhibition on this topic. Hours for the exhibition are
10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday-Saturday. Public contact:
(202) 707-8000
June 15
Monday
LECTURE
Writer and historian Taylor Branch talks about his
latest book, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years,
1963-1965, the second volume of a trilogy on the civil
rights movement, in a Books & Beyond talk sponsored by the
Center for the Book and the Humanities and Social Sciences
Division in the Mumford Room, sixth floor of the Madison
Building, at 6 p.m. Public contact: (202) 707-5221
June 16
Tuesday
READING
R.T. Smith, Michael Collier and Judith Dollenmayer
read works about "Voyaging" in the Pickford Theater, third
floor of the Madison Building, at noon. Public contact:
(202) 707-1308
June 18-19
Thursday-Friday
SYMPOSIUM
A symposium celebrating the opening of the exhibition
"Religion and the Founding of the American Republic" will be
held in the Coolidge Auditorium of the Jefferson Building
from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on June 18, and from 10 a.m. to
4:30 p.m. on June 19. Chaired by Jaroslav Pelikan, Sterling
Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University, the two-
day conference will cover such topics as "Religion in 18th
Century America," Thomas Jefferson and the separation of
church and state, "Women and Religion in the Early
Republic," and "The Influence of Christianity and Judaism on
the Founders." Participants, in addition to Dr. Pelikan, are
David D. Hall, Harvard Divinity School; John Witte Jr.,
Emory University School of Law; Thomas E. Buckley, S.J.,
Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley; Daniel Dreisbach,
American University; Michael Crawford, Naval Historical
Center; Mark A. Noll, Wheaton College; Catherine A. Brekus,
University of Chicago Divinity School; Rosemarie Zagarri,
George Mason University; Michael Novak, American Enterprise
Institute; Jon Butler, Yale University; and James Smylie,
Union Theological Seminary, Richmond.
Public contact: (202) 707-5383
June 25
Thursday
EXHIBITION
"From Sea to Shining Sea: An American Sampler of
Children's Books from the Library of Congress," Madison
Foyer, first floor of the Madison Building, through Jan. 2,
1999. Public contact: (202) 707-8000
NO PUBLIC EVENTS SCHEDULED AT THIS TIME IN JULY OR AUGUST
* * * * * *
The Library of Congress occupies three buildings on Capitol
Hill. The Thomas Jefferson Building is the original Library
of Congress building; it is located at 10 First Street S.E.
across First Street from the U.S. Capitol. The John Adams
Building is directly behind the Jefferson Building to the
east on Second Street S.E.; and the James Madison Memorial
Building, at 101 Independence Ave. S.E., is just south of
the Jefferson Building.
Interpreting services (American Sign Language, Contact
Signing, Oral and Tactile) will be provided if requested
five business days in advance of any public event. Call
(202) 707-6362 TTY and voice to make a specific request. For
other ADA accommodations contact the Disability Employment
Program office at (202) 707-9948 TTY and (202) 707-7544
voice.
Information about events at the Library of Congress is
available on the Internet through the World Wide Web at:
http://www.loc.gov/.
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PR 98-061
4/16/98
ISSN 0731-3527