GSPH Hosts Screening Of Film on Global AIDS

Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH), along with GSPH’s Student Government Association and Global Health Student Association, will present a free public screening and discussion of Robert Bilheimer’s A Closer Walk. The film will be shown from 6 to 8 p.m.Feb. 10, in the Public Health Auditorium.

A Closer Walk is the first film that depicts how humankind has confronted and dealt with the global AIDS epidemic. It was conceived with the late Jonathan Mann, the architect of the World Health Organization’s response to global AIDS, and was produced in association with the Global Health Council.

Following the screening, Philip Hallen will lead a discussion on the global AIDS crisis. Hallen helped to fund the film project as president of the Maurice Falk Medical Fund and has since been active in helping to complete and distribute the film.

For more information, please call 412- 383-8849 or e-mail dmayer@pitt.edu.

—Amy Dugas

Book Signing for Weintraub’s Power Plays Set for Feb. 12

Pitt Professor of Music Andrew Weintraub will be available to sign copies of his book, titled Power Plays: Wayang Golek Puppet Theater of West Java (Ohio University Press, 2004), at 4 p.m. Feb. 12 in 309 Bellefield Hall.

To help create the ambiance of traveling puppet shows, a popular art form on the Indonesian island of Java, members of the University Gamelan Ensemble will be on hand to perform the gamelan—an ensemble of gongs, drums, and xylophones that creates the music that accompanies the puppeteers. Refreshments will be served during the free public event.

Weintraub has been researching the culture and people of Java for 20 years. He hopes his book and the accompanying interactive CD-ROM will help educate others about the role puppet theater plays in Indonesian culture. The puppeteers weave into their plays issues important to a particular village, be it family planning or a recent drought. The catastrophic Dec. 26 tsunami that caused heavy destruction in northern Indonesia will likely be among the subjects eventually addressed by the puppeteers.

“An Indonesian puppeteer would try to interpret such an event for the villagers and help them make some sense of it,” says Weintraub. “The performance is a powerful form of communication.”
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the book will go to tsunami victims. For more information, call 412-648-1453.

See the Jan. 10 Pitt Chonicle online for more details on Weintraub’s research.

—Sharon S. Blake

University Hosts Valentine’s Concert By Daphne Alderson

Cabaret and classical singer Daphne Alderson will perform in Pitt’s Third Annual Valentine’s Concert, titled “An American in Paris, 1945! A Celebration of the Songs of World War II,” as part of the Heinz Chapel Pittsburgh Artists Series, at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 14 in Heinz Memorial Chapel. The series is part of the chapel’s larger Trio of Concerts Series.

The concert, featuring music formerly sung by such legendary performers as Marlene Dietrich and Edith Piaf, is held in honor of the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Alderson will sing and narrate from the alternating points of view of an American soldier and a French chanteuse.

An adjunct applied voice instructor at Seton Hill University, Alderson made her 1998 debut in the New York City cabaret “Songs and Chansons.” Since then, she has performed in New York City’s Avery Fisher and Merkin halls; the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.; the Bach Aria Festival in Stonybrook, New York; and at various churches and arts organizations throughout the United States, Canada, and Italy. Her contralto voice has been featured in numerous opera performances in such roles as Hansel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and Rosina in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, among many others.

Remaining concerts in the Artists Series include “The Romantic Flute,” rescheduled for March 1, and an April 16 University of Pittsburgh String Quartet performance, titled “…And stars will appear.”

Admission for the Valentine’s Concert is $20 and $12 for the other concerts in the series. For more information, call 412-624-4157 or visit www.discover.pitt.edu/chapel.

—Audra Sorman

Pitt Book Center to Host Free Chocolate Lovers Tea Feb. 10

The University of Pittsburgh Book Center will continue its monthly Thursday Tea by hosting a Chocolate Lovers Tea from noon to 2 p.m. Feb. 10; a Chocolate Chat will be held at 12:45 p.m.

Free and open to the public, the Book Center-sponsored event is a celebration of Valentine’s Day.

Previous Book Center Teas have featured Russian, Japanese, English, and Welsh teas. Upcoming Thursday Teas will include Irish Green, and Tea and Mrs. Shakespeare.

Advance registration is requested. For more information or to RSVP, call the Book Center at 412-648-1453.

—Patricia Lomando White

HPI to Present Talk About Diversity and Inclusion in Health Care Organizations

Pitt’s Health Policy Institute (HPI) will present a lecture titled “Roadmap to Diversity and Inclusion in Health Care Organizations” as part of its health policy and management lecture series. The lecture by William A. Guillory, president and CEO of Innovations International, Inc., will be at 4:30 p.m. Feb. 16 in A115 Crabtree Hall, on the first floor of Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH).

Guillory’s consulting firm, Innovations International, Inc., presents seminars on diversity, empowerment, creativity, innovation, and leadership to senior management at many Fortune 500 companies. Before entering the human resources consulting industry, Guillory was an internationally renowned chemical physics professor and researcher. He chaired the chemistry department at the University of Utah before leaving academia to educate others on organizational transformation and human resource technology. Guillory has written several books and presented more than 4,000 seminars throughout corporate America, Europe, Canada, and Mexico.

Based within GSPH’s Department of Health Policy and Management, HPI was founded in 1980 to enhance health by improving policies and decisions that guide the region’s healthcare system.

—Alan Aldinger

Graduate Student Conference to Focus On Transcending Boundaries

Agora, an organization of Pitt’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs dedicated to furthering opportunities for academic and professional development, will sponsor Pitt’s 10th annual graduate student conference, titled “Transcending Boundaries: Encompassing the Global Workforce,” Feb. 18-19.

Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Labor William Clatanoff will deliver the keynote address at noon Feb. 18 in Oakland’s Pittsburgh Athletic Association. Panel discussions will follow at 2:15 p.m. The conference will continue Feb. 19 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with student presentations and roundtable discussions.

All of the events (except for the keynote address) will take place in 2500 Posvar Hall. Admission is $5 for students; general admission is $10. For more information or to register, visit www.pitt.edu/~sorc/agora.