Singer/Songwriter Berman to Read From His First Book of Poetry at Pitt Feb. 8

David Berman, an up-and-coming American poet and established singer/songwriter of the rock band Silver Jews, will give a free public reading as part of the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 8 in Pitt’s Frick Fine Arts Building Auditorium. Berman will read from his debut collection of poetry, titled Actual Air (Open City Books, 1999).

The Silver Jews have released several albums, including Bright Flight (2001), The Natural Bridge (1996), and American Water (1994).

A Williamsburg, Va., native, Berman graduated from the Greenhill School in Addison, Texas, and the Universities of Virginia and Massachusetts. According to www.opencity.com, as Berman “charts a course through his own highly original American dreamscape in language that is fresh, accessible, and remarkably precise,” he artfully depicts everyday events, appealing to both readers of poetry and rock-and-roll fans. He currently resides in Nashville, Tenn.

The 2005-06 Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series, which runs through April 5, is cosponsored by the Wyndham Garden Hotel-University Place, the Pitt Department of Classics, University of Pittsburgh Book Center, and University of Pittsburgh Press.

For more information, call 412-624-6506 or visit www.english.pitt.edu.

—Audra Sorman

Disability Issues Expert to Deliver Thornburgh Lecture

Judith E. Heumann, World Bank adviser on disability and development, will be the featured speaker at The Thornburgh Family Lecture Series in Disability Law and Policy in Pitt’s School of Law. Her talk, titled “Including the Voices of Disabled People in the International Development Agenda,” will be held from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Feb. 9 in the Barco Law Building’s Teplitz Memorial Court Room. A question-and-answer session will follow the lecture.

An internationally recognized expert on disability and diversity issues, Heumann was appointed as the World Bank’s first adviser on disability and development in June 2002. She leads the World Bank’s disability work that integrates the needs of people with disabilities in the bank’s discussions with client countries; its country-based analytical work; and its support for policies, programs, and projects to improve economic and social life around the globe.

From 1993 to 2001, Heumann served in the Clinton Administration as the assistant secretary for the Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. She served more than eight million youth and adults with disabilities by implementing national legislation for programs in special education, disability research, vocational rehabilitation, and independent living.

Involved on the international front for more than 30 years, Heumann represented education secretary Richard Riley at the 1995 International Congress on Disability in Mexico City and was a delegate to the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. In addition, she has been active with Disabled People International, Rehabilitation International, and numerous Independent Living Centers around the world. Heumann cofounded the Center for Independent Living in Berkeley, Calif., and the World Institute on Disability in Oakland, Calif. She also served as assistant national secretary for the U.S. Council on International Rehabilitation, now the U.S. International Council on Disability.

Heumann, who has served on governmental, local, national, and international boards of directors, was the first recipient of the Henry B. Betts Award from the American Association of People With Disabilities. She received the Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree from Long Island University in Brooklyn, and the Honorary Doctorate of Public Administration degree from the University of Illinois at Urtbana-Champaign.

Heumann graduated from Long Island University in 1969 and earned the Masters of Science degree in public health at the University of California at Berkeley in 1975.

The Thornburgh Family Lecture Series was created by a gift from former Pennsylvania Governor and U. S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and his wife, Ginny, vice president and director of the National Organization on Disability, Religion, and Disability Program.

A Pitt trustee, Dick Thornburgh is a 1957 graduate of the University’s law school.

Recipients of the 2003 Henry B. Betts Award, the Thornburghs donated the $50,000 Betts Award funds to the University to establish The Thornburgh Family Lecture Series in Disability Law and Policy through Pitt’s School of Law and School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS). The fund has been supplemented by grants from the Office of the Chancellor, the law school, and SHRS.

The Feb. 9 lecture also has support from Pitt’s Global Studies Program in the University Center for International Studies. This course has been approved by the Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Board for one and one-half hours of CLE credit.

—Patricia Lomando White

Former Police Commander to Discuss Empowering Girls

Gwendolyn J. Elliott, one of the first female police officers in Pittsburgh and founder and CEO of Gwen’s Girls, will give a free, public talk from noon to 1:30 p.m. Feb. 14 in the School of Social Work Conference Center, 2017 Cathedral of Learning. Lunch will be provided, and registration is not required.

Elliott’s talk is titled “Empowering Girls: Gender-Specific Approaches for Productive Futures.”

During her nearly three-decade career in law enforcement, Elliott witnessed firsthand the plight of the girls and young women who came to the attention of law enforcement officials. Feeling there was a lack of services for this population, she founded Gwen’s Girls in May 2002. The nonprofit independent agency, based in Point Breeze, provides girls ages 8 to 18 with the tools needed to become successful adults.

Elliott was hired as one of the first Pittsburgh police officers in 1976; she quickly rose to the rank of sergeant, and then commander, the first Black woman to achieve that post. She was in charge of the Office of Family, Violence, Youth, and Missing Persons; was assistant to the mayor on youth policy; and founded the Moms and COPS program. In the 1970s, she established the Women Police of Western Pennsylvania to mentor women in the field. She continues to mentor women police officers, as well as criminal justice students at Point Park University, where she is an adjunct professor. She has served on dozens of boards and has received many women’s leadership and public service awards.

The Center on Race and Social Problems, housed in Pitt’s School of Social Work, is hosting Elliott’s lecture as part of its Reed Smith Spring 2006 Speaker Series to provide an opportunity for faculty, students, and community members to engage in race-related discussions of mutual interest. For more information, call 412-624-7382 or visit www.crsp.pitt.edu.

—Sharon S. Blake

University to Host Valentine’s Day Concert By Daphne Alderson

Cabaret and classical singer Daphne Alderson will perform in Pitt’s Fourth Annual Valentine’s Day Concert, titled “Daphne at the Movies: Mercer, Mancini, Gershwin, and Even Morricone,” as part of the Heinz Chapel Pittsburgh Artists Series, at 8 p.m. Feb. 14 in Heinz Memorial Chapel. The series is part of the chapel’s larger A Season of Music Series.

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 the New York City’s Avery Fisher and Merkin halls; the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.; the Bach Aria Festival in Stonybrook, N.Y.; 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.

Admission for the Valentine’s Day Concert is $20.

The series will culminate with the March 16 performance by Pitt professor emeritus of music and organist Robert Sutherland Lord with the University of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Admission is $12.

For more information, call 412-624-4157 or visit www.discover.pitt.edu/chapel.

—Audra Sorman

E. Lynn Harris to Speak During BAS Black History Month Celebration Feb. 15

To celebrate Black History Month, Pitt’s Black Action Society (BAS) will host several events, including a free public talk by author E. Lynn Harris at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 15 in the William Pitt Union Ballroom.

Harris is the author of And This Too Shall Pass (Doubleday, 1996), If This World Were Mine (Doubleday, 1997), Abide With Me (Doubleday, 1999), Not A Day Goes By (Doubleday, 2000), Any Way the Wind Blows (Doubleday, 2001), and A Love of My Own (Doubleday, 2002), all of which appeared on the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, and Los Angeles Times bestseller lists.

Not A Day Goes By debuted at No. 2 on the New York Times bestseller list and was No. 1 on Publishers Weekly for two consecutive weeks. Any Way the Wind Blows also debuted at No. 2 on the New York Times list.

Harris’ other books are Invisible Life (Anchor Books, 1994) and Just As I Am (Doubleday, 1994).

Harris’ writing also has appeared in American Visions, Essence, the Washington Post Sunday Magazine, Savoy, The Advocate, and the award-winning anthology Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America, Go the Way Your Blood Beats (One World/Ballantine, 1995). His novella, Money Can’t Buy Me Love, was published in Got To Be Real: Four Original Love Stories (New American Library, 2000). His short fiction appeared in Gumbo: A Celebration of African American Writers (Harlem Moon, 2002), a collection he coedited with writer Marita Golden.

Harris has won numerous accolades and prizes for his work. In 1996, Just As I Am was awarded the Blackboard Novel of the Year prize, and in 2002 and 2003, Any Way the Wind Blows and A Love of My Own also won the Blackbeard prize, making Harris the first author to receive back-to-back honors and to receive the prize three times. In 1997, If This World Were Mine was nominated for the NAACP Image Award and won the James Baldwin Award for Literary Excellence. Abide With Me, Any Way the Wind Blows, and A Love of My Own also were nominated for NAACP Image Awards.

A graduate of the University of Arkansas (UA), Harris was honored by UA with a Citation of Distinguished Alumni for outstanding professional achievement in 1999. In October 2000, he was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame. He also has been named to Ebony’s “Most Intriguing Blacks” list, Out Magazine’s “Out 100” list, New York Magazine’s “Gay Power 101” list, and Savoy’s “100 Leaders and Heroes in Black America” list. Other honors have included the Sprague-Todes Literary Award and the Harvey Milk Honorary Diploma. Harris is a member of the Board of Directors of the Hurston/Wright Foundation and the Evidence Dance Company.

Other BAS Black History Month events will include a Black Consciousness Bowl at 8 p.m. Feb. 22 in the William Pitt Union Assembly Room and a Movie Night at 8:30 p.m.Feb. 23 in Benedum Hall’s Benedum Auditorium.

Additional BAS spring events will include a Mr. and Ms. Black University of Pittsburgh Pageant at 7:30 p.m. March 16 in the Benedum Auditorium and a Mr. and Ms. Black University of Pittsburgh Ball at 8:30 p.m. in the Holiday Inn at University Center.

For more information, call 412-648-7880.

—Patricia Lomando White