Events

LEXINGTON, Ky.—R. T. Smith, award-winning poet and short-story author will speak at Transylvania’s William T. Young Campus Center Thursday, Feb. 28, at 8 p.m. After reading from his work, the well-known writer will sign books during a reception in his honor. The event, which is part of Transylvania’s Delcamp Visiting Writer program, is free and open to the public. It is for his book of short fiction, “Uke Rivers Delivers,” that Smith was invited to speak at Transylvania. “Cold Mountain” author Charles Frazier wrote of “Uke Rivers Delivers,” that “this collection of stories is funny, amazing, daring. Its polyphonic voices of Civil War ghosts, broken innocents, and confused killers lead you down contrarian trails deep into the haunted territory of Southern myth and magic. This is the most enjoyment I’ve gotten from a batch of fiction in a longer span of time than I care to recollect.” Smith was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Georgia and North Carolina. He attended Georgia Tech, the University of North Carolina Charlotte and received his master’s in English from Appalachian State University, where he founded “Cold Mountain Review,” which publishes poems by and interviews with national and international poets. For 19 years, Smith taught at Auburn University, serving as alumni writer-in-residence for 12 years and holding many positions, including the co-editorship at “Southern Humanities Review.” Since 1995, Smith has served as editor of “Shenandoah” for Washington and Lee University, where he also

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—The wildly wacky comedy “Noises Off” opens at Transylvania Thursday, Feb. 21 in the Lucille C. Little Theater. Showtimes for the well-known British farce are Feb. 21-23, 28-29 and March 1 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 24 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10. “Noises Off” has been called the funniest farce ever written and is about a group of actors putting on a play called “Nothing On.” It’s a typical bedroom farce, but the actors are having all sorts of difficulties memorizing the lines, handling props and dealing with backstage relationships and a dilettante director. What goes on behind the scenes is funnier, sexier and more absurd than the comedy being performed onstage. In theatrical stage directions, the term “noises off” refers to sounds that are meant to be heard from offstage. Drama professor Tim Soulis said that directing this hilarious comedy has been a wonderfully delightful experience. “Our rehearsals at times have mirrored the confusion on stage in the play within the play,” he said. “The experience becomes a hall of mirrors in which we can’t tell where the play ends and rehearsal begins.” If you want an evening or afternoon of non-stop laughter where everything that can go wrong, does, you won’t want to miss “Noises Off.” For more information, contact the public relations office at (859) 233-8120 or Tim Soulis at (859) 233-8163.

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University’s vocal ensembles will present “An Evening at the Cabaret: Selections from Broadway Musicals” on Friday, February 1, and Saturday, February 2, at 7:30 p.m. in Carrick Theater. Tickets are $5. The program, which features the Transylvania Choir, the Transylvania Singers women’s choir, the Pioneer Voices men’s chorus, Transy’s men’s a cappella group, and dozens of soloists, will include a variety of beloved Broadway songs spanning multiple decades and styles. Some of the show’s numbers are “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz, “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” from Grease, and “For Good” from the recent hit Wicked. For more information, contact the public relations office at (859) 233-8120 or the fine arts office at (859) 233-8141.

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Dr. Eva T. H. Brann, a senior faculty member at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Md., will deliver a lecture, “Dangers to Liberal Education,” Tuesday, January 29, at 7:30 p.m. in the William T. Young Campus Center. The lecture is free and open to the public and will be followed by a question and answer session. Brann served as St. John’s dean from 1990-97. St. John’s is a liberal arts college known for its “great books” curriculum, in which all students follow the same course of study based on the reading and discussion of classic books of the Western tradition. Brann received the President’s National Humanities Medal in 2005 and the Yale Alumni Association’s Wilbur Cross Medal in 2006. She received a bachelor’s degree in history from Brooklyn College and a master’s in classics and a Ph.D. in archaeology from Yale University. Brann is the author of nine books and numerous book chapters and articles. Her 1979 book, “Paradoxes of Education in a Republic,” provides an enlightening analysis of American education that places the recent debate on the means and ends of a liberal education in new perspective. The lecture is sponsored by the Center for Liberal Education at Transylvania and funded by the Bingham Program for Excellence in Teaching. For more information, contact the public relations office at (859) 233-8120 or political science professor Jeffrey Freyman at (859) 233-8273.

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Allan G. Johnson, noted author and expert on issues of privilege, oppression and social inequality, will speak at Transylvania University’s Haggin Auditorium Tuesday, Feb. 5, at 7 p.m. The lecture, “Beyond Privilege, Power, and Difference,” is free and open to the public.  Johnson addresses controversial issues with compassion and clarity in ways that people can relate to on a personal level. His blend of life experience, humor, social reality and clear analysis opens windows to new ways of thinking and living. Johnson’s books include “The Forest and the Trees: Sociology as Life, Practice, and Promise,” “The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology: A User’s Guide to Sociological Language,” “The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy” and “Privilege, Power, and Difference.” Since receiving his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Michigan in 1972, he has worked with more than 160 schools and organizations in 34 states and Europe. His work has been translated into several languages and excerpted in numerous anthologies. A part of Transylvania’s African-American History Month celebration, this lecture is sponsored by the Lilly Project at Transylvania and the Office of Multicultural Affairs. For more information, contact the public relations office at (859) 233-8120 or the Lilly Program at (859) 281-3569.