Events

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University’s new Creative Intelligence Series has so far brought to campus a behaviorist, a primatologist and a sociologist. On Wednesday, March 23,  University of Kentucky Opera Theatre student Reginald Smith Jr., will perform at 7:30 p.m. in Carrick Theater in the Mitchell Fine Arts Center. This performance is free and open to the public. Earlier this year, Smith received the Best Stage Presence Award and Third Place in the Metropolitan Opera Mid-South Regional Auditions. In 2007, he was the undergraduate first-place winner of the Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition at UK and is currently a senior studying with Everett McCorvey in the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre program, pursuing a dual degree in vocal performance and vocal music education. Smith, a native of Atlanta, has been seen in performances of “Romeo et Juliette,” “The Magic Flute,” “Die Fledermaus,” “La Boheme,” “Mikado,” “River of Time” and “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” He has participated in summer music programs including The American Institute of Musical Studies Program in Graz, Austria, the Premiering Sydney Program in Sydney, Australia, the Intermezzo Young Artist Program and Seagle Music Colony. Transylvania’s Creative Intelligence Series celebrates the activities of people who are working at the leading edge of their fields. While the events tend to focus on the activities of younger scholars, artists and performers, they also bring to campus more established individuals whose work shows a high level of creativity. The name of the series

Read ““An Evening of Song”: Transylvania’s Creative Intelligence Series brings University of Kentucky opera student Reginald Smith Jr. to campus Wednesday, March 23 at 7:30 p.m.; free and open to the public”

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Former Poet Laureate of Kentucky and Kenan Visiting Writer at Transylvania University, Richard Taylor, will read from his work at Transy Thursday, March 31, at 7 p.m. in the Carrick Theater of the Mitchell Fine Arts Center. The event is free and open to the public.   Taylor has won a variety of honors for his extensive publications in both poetry and prose and was named Poet Laureate of Kentucky in 1999. As director of Poetry in the Schools for the Kentucky Arts Commission, he served as poet-in-residence at a dozen public elementary and secondary schools across Kentucky. He also served as a professor of English at Kentucky State University for many years. Taylor earned a B.A. in English from the University of Kentucky in 1963, an M.A. in English from the University of Louisville in 1964, a J.D. from the University of Louisville School of Law in 1967 and a Ph.D. in English from UK in 1974. His publications include Sue Mundy: A Novel of the Civil War in Kentucky, Rail Splitter (poems), Stone Eye (poems) and Girty (novel).   The lecture is sponsored by the Delcamp Visiting Writer series. For more information, contact the public relations office at (859) 233-8120.

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Babies, wild dogs, komodo dragons and hula dancers abound in Naomi Iizuka’s “Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls,” which runs Feb. 17-19 and 24-26 at 7:30 p.m., and Feb. 20 at 2 p.m., in Transylvania’s Lucille C. Little Theater.  Presented by Transylvania University Theater and directed by Sullivan Canaday White, visiting assistant professor of drama, the fantastical play is about finding your tribe in a world gone haywire. Winner of the prestigious Whiting Writers’ Award in 1999, Iizuka’s play received its world premiere in the 1999 Humana Festival of Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville. “‘Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls’ is a hilarious show with characters who are searching for what they are missing in their lives, something not only the actors, but all of us, can relate to,” said senior Emileigh Burns, assistant director of the play. “Working on this show has been an experience of a lifetime. As a senior, this is my last department show, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.” A post-performance colloquia on the play will begin immediately following the shows on Feb. 17 and 24. Tickets are $10 and may be reserved by calling the box office at (859) 281-3621, Monday-Friday from 1-4 p.m. For more information, contact the fine arts office at (859) 233-8141.

LEXINGTON, KY.—Randall Kennedy, one of the preeminent voices on race in America and a Harvard law professor, will tackle sensitive racial issues in his lecture titled “Can We Talk? Problems in Race and Conversation” on Tuesday, Feb. 15, at 7:30 p.m. in Haggin Auditorium in the Mitchell Fine Arts Center. The lecture is free and open to the public. Known for his fearlessness, Kennedy brings the divisive issues that plague black America to the forefront of mass culture. With wit and accessibility, he challenges audiences to confront society’s—and their own—racial prejudices.  Frank conversations include the ongoing linguistic and historical baggage of loaded words like “nigger” and “sellout,” interracial intimacies and adoptions and overt (and covert) racial lines. Kennedy’s bestseller, “Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word,” sparked a firestorm of national debate, including articles in The New York Times, Newsweek and TIME, as well as in the popular consciousness. Kennedy studied at Princeton, Oxford and Yale and served as a law clerk for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the U.S. Court of Appeals and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court. While a faculty member at Harvard Law School, he has written extensively for academic and popular journals and served on the editorial boards of The American Prospect and The Nation. Kennedy is also the author of “Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal and Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity and Adoption.” This lecture is part of Transylvania’s

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