Friday, February 28, 2014

2014 Local Hero Award to be presented at Trent University Oshawa Black History Event

“One Song, Many Voices” features lectures, workshops, musical entertainment, local artisans, children’s activities, and more 

Friday, February 28, 2014, Oshawa, ON

For a third year, Trent University Oshawa will host an annual Black History month event, One Song, Many Voices – Continuing the Dialogue at the Thornton Road Campus on Saturday, March 1 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., featuring a special series of lectures, workshops, musical entertainment, local artisan vendors, exhibitors, children’s activities and more.

“This free and open to the public event is an opportunity to bring together communities within the Durham region to embrace diversity,” said Rose Marcells, student chair of this year’s Black History event at Trent Oshawa. “I think it is essential to acknowledge, reexamine and observe the history of slavery, but also to promote peace, leave behind the past and look forward to the future.”

Highlights of the event include an appearance by two-time Juno award winner Liberty Silver who will provide musical entertainment in celebration of black history. Ms. Silver shaped the foundation of R&B/ soul for an entire generation of black female singers in Canada. To date she has opened for several famous musicians including, Bob Marley, B.B. King and Celine Dion, and has performed for U.S. President Barack Obama.

The Black History event will also be the venue for the presentation of the 2014 Local Hero Award, an annual accolade presented by Trent Oshawa to a deserving community member in the spirit of equality and diversity. The award will be presented by Durham Regional Chair Roger Anderson to Mr. Marvin Ishmael, an actor, director, educator, and champion of Caribbean culture on an international scale. Mr. Ishmael appears as Mr. Bhandari on television’s Degrassi: The Next Generation, and is currently writing a new comedy series, Dreaming, featuring a multi-ethnic cast. Mr. Ishmael has been instrumental in creating cross-cultural awareness with The Caribbean Dinner Theatre in Scarborough and on stage through his theatrical work with We Are One Theatre Productions, for which he received a Chalmers award and a Dora Maver Moore award.

The Trent Oshawa event will also feature keynote speaker Paula Madden, a Ph.D. candidate in Law at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University and author of African Nova Scotian-Mi’kmaw Relations. Ms. Madden’s research examines the history and outcome of rights legislation in Canada and the United States.

Sharing the floor with Ms. Madden is David Austin, author of Fear of a Black Nation: Race, Sex, and Security and Sixties Montreal, a text which won the 2014 Casa de las Americas Prize for Caribbean Literature in English or Creole. He is also the author of the forthcoming The Unfinished Revolution: Linton Kwesi Johnson, Poetry, and the New Society. Mr. Austin’s talk is entitled Fear in the Nation: Race, Sex, and Security in the making of Canada.

Throughout the day, visitors are encouraged to browse the campus hallways where local artisan and food vendors will sell local goods and where community information booths will be on display. Further, the International African Inventors Museum, a mobile museum, will be located in the front atrium for the day.

The full schedule is as follows:

1:00 p.m.: Welcome Ceremony, Room 121
Formal welcome, introductory remarks and tribute to Nelson Mandela

1:10 p.m. -2:10 p.m.: “Ubuntu” Community Drumming Celebration, Room 121
Ubuntu”: Our heritage, our roots, our gift. A celebration of Black History – Community Drumming
2:20 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.:  Academic Panel: Paula Madden and David Austin, Room 125
Paula Madden – African Nova Scotian-Mi’kmaw Relations
David Austin – Fear in the Nation: Race, Sex, and Security in the making of Canada

3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.:  History of Oral Presentation Workshop and History of Jazz Lecture (running concurrently) Rooms 103, 115
Choice of workshop or lecture
History of Oral Presentations (Workshop – Roger Gibbs and Tara Woods)
History of Jazz (Lecture - Professor Michael Morse)
4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.: Liberty Silver - Entertainment, 121
Two-time Juno award winner Liberty Silver takes the stage for a special musical performance

5:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.: Local Hero Award Ceremony, Room 121
Remarks from Durham Regional Chair Roger Anderson, Oshawa Mayor John Henry and Pickering-Scarborough East MPP Tracy MacCharles.

This event is free and open to the public. All are welcome to attend. Last year’s Black History Month event attracted hundreds of visitors.

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Thursday, February 27, 2014

The Science of Bloodstain Pattern Analysis: What Dexter Doesn’t Know” among 14 new Trent University Continuing Education Courses

Public invited to “Meet the Instructors”: March 3, 2014

Thursday, February 27, 2014, Peterborough

Trent University’s Continuing Education program invites the public to a “Meet the Instructors Reception” on March 3, 2014 from 4 – 5:30 p.m. to learn more about a fascinating new selection of courses for spring 2013.

The event will allow community members to chat with instructors and browse 14 courses spanning a diverse range of topics, such as building team leadership skills; bloodstain pattern analysis and “the CSI effect”; medieval legends of King Arthur; and more.  

Trent’s Continuing Education program aims to bring the joy of life-long learning to the entire community, providing a range of courses to individuals of all ages; no prerequisites are required. All courses are offered at Traill College, conveniently and centrally located in the heart of downtown Peterborough, just two blocks south of Parkhill Road between Reid and Stewart Streets.

“We are pleased to be able to offer such a wide range of educational subjects through the Spring 2014 Continuing Education courses,” said Dr. Doug Evans, director of Continuing Education at Trent. “I encourage anyone who has an academic interest in one of our course topics, or who simply wants to learn some new life skills in a community setting, to attend our ‘Meet the Instructors’ reception to find out more about Continuing Education at Trent.”

Trent’s Continuing Education line-up for spring 2014 is as follows (full descriptions follow below):
1) Building and Leading Highly Effective Teams - Bill Templeman 
2) Basic Facilitation Skills - Bill Templeman 
3) Courageous Conversations: Moving Forward, One Conversation at a Time - Colleen Carruthers 
4) Oral-Aural Focused Introductory Chinese - Shaoling Wang 
5) Great Minds Don’t Think Alike: Your Guide to Self-Understanding - Dr. Vern Belos, LLM, CHRP
6) The Science of Bloodstain Pattern Analysis: What Dexter Doesn’t Know - Mike Illes 
7) Aging Well through the Creative Process: ‘Getting older is not for the faint of heart!’ - H. Fay Wilkinson 
8) From Tired to Inspired - Colleen Carruthers 
9) Reserved for Conversation - Colleen Carruthers 
10) Reading Like A Writer - Juliet Sutcliffe
11) Works in Progress: Advanced Workshop for Writers - Michelle Berry 
12) Legends of Arthur: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Drew Maxwell
13) Writing Your Story: Creative Non-Fiction - Mary J. Breen 
14) Modern Technology – Heather Tjeerdsma

More information on Continuing Education at Trent is available on the program website at www.trentu.ca/continuingeducation.

Registration is now open for all sessions and courses, which begin as early as March 20, 2014. Interested individuals may register online, by telephone at 705-748-1011 ext. 1736, or by visiting Scott House, Room 102.4 at Traill College, 300 London Street, Peterborough.

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