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2008

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Spring 2008 events sponsored by CARE:

Citizenship: A Week of Arts & Ideas
February 4-8, 2008

Bucknell University Artists’ Residency with company members from Sekou Sundiata’s  51st (dream) state

This residency is held in conjunction with the upcoming performance of Sekou Sundiata’s 51st (dream) state at the Weis Center on Feb. 29.  51st (dream) state company members, as well as faculty and students from The New School in Manhattan, will be at Bucknell throughout the week to perform and talk about their arts & citizenship experiences with the America Project.

Monday Feb. 4, 7pm Bucknell Hall
“Singing the 51st (dream) state:  A Journey to Citizenship Through the Arts”
Vocalists and the vocal arranger from the 51st (dream) state will perform selected songs and poems then discuss their evolution as artists and citizens through their participation in Sundiata’s America Project.

Tuesday Feb. 5, 7pm Rooke Chapel
America Project “Community Sing”
An encounter with American identity and citizenship through song, facilitated by Richard Harper, vocal arranger, and La Tanya Hall, singer and narrator for the 51st (dream) state.  In the Community Sing gatherings, cast members and community members sing together and discuss their relationships to a variety of American folk, popular, traditional and patriotic songs.

Wednesday Feb. 6, 7pm Center Room, Langone Center
“Theater & Community Action:  The America Project from New York to New Orleans” Christopher McElroen, founder of the Classical Theater of Harlem and director of the 51st (dream) state, talks about his involvement in the America Project and his subsequent role in staging Waiting for Godot on the Katrina ravaged streets of New Orleans.

Thursday Feb. 7, 7pm Bucknell Hall
Excerpts from “Dis/integrating General Public:  Waking up in the 51st (dream) state”
Performance and discussion by Sekou Sundiata’s students from the New School in Manhattan

Friday, Feb. 8, Noon  Center Room, Langone Center  lunch provided
“Citizenship & the Arts in the Classroom”
Eugene Lang College students and faculty who participated in Sundiata’s New School course on the America Project will discuss how their experience in the classroom led to the creation of the performance piece, “Dis/integrating General Public:  Waking up in the 51st (dream) state.”

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Based on American poet and performer Sekou Sundiata’s America Project
and presented in conjunction with the February 29, 2008, Weis Center Series performance of the late Sundiata’s the 51st (dream)state

Conceived of by Harlem poet Sekou Sundiata, the America Project is composed of public engagement activities designed to involve participants in honest and critical conversations about citizenship and civic consciousness and to trigger critical conversations and encounters in the service of teaching, learning and art. These campus and community based events surrounding the 51st (dream) state are intended to inspire fresh perceptions on the most essential ideas that link imagination, democracy and citizenship.

Weis Center for the Performing Arts
Friday, Feb. 29, 2008, 8 pm.

the 51st (dream) state is nationally acclaimed poet Sekou Sundiata’s contemplation of America's national identity, of its power in the world, and of its guiding mythologies. This multi-media performance features a cycle of songs, poems and monologues supported by still and moving projected images.  Performed by an all-star ensemble of singers and musicians, including keyboards, trumpet, drums, bass and guitar, the 51st (dream) state is a quest to find a vision of what it means to be both a citizen and an individual in a deeply complex, hyper-kinetic society. Some of the project’s implied questions are:

• What does "pursuit of happiness" mean in a society that places so much emphasis on tangible outcomes for most endeavors?
• Given the multilingual reality of daily life in much of the U.S, what is the American language?
• Can the old, central myths about such things as beauty, power, and destiny sustain the nation?
• What does a public imagination steeped in violence say about who we are?
• What are the prospects for love, compassion and human solidarity? 

the 51st (dream) state was created with the specific purpose of joining art and civic dialogue. It is designed to initiate and illuminate public discussions related to the questions outlined above, among others. This performance piece was developed through Sundiata’s America Project, composed of a series of community dialogues held throughout the country. The dialogue activities included “community sings,” which are public events featuring cast members and community members singing and discussing their relationships to a variety of American folk, popular, traditional and patriotic songs. Community sings and similarly structured “poetry circles,” along with “citizenship dinners,” workshops and discussion forums will continue to be offered as the 51st t (dream) state tours.  Bucknell will kick off its own America Project engagements during the week of February 4-8, 2007 when vocal arranger Richard Harper and other 51st dream state company members will be on campus for a residency program.

Symposium on Death Penalty
Susquehanna University
March 26-27, 2008 

Susquehanna University will hold a two-day symposium to examine whether the death penalty should be abolished.  The tentative schedule and list of committed participants follows:
On Wednesday, March 26, 2008, in Weber Chapel Auditorium, beginning at 7 p.m., Sister Helen Prejean will relate her experience serving as spiritual advisor to death row inmates and accompanying them to their death. Sister Helen is the author of Dead Man Walking, the story of the execution of a Louisiana inmate.  In the movie version, she is portrayed by Susan Sarandon.  Sister Helen received a B.A. in English and Education from St. Mary’s Dominican College and an M.A. in Religious Education from St. Paul’s University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.  She is a Roman Catholic sister, who began a prison ministry in 1981 in New Orleans.  She has authored two books, appeared on national television broadcasts in the United States and Canada, and given countless lectures to educate the public about the death penalty.  She counsels both inmates on death row and families of murder victims.  Sister Helen has received numerous awards and honorary degrees recognizing her tireless efforts.
On Thursday, March 27, 2008, the Adams Center will present three panel discussions during the day, one in the morning and two in the afternoon, and a concluding dialogue in the evening on whether the death penalty should be abolished.   The panel discussions will be held in Stretansky Concert Hall and the concluding dialogue will be in Isaacs Auditorium in Seibert Hall.  The panel discussions will each be 90 minutes in length, starting at 10:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.  The concluding dialogue will commence at 7:00 p.m.

The panel topics and committed participants are:

I  A Look at the Death Penalty Through the Eyes of an Exoneree and Family Members of Homicide Victims, moderated by Peter Loge.
Mary Achilles  is currently the victims’ advocate for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.  She was named to that position by Cardinal Justin Rigali to strengthen services to victims of sexual abuse by clergy. Until her appointment last year, Ms. Achilles served as the first-ever Victim Advocate for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She was selected by former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge for that position and charged with elevating the voices of crime victims in state government.  Prior to serving as Pennsylvania's first Victim Advocate, Ms. Achilles was Director of Victim Services for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections from 1993 to 1995. She also served in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office 1979 to 1993 supervising services provided to victims, including the witness security program. Ms. Achilles has a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Temple University and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice from West Chester University.

Kirk Bloodsworth is the first man exonerated by DNA testing in the United States.  A former Marine, Bloodsworth was convicted of sexual assault, rape and first-degree murder, and sentenced to death in 1984.  The convictions were set aside on appeal because evidence that should have been provided was withheld from the defense prior to trial.  Bloodsworth was retried, but the new trial did not set him free.  He was found guilty again and sentenced to two consecutive life terms.  In 1993, after years of fighting for a DNA test, state and federal laboratory results concluded that Bloodsworth’s DNA did not match any of the evidence from the crime scene.  By the time he was released from prison, Bloodsworth spent nearly nine years in prison, including two on death row, for crimes he did not commit.  Today, Bloodsworth is a program officer for the Justice Project’s Campaign for Criminal Justice Reform and the Justice Project Education Fund.
Peter Loge, the panel moderator, is a communications and political consultant.  He also teaches in the School of Media and Pubic Affairs at George Washington University. 
Loge has served as the Chief of Staff, Communications Director, and Campaign Manager to U.S. Representative Brad Sherman (D-CA), Director of Constituent Services to former U.S. Representative Sam Coppersmith (D-AZ), and Deputy to the Chief of Staff to Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA). He lectures regularly on politics and lobbying (several of his talks have been broadcast on C-SPAN). His writings have recently appeared in the Drake Law Review, Wounds that Do Not Bind: Victim Perspectives on the Death Penalty, the Journal of the Caucus for Television Producers, Writers & Directors, and The Hill newspaper. Loge received a Bachelor’s Degree from Emerson College and holds graduate degrees from Syracuse University and Arizona State University.
II Is the Death Penalty Just and Moral?, moderated by James Acker
Barrett I. Duke, Jr., Ph.D. is Vice President for Research and Director of the Research Institute of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention’s agency for “applied Christianity” (social and moral concerns). He has been with the agency since 1997.  Prior to coming to his position at the ERLC, he served as founding pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Denver, Colorado, from 1984 to 1996.   Dr. Duke received a Bachelor of Arts degree, with a major in Bible (summa cum laude), in 1982 from the Criswell Center for Biblical Studies in Dallas, Texas. He received a Master of Arts degree, with honors, in Old Testament Studies in 1985 from the Denver Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary.  In 1999, he received a Ph.D. in Religious and Theological Studies from the joint doctoral program of the Iliff School of Theology and the University of Denver. Dr. Duke frequently addresses issues relating to capital punishment. 

Howard Zehr, Ph.D. is Co-Director of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, and a Professor of Sociology and Restorative Justice, at Eastern Mennonite University.  He served for 19 years as director of the Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Office on Crime and Justice.  Dr. Zehr’s book, Changing Lenses: A New Focus for Crime and Justice, has been a foundational work in the growing “restorative justice” movement. His other publications include Crime and the Development of Modern Society (1976), Doing Life: Reflections of Men and Women Serving Life Sentences (1996), Transcending: Reflections of Crime Victims (2001), The Little Book of Restorative Justice (2002), and Critical Issues in Restorative Justice (2004, co-edited with Barb Toews).  Dr. Zehr earned his Ph.D. at Rutgers University in 1974; his M.A. at the University of Chicago in 1967; and his B.A. at Morehouse College in 1966.  He was appointed by the federal court in the Oklahoma City bombing trial of Timothy McVeigh (with Tammy Krause) to assist the defense in working with victims.
James Acker, J.D., Ph.D., the moderator, is a professor at the State University of New York at Albany School of Criminal Justice.  Professor Acker received a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology from Indiana University, a J.D. from Duke University School of Law, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the State University of New York at Albany.  He has published six books and countless articles, book chapters, book reviews and other material on the criminal justice system.  Most recently, he co-edited Wounds That Do Not Bind:  Victim-Based Perspectives on the Death Penalty.  He is also co-editor of America’s Experiment With Capital Punishment:  Reflections on the Past, Present and Future of the Ultimate Penal Sanction. 
III Is the Death Penalty Administered Fairly and Non-Arbitrarily?, moderated by David McCord
Robert Dunham, J.D. is Director of Training in the Capital Habeas Corpus Unit of the Philadelphia Federal Defender’s Office, where he began as an assistant in 1999, and a faculty member at Villanova School of Law.  He previously served as Executive Director of the former Pennsylvania Capital Case Resource Center.  Mr. Dunham has litigated death penalty cases at all levels of Pennsylvania’s state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court, and has served as a member of the Third Circuit’s Task Force on Management of Death Penalty Litigation.  He has designed and taught death penalty training programs for the state and federal courts, and a number of national, state, and local bar associations and defense organizations.  He is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation; a Special Advisor to the American Bar Association’s Death Penalty Representation Project; a member of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; and a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Delivery of Legal Services Committee. 

John Morganelli, J.D. is District Attorney of Northampton County.  He was first elected in 1991, and was reelected in 1995, 1999 and 2003.  He served as President of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys’ Association in 1999-2000. In 1993-94, Mr. Morganelli prosecuted a lawsuit against the governor to enforce Pennsylvania’s death penalty in cases of first degree murder.  He is an experienced courtroom prosecutor who has personally tried to verdict numerous first degree murder cases and represented the commonwealth in first-degree murder cases post-conviction in both state and federal appellate courts.  Mr. Morganelli has appeared on "60  Minutes," "The O'Reilly Factor,"   "Heartland,"  "The Lou Dobbs Show,"  "Connie Chung Tonight," "Donahue" and "Internight.”   His first book was recently published, "The D-day Bank Massacre: The True Story Behind the Martin Appel Case." Governor Rendell has said that Morganelli should be the state’s next Attorney General and has encouraged him to announce his candidacy for that office in 2008.
David McCord, J.D., the moderator, has taught at Drake Law School since 1984.  Prior to his faculty appointment, McCord was in private practice and served as an Assistant Attorney General in Arizona.  His scholarly interests focus on the death penalty.  While serving as Director of the American Judicature Society’s National Jury Center, during a sabbatical leave from his teaching responsibilities, McCord designed and completed the Capital Case Data Project.  The project involved a review and comparison of every case in which a death eligible defendant was sentenced between January 1, 2004, and September 30, 2005.  His publications include “Lightning Still Strikes:  Evidence From the Popular Press that Death Sentencing Continues to be Unconstitutionally  Arbitrary More Than Three Decades After Furman,”  71 Brooklyn Law Review 797, "State Death Sentencing for Felony Murder Accomplices Under the Emmund and Tison Standards," 32 Arizona State Law Journal 843, and "Imagining a Retributivist Alternative to Capital Punishment," 50 Florida Law Review 1.  McCord is a graduate of Harvard Law School.

Concluding Dialouge, moderated by Allan Sobel
Richard Dieter, J.D.  received an undergraduate degree in mathematics from the University of Notre Dame and a masters degree from the Ohio State University.  He graduated cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC.  He is a member of the Maryland Bar, the Bar of the District of Columbia, and the Bar of the U. S. Supreme Court, and serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Catholic University School of Law, where he teaches a seminar on the death penalty.  Dieter has been the Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, DC since 1992.  The Center is a non-profit organization serving the public and the media with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment.  He is a frequent speaker, and is often quoted in major newspapers around the country, on the death penalty.  He has appeared on NBC Nightly News, ABC World News, CBS Evening News, The Today Show, CNN Headline News, C-Span, Court-TV, and many other programs.  Deiter has authored articles on the death penalty for both magazines and scholarly journals.  His most recent publications are:  Innocence and the Death Penalty: The Increasing Danger of Executing the Innocent;  The Death Penalty in Black and White: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides; and  International Perspectives on the Death Penalty: A Costly Isolation for the U.S.
B. Lyn McClellan, J.D. received an undergraduate degree in government and a master’s degree in accounting from Texas Tech University, and his law degree from South Texas College of Law.  Since graduating from South Texas College of Law in 1981, Mr. McClellan has been employed by the Harris County, Texas District Attorney’s Office.  He is currently the Bureau Chief of the Felony Trial Bureau.  He has represented the state at trial in over 35 death penalty cases.  He is a frequent presenter at professional conferences, and has addressed the National District Attorneys Association, the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, the Houston Bar Association, the Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians, and the Center for American and International Law.
Allan Sobel, J.D., the moderator, was appointed the first full-time director of the Arlin M. Adams Center for Law and Society on September 18, 2006. He previously served as President of the American Judicature Society. As AJS president, Sobel was responsible for all AJS operations at its offices in Illinois, Iowa and North Carolina, served as its spokesperson, and regularly contributed to its scholarly journal, Judicature. AJS, established in 1913, is a non-profit, non-partisan organization devoted to promoting the effective administration of justice.  Prior to his tenure at AJS, Sobel served for three years as executive director and general counsel of the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission, a constitutionally-created and independent judicial conduct organization responsible for enforcement of the Code of Judicial Conduct in Michigan. From 1977 to 1997, he practiced law with offices in Portland, Oregon and Detroit, Michigan, primarily representing defendants in criminal proceedings and parties in professional malpractice actions. Sobel has held faculty positions at Drake University School of Law and at Lewis and Clark College Northwestern School of Law. He holds a J.D. from Lewis and Clark College Northwestern School of Law, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Special Education from Eastern Michigan University.  Sobel currently serves as a member of the Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission Committee on Wrongful Convictions and the Snyder County Criminal Justice Advisory Board.

Recent Events

2007 Latino Symposium Program  

Crossings / Travesías

“The XIII Latino Symposium explores the exile and immigration experiences of Spanish speakers who have crossed many borders to enter the United States. It also celebrates the numerous ways in which Susquehanna University students have themselves crossed linguistic, cultural, and geographical borders in order to create bonds of support with Latinos in this region and beyond.”

Thursday afternoon  (November 1)

4:30 Keynote Address Professor Aviva Chomsky  (4:30)  Isaacs Auditorium
            “Crossings/Travesías: Immigrant Rights as Human Rights”
Followed by Respondents’ Round Table:  Professors Michelle DeMary, David Ramsaran, Cecilia Green (University of Pittsburgh) and Attorney Christine Sabas.

6:15     Formal Dinner
(By invitation only)
Private Dining Rooms 2 & 3

Friday morning (November 2) 

            8:45-9:15   Registration (Degenstein Theater Hallway)

            9:15-9:45  Introduction and Kickoff  (Degenstein Theater)

                        Zachary Rahn

            10:00-11:00  “Sembrando hoy para el futuro” (Degenstein Theater)

Anna Makatche  (Teach for America)

Aniell Daczka and Andrea Ureña (Summer Enrichment Programs)

            11:15-12:15
Break-out sessions 
            (Two one-hour sessions, each divided into 30-minute segments)

• “Inmigración”  (Meeting Rooms 1-3)
• Migrant Education  (SU students + community workers)

• Dramatización por estudiantes de escenas de El Norte

• Enlazando con la juventud latina  (Meeting Rooms 4-5)
• SU CASA   Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Central American Service Program led by Chaplain Mark Radecke

• SU Latino students share their “success” stories (Spanish)

12:15-1:00 Informal lunch for visiting HS students.
(Apple Community Room)

12:30- 1:30 Formal Luncheon (By invitation only) to honor SU students and graduates (Private Dining Rooms 1-3)
           
1:00-2:00
Dance Workshop  (Robert Rogers and Rebecca Taksel) (visiting HS students)

3:00-4:00
Dance Workshop (Robert Rogers and Rebecca Taksel)  (Susquehanna Campus Community)

8:00-12:00 pm
TRAX
Evening Gala Dance  (Sponsored by HOLA)

Live music provided by YeraSon

June 3, 2007
Interfaith Service Celebrates Gay Pride Month

2007 Martin Luther King Celebrations
St. Paul AME Church, Milton

The Donald Heiter Community Center

Progressive Summit Held on Jan. 20

Children's Tour of Religions Set to Begin on February 4th

Special Interest Meeting on February 11 for People of Color

Bucknell Events at the Weis Center

Susquehanna University Lecture on February 1st

Jim Wallis to Present Susquehanna University's
2007 Alice Pope Shade Lecture on February 26th

CARE'S Annual Fundraising Drive in Progress