WCC Arts and Humanities Fall Schedule Announced
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on August 16, 2018 5:50 AM
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The fall season of the Foundation of Wayne Community College Arts and Humanities program has been announced, and it promises to be another eclectic representation of timely topics, says the program's director, Kay Cooke.
Sometimes there is a theme woven through the various events, she said, but for the most part the latest offerings fall under the program's umbrella of "intersections" -- from local to global and from past to present.
"We try to identify speakers and topics that will be of interest to our community and will advance the cause of arts and humanities. I'm such a believer in the power of the arts and humanities to help us understand and clarify," she said, citing a quote by Albert Einstein to back up her claim -- "'Any fool can know. The point is to understand.'"
Cooke added, "I think that one of the most wonderful consequences of studying the arts and humanities is the understanding that it brings."
This year the organizers have found speakers from a variety of backgrounds and experiences for the six programs announced. The offerings at WCC have been enhanced in recent years by involvement from the Carolina Public Humanities, which brings speakers in, allowing the community to be exposed to a wider array of programs without having to travel out of the county, Cooke said.
"We have found lively speakers from N.C. State, Chapel Hill, Duke and then the park service," she said. "This year, we had a rare find in Darrell Collins. He did educational programs for NASA and is quite knowledgeable about the Wright brothers and about aviation in general.
"Being an aviation town, it seemed very appropriate."
Two programs will tie to the aviation theme, Cooke said.
In addition to Collins' program on the Wright brothers, Dr. Roy Heidicker will discuss on Oct. 1 the origination of the 4th Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.
Heidicker, a popular speaker who has been prominently featured in the series commemorating the 75th anniversary of World War II, is the historian for the 4th Fighter Wing and adjunct professor at University of Mount Olive.
"We thought these were two very appropriate topics, especially for our community," Cooke said. "And we always love to talk about music.
"We have Dr. Jocelyn Neal on Sept. 20, who will be here talking about country and bluegrass music and how it is particularly connected with the South and what it says about our culture and how it's affected our culture."
Another genre represented centers around "hip-hop diplomacy," when UNC-Chapel Hill director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, Mark Katz, talks about the State Department-funded program he directs that sends hip-hop artists abroad to foster cultural exchange in underserved countries.
Perhaps the coup on the list, the November event is particularly timely, since it takes a look at the current climate in China.
Cooke called the 2018 William Brettmann lecture -- named for her predecessor in the director role -- the "star in the crown" with the acquisition of Sara Castro, a teaching assistant professor at UNC-CH.
"When (Foundation director) Adrienne Northington and I went to Chapel Hill, and we heard four speakers talk about global diplomacy.
After it was over, we said, 'We have got to get Sara Castro here,'" Cooke said.
"Not only was she a compelling speaker but look at her credentials -- she is a former CIA intelligence analyst, she speaks Mandarin and specialized in China, global security and US-China relations. The thing that was most impressive was that she delivered her comments about China's strategy for the U.S.
"So many times, you hear the perspective of the U.S. strategy. But because of her knowledge, this was really fascinating, that she was looking at it from that angle."
Rounding out the schedule is an Oct. 22 lecture on "Celebrating Blackbeard: But Should We?"
Featuring Dr. Charles Ewen, UNC-CH archaeology professor and director of the Phelps Archaeology Laboratory at East Carolina University, his presentation promises to be "plain old fun," Cooke said.
"This is the 300th anniversary of the sinking of Queen Anne's Revenge, and he does bring up a good question -- should we be celebrating this murderous thief?" She said.
"But he is part of the landscape of North Carolina, just like the Wright brothers are part of the state's landscape.
There is also a seventh entry in the brochure, which was mailed out earlier this week to patrons of the program.
A trip to historic Edenton, slated for Sept. 28-30, quickly filled up and boasts a waiting list, she said.
Other than the trip, everything else on the schedule is free of charge and open to the public.