August 14, 2000
RELEASE ON RECEIPT

OBERLIN COLLEGE PRESENTS 2000-2001 CONVOCATION SERIES
Series begins Sept. 5 with Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White

OBERLIN, OHIO--Oberlin College and community enjoy a long, proud history of talking together about important and compelling issues. During the College's 168th academic year, the Convocation series will continue that tradition by featuring a roster of distinguished speakers and performers.

An address by Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White on September 5 titled "Evil Always Triumphs" will launch the three lectures to be held during first semester. They will have as their focus the various aspects of political process in the United States as we consider the fall elections.

Opening the spring series will be a concert celebrating the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. The series will continue with presentations by a highly acclaimed composer-conductor and an outstanding scientist.

Oberlin's 2000--2001Convocations are sponsored by the Finney Lecture and Student Assemblies committees with support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Office of the President of Oberlin College.

All of the lectures, which are free and open to the public, will begin at 8 P.M. in the College's Finney Chapel, located at the corner of Professor and Lorain streets.

The lecture schedule, with a biography of each speaker, follows.

"Evil Always Triumphs"
Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White
Tuesday, September 5, 2000

Now in his third term, Michael R. White was first elected mayor of Cleveland in 1989. He has dedicated his administration to the issues that shaped his first mayoral campaign: public safety, education, neighborhood revitalization, economic and job development, and race relations.

Since 1990, crime has declined by 25 percent, seven new industrial parks have been developed, nearly 30,000 jobs have been created or retained, and Cleveland is experiencing its most significant new-housing boom since the 1950s. Mayor White's focus on improving public education has received national attention, and his commitment to improving race relations has generated citywide support.

A spokesperson for urban issues, he has served as President of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors and a member of the Board of Trustees of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

"Countdown To Election 2000: What The Newspapers Don't Tell You"
Mark S. Mellman
Thursday, September 28, 2000

Mark Mellman is one of the Democratic Party's leading political strategists. He is CEO of The Mellman Group, a polling and consulting firm whose clients include leading political figures, Fortune 500 companies, and the nation's most important public-interest groups.

Mellman has helped guide the campaigns of some 15 U.S. Senators, over two dozen members of Congress, three governors, and numerous state and local officials. The firm has been successful in many initiatives around the country, including defeating a voucher proposal and Proposition 226 in California.

As a consultant to the Democratic Congressional Leadership, he played a central role in developing Democratic strategies on the budget, Medicare, environment, education, and pensions. A contributing analyst for the Hotline of American Politics, Mellman is regularly sought out by news organizations for his views on political trends.

"The Corruption of American Politics"
Elizabeth Drew
Wednesday, October 11, 2000

Author and journalist Elizabeth Drew is a noted and highly acclaimed observer of the Washington scene. Her articles and op-ed pieces have appeared in the Washington Post and other newspapers, and she appears regularly as a television commentator on such programs as Meet the Press, The News with Brian Williams, and CNN's Inside Politics. For 19 years she was the Washington correspondent for the New Yorker magazine.

In her 11th and most recent book, The Corruption of American Politics: What Went Wrong and Why, Drew reports on and analyzes the role of money in our politics and what has happened to our political system over the course of the past 25 years. Publisher's Weekly said the book is "one of the most skillfully written, as well as insightful, looks inside the Beltway to appear in a very long time."

Moses Hogan Singers
Moses Hogan '79, artistic director
Mezzo-soprano Marietta Simpson, soloist
Tuesday, February 6, 2001

The Moses Hogan Singers is dedicated to preserving the integrity and excellence of the multiple aspects of choral music. Based in New Orleans, the group focuses special repertoire emphasis on works by African-American composers.

The group's artistic director, Moses Hogan, is a pianist, conductor, arranger, and artist-in-residence at Loyola University. He began his exploration of choral music in 1980 with the organization of The New World Ensemble, which led him to form the Moses Hogan Chorale.

The Moses Hogan Singers made its international debut in 1998 on the EMI label with acclaimed soprano Barbara Hendricks. Soloist Marietta Simpson, one of the most sought-after mezzo-sopranos on the music scene today, has sung with all the major orchestras in the U.S. and under many of the world's great conductors.

John Adams
"Composing in Time and Place: Some Thoughts on Music in Our Time"
Tuesday, March 13, 2001

John Adams is one of America's most admired and frequently performed composers. Since establishing his reputation in the early 1980s with works such as Harmonie lehre, his music has received numerous awards throughout the world. His most recent orchestral piece, Naive and Sentimental Music, premiered in 1999.

Adams continues to conduct regularly, appearing with the world's greatest orchestras; future engagements include concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and BBC Symphony Orchestra.

How Could This Happen?, a retelling of the Nativity story, is Adams' present project. The world premiere will take place in Paris in December 2000. Nonesuch Records has recently released The John Adams Earbox, a 10-CD compilation comprising almost all of the composer's music over a 20-year period.

Vilayanur S. Ramachandran
The Artful Brain: A Neurologist Looks
at Human Nature and the Meaning of Art
Thursday, April 19, 2001

V.S. Ramachandran is professor of neurosciences and psychology at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), director of the Brain and Perception Laboratory, and codirector of the newly formed Center for Research on Brain and Cognition.

Best known for his work on human visual perception, his discovery of several new visual illusions, such as motion capture, stereoscopic capture, and the reduction of motion processing at equiluminance, has impacted computational modeling and neurophysiology. Ramachandran has also studied deficits that arise from brain damage.

His investigation of phenomena such as phantom limbs, denial of paralysis, Cap-gras syndrome, and anorexia nervosa has brought these syndromes from the clinic to the laboratory and shown that intensive study of these patients can provide valuable new insights into the functional organization of the normal human brain.

Media Contact: Scott Wargo 1/9/00 #8 bg