I’m Taniyia Harvey and I focused my assignment on the Wye House and Frederick Douglass exhibit in the Hornbake Library. The Wye House exhibit was put together by the University of Maryland professors Mark Leone and Stephen Woehlke. The exhibit focuses on the Wye House in Talbot County Maryland and its rich history on slaves and their culture. The Wye House exhibit stems from the Archaeology in Annapolis Project that Mark Leone has been the director of since its start in 1981. The Wye House was owned by the Lloyds and their descendants the Tilghmans sponsored this archaeological scholarship on their property. In Frederick Douglass’s writings he referred to the gardeners and his time in slavery spent at the Wye House plantation. In contrast, the researchers involved learned about the cultural aspects of the Wye House including the tools, cuisine, religion, and agriculture that the slaves produced. The purpose of the Wye House exhibition is to provide more information about the culture of Maryland slaves and their everyday lives.
Democracy Then and Now: Vote!
Author: Musfika
Douglass Statue
The university of Maryland college park was established in 1856 within the same time period of the emancipation of slaves. Historically the campus is intertwined within the push for equal rights among African Americans and whites. University of Maryland, 1335 acres, is located in an affluent minority based county but just recently had one of a few honorary black symbols built on the campus in 2015. Students have campaigned for the Frederick Douglas statue that advocates for the liberty and equality of all regardless of race, sex, and religion. The Frederick Douglas statue, 0.00017 acres, was built and revealed in 2015, during a time in history now, where the quality of African American life is undermined as it has since slavery. Students have taken many steps to diversify the campus with the cultural identity its’ students identify with. Many classify the campus as diverse however, the student body is more than half white. As a community University of Maryland students have 1334.99983 acres left to cover.
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Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
Are you looking for a safe space to develop your performance art and create social change? Then the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center is the place for you!
The Clarice was designed to foster an environment in which students could produce, explore, and research their performing arts form. The Clarice exhibits different artists to showcase their work no matter what topic they chose. Most of the topics that the artists chose involve arts advocacy, social justice movements, or challenging the norms of society.
The School of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies with in the Clarice mission statement is to ”expands our capacity through performing arts to build communities, solve problems and create a life of meaning.”
Last year Graduate student Meghan Abadoo produced a show called Octavia’s Brood. This performance “exposes the essence, of a Black woman. It imagines a world in which women of color are warriors, prophets and presidents. Inspired by the characters of storytellers and racial justice activists Harriet Tubman Davis and Octavia Butler, it asks you to imagine this world too”
Many artists like Meghan Abadoo exhibit their work and reach audience members from different communities on and off campus. The Clarice allows for a safe space for students to transform the campus and challenge social norms.
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Sociology Building
Previously known as simply the “Art-Sociology Building”, Parren J. Mitchell’s name was added in October 2015 after a unanimous vote from the Board of Regents. Through these doors is space dedicated to the arts as well as the Art Library, and other departments such as the Department of Sociology. Though many students, faculty and visitors pass the building daily, many may not be aware of what Mitchell has contributed to the history of this campus and to the state of Maryland.
The Baltimore-native was born in 1922‒ a time where segregation continued to divide the country. At an early age, Mitchell’s family exposed him to the world of activism where he was introduced to the issues that black Americans faced around the state. After earning his bachelor’s, he then applied to UMD for a Masters in Sociology but was denied admission because of his race. In 1950, Baltimore City Court ordered his full-time admission, making him our campus’s first ever African American graduate student. If all of these achievements weren’t impressive enough, in 1970, he also became the first black Congressman to be elected from Maryland. Parren J. Mitchell’s ability to overcome adversity and to contribute back to society through improving race relations shows us all the ways that diversity works towards bettering our campus, and the nation.
WMUC
If you happen to be passing by South Campus Diner at the right time of day, you may be surprised to hear the sounds of garage punk or sweet sweet acoustic guitar coming from an open second-story window. This and the near round-the-clock stream of programming you’ll hear, should you tune your radio dial to 88.1 FM, are coming from the studios at WMUC, University of Maryland’s college radio station. The station’s roots extend back to 1942 and it’s been occupying its current space since 1974.
Women have long fought to be heard in the predominantly male space of radio. And while WMUC is often a champion for all things fringe and nontraditional, the fight for equal representation has been just as difficult as anywhere else in the field.
An early example of women pushing boundaries in radio was the Miss Midnight show which ran from 1958 to 1968. [begin Miss Midnight clip] While now she seems more cultural relic than groundbreaking radio personality, in her time Miss Midnight provided a cheeky voice for female sexuality, toeing the line of radio censorship law and cultural propriety.
Things continued to change at the radio with the introduction of the female-focused and produced show MsUnderstood in 1973 and the appointing of the first female station manager Anne Edwards during that time.
Today WMUC continues striving to be a place for women to come up in leadership,recently appointed station manager Jane Lyons, reflects on those who’ve come before her [begin clip from Jane]
Democracy is about lifting up all voices, especially those marginalized, overlooked or deemed too weird for top-40. As the proving ground for many students with futures in media and broadcast, WMUC continues striving to be a place for everyone to be heard. Especially local female-fronted punk outfits.
[priests recording outro]
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McKeldin Mall
During the Vietnam War era, the state of Maryland was a host to a significant number of anti-war activities. On May 1, 1970, just one day after President Nixon’s announcement of the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, over one thousand anti-war protestors occupied Route One, ransacked the ROTC armory on campus, and engaged both state and local police in, often violent, confrontations. However, this was only the beginning; just three days later, a rally was held on the mall. Within an hour, students occupied both the Administration Building and Route One. This thirteen hour long ordeal not only marked the beginning of a three-week series of violent protests, but also sought out the attention of the National Guard. Five-hundred National Guard, three hundred-fifty state police, seventy PG County Police, and two-hundred Baltimore City police were mobilized in order to subdue over four-thousand students. I believe this radicalization helped spark a call for the rights of college students and helped construct several aspects of the University of Maryland’s current mission and goals statement. Whether it be attempting to nurture and encourage innovation by providing collaborations with State, federal, private, and non-profit partners or to create and apply knowledge that nourishes a climate of intellectual growth the University of Maryland focuses on providing students with an optimal environment for success. Thanks to the efforts of the students on the famous McKeldin Mall, we have made large steps to get to where we are today.
Jim Henson Statue
A statue of Jim Henson and Kermit the frog seated on a red granite bench commands the space just left of the entrance to the Adele H. Stamp Student Union at the University of Maryland, College Park, Henson’s alma mater.
• Henson, who graduated from College Park in 1960 was known throughout the world for his creation of the Muppets and his work in television with Sesame Street and The Muppet Show.
• UMD dedicated the statue on September 24th, 2003, which would have been his 67th birthday
• Together the sculpture and bench create the Jim Henson memorial, a parting gift of the class of 1998, with the immediate surrounding area known as the Henson Memorial Garden, a gift from UMD Classes of 1994 and 1998, and designed by landscape architect Phillip Cho.
• Karen Falk, a noted Henson archivist, said that the notion of an on-campus memorial for Henson was formed from the special event The Muppets Take Maryland, which took place at the university in 1997. The members of the class of ’98 wanted to honor and remember Henson with a gift for the tremendous impact he had on children’s lives.
• That ideal still stands to today as Henson’s creative and imaginative spark and soul still live through each succeeding class of the University of Maryland as we all learn to accept one another for our strength of character and compassion and not judge based on superficial features.
Democracy Then and Now: Vote!
Cole Field House
Cole Field House, the old home of the university of Maryland Basketball team, was built in 1955 as the student activities building, and renamed one year later after congressman and former board of Regents chairman William P Cole Jr. The 12,000 seat arena was renowned for its one of a kind design while being only second in size to Madison Square Garden for similar indoor facilities on the East Coast. The addition of nearly 3000 seats near the court in the 1960s would bring the atmosphere in Cole to a new ceiling, cementing its reputation as a loud and intimidating arena for opposing teams to visit. In 1966, Texas Western started the first all-black lineup in college basketball at Cole Field House in a historic game to defeat the Kentucky Wildcats all-white starting lineup for the national championship. The first ever sporting event between the United States and China was a ping-pong match, held at Cole in 1972, leading to a tradition of sports as a vital piece of international relations. Women’s basketball saw its first national airtime from Cole as Maryland’s Women’s basketball team played the defending champion Immaculata. After retiring as an active field house in 2002, Cole would continue to be used for recreation and sporting events until 2015 with the Maryland High School Wrestling State Championships being the final event on the floor of Cole. Democracy then and now: vote!
Watch! Citizenship and Education for Undocumented Immigrants
Citizenship and the Right to Public Education for Undocumented Immigrants
October 27 @ 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Lecturer: Robert Koulish, Director, MLAW Programs and Joel J. Feller Research Professor
College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, University of Maryland
Immigrants are not as different from citizens in terms of citizenship responsibilities and right as many have been led to believe. And quite frankly, depending on how citizenship is defined, immigrants– even undocumented immigrants– can have much to teach citizens about what it means to be a strong citizen.
Co-hosted by the Department of Government and Politics and the MLAW Programs
Watch! Architecture of Thomas Jefferson
The Architecture of Thomas Jefferson for a New Democracy
From October 24
Lecturer: Cynthia R. Field, Adjunct Professor, and Isabelle J. Gournay, Associate Professor
School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, University of Maryland
This talk will present an avenue into Thomas Jefferson’s ideals and actions through his architecture. Jefferson’s architecture reflects the influence of both Scottish philosophy and French Enlightenment. This combination was a well-established special relationship in Europe. It manifested itself in his faith in the “associationist” reading of buildings and the symbolic and functional geometric forms of contemporary French designs. The dominating idea of architecture for Jefferson was its provision of didactic models for the new citizens of a democracy. In this regard, we will examine his plans for the University of Virginia, the Virginia State Capitol (on which he worked with a French architect), and his contributions to the Capitol in Washington, DC.
Hosted by the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation