Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 5, 1993 TAG: 9302040107
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Donna Alvis-Banks
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
IT'S YOUR RIGHT TO DECIDE ON ICE-T
To go or not to go.That is not the question.
That is your right.
Tracey Morrow, better known in show biz as Ice-T, will speak on the First Amendment Thursday at 8 p.m. in Radford University's Preston Auditorium. His lecture is part of the university's observation of Black History Month.
The controversial rap singer has sold more than 900,000 copies of his recent album, "Body Count." He also has received critical blame for every social ill from A to Z (Aggression to Zits).
Public disdain for "Cop Killer," a single on the album about a Los Angeles youth who decides to go on a shooting spree in retaliation against police brutality, compelled Ice-T to pull the cut from the LP.
Still, he insists on his right to belt out his message in his concerts.
"Telling a black person they can't sing about brutal cops is like telling a Jew they can't sing about the Nazis or a rape victim she can't sing about her rapist," he has said.
The singer will discuss censorship, freedom of speech and the problems of America's inner cities in Thursday's lecture.
If you choose to go, public admission is $6.
\ DON'T STOP THE BOP: Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie founded the "bebop" or "bop" jazz movement in the early '40s.
Gillespie's death on Jan. 6 marked the end of a sublime era in music.
Jazz lovers all over the world will miss the great trumpeter's trademarks - the jaunty beret, the goatee, the bulgy cheeks and the sparkling smile.
Gillespie co-wrote many songs that are jazz standards today: "A Night in Tunisia," `Groovin' High," "Manteca."
Radford University's jazz ensembles will pay tribute to John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie in a free concert Saturday. It starts at 8 p.m. in Preston Auditorium.
Faculty musicians and student groups will perform some of the works made famous by Gillespie 50 years ago. The program also features works by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Glenn Miller and others from the Big Band years.
Al Wojtera, director of percussion and jazz studies at R.U., will conduct.
\ PLAYING WITH HEART: Mary Louise Hallauer, piano, and Doris Lederer, viola, will give a faculty recital tonight at 8 in Virginia Tech's Squires Recital Salon. Both are regulars in the faculty recital series at the university.
The women will perform Sonata for Viola and Piano, an early Romantic piece by Felix Mendelssohn, as well as the 20th century Sonata for Unaccompanied Viola by Paul Hindemith.
Ralph Vaughn Williams' impressionistic Romance for Viola and Piano also is on the program. Williams is an English composer known for his orchestral pieces.
The Adagio and Allegro by Robert Schumann, originally composed for horn and piano, features Lederer's viola in the effective substitution for horn.
Tickets will be available at the box office in Squires Student Center, beginning at 7. Admission is $3.
\ LASTING IMPRESSIONS: Michael Escoffery, a Jamaican artist who has lived and worked in New York for the past 10 years, has an exhibit in Virginia Tech's Black Cultural Center this month.
The display, "400 Years of Our People," portrays 40 people who have made significant contributions in black history. Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, Billie Holliday and Nelson Mandela are some readily recognizable faces.
Escoffery, who has exhibited works all over the world, was commended last year by the Council of the City of New York for his exhibit, "Stars and Stripes," in honor of veterans who served in the Persian Gulf.
A slide lecture and reception for the artist will be held today at 6 p.m. at the center. It's in Squires 126.
The Black Cultural Center is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
\ SOUNDS OF SILENCE: Deaf Awareness Week will be observed next week at New River Community College in Dublin. This is the fifth year the college's Sign Language Club has sponsored a week of events focusing on deafness and deaf culture.
Highlighting the week is an appearance by Sunshine Too, a professional touring group from New York. The troupe of three deaf and three hearing actors performs skits, songs, poetry and storytelling. They use sign language and spoken English simultaneously.
Sunshine Too will give two performances Thursday. The first begins at 11 a.m. in the T.J. Anderson student lounge. Admission to the morning show is free.
A second show at 7:30 p.m. will be held at Richardson Auditorium in Rooker Hall. Admission is free for children under 12 and $2 for adults.
Other events during the week include entertainment by the Sign Language Club and a performance by students from Roanoke's Virginia Heights Elementary School, captioned showings of the film "Children of a Lesser God," a variety of communication awareness activities and a presentation by Clayton Valli, instructor of linguistics and interpreting at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.
For more information about the happenings, call NRCC's Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing at 674-3619. The phone service is accessible to people with telecommunication devices.
\ MUSIC OF AMERICA: That's the theme of the second faculty recital of the semester at Virginia Tech this weekend.
Linda Plaut, violin, and Kent Holliday, piano, will perform Saturday at 8 p.m. in Squires Recital Salon. The program features music written in America.
The opening piece is Gwyneth Walker's Fantasy Etudes. The Vermont composer visited Roanoke last spring to introduce "Roanoke Rising," a work commissioned and performed by the Roanoke Symphony. It was a big hit in the star city.
Walker is best known for "Match Point," a piece first performed by Billie Jean King and the New York Philharmonic.
The second piece in Saturday's concert is Sonatina in G Major, op. 100 by Antonin Dvorak. The Czech composer wrote it for his children while he was a faculty member at the Boston Conservatory.
Saturday's concert also will feature three songs by Clifford A. Julstrom, a professor at Western Illinois University from 1936 to 1974. One of the songs, "Linda's Lullaby," was written for Linda Plaut when she was an infant.
Other selections include Aaron Copland's Sonata for Violin and Piano and "Americana Visited Variations" by Vivian Adelberg Rudow. Tickets for the recital are $3 and will be available at the Squires Student Center box office Saturday evening.
\ CRANK UP THE AMPS: He's one of the leaders of the band that made amplifiers go to 11.
Aging metal man Harry Shearer, alias Derek Smalls, of the legendary Spinal Tap is coming to Virginia Tech Tuesday. His multimedia presentation starts at 8 p.m. in Burruss Auditorium.
Spinal Tap, which gained fame from Rob Reiner's 1984 film "This Is Spinal Tap," is the longest running ruse in rock 'n' roll. Even Weird Al can't touch songs like "Stinkin' Up the Great Outdoors."
Shearer, a bass player, replaced original band member Ronnie Pudding following Spinal Tap's 1967 release of its debut hit single, "Listen to the Flower People."
Today, he is better known as the voice behind several of the characters in the television series,"The Simpsons." He also has appeared on "Saturday Night Live."
Tickets for Tuesday's presentation are on sale in the Squires Student Center box office - $3 for Tech students, $5 for the public.