March 8, 2004

• UA Celebrates 18th Sakura Festival
• UA, FOCUS to Co-Sponsor "Golden Treasures: Helping Seniors be Healthy"
• Two Music Events Center Around Holtkamp Organ: World Premiere Performance, Concert
• New York Artist Chakaia Booker Featured at Sarah Moody Art Gallery
• UA Orman-Harris Lecture March 11 to Focus on Privacy and Consumers
• UA's 2004 Annual Cason Award to Honor Two Native Sons

UA Celebrates 18th Sakura Festival

The 18th annual Sakura (cherry blossom) Festival, a celebration of Japanese culture and friendship, is scheduled through all of March. The festival provides an opportunity to experience Japanese culture through lectures, exhibits, demonstrations, a Haiku contest and other activities. The theme for this year's festival is "hiyaku" or leap. This word captures the energy and enthusiasm of bounding forward to achieve new goals and initiatives. The theme also coincides with the Leap Year of 2004.

In Japan, the Sakura Festival is a celebration of the blossoming of the cherry trees, recognizing spring's renewal of the spirit of life and celebrating its beauty. During "ohanami," the viewing of the cherry blossoms, UA's Denny Chimes area boasts a spectacular view of blossoms on cherry trees made possible through a donation from a businessman in Tuscaloosa's sister city of Narashino, Japan.

The Matsuri/Festival in the Mall, scheduled for Saturday, March 13, provides a treasured opportunity to experience Japanese culture through an exciting variety of exhibits and performances. The event will run from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Events include a Suzuki Violin Performance, Japanese dancing and drumming, Sumo, Traditional Japanese Swordsmanship and much more. Visit the website at http://bama.ua.edu/~jprogram/sakura/.

UA, FOCUS to Co-Sponsor "Golden Treasures: Helping Seniors be Healthy"

Older adults and those who care for them are invited to attend free "Golden Treasures: Helping Seniors Be Healthy," where they can learn more about the new Medicare prescription drug benefits, new treatments for Alzheimer's disease and information on other health issues, including ongoing University of Alabama-sponsored treatment studies. The event is scheduled from 9 a.m. until noon, Wednesday, March 10 at FOCUS on Senior Citizens, 1920 6th St., Tuscaloosa. It is sponsored by The University of Alabama's Center for Mental Health and Aging, FOCUS on Senior Citizens, a comprehensive service organization for those ages 60 and older, and Shelton State Community College.

Participants will have opportunity to learn about various UA treatment studies in areas such as chronic stress, anxiety, depression or coping with life-limiting or non life-limiting illnesses, or the stresses associated with caring for someone with these illnesses. Information will also be provided about UA's Geropsychology Clinic, an outpatient clinic designed to help senior citizens with their mental health needs. The clinic's services are provided on a sliding scale fee, based on income.

For more information about the event, call 348-0266 or 758-3393. For more information about the Center for Mental Health and Aging, an interdisciplinary center designed to assist, in a variety of ways, the elderly and those who care for them, contact Dr. Denise Cleveland at 348-7512 or dclevela@sw.ua.edu.

Two Music Events Center Around Holtkamp Organ: World Premiere Performance, Concert

UA's School of Music announces a world premiere of Passacaglia on B-A-CH, by Pamela Decker, performed by UA organ faculty member, Dr. Faythe Freese. The work, commissioned by Freese, was composed specifically for the Holtkamp organ in the Moody Music Building Concert Hall. The organ concert will take place on Saturday, March 20, at 3:30 p.m. and features Rio abajo rio (1999) and Home Suite Home (2002) also composed by and performed by Decker, the composer- in-residence for the UA Church Music Conference held also on March 20. The concert is free and open to the public.

For more information concerning the Organ Concert or the upcoming UA Church Music Conference, contact Freese at faythefreese@earthlink.net or call 348-3329.

New York Artist Chakaia Booker Featured at Sarah Moody Art Gallery

The UA Sarah Moody Gallery of Art will host the Farley Moody Galbraith Endowed Exhibition featuring work by New York artist Chakaia Booker, opening Friday, March 12, with a reception from 6-8 p.m. at the Gallery in 103 Garland Hall. The show will run through April 18. Booker will give a lecture on Thursday, March 11, at 7 p.m. in 205 Smith Hall.

The exhibition, "Chakaia Booker: Divine Detritus by the Black Warrior River," features 11 recent works by Booker. These sculptural pieces will don walls and pedestals of the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, transforming the space with magnificent line and form. Using the discarded materials of the transportation industry (namely rubber tires and tubing), Booker builds onto traditional metal/wooden armatures to create formalized, lyrical sculptural works of art. Booker explores her ongoing interest in the industrial machine, what it makes of men and women and their relationship, and the ensuing "conditions of unmet needs" and desires.

Booker's work has been featured most recently at Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, N.Y. Her work is represented in public collections, including the Bronx Museum of Art, The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and others. The exhibit is supported by the Farley Moody Galbraith Endowed Exhibition Fund and the College of Arts & Sciences.

UA Orman-Harris Lecture March 11 to Focus on Privacy and Consumers

Patricia Faley Kachura, vice president of ethics and consumer affairs for the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) in Washington, D.C., will present "Privacy: The Public Policy Issue of the Decade" for the 2004 Orman- Harris Lecture, Thursday, March 11 at 2 p.m., in 104 Doster Hall. The lecture, sponsored by UA's College of Human Environmental Sciences, is free and open to the public. A reception will immediately follow. Kachura has led the DMA, a 5,000-member organization, in adopting the Privacy Promise to American Consumers, and has developed numerous industry education programs and seminars on privacy issues. The Orman-Harris Lecture was established by the late Mildred Brown Davis to promote the professional development of the College of Human Environmental Sciences faculty and to enrich the quality of its academic programs. For more information, contact Jan Brakefield, coordinator of college relations, UA College of Human Environmental Sciences, at 348-8132 or jbrakefi@ches.ua.edu.

UA's 2004 Annual Cason Award to Honor Two Native Sons

Bragg	Thomson

UA's Department of Journalism will hold its 2004 Clarence Cason Award for Nonfiction Writing Thursday, March 18, at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel. The opening reception begins at 6 p.m.; dinner starts at 7 p.m. followed by the awards and the address by recipient Rick Bragg. Also receiving the award posthumously is Bailey Thomson, UA professor whose recent untimely death affected colleagues all across campus. Tickets are $50.

Bragg's most recent work is I'm a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story, which he will be available to autograph during the reception and after the banquet. For more information, contact Sheila Davis at sdavis@ccom.ua.edu.

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