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Spring Arts Festival maintains tradition
in celebration of African American Arts
File Photo
By Halimah Pasha
Contributing Writer
Clark Atlanta Uni versity ’ s annual Spring
Arts Festival—which began March 29 and
runs through April 30—plans to follow its
tradition of celebrating African American
heritage through music, theater, dance and
poetry.
But unlike tradition, an untimely budget
crunch this year has threatened the number
of activities. Nevertheless, the beat will go
on, as festival organizers refuse to let their
funding restrictions distract them from their
highest objective.
“One of the most important functions of
the Spring Arts Festival is to increase
student involvement,” said Dr. Florence
Robinson, founder of the Spring Arts
Festival.
The festival started at Clark College in
the School of Arts and Sciences in 1971.
Envisioning the union of the Music and
Film Festivals, Robinson brought them
together in creation of the Spring Arts
Festival.
Since its first production in 1972, the
festival grew in support and funding, going
from practically having no budget. Many
celebrities, including Duke Ellington,
performed at no cost as a donation to Clark
College.
But, it was not until 1993 that Special
Events Coordinator Vivian Dixon brought
the festival back as a Clark Atlanta tradition.
Every year CAU students fill the
university auditoriums to see celebrities
like Gill Scott-Heron, Maya Angelou and
John Amos in the festival of arts celebrating
phenomenal African Americans artists.
Last year, the festival attracted poets
Gwendolyn Brooks and Nikki Giovanni,
as well as Essence magazine Editor-in-
Chief Susan Taylor and joumalist/author
Nathan McCall, to name a few.
This year plans to be just as exciting
with the likes of African American
contemporary dancers, Urban Bush
Women, who will kick off the festival with
“Shelter,” a commentary about the
homeless. According to Dixon, they
explore the struggle, growth,
transformation and survival of the human
spirit and create a powerful sense of
community.
Elizabeth Zimmer of The Village Voice
said, “An evening with the Urban Bush
Women has the immediacy and resonance
of a gospel service."
CAU jazz orchestra and dancers will
perform “The Black Pot” by choreographer
Ron Davis and Actor Madeline McCray
will star in “A Dream to,Fly,” a play
depicting the life of Bessie Mae, the first
African American woman.pilot. “A Dream
to Fly” is directed by John Amos.
Also, Internationally acclaimed jazz
vocalist Nancy Wilson will perform in a
fund-raiser for CAU Guild’s Annual Arts
Scholarship Fund.
The festival has been a means through
which students can network with
professionals and promote the arts. CAU
junior, Erika Williams said, “I was offered
a job, after meeting one of the editors of
Essence on campus during the festival last
year.”
Students are the primary target audience
for the festival, but the community is
always welcomed.
“It has been an important community
Continued on p4
Dr. Vivian Wilson
Henderson’s papers
presented to
University
The Atlanta University Center and
Robert W. Woodruff Library on March 24
honored the late Dr. Vivian Wilson
Henderson, the 18th president of Clark
College (now Clark Atlanta University),
with a public presentation of his papers to
the library's Archives and Special
Collections in the Virginia L. Jones
Exhibition Hall. Dr. James Hefner,
president of Tennessee State University,
was the guest speaker.
Henderson was president of Clark
College from 1965 until his death in 1976.
In the 10 years he served as president, he
established major expansion and
development projects for the college that
included new facilities, programs and
departments.
The fields of economics, education and
race relations felt his impact for more than
two decades. As one of the country’s few
black economists at that time, it often fell
on him to articulate the position of black
people in a multifaceted economy. While
some talked in terms of gross national
product and disposable income, Henderson
talked about the need to evolve an
economic strategy, a strategy he saw as a'
marriage involving political, educational
and social opportunities that could be
developed into economic security for the
poor.
Henderson was a member of the 14
Man Task Force, called for by President
Lyndon B. Johnson to develop a new
mandate for the U.S. Employment Service.
In November 1966, he was appointed by
Johnson to the President’s Commission
on Rural Poverty. His skills were utilized
by the Office of Economic Opportunity
and the task forces that prepared important
papers for the 1966 and 1967 White House
conferences on race relations and
employment. He also served as chairman
of the Georgia Advisory Committee to the
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and was
a member of the U.S. National Commission
to UNESCO from 1969 to 1972, serving
on education and human rights committees.
Henderson was the first African
American appointed to the Board of
Trustees of the Ford Foundation, serving
from 1969 to 1976. He was co-chairman
of Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson’s
Reorganization Task Force in 1973, and
education co-chairman of then Governor
Jimmy Carter’s Goals and Georgia
Progress. He participated in President
Gerald Ford’s White House Conference
on Inflation in 1974.
His memberships included the boards
of directors of the National Sharecroppers
Fund; Potomac Institute; Fulton County
Equal Employment Opportunities
Committee and the General Board of
Christian Social Concerns of the Methodist
Church. He was a member of the National
Manpower Advisory Committee and the
National Advisory Committee for Project
Upward Bound.
CAU is the largest United Negro
College Fund institution in the United
States, and is accredited by the Commission
on Colleges of the Southern Association
of Colleges and Schools to award
bachelor’s, master’s, specialist and
doctoral degrees. In its “America’s Best
Colleges” 1996 annual guide, U.S. News
& World Report ranks Clark Atlanta as
one of the best institutions of higher
learning in the United States. CAU is also
a Member of the Host Campus Network
for the Atlanta Commi ttee for the Olympi c
Games and a site for the Olympic field
hockey.
Paschals
Continued from PI
and Robert, started their business in 1947
when they opened a lunch counter on
Hunter Street, now known as Martin Luther
King Jr. Drive.
The brothers sold the business to CAU
this year only after the Uni versity ’ s pledge
to maintain the business’ historical
integrity.