2003 Syracuse Symposium to feature Sojourner Storytellers and Nobel chemist and author Roald Hoffmann

2003 Syracuse Symposium to feature Sojourner Storytellers and Nobel chemist and author Roald HoffmannFebruary 11, 2003Judy Holmesjlholmes@syr.edu

The 2003 Syracuse Symposium, “Journeys,” will continue on Feb. 13 at Syracuse University with songwriters and political satirists Charlie King and Karen Brandow, who are the keynote speakers for the 5th Annual Sojourner Storytelling Conference; and a presentation by poet, playwright, and Nobel chemist Roald Hoffmann, a survivor of Nazi Germany. The events are free and open to the public.

Hoffmann, the Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor of Human Letters at Cornell University, will present “Journeys Between the Sciences and the Arts” at 7:30 p.m. in the University’s Shaffer Art Building’s Shemin Auditorium. Brandow and King will present “Songs of the Civil Rights Movement” at 1 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel, and they will present “Journeys,” a storytelling performance, at 7:30 p.m. in the Alibrandi Catholic Center, 110 Walnut St.

In addition to the keynote speakers, the Sojourner Storytelling Conference will include presentations and workshops by noted Central New York storytellers. The conference will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel and will begin again at 7:30 p.m. in the Alibrandi Catholic Center, 110 Walnut Place.

Other featured storytellers include Francis McMillan Parks, director of Students Offering Service and African American Programs at Hendricks Chapel, and author Arthur Flowers, assistant professor of English, presenting “A Quiltmaker’s Journey,” “Aesop’s Fables” and “From the Harlem Renaissance;” Vanessa Johnson, Onondaga Historical Association education director, presenting “Voices from the Underground Railroad;” Hendricks Chapel Dean Thomas Wolfe presenting “Jonah;” and noted historian Sally Roesch Wagner presenting “A Conversation in Springfield, Il.,: Matilda Jocelyn Gage and Abraham Lincoln.”

Hoffmann survived the horrors of Nazi Germany as a child, migrated to the United States, and built a distinguished academic career that culminated in the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (shared with Kenichi Fukui). An applied theoretical chemist, Hoffmann is the only person ever to have received American Chemical Society awards in three different sub-fields of chemistry. He is the author, with artist Vivian Torrence, of “Chemistry Imagined,” an examination of the creative and humanistic sparks of the molecular science. He has published three volumes of poetry, and his play “Oxygen,” co-authored with Carl Djerassi, premiered in 2001 in the San Diego Repertory Theater and has been produced in London, Wurtzburg and Munich.

King’s and Brandow’s repertoire covers more than a century of music and stories from four continents. The duo has sung in support of numerous groups working for peace, human rights, environmental sanity and alternatives to violence. King has released more than a dozen solo albums, and his songs have been recorded and sung by such performers as Pete Seeger, Chad Mitchell and Judy Small.

Brandow is the author of “The Sky Never Changes” (ILR Press at Cornell University), a story about the Guatemalan labor movement. She is a founding member of the a cappella group the Non-Traditional Imports.

The Sojourner Storytelling Conference is a joint presentation of the Syracuse Symposium, and Students Offering Service and African American Programs at SU’s Hendricks Chapel. The event is sponsored by a number of the University’s colleges, academic departments and administrative divisions, including The College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Human Services and Health Professions and the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

The Syracuse Symposium is an annual intellectual festival celebrating interdisciplinary thinking, imagining and creating. The 2003 symposium explores “Journeys” of discovery, intellectual journeys, mythical and artistic journeys, migrations of peoples, exiles, liberations, pilgrimages and more. The series will continue through the Spring 2003 and Fall 2003 semesters with lectures, exhibits, performances and other special events.