The University of Colorado at Boulder's Center of the American West will kick off its summer lecture series with a musical celebration of its 20th anniversary on Sunday, May 14, in Chautauqua Park.
"Music by Jubilate! Sacred Singers and Cowboy Poetry with Dr. George Russell: A Birthday Party for the Center of the American West" will be held in Chautauqua Auditorium starting at 6:30 p.m. The cost is $12 for the general public and $10 for Chautauqua members. Mothers are especially welcome at this Mother's Day event.
The Jubilate! Sacred Singers of Boulder will perform works celebrating nature and the American West by Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, William Billings, Bob Nolan, William Dawson and others. Poetry by Robert Frost, e.e. cummings and cowboy poets will be performed by Dr. George Russell, a Boulder dermatologist.
"We are very pleased to be honoring both the mothers among us and 'Mother Nature' on May 14," said Professor Patty Limerick, faculty director of the center.
The May 14 event will kick off a series of five summer lectures on energy, wildfire and modern American Indian identity along with a performance of "Tonight! Buffalo Bill!" by Bill Mooney of Boulder. The schedule of events follows:
o May 15 -- Willett Kempton, senior policy scientist at the University of Delaware's Center for Energy and Environmental Policy, will lecture on "Preventing Climate Catastrophe: How, When and How Much To Cut CO2?" at Chautauqua Community House at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $3 for the general public, $1 for Chautauqua members.
o May 22 -- Rebecca Watson, former assistant secretary for land and minerals management at the U.S. Department of the Interior, will lecture on "Current Administration Energy Policies and Public Policy," at the Chautauqua Community House at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $3 for the general public, $1 for Chautauqua members.
o May 31 -- Roger G. Kennedy, former director of the National Park Service now with the Harvard Environmental Center, will lecture on "Wildfire and Americans: How to Save Lives, Property and Your Tax Dollars," in Old Main Chapel on the CU-Boulder campus at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. A reception will follow the talk.
o June 12 -- Mark Trahant, editorial page editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and member of the Shosone-Bannock tribe, will lecture on "Modern Native American Identity" at the Chautauqua Community House at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $3 for the general public, $1 for Chautauqua members.
o June 19 -- Greg Franta, principal architect and team leader of the Rocky Mountain Institute/ENSAR Built Environment Team, will lecture on "Green Building Practices" at Chautauqua Community House at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $3 for the general public, $1 for Chautauqua members.
o Aug. 14 -- "Tonight! Buffalo Bill!" written and performed by two-time Grammy and two-time Emmy nominee Bill Mooney of Boulder at Chautauqua Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Mooney appeared on television for 13 years as Paul Martin in "All My Children" and also performed for many years on Broadway. Admission is $10 for the general public, $7 for Chautauqua members.
The May 14 musical celebration of the centers grew out of a 2005 Boulder Rotary fundraiser for the Virginia Patterson Family Birth Center at Boulder Community Hospital, Limerick said.
"I got inspired, during the auction, by my admiration for Virginia Patterson and by the thought of all the mothers and babies who would benefit from the Birth Center," she said. "So I ended the evening as the owner of a prospective pie, baked by Virginia, and a concert by the very talented singing group, Jubilate!"
For more information visit the CU-Boulder Center of the American West's Web site at or call (303) 492-4879.