January 28, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Robyn Truslow
410-535-0291
Celebrate Black History Month with Calvert Library! Whether you are a history-maker or a youngun’, Calvert Library is offering you multiple ways to celebrate and to learn something new. For the small ones, there will be a make-and-take craft offered at each library location the entire month of February. For children in kindergarten through third grade, Kids Just Want to Have Fun themes for February will include Matthew Henson, African-American co-discoverer of the North Pole. Families should plan to attend the living history presentation about Charles Ball on Saturday, February 23 at 2:30pm at Calvert Library Prince Frederick. This event is sponsored by Maryland Humanities Council and features Vincent Leggett as a third-generation slave from Calvert County who was sold to a trader in the deep south and escaped back to Maryland where he acted as a free man and fought in the War of 1812 on behalf of Commodore Barney’s Chesapeake Flotilla. Ball was discharged in 1814 and published an autobiography, The Life and Adventures of Charles Ball, in 1837. Ball’s story provides a lens through which we can examine the legacy of blacks in the Chesapeake, including their role in the War of 1812.
Leggett, who portrays Charles Ball, is founder of the Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation (1984) and the Chesapeake Ecology Center (2002). He has held positions at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Anne Arundel Community College, Anne Arundel County and Baltimore City Public Schools, and he currently serves as Executive Director of the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis. Mr. Leggett is the author of The Chesapeake Bay Through Ebony Eyes (1999) and Blacks of the Chesapeake: An Integral Part of Maritime History (1997). He has also developed a curriculum on the Blacks of the Chesapeake, which is used by school systems in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the District of Columbia.
For those looking for more personal engagement, the civil discourse planning team is hosting a showing of the film Ethnic Notions followed by a discussion. Ethnic Notions is an award-winning documentary about negative racial stereotypes and the impact they have continued to have on Black America. The 57-minute film will begin at 6:30pm on Thursday, February 28 at Calvert Library Prince Frederick.
All month, Calvert Library Prince Frederick will be hosting an exhibit celebrating local African-American history. Billy Poe is an author, poet, contractor, photographer and television host. He has developed an exhibit documenting Calvert County’s African-American community through photos, video and oral histories. The photos will be on exhibit through the middle of March and Mr. Poe will be available on Saturday, March 9 at 2:30pm to talk about his work and to answer questions. The exhibit, called My African-American Community: A Collection of Photographs and Stories, 2000-2010 is on loan from Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center, Solomons, Maryland.
For more information, call the Calvert Library Prince Frederick at 410-535-0291 or 301-855-1862 or check the website at calvert.lib.md.us.
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Robyn Truslow
Public Relations Coordinator
Calvert Library
850 Costley Way
Prince Frederick, MD 20678
Phone 410-535-0291
Fax 410-535-3022
Calvert Library…your destination for imagination, information and inspiration!
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