DAVID C. DRISKELL, Artist and Art Historian

It was 1964 and, as a young professor at Howard University in the Department of Art, I had a grant to travel to Europe. It was my first visit to Europe; I started out in Greece. And I wanted to recount some of my classical education, specifically Greek theater, so I went to the amphitheater at the base of the Acropolis to see a performance of The Birds by Aristophanes.

…the arts are universal. 
They move beyond barriers…

FAEDRA CARPENTER, Dramaturg, UMD Assistant Professor, UMD School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies

In 1995 my dear friend and mentor took me to see the Off-Broadway production of Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk. It was early in my career as a professional dramaturg and my mentor thought this much-touted piece would help me gain a greater understanding of the possibilities of devised theatre.

This total merging of the sensory and the cerebral helped me realize, fully, the power of performance…

KENNETH ELPUS, Assistant Professor of Music Education, UMD School of Music

I was directing a choir of high school students in rehearsal of a contemporary piece called A Boy and A Girl by Eric Whitacre, which is an English translation of a poem by Octavio Paz.

…working with young voices, college age and even younger, is such a magical experience.

SHERI PARKS, UMD Professor of American Studies

At first, I was not even looking. I was just a little kid at her teenaged sister’s school performance, playing with some toy in my lap, when I felt the air go still. It was 1968, the end of segregated education in Asheville, North Carolina. My sister’s class would soon move from their all-black school to the much bigger, all-city white school, leaving behind a safe and caring community to go to a place that did not want them.