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Oral History to be Recorded in Savannah

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Savannah, GA, January 16, 2009–The Georgia Historical Society and the Telfair Museum of Art are partnering with Georgia Public Broadcasting and local GPB station WSVH to bring StoryCorps, the nation’s largest oral history project, to Savannah. StoryCorps travels the country, collecting the oral histories of friends and loved ones, one conversation at a time. Since 2003, tens of thousands of everyday people have interviewed family and friends through StoryCorps. The StoryCorps program is regularly heard on radio during NPR’s Morning Edition and News And Notes. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to take home and share, and is archived for generations to come at the Library of Congress.

“The heart of StoryCorps is the conversation between two people who are important to each other: a son asking his mother about her childhood, an immigrant telling his friend about coming to America, or a couple reminiscing on their 50th wedding anniversary. By helping people to connect, and to talk about the questions that matter, the StoryCorps experience is powerful and sometimes even life-changing,” says Dave Isay, Award Winning Documentary Producer and Founder of StoryCorps.

Savannah, Georgia“The Georgia Historical Society is proud to support this effort to collect and preserve Georgia’s history,” says Dr. Todd Groce, GHS President and CEO.
Station Manager Eric Nauert, of GPB’s Savannah station WSVH 91.1 FM, appreciates both StoryCorps and the opportunity for people in the coastal community to participate. “Given Savannah’s rich history and colorful characters I think it’s entirely appropriate and exciting that StoryCorps has chosen to spend some time on these cobblestone streets.”

The StoryCorps’ Mobilebooth will be parked at the corner of President and Barnard Streets in Telfair Square from January 27 – February 21, 2009. The Mobilebooth is available by reservation only; reservations can be made by calling 800.850.4406. For information about how you can participate in StoryCorps’ Savannah stop visit www.gpb.org/storycorpssavannah, and for additional information about preparing for an interview visit www.storycorps.net/record-your-story.

The Georgia Historical Society, headquartered in Savannah, is the oldest cultural institution in the state and one of the oldest historical organizations in the nation. It is the first and only statewide historical society in Georgia. For nearly 170 years, GHS has collected, preserved, and shared Georgia history through a variety of educational outreach programs, publications, and research services. For more information visit: www.georgiahistory.com.

New Mariza Brings a Smile to the World

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A Genre Reborn and a Singer Transformed:A New Mariza Brings a Smile to the World

Portugal’s voice of fado was born in Mozambique and grew up in her family’s fado house… singing songs at such a young age that her father drew pictures so that Mariza could understand the intense emotions… sadness, longing, the pain of love, the agony of love lost.

mariza“Fado” means fate, and little did anyone know at the time that Mariza’s was to bring the national treasure of Portugal to the world’s ears. She is the reigning Queen of Fado… with multiple Grammy nominations, a BBC World Music Awards honoree as Best European Act, and a new album and extensive North American tour. Mariza comes to the Lucas Theatre in Savannah on March 21s, 2009.

Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile” was never supposed to end up on the latest album by Portugal’s musical grande dame. Mariza , a fado powerhouse, and Brazilian pianist Ivan Lins were just clowning around, having some fun with the sweet song that’s been covered by everybody from Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross to Judy Garland and even Michael Jackson. That is, until they realized producer Javier Limón had been secretly recording them. When she looked up and saw tears in his eyes, she wondered what she had done. “I thought we broke something, I thought we did something wrong!” she exclaims. Sung with the kind of beautiful melancholy that only a fadista can bring, it instead ends up as a bonus track on the North American release of Terra (Four Quarters Entertainment / World Connection), a musical proclamation that Mariza has come into her own. Terra will be released Stateside on January 27, 2009, to coincide with an extensive three-month 47 city tour of North America.
Mariza calls “Smile” a gift, a “present for the kindness people have given to me through all this time, trying to understand me. It’s my way of saying ‘Thank you’.” And audiences have certainly enjoyed watching her transform. If her debut album Fado em Mim was an effort to establish her knowledge of the fado tradition, having grown up in her father’s fado house in Lisbon, her second release Fado Curvo allowed her to put her own stamp on the tradition while demonstrating that there are more ways than one to move artistically from point A to point B. Her next release, Transparente, a more intimate, classically-inspired take on fado, expressed Mariza as a more experienced and sophisticated artist.
Since then Mariza has continued to wow audiences with her powerful talent as a live performer, recording the album Concerto Em Lisboa to a hometown audience of several thousand right next to that most visual icon of fado-the sea. She has also traveled the world, selling out concert halls, from Carnegie Hall and Disney Concert Hall to London’s Royal Albert Hall and the Sydney Opera House, and winning awards, including a BBC World Music Award and 2008 Latin Grammy nomination.

Now a mature performer, Mariza’s Terra showcases the new voice of Portugal, a voice comfortable enough with Portuguese music to have some fun with it. On the one hand, Terra is firmly planted in tradition; tracks like “Já Me Deixou” and “Rosa Branca” rejuvenate well-worn, beloved songs of the past, and “Recurso” demonstrates her lifelong commitment to fado, having discovered this hand-written, never-published poem by David Mourão-Ferreira in a fado museum.

On the other hand, nourished by her traditional roots, Mariza branches out in new directions. The first clue of this was her choice of Javier Limón, a Grammy-nominated Spanish flamenco guitarist/producer (known for his work with Paco de Lucia, Bebo & Cigala, and Buika), as producer for Terra . At first leery of having somebody with such a different musical background working with her on her new album, Mariza invited him to Portugal to play in a taverna. It was then that it hit her: “Right then I knew he was the right one for this. With him, everything was music, for music.”

Collaboration with other musicians yielded musical fruits on the tracks of Terra as well. “Fronteira,” a lively song discussing the real and imagined borders between Portugal and Spain, features a folkloric Portuguese rhythm from the north that is made to sound gently Cuban through the playing of Chucho Valdes, the Cuban pianist and bandleader more known for his jazz stylings, and with a battery of Portuguese percussion played by Spanish master El Piraña. “Alma de Vento” was created in the highly unconventional manner of having a guitar line first sent to her by Dominic Miller, an Argentinian-born, London-raised musician who now plays with Sting, around which she had to find the right lyrics.

Perhaps the most memorable musical melding on the album happens in the morna “Beijo de Saudade.” The poem was written in misery in 1958 by one of the greatest Cape Verdean poets, B.leza, who had married a fado star, moved to Portugal, and found himself dying in a hospital bed where he saw the sea-and his tiny, faraway home island-through the window.

Joining her on the track is Tito Paris, a Cape Verdean icon, living in Lisbon who has worked before with Mariza and Cesaria Evora, among others, and who blends African influences into the Portuguese musical landscape. Half Mozambican herself, Mariza finds the collaboration on Terra deeply personal as well, saying that “Tito is putting the African part that is missing in me, and I’m putting the Portuguese part that is missing in him.” Along with an elegant muted trumpet, the track is loaded with enough fado-worthy longing to create a timeless masterpiece.

Iberian splendor is captured in the track “Pequenas Verdades,” a sweet tune written for Mariza by Limón himself. Wanting to retain the original Spanish flavor, they brought in Concha Buika-known simply as Buika-a meteorically rising Afro-Spanish flamenco singer.

It’s easy to put a star like Mariza into a musical box. Fado, the beguiling music that helped catapult her onto the global soundscape also taunts her like a jealous lover never wanting to be neglected for too long, a curious and passionate relationship she recounts on the track “Mihn’Alma.” Yet the transformed Mariza firmly stands her ground. With a new musical family surrounding her and the voice of experience and tradition behind her, she reaches out to give Portugal a new sound.


March 21st 2009, Saturday in Savannah, GA
Lucas Theatre, 32 Abercorn Street
Tickets: $20.00 – $65.00, Show: 8:30 PM
Ticket information: (912)234-3378
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Magellanic Penguins to be highlight of Aquarium’s new exhibit Penguin Planet

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Charleston, S.C. – January 13, 2009 – The South Carolina Aquarium confirmed today that Magellanic penguins will be arriving soon to inhabit the new temporary exhibit, Penguin Planet. The animals will be on loan from SeaWorld.

Penguin Planet SC Aqurium courtesy of SeaWorld
Penguin Planet SC Aqurium courtesy of SeaWorld

Opening March 2009, Penguin Planet will host a Magellanic penguin habitat and 550 square feet of exhibit space. Guests will have the opportunity to see these aquatic flightless birds firsthand through the exhibits 10 foot wide window allowing for underwater viewing. Included in general admission, Penguin Planet will delight and educate visitors through its awe-inspiring Magellanic penguins, children’s interactive learning games, educational exhibits on climate change effects in South Carolina and daily programs.

Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) are a near threatened species distinguished by two brown stripes on their chests. They are small birds ranging from 24-28 inches tall and average 8-11 pounds in weight. Magellanic penguins are typically found in the Falkland Islands, Chile and Argentina coasts. They prey on small fishes and invertebrates. Natural predators for the birds include Southern sea lions, leopard seals, and Patagonian foxes. A near threatened species, there is estimated to be only 1,300,000 pairs of Magellanic penguins in the world.

An accredited institution by the Association of Zoo’s and Aquarium’s (AZA), the South Carolina Aquarium’s Penguin Planet exhibit has approval from the rigorous AZA Penguin Taxon advisory group. AZA is the leading accrediting organization for zoos and aquariums and accredits only those institutions that have achieved meticulous standards for animal health, education, wildlife conservation and science. With approximately 2,400 animal exhibitors licensed by the United States Department of Agriculture, only 10% of the institutions are accredited.

Penguin Planet SC Aquarium. Photo: SeaWorld
Penguin Planet SC Aquarium. Photo: SeaWorld

China on My Mind – Jekyll Island, GA

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China on My Mind: Inspired by Travels Exhibit of Painting and Pottery

Presented by Jekyll Island Arts Association

The powerful visual inspirations from trips abroad have given us China on My Mind: Inspired by Travels, a collection of new work by two Jekyll Island Arts Association members, painter Linda Wunder and potter Nan Phillips. Wunder’s works of Chinese watercolor on rice paper, colored pencil, acrylic, mixed media and photography alongside Phillips’ high fire stoneware bring the Far East to the Golden Isles.

An Interior Designer by trade with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Linda Wunder enjoys her studio on Jekyll Island.  She wants her painting to reveal her impression of and feelings about a subject. Linda often paints by memory, however, her memory is refined by the feelings the subject is generating.  She truly feels sentiment and mood should prevail in a successful painting. This collection, inspired by her travel to China, has allowed Linda to share her impressions through the integration of traditional Chinese brushwork and contemporary techniques.

Nan Phillips, a Potter since 1957, holds a Bachelor of Arts. She calls the Jekyll Island Pottery Guild in the basement of Goodyear Cottage home.  Nan states, “When I first touched potters clay I knew that I wanted to make beautiful things with this medium for the rest of my life. Everyday, I deal with earth, water, air and fire, each in its proper proportion, all in a rhythm dictated by nature’s science.” Nan’s new collection, inspired by China, is a reminder to her, “My art keeps me connected with all the potters whoever worked in mountain caves, desert canyons and village markets. I think how these pots of mine will outlive me and be passed down from user to user.”

China on My Mind: Inspired by Travels , a collection of new work by these two exceptional artists will be for sale during their show at Goodyear Cottage in Jekyll Island’s Historic District February 1st – March 8th as well as at the artist reception Sunday, February 1st from 1-3 PM. Admission is always free at Goodyear’s gallery and shop, where regular hours are M-F Noon – 4 PM and weekends 10 AM-4 PM. For more information call 635-3920.