Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417
AMHERST, Mass.-Amherst College has scheduled three special programs of singing, speaking and preaching in February for the college's annual celebration of the life of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Free and open to the public, events include the Howard University Chorale on Saturday, Feb. 5, writer Ellis Cose on Tuesday, Feb. 8 and preachers Henry and Ella Mitchell on Sunday, Feb. 13.
The Howard University Chorale will perform on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 8 p.m. in Buckley Recital Hall in the Arms Music Center at Amherst College. Conducted by J. Weldon Norris since 1973, the Howard University Chorale is a traditional classically oriented ensemble that flexibly blends in the Afro-American repertoire, both historical and modern.
Ellis Cose will speak on Tuesday, Feb. 8, at 8 p.m. in Johnson Chapel. The author of many books, including most recently Bone to Pick: Of Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Reparation, and Revenge (2004), Cose is a columnist and contributing editor for Newsweek magazine and former editorial page editor of the New York Daily News. He began his journalism career as a weekly columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times-becoming, at the age of 19, the youngest editorial page columnist ever employed by a Chicago daily.
The featured speakers at the annual Interfaith Service in Johnson Chapel on Sunday, Feb. 13, at 2 p.m. will be Henry and Ella Mitchell, educators and authors of numerous books on preaching and the American religious experience. Henry Mitchell is the author of Black Preaching, The Recovery of Preaching and Celebration of Experience in Preaching. The founding director of the Ecumenical Center for Black Church Studies in Los Angeles, he was also dean and professor at the Proctor School of Theology (Virginia Union University). Ella Mitchell was a dean at Spelman College and professor at the Proctor School.
The Mitchells have taught together in the doctor of ministry program for United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, as well as for seminaries in Pennsylvania, California, England, Russia and the Congo. Married for 58 years, the Mitchells have led seminars on marriage and written an autobiography, Together for Good.
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