Friends of the Libraries Annual Dinner May 2009

The Friends Annual Dinner is held each spring to celebrate the achievements of the Libraries, thank Friends for their support and encourage individuals to become Friends and take an active role in promoting and supporting the Libraries. 

The event this year took place on Wednesday, May 13 in the Doris Duke Center at Sarah P. Duke Gardens.  Bland Simpson, Bowman & Gordon Gray Professor of English and Creative Writing, UNC Chapel Hill; author; and longtime member of The Red Clay Ramblers provided the evening's musical entertainment.  

Click the link below to see pictures from the event taken by Executive Committee Member David Stein;

http://picasaweb.google.com/dsteinmeister/FriendsOfDukeLibrary

During the business portion of the meeting, Andy Armacost, Barbara Collie, Jacqueline Looney, Frances Rollins, Ginger Wilson, Kathy World, and student member Arthur Leopold were elected to three year terms as members of the Friends Executive Committee.  Mary Siedow and Leslie Dillon were elected chair and vice-chair for the 2009-2010 year. 

SunTrust Bank, MacThrift Office Furniture, the Gothic Bookshop and Whole Foods generously supported the event.  Many thanks.

Bland Simpson Entertains

A teacher since 1982 in UNC-Chapel Hill's Creative Writing Program, and the program's director from 2002 to mid-2008, Bland Simpson is Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professor of English and Creative Writing, and is an author and musician.  Since 1986 he has been a member of the Tony Award-winning, internationally acclaimed stringband The Red Clay Ramblers, Simpson has toured extensively in North America, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and has also collaborated on, or contributed to, several musicals.

Simpson's CD Follow You All Over the World was released by Gaff Music in 2003. Kudzu, A Southern Musical, Simpson's collaboration with fellow Rambler Jack Herrick and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Doug Marlette, was released on CD by Bypass Productions, December, 2003.

In November, 2005, Simpson was given the North Carolina Award for Fine Arts, the state's highest civilian honor.  North Carolina Award for Fine Arts 2005 Citation