Q&A Queries and Announcements

The Flintridge Foundation invites eligible visual artists who have been working in a mature phase of their art got a minimum of 20 years to apply for the second biennial cycle of the Visual Artists Awards. Twelve artists, who will be selected based on the level of serious artistic merit and development, will be awarded $25,000 each. Applications will be accepted from artists working in fine arts, crafts media and traditional arts. Applicants must have at least nine-months-per-year residency in California, Oregon or Washington for a minimum of three years. Guidelines and applications will be available in February 1999; the application deadline is May 15, 1999. To receive an application for the 1999-2000 cycle, write to: Flintridge Foundation, Visual Artists Awards, 1040 Lincoln Ave., Suite 100, Pasadena, CA 91103, send a fax to (626) 744-9256, or send e-mail to FFVAA@JLMoseleyCo.com.

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

Global Volunteers, a private nonprofit organization, urgently needs medical volunteers and generalists to work on community projects in Ghana. The projects range from teaching English, math, science and home economics to building schools and conducting medical, eye and dental examinations. Three-week assignments begin on January 22 and continue throughout the year. A fee of $1,985 covers meals, lodging, in-country ground transportation, and project costs and services. For additional information, write to: Global Volunteers, 375 E. Little Canada Road, St. Paul, MN 55117, call (800) 487-1074, or send e-mail to email@ globalvolunteers.org.

EDUCATION PROGRAM

Captain Bill Pinkney, the first African American to sail solo around the world, is preparing to retrace the original slave trade route from Africa to the New World, better know as the Middle Passage. Pinkney's Middle Passage voyage has been developed into an interdisciplinary curriculum program for the 1998-99 school year. The multimedia curriculum, designed for both elementary and high school students, will provide member schools with an array of hands-on interactive learning activities for their students. It will also include 15 high-interest videotapes capturing all of the challenges and excitement of this incredible journey, as well as a full-color wall map and a comprehensive teacher's guide. Individual schools can join in this historic voyage by ordering the Middle Passage Voyage Education Program. For complete details, call: Larry Walcoff, (800) 641-3912, or send e-mail to walcoff@aol.com.

GENEALOGY

Trudy Bradfield Taliaferro seeks information on the parents of her paternal grandfather, Joseph Cyrus Bradfield of Manassas, Prince William County, Va., and information on the father of his wife, Elizabeth Williams (believed to be the daughter of Lucy or Louise Williams), also of Manassas. Bradfield was a railroad man, and he and Williams fled Virginia in 1880 or '81 because of its miscegenation laws. They ultimately settled in Mount Vernon, Ohio, where they were married. Five children--George, William, Walter, Joseph and Stella--were born between 1882 and 1889. Bradfield completed medical school at Starling Ohio Medical College in 1911, and he served as a captain in the U.S. Army in World War I in Europe from September 1917 to March 1919.

Taliaferro also seeks information on the parents of her maternal great-grandparents Charles Lycurgus Harris of Lebanon, Ohio, and Elizabeth Duval of Greensboro, Ala. The son of Amos Harris, Charles Harris was a Methodist minister with a pastorate in Tougaloo, Miss., at the turn of the century. His half brother Horace Ferguson owned one of the first black restaurants in St. Louis, Mo. If you have specific information on Amos Harris, who purportedly went west in the gold rush of 1849 and then returned to Ohio, or on other family members, write to: Trudy Bradfield Taliaferro, TALIAFERRO1@prodigy.net.

SCHOLARSHIPS

Scholarships are now available from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation for its 1999 Arts and Critic Residency Program, "Artist as Catalyst--New Jersey Exchange." The artist, the host organization, or both must be located in New Jersey. Residencies take place between June 1, 1999, and March 31, 2000. The application deadline is February 2, 1999. To obtain an application and guidelines, write to: Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, 22 Light St., Suite300, Baltimore, MD 21202, or call (410) 539-6656.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., was recently awarded $50,000 to name Robert Alexander, one of the nation's most daring and accomplished African-American playwrights, as playwright-in-residence for two years. Alexander's multifaceted residency includes developing and premiering his play The Last Orbit of Billy Mars during the 1998-99 season and conducting readings and developmental workshops on several other recent works, including Moon in Gemini and Freak of Nature. He will also edit an anthology of Woolly's plays, teach playwriting classes, and work with neighborhood youth as part of the Outside Woolly program.