Brooklyn, NY--"Brooklyn USA: A City Apart," a three-day conference and cultural event extravaganza, will take place at Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus from October 21 through October 23. General admission for all three days is $25 when purchased before October 15 and $30 after, or participants may register on a daily basis for $10 per day. Senior citizens and high school/non-LIU college students (with ID) will pay $5 per day. Tickets to the October 23 Persuasions concert will cost $10 each.

Marking the 100th anniversary of the borough's incorporation into the City of New York, the festivities at LIU are part of "New York City 100: 1998 Centennial Celebration," a year-long, multi-institutional, city-wide commemoration. LIU's celebration is being coordinated by History Professor Joseph Dorinson, who previously produced successful conferences on Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson; Urban Studies Department Chair Professor Jose R. Sanchez; and graduate student Andrea Morris.

Day-by-day highlights include:

October 21: Award-winning novelist Howard Fast will open the conference, following greetings by Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden and an invocation by Bishop Daily, the Bishop of Brooklyn. Fast, who will speak on "Revolutionary Brooklyn," is known for such historical fiction works as Spartacus, Citizen Tom Paine and Freedom Road, and also penned the best-seller, The Immigrants. In the afternoon, panels on "Brooklyn Fights City Hall" and "Brooklyn Journalism" precede the keynote address by Pete Hamill. A Brooklyn native, Hamill is a journalist, editor, novelist and screenwriter who was editor-in-chief of the Daily News last year. The day will conclude with a performance by the New York City Labor Chorus.

October 22: Morning panel discussions on "Brooklyn Communities" and "Brooklyn Education" will culminate in a keynote address by Columbia University historian Kenneth T. Jackson, who will speak on "A Tale of Two Cities: Manhattan and Brooklyn." Jackson is editor of the Encyclopedia of New York City, the first major reference tool for the metropolis in almost a century. A mid-day walking tour of Fort Greene with Professor Jackson will be followed by panels on "Ethnic Brooklyn," "Brooklyn Communities," "Brooklyn Technology" and "Brooklyn Education," as well as a performance by the LIU/Brooklyn Dance Troupe. The evening will feature a double bill of plays: "Voices of Brooklyn," sponsored by the Brooklyn Historical Society, and "Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson," produced by LIU/Brooklyn Campus alumnus Juney Smith.

October 23: Panel discussions on "Brooklyn Politics," "Brooklyn Business," "Religious Brooklyn" and Brooklyn Arts and Culture" will be sandwiched around a showcase of art by Brooklyn artists, a "Foods of Brooklyn" luncheon and a Brooklyn film series. A concert by the a cappella group The Persuasions, who started out their career with performances on the street corners of Brooklyn in the early 1960s, will cap the three days of activities. They will sing a medley of soul, gospel and R&B compositions in LIU's Arnold & Marie Schwartz Athletic Center, which was formerly the orchestra of the Brooklyn Paramount Theater.

Built in 1928 as the first theatre specifically for screening talking pictures, The Paramount was restored by the University a couple of years ago. Its marble columns, art-deco mirrors and gilded fountains arising from wall alcoves are a testament to its hey-day as a popular concert venue. The Theater's Mighty Wurlitzer Organ, even more impressive than its counterpart at Radio City Music Hall, is still played today at various campus functions.

"We at Long Island University are celebrating the many ways that Brooklyn has been able to forge a distinctive identity over the past 100 years, while being part of the City of New York," said Gale Stevens Haynes, Brooklyn Campus provost.

"The Campus is making an important contribution by presenting scholarly conferences, such as "Brooklyn USA: A City Apart," which are welcoming to the general public and feature a range of related cultural events," she added. "We accomplished this with the Jackie Robinson conference in the spring of 1997 and with the Paul Robeson conference last February. "

For more information on "Brooklyn USA: A City Apart," please call Andrea Morris at 718-780-4515 or check the website www.liunet.edu/bklynusa.

Located at the intersection of Flatbush and DeKalb Avenues, the Brooklyn Campus of Long Island University is one of the fastest-growing institutions of higher learning in the New York metropolitan area. It offers more than 11,000 students 120 programs in over 50 undergraduate and a comparable number of graduate fields, including the doctorate in several areas. Its cultural diversity, innovative academic spirit, NCAA Division I Blackbirds sports teams, and landscaped campus next to downtown Brooklyn's MetroTech revival make the Brooklyn Campus a model of urban higher education.

Contact: Michele Forsten/718-488-1418 [email protected]

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