susan b anthony

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - After years of delays, a Frederick Douglass cultural center is finally being built just a minute's walk from the Victorian house once owned by fellow civil rights crusader Susan B. Anthony.

Douglass spent 25 of his most influential years in Rochester, publishing The North Star journal on Main Street. It was the place, he later wrote, where "I shall always feel more at home ... than anywhere else in the country."

Renovations started Wednesday at a former metalwork shop where the Frederick Douglass Resource Center will open next spring at a cost of nearly $1 million. It sits on King Street next to a neighborhood green dominated by a bronze sculpture of Douglass and Anthony conversing face-to-face over a pot of tea.



The project, supported by a $650,000 state grant and a more recent infusion of $550,000 from the city, ends decades of failed efforts here to create an epicenter honoring the 19th-century anti-slavery leader, said its executive director, Gerry Hunt.

Douglass "was able to do some of his greatest things using Rochester as his base," Hunt said. "Tourists who come into the city and wonder 'how come there's nothing for Douglass?' will be able to visit the center at the same time they might be visiting the Susan B. Anthony house.

"This has been a dream not only of the African-American community but truly the entire community."

The center will feature a theater, a workshop, two classrooms, a computer resource center and a large exhibit space for displays as well as artifacts borrowed on a rotating basis from black American cultural institutions around the country, including New York City's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Hunt said.

The project is spearheaded by his father, the Rev. Errol Hunt, a former Urban League director in Providence, R.I., who grew up in New Bedford, Mass. _ the town where Douglass experienced his newfound freedom after his boyhood in slavery in Maryland.

The elder Hunt has been trying to find a setting for a Douglass heritage hub since his arrival in Rochester in the early 1990s, but various community projects intended to memorialize Douglass have been beset by infighting and funding setbacks.

A museum featuring displays linking Douglass to other civil rights advocates opened on Main Street in 1999 but was evicted in December 2000 for not paying rent. Xerox Corp. pledged $500,000 but withdrew most of its donation after organizers ignored repeated requests for financial documents.

Douglass and Anthony, who are buried at the city's Mount Hope Cemetery, both were active in the abolitionist and women's rights movements _ and became close friends in the years after their first meeting here in 1848.

Across the square on Madison Street, Anthony's red-brick home has been lovingly restored as a museum extolling women's achievements in molding the nation. Douglass' family farmhouse in Rochester was destroyed in a suspected arson in 1872, the same year that Anthony was arrested for daring to vote.




Laurie Mireau is one of 35 artists who have donated work for the Lunenburg Art Gallery's gala fundraising art auction and wine tasting today, 2 to 5 p.m., at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic.

Tickets are $20 at the Lunenburg Art Gallery, The Visitors Centre or Fulton's Pharmacy in Lunenburg, Kinburn Pharmasave in Mahone Bay and at Sagor's Bookstore in Bridgewater.

MADE-IN-N.S.


Ten local artisans in Halifax area have organized an independent boutique show of made-in-Nova-Scotia fashion and craft for local consumers.

The show, with free admission, is today at the St. Mary's Boat Club, 1641 Fairfield Road (off Jubilee Road).

Doors open at 1:45 p.m. There is a fashion show of artwear designs including, jackets, wraps, millinery and jewellery at 2 p.m., and an artisan boutique from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.

The line-up of artisans includes Arashi ― art to wear (Wilma Butts), Armstrong Fox Textiles (Lesley Armstrong & Anke Fox), Catherine Beck Jewellery Designs, d. Digs Pottery (Denise Jeffrey), Glass Art (Kathryn Gordon), Leave Your Hat On (Thea Crawford), Margot Metcalfe Photography, One Off Studio Pottery (Carol Smeraldo), Silver Birch Fibres (Grace Butland) and StoneLeaf Lamps (Anna Spooner).

BUTTERFIELD TOUR


Tom Butterfield, director of the Masterworks Foundation in Bermuda, gives an exhibit tour of Painters in Paradise: The Bermuda Masterworks Collection today, 2:30 p.m., at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

This event is the official close of the exhibition, which presents paintings by artists of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries who made their way to Bermuda and islands to the south of Bermuda from the U.S., Great Britain, Canada and France.

Those artists include Winslow Homer at the beginning of the 20th century, American modernists Charles Demuth and Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keefe, Jack Bush and the first winner of the Turner Prize, Malcolm Morley.

MYERS IN GARDEN


Sunday Music in the Garden Room, the popular free classical chamber music series sponsored by the Valley Branch of the Associated Alumni of Acadia University, opens its fourth season with a concert by young, award-winning New York pianist Spencer Myer today, 3 p.m., in the Garden Room of Acadia University's K.C. Irving Environmental Sciences Centre in Wolfville.

Myer's solo concert on the Garden Room's recently-donated Steinway grand piano will include works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Nikolai Medtner and Igor Stravinsky in the first half of his concert and The Four Ballades by Frédéric Chopin in the second half.

OLD MAN LUEDECKE


Old Man Luedecke plays today, 2 to 3 p.m., at the Lunenburg bandstand as part of the 20th Annual Lunenburg Bandstand Concert Series. His concert is the final one for this summer.

In case of rain, concerts are held in the hall of Central United Church, across from the bandstand.

COCO LOVE ALCORN


Vancouver-based singer Coco Love Alcorn plays Berwick's Union Street Cafe tonight.

Alcorn is promoting her CD Sugar, her first all-original collection of songs. She has sung and toured with 54-40, opened for artists such Chantal Kreviazuk, Ani DiFranco, and Jesse Cook, played Lilith Fair and The Stardust Picnic, made videos with Kinnie Star and wrote songs with Marc Jordan.

She is also at Truro's Marigold Arts Centre on Wednesday, the Bauer Theatre in Antigonish on Friday, and the Music Room in Halifax with a full band on Sept. 30.

The deCoste Centre in Pictou is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

The Blues kick into high gear with Blues Night on Wednesday, Oct. 3, featuring a return visit by award-winning acoustic performer Guy Davis.

The Barra MacNeils will be on stage Saturday, Oct. 6 and Flamenco great Juan Martin will be in concert Oct. 7. Martin has been voted one of the three top guitar players in the world.

Children's entertainer Robert Munsch brings his Love You Forever tour to the Centre on Monday, Oct. 15 for two shows.

Grammy Award-winner Gordie Sampson is onstage with Symphony Nova Scotia on Saturday, Oct. 20.

An evening of bluegrass featuring Rustic Harmony is slated for Monday, Oct. 22.

There's an unplugged concert featuring Lennie Gallant on Wednesday, Oct. 24 and a concert by Men of the Deeps on Saturday, Oct. 27.

A Songwriters Circle featuring 25 songs to celebrate the deCoste anniversary will be held on Saturday, Nov. 3. It will be hosted by Dave Gunning and features Dave Carmichael, Catherine MacLellan, Old Man Luedecke and Amelia Curran.

The Caledonian Scottish Fiddle Orchestra performs on Sunday, Nov. 4 and the Cobblestones from Newfoundland perform on Tuesday, Nov. 13.

George Canyon returns to his roots on Tuesday, Nov. 20.

Ron James presents his new tour, Full Tilt on Sunday, Nov. 25 and Jimmy Rankin is scheduled to perform Tuesday, Nov. 27.

Pianist Michael Kaeshammer will be at the deCoste on Wednesday, Dec. 5, at 8 p.m. The annual Christmas Ceilidh will be held on the Saturday, Dec. 8.

Bette MacDonald and Maynard Morrison present their new seasonal show, Tis the Season, on Sunday, Dec. 16.

The anniversary season ends on Wednesday, Dec. 19, with a Murray Room performance by Dave Gunning featuringseasonal favourites.

Tickets for all performances, except George Canyon, go on sale on Tuesday to the general public (members tickets are already on sale).

Tickets for the George Canyon show go on sale Oct. 9 for members of the centre. Call 1-800-353-5338 or 485-8848 for information.
Think you know American history? Well, what did dollar-coin lady Susan B. Anthony do?

If you answered that she sewed the American flag, like one college student did on Thursday in Houston, you'd fail at least one question in the new citizenship test just announced by the government.

The new exam, several years and $6.5 million in the making, is designed to give would-be Americans a better sense of U.S. history, civics and foundational principles, placing less emphasis on memorization.

For example, the new test asks who lived in America before Europeans arrived, what group of people was taken to America and sold as slaves, and the role of women's rights leader Susan B. Anthony. It also adds questions about geography, such as naming one state bordering Canada.

"It's no longer a test about how many stars are on the flag or how many stripes," said Emilio Gonzalez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which unveiled the new questions Thursday. "It's a test that genuinely talks about those things that make America what it is."

The 100 questions were whittled from an initial list of 142 tested during a four-month pilot program. Nearly 6,800 people took the revised test during the pilot program, with 92.4 percent of them passing.

As with the old test, passing the revamped one involves answering at least six of 10 civics questions correctly. Applicants who fail can take the test a second time. And if they fail again, they must reapply for citizenship.

The desire was not to make the test harder, but to nudge would-be citizens into studying more about the "landmark moments" of history and the nation's defining principles, said Alfonso Aguilar, head of CIS' Office of Citizenship, which designed the test that takes effect in October 2008.


Not all happy with change
Though CIS officials said they took great pains to work with immigrant rights groups, scholars and think tanks during the test's design, not all are happy with the outcome.

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which was involved with the pilot program, expressed concern Thursday that the new test will require far more study by applicants and will overload citizenship teachers already struggling to impart necessary knowledge.

"Unfortunately, that list has not been improved, and questions such as 'What is the rule of law?' and 'Who was president during World War I?' are still there," the group said in a statement. "We question how fair it is to require new citizens to answer these questions, which many native-born Americans would find difficult."

But would they really?

The Chronicle decided to find out by conducting an impromptu citizenship quiz, based on the new questions, across Houston Community College's central campus on Thursday.

For some, the questions elicited long pauses as the brain jogged the memory of long-lost civics knowledge.

One particularly challenging question was how many voting members are in the House of Representatives. The answer is 435, though the responses ranged from 32 to around 200.

And "some of the historical figures, like I should know who they are and I recognize their names but it's hard to remember what they did," said Valerie McIntosh, 27, a speech pathology student.

For others, it isn't the names of people who grace our currency that are hard to remember, but the country's current brass.

What is the name of the Vice President of the United States now?

"That would be, uh ... uh ... oh my God. I don't know. George Bush and ― God, what's that's guy's name?" asked Trey Bell, a 19-year-old electrical engineering student.

It's Dick Cheney.

Or what about who is one of your state's U.S. Senators?

"Bentsen. Lloyd Bentsen," said E.J. Rendon, 31, who's studying marketing.

"Rick Perry," answered 18-year-old Iryna Marchemko, a permanent U.S. resident who hopes to apply for citizenship.

Government quizzes aren't her strong suit, she said, but the questions on the new exam are "basics you need to know, I need to know."

"I mean, you should have a basic knowledge of the country where you live in but it doesn't necessarily mean people who were born here ― they know answers to those questions," said Marchemko, a native of Ukraine.


Study guides to be offered
McIntosh said she's currently taking a class on being a good citizen and doesn't necessarily agree that all the questions are helpful. It's not just about knowing, it's about doing, she said. "It's more about our involvement in our government. I think if somebody knows how the government works ... they're going be able to participate and want to participate."

Over the next year, CIS will disseminate study guides that will be available online and through community groups that offer citizenship workshops.

And of course, it wouldn't be a genuine Uncle Sam test if it didn't include one of the only things we can be sure of in life:

When is the last day you can send in federal income tax forms?