What to See at Duke This Week: Hank Aaron, the Flint Water Crisis and Brains
Every year, the Coalition for Preserving Memory at Duke holds a day-long name-reading ceremony to honor the victims of various genocides throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. For 24 hours, students, faculty members and staff will take to Abele Quad to read names of individuals who died in one of the many human atrocities of the past 120 years. The public is invited to sign up for a 10-minute reading slot. Following a reading, a panel discussion on “How Can the Past Move You Forward” will take place in 153 Rubenstein Library. Noon, Sunday, April 8, - noon, Monday, April 9.
When more than 100,000 residents of Flint, Michigan, were exposed to high levels of lead in the city drinking water, it was a health crisis. Marc Edwards and others from Virginia Tech helped ensure the residents had the science they needed to make it a political crisis. A Virginia Tech civil engineering professor, Edwards has created a research group that makes science a public good, exploring the facts behind infrastructure problems that affect lives. He’ll deliver the Ferguson Family Distinguished Lecture on “Truth Seeking in an Age of Tribalism: Lessons from the Flint Water Crisis” in a talk sponsored by the Nicholas School of the Environment. 6 p.m. Love Auditorium, B101 Levine Science Research Center.
Like many African-American baseball stars of the 1960s, Hank Aaron was as much a leader in his communities as he was on the field; in his case, Aaron’s wife Billye was with him matching his efforts. A career of promoting K-12 education – and their long friendship with Samuel DuBois Cook – brings the home run slugger and his wife to Duke’s Cook Center on Social Equity. The center is naming its summer young scholars research program after the Aarons. The program offers summer research and enrichment opportunities to Durham Public Schools’ middle-schoolers and high-schoolers. The event will also honor Cook’s legacy. 5:30 p.m. Nasher Museum of Art. The event is free, but online registration is required.
If turning a satellite dish into a painted mural is on your bucket list, the Duke Arts Festival can make your dream come true. The week-long festival has dozens of arts-related events planned for the week. One of the most unusual is a Mural Durham event held in the Satellite Park adjoining the Arts Annex on Gattis Street. Eight satellites will be painted by local artists with help from Duke students. The new murals will transform the Duke Arts Annex grounds into a community park for Durham's Burch Avenue neighborhood and beyond. 1-4 p.m. 404 Gattis St.
Have you ever held a human brain in your hands? The Duke Institute for Brain Sciences’ annual Discovery Day lets members of the public get a close look at the remarkable workings of the brain and learn some of what Duke researchers are doing to unlock its secrets. The free, family friendly event will include brain science games and learning activities. 1 p.m. Multipurpose Room, B035 Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Levine Science Research Center.