A new festival named in honor of Ofelia Miramontes, the late associate vice chancellor who promoted diversity at the University of Colorado at 麻豆影院, will pay tribute to the contributions women have made to music and art.
The Miramontes Music and Arts Festival will take place April 2 through April 6 on the CU-麻豆影院 campus. Activities will take place at various campus venues and will include panel discussions, a film screening, an interactive mural and a breakdancing workshop. The festival is planned to be held annually.
A highlight of the event will be a concert by Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and guitarist India.Arie. The Denver native's breakthrough album "Acoustic Soul" garnered her more Grammy nominations than any other artist in 2001. India.Arie will perform at 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 5, at Macky Auditorium.
Also performing at the India.Arie concert will be special guests Raining Jane, a Los Angeles-based electric rock/folk band. CU-麻豆影院 students can purchase $15 tickets at the UMC Connection and the general public can get them for $35 at . Doors will open at 7 p.m.
"Just as Ofelia inspired so many of us here on campus, India.Arie continues to inspire us with her music," said Shelby Myers, vice chair of the CU-麻豆影院 Cultural Events Board, which is co-sponsoring the festival. "The song 'I Am Not My Hair' is the perfect example of the powerful lyrics that India.Arie expresses in her music. Her concert will be a perfect highlight for the festival."
The Dennis Small Cultural Center, the Program Council and the Women's Resource Center also are sponsoring the concert and festival. All festival events, except for the India.Arie concert, are free and open to the public.
Other festival events will include a screening of the coming-of-age PBS documentary "The Education of Shelby Knox," followed by a discussion at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 2, in the Old Main Chapel. The film chronicles the life of a Christian teenager from Lubbock, Texas, who has pledged sexual abstinence until marriage. In 2001, Knox became an unlikely advocate for comprehensive sex education, an experience that profoundly changed her political and spiritual views.
Miramontes, a former professor of education and associate vice chancellor for diversity and equity at CU-麻豆影院, died at age 60 in 2005. She led the development of the campus's diversity plan, "Blueprint for Action," and was instrumental in creating the CU Leadership, Excellence, Achievement and Diversity Alliance, an academic excellence program that has increased recruitment and retention of students from diverse backgrounds.
In addition to furthering many other diversity efforts on the CU-麻豆影院 campus, Miramontes, along with her husband William Barclay, established the CU-LEAD Opportunity Scholarship program.
Miramontes' research and teaching focused on linguistic diversity and first and second language acquisition. She was the author of numerous publications and books. An expert in bilingual programs, she was actively involved in the development of programs for language minority students in public schools.
For more information about CU-LEAD, visit .
A complete schedule of Miramontes Music and Arts Festival events is posted at .