Michael Eric Dyson, the renowned social analyst, best-selling author, ordained minister and University Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University, who is considered one of the finest thinkers in the United States, will speak at Hudson County Community College’s Lecture Series. Dr. Dyson’s appearance is scheduled for Thursday, February 11 at 6 p.m. in the Scott Ring Room of the College’s Culinary Arts Institute/Conference Center, 161 Newkirk Street in Jersey City – just two blocks from the Grove Street PATH station.

A prolific author whose writings have explored the lives of Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., singer Marvin Gaye and entertainer Bill Cosby, Dr. Dyson has also written about the cultural significance of rap in Between God and Gangsta Rap, on Hurricane Katrina in Come Hell or High Water, and on matters of race in America in Debating Race.

Dr. Dyson has taught at some of this nation’s most prestigious universities (including Brown, UNC at Chapel Hill, Columbia and University of Pennsylvania), and the Chronicle of Higher Education once wrote that his fiery and fearless oratory “can rock classroom and chapel alike.”

Born in Detroit in 1958, Dyson grew up in a comfortable middle class family. As a child, he developed his oratorical skills by delivering speeches to the members of his Baptist church. While attending a prestigious boarding school, he encountered his first personal experiences with racism and returned to public high school. By the time he was to graduate high school he was a teenage father-to-be, living on welfare, and known on the streets as a hustler. Throughout everything, he continued to attend the Baptist church, and by the time he was 21, he had studied and become an ordained minister.

Dr. Dyson pursued his love of learning and journalism through his studies at Knoxville College and Carson-Newman College, where he earned his bachelor’s degree with honors. He then went on to earn a master’s degree and doctoral degree from Princeton University. He is a much sought-after social commentator who has appeared on a wide variety of television and radio programs, and he has hosted his own nationally syndicated radio show, “The Michael Eric Dyson Show.”

“The theme of this year’s lecture series is ‘Reaching New Heights,’ and Dr. Dyson has devoted his life to doing just that,” said HCCC President Dr. Glen Gabert. “It is an honor to have Dr. Dyson appear here at Hudson County Community College. We are certain that everyone will find his lecture engrossing, enlightening and inspiring,” Dr. Gabert stated.

There are a limited number of free tickets available through the College’s Office of Student Activities for Dr. Dyson’s appearance. More information and tickets are available by phoning (201) 360-4195.

Dr. Gabert reminded that the third and final installment of the 2009-2010 Lecture Series is scheduled for Wednesday, March 17 when Rita Moreno – one of the few performers who has won all four of the nation’s top entertainment awards – will appear.

The post Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, One of America’s Most Inspiring and Influential Authors and Scholars,to Speak at Hudson County Community College first appeared on River View Observer.

When Walt Disney wrote to a Minnesota man on November 29, 1935, he never dreamed what that letter would be worth one day. Typed on his “Silly Symphony” letterhead, with a large Mickey Mouse in orange and black, it is today something of a holy grail for Disney collectors.

For six years, Disney’s “Silly Symphony” cartoons won Academy Awards and brought about the birth of among many other characters, Donald Duck. Signed with his cartoonists’ pen, Walt Disney’s letter, with its Mickey Mouse envelope, is estimated to sell in the Nov. 12th
Yonkers auction of Cohasco, Inc., for $3,500-$5,000.

Six hundred other lots of collectibles in the auction include:

The world’s largest private collection of U.S. Capitol Building
memorabilia. Capturing the heart of a collector, 575 items every one
showing the famed structure, were gathered over decades. The one-of-
a-kind collection even includes a shoe, a miniature piano, and a bell,
all depicting the Capitol Building. This year marks the 150th
anniversary of the arrival of the model for the Statue of Freedom,
which sits atop the Capitol dome (pre-sale estimate, $2,000-$4,000).

A letter from New Orleans writing of the “dreadful gale of wind”,
certainly a hurricane, in 1837. Part of a 245-item archive of life in
New Orleans and the Old South, the original letters and documents
describe the lost world of steamboats, cotton trading, plantations,
great wealth, the early frontier, sugar, tobacco, and slavery
($48,000-$60,000).

“The Pamphlet That Shaped A Nation,” a 26-page booklet printed in
Spring 1776 by the same man, John Dunlap, who printed the Declaration
of Independence on the night of July 4th. Included in the Library of
Congress’ online presentation, “Creating the United States,” only
three other original examples of this pamphlet are known ($1,500-
$2,500).

Advertising booklet for one of the very first hybrid cars, the 1905
Gas-Au-Lec of Peabody, MA. Combining gas, steam, and electricity,
only four cars were ever built ($110-$140).

Description of the fabled, “Letter From Jesus,” in an English
schoolboy’s notebook of 1698-1702. According to tradition, King Abgar
wrote to Jesus, asking for help in curing his illness; he received a
reply, and was visited and cured by one of Jesus’ disciples ($400-$600).

An 1816 letter of a plantation overseer, ordering striped fabric for
slaves’ clothing ($90-$120).

And many other unusual historical items, in thirty-four categories.
Including the most valuable and unusual lot which is just that: an
empty lot, but with a secret. Hiding in plain sight in downtown
Yonkers, just behind the auction house, is one of the most ancient
African- American historical sites in the country. Forgotten for
years, it dates to 1682, surpassing even the Manhattan Burial Ground
by about eight years. While not in any auction, the Liberation Lawn
harbors over thirty specific points and periods of African-American
history, a high number for historical sites of any kind. These points
include: the formal entry tended by slaves of the richest couple in
old New York, George Washington’s 1776 encampment, land impacted by
the very first freedom law of its kind in America over 75 years before
the Emancipation Proclamation, rare written documentation of the
Underground Railroad on site, and much more.

City plans call for this Liberation Lawn, adjoining the Philipse Manor
Historic District, to be strip-excavated, then flooded with cement,
for a garage and condo. Efforts of local citizens to preserve
Liberation Lawn are ongoing. Its secrets were rediscovered by a
rather astonished Bob Snyder, Cohasco V.P., who published them in the
Yonkers Historical Society’s Quarterly. Snyder remarked, “That so
many key chapters in history occurred on one modest piece of land is
extraordinary. It’s highly likely that the number of historical
discoveries about Liberation Lawn’s role in slavery and freedom in
America will continue to grow. But we’re racing the clock.”

About Cohasco, Inc.: Established 63 years, Cohasco is a dealer in and
auctioneer of manuscripts, books, antiquarian materials and
collectibles. Over the years they have handled the sale of numerous
prominent collections, in a range of fields, from colonial to
Confederate, medieval to modern. Recent highlights included the
lamps that illuminated Lincoln’s wedding, an archive of the Duryea,
America’s first “mass-produced” automobile, and the Bible owned by
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s mother, setting a world record price for
a twentieth-century Bible.

For more information, please contact Bob Snyder at:

Cohasco, Inc.
ESTABLISHED 63 YEARS
P.O. Drawer 821
Yonkers, NY 10702

Phone: (914) 476-8500
Fax: (914) 476-8573
E-mail: info@cohascodpc.com
Website: http://cohascodpc.com

The post RARE LETTER OF WALT DISNEY’S “SILLY SYMPHONY” DISCOVERED first appeared on River View Observer.