Mari Sandoz Festival is Friday

Faculty from Chadron State will present several of the programs with assistance from two members of the Nebraska Humanities Council’s Speakers’ Bureau. The activities will begin at 9 a.m.

The CSC presenters and their topics:

--Dr. Kathy Bahr, “Collecting Oral Histories.”

--Ann Krejci, “Era Portraits: Digital Photos in Costume.”

--Dr. Joel Hyer, “Hands-On History.”

--Dr. Matt Evertson, “Nebraskaland Authors.”

--Dr. Ron Weedon, “Medicinal Plants.”

Those presenting from the humanities council and their topics are:

--Virginia Opocensky of Lincoln, who will read from “Christmas of the Phonograph Records,” a short story written by Mari Sandoz, and play music from original wax cylinders on a 1905 Edison cylinder phonograph that she owns. The phonograph is similar to what the “Old Jules” Sandoz family owned.

--Otto Rosfeld of Valentine will sing “Sandhills Songs” and relate oral history about Mari Sandoz.

Also speaking will be Doug Marr of Omaha, who will teach basic playwriting techniques.

In addition, Lucinda Mays, a Chadron State graduate student who is doing a plant inventory on campus, will give a tour of the plants on the campus with special emphasis on those that have been transplanted from the Sandoz homestead and are now growing near the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center at CSC.

Evertson and Deb Carpenter, both members of the Language and Literature Department faculty at Chadron State, are co-chairmen of the festival, which they hope will become an annual event. Grants from the Nebraska Humanities Council are helping support the festival.