Morgan Helps Community Celebrate Obama Inauguration
Choir performance, Obama wax figure unveiling and community watch party
Morgan State University is joining with the Baltimore community in celebration of the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama. Events surrounding this historic inaugural begin with the Morgan Choir's musical welcome of President-elect Obama when he arrives in Baltimore on Saturday, January 17, 2009. The Morgan Choir has been invited to participate in the War Memorial Plaza event.
On Monday, January 19th, the university will help the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum to unveil its presidential wax figure of Barack Obama, on the eve of his swearing in as the nation's 44th President. The unveiling, which is a ticketed event, will take place at 11:00 a.m. at Morgan's Carl J. Murphy Fine Arts Center, 2201 Argonne Drive.
Finally, on Inauguration Day, Tuesday, January 20, 2009, the campus of Morgan State University will be opened to the public for a free "Inauguration Watch Party" in the Gilliam Concert Hall of the Murphy Fine Arts Center. The community is invited to gather and watch the inauguration of Barack Obama on the 2,000-seat concert hall's giant screen. "This is a history-making event," says Morgan President Earl S. Richardson, "and because many in our community will not be able to brave the weather and the crowds to attend the inauguration, we wanted to give them the next best thing."
At least one member of the Morgan family will have a view of the events Tuesday that most people will not have. Aïdah Aliyah Rasheed will march in the 2009 Inaugural Parade along with over 100 other members of AmeriCorps, a national network of civic leaders. Rasheed, a 2008 graduate of Morgan State University, is a native of California. She has been a member of AmeriCorps since 2006 and now works for the Creative Alliance but says she will be marching in her Morgan Orange and Blue in Tuesday's Inaugural Parade.
For more information on Morgan's Obama Inauguration events, contact Clinton R. Coleman, Morgan State University, at 443-885-3022. For information and ticket pricing for the Obama wax figure unveiling, contact Jon Wilson or Octavia Pratt, National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, at 410-563-3404.
