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| Winslow Homer "West Point, Prout's Neck" |
Please join us Thursday, July 7th at 7 p.m. for a presentation by Dr. Roger Payne, founder and President of Ocean Alliance in collaboration with his wife, well known actress Lisa Harrow. The lecture/performance piece, "SEACHANGE: Reversing the Tide" is one of the events tied to a special exhibition titled "Art of the Sea and Science" which Ocean Alliance and the North Shore Arts Association have launched in and examination of the issues facing the marine environment and a celebration of the mystery and beauty of the ocean. A $5.00 donation is encouraged.
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| "Paint Factory" slate by Sharon Bahosh |
About the Lecturers and Performers
Dr. Roger Payne, Ocean Alliance President and Founder
Dr. Roger Payne states, "I am so disappointed that the Arts and Sciences are taught separately-both the Art and the Sciences lose. They should be co-mingled." Ocean scientist Payne embodies the best of the Arts and Sciences functioning together to do something probably neither could have done separately.
Ocean Alliance CEO Ian Kerr share, "Because Dr. Payne is a musician..because he is an artist/scientist, his training allowed him to identify, and make the most profound discovery about humpback whales. That whales sing songs!" Prior to his discovery in 1967, along with Scott McVay, whale sounds were a mystery. Payne knew, however, that "a song is a rhythmically repeated collection of notes" and was able, because of his music training, to identify the particular songs of individual whales that he later confirmed can be heard over thousands of miles of ocean.
Having worked aboard the sloop "Clearwater" in support of Pete Seeger's efforts to clean up the Hudson River in New York, Payne is considered a pioneer in his field. In the hope of sharing the work of artists/scientists, recordings of whale songs were place aboard American Satellites Voyager I and II. Drs. Payne and Kerr have also stimulated interest in conserving our oceans and marine life by testifying before Congress and presenting before the United Nations.
Lisa Harrow, actress, author, and environmental activist
Lisa was born in Auckland, New Zealand and is a noted actress well known in the UK for her roles in British theatre, films and television. Her career started at the Royal Shakespeare Company. She has performed on stage all across America, and has appeared in major television and film roles in the US. One role for which she is well known in this country is that of Nancy Astor, the first woman to take her seat in the House of Commons. That BBC drama, Nancy Astor, aired in the US 1982 on PBS' Masterpiece Theatre.
Lisa Harrow is the author of the environmental handbook "What Can I Do?" published in separate editions for Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the United States.
About SEACHANGE: Reversing the Tide (performed by Dr. Roger Payne and his wife noted British actress Lisa Harrow
What is the most consequential contribution of science in the past 100 years? Is is E=mc2, the structure of DNA, decoding the human genome, plate tectonics, the computer revolution, putting a man on the moon, the development of nuclear weapons? None of those directly affects the lives of every human being on earth-most indigenous peoples are simply unaware of all of them. However, respect for the hundreds of species that make the world habitable for us, and with which we interdepend is utterly consequential. Indigenous people were first to guess at it but scientific discovery during the past 50 years has proved it. And the consequence of that discovery is-if we ignore the destruction of the wild world until it can no longer keep the world habitable, our species will not survive.
The evidence for and the consequences of this broad claim are explored in SEACHANGE: Reversing the Tide. In this hour long presentation Roger Payne and his wife, actress Lisa Harrow combine the knowledge of science with the wisdom of poetry to argue compellingly that man is not the overseer of Life on earth but an integral part of Life's complex web and conclude that the most consequential scientific discovery of the past 100 years is the realization that our species' survival requires that we attend not just to our own well being but to the well being of the entire web of Life-nothing else we can ever do will be nearly as consequential as understanding that point. The audience emerges with a clear understanding of humanity's role in the natural world and of the urgency of our need to start living sustainably.
Since 2004, Roger and Lisa have presented this program to audiences in universities, film festivals, schools, churches, conferences, libraries and other public spaces; off-Broadway, the UN, and in people's living rooms, throughout the US, as well as in New Zealand and the UK.
Currently, a team of New Zealand/Canadian documentary makers are raising the funds from international sources to make a film of the piece, which they are calling Pale Blue Dot after Carl Sagan's book, and extract from which are the last words of SEACHANGE.
"SEACHANGE moves its viewers. The strength of its ecological convictions derive from well-marshalled facts of the reality of our despoilment of the planet, and the emotional impact of the poetry the piece uses. Most importantly, Harrow and Payne turn away from despair to what is to be done."
-Roald Hoffman
Nobel Laureate, chemist and writer
"Thank you, both of you, for that haunting and lovely stage piece. You had me thrumming all the way home."
-Lawrence Wechsler
Director of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU
Also on display in the galleries of the North Shore Arts Association
is the Artist Members Exhibition II "Art of the Sea and Science", and
the New Artist
Members Show. Both exhibitions are on display at our harborside
galleries from June 17 through July 30th and are free and open to the
public.
