The two legislators who represent Charlottesville and Albemarle County in the Virginia House of Delegates come from opposite sides of the aisle. But they came together Wednesday evening for a dialogue with constituents during a program sponsored by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. The following is the complete program from that event, moderated by Jane Foy of WINA’s morning program.
The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression is the group behind the recent installation of the Community Chalkboard and Podium on the downtown mall. The Chalkboard is the setting for a new lecture series, and we bring you now the inaugural event with radio essayist Janis Jaquith. Thanks to Lydia Wilson for recording this event.
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About three hundred people gathered this morning under a bright April sun on the east end of the Charlottesville downtown mall to be among the first to watch someone write on the new community chalkboard. The 42-foot-long slate wall is a monument to the First Amendment built by the Thomas Jefferson Center for Free Expression. Area celebrities were in attendance, and short remarks were made by George Garrett, John Grisham and Boyd Tinsley. We present the entire event in this downloadable recording,
along with reactions from people who were there.
00:00 – 00:34 – Introduction
00:34 – 03:41 – Robert O’Neill, Director of the Thomas Jefferson Center
03:41 – 06:24 – Bruce Sanford, Chairman of the Center’s Board of Trustees
06:24 – 08:16 – Charlottesville Mayor David Brown
08:16 – 13:00 – Former Virginia Poet Laureate George Garrett
13:01 – 18:12 – Bestselling author John Grisham
18:12 – 27:05 – Dahlia Lithwick, legal writer for Slate and host of WHTJ’s For the Record
27:05 – 30:10 – Violinist Boyd Tinsley of the Dave Matthews Band
30:10 – 33:31 – Brandon Dudley, Charlottesville High School Senior
33:31 – 35:20 – Closing remarks from Bruce Sanford
35:20 – 37:00 – Closing Remarks from Robert O’Neill and the unveiling
37:00 – 42:47 – Montage of reactions and first words written
You can see better pictures of the event on Doc Multimedia’s blog. 2300 Days has a really nice picture of the wall shortly after it was open to the public. Charlottesville Tomorrow has many pictures of the people listed above.
Apr 112006
Today is Thomas Jefferson’s birthday, which means the Center for Free Expression that bears his name has released a new batch of Muzzle Awards, given to organizations and individuals that the center feels has somehow violated the spirit of the First Amendment in the past year. I recently stopped by the Center to speak with director Robert O’Neill about this year’s selections.
For a full list of the 2006 Muzzles, visit the Thomas Jefferson Center’s website. For an in-depth report, check out Liesel Nowak’s article on the Daily Progress.
Mar 242006
| Legal news commentator and reporter Joan Biskupic, discusses her new biography, Sandra Day O’Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice. This event is part of the 2006 Virginia Festival of the Book, and is sponsored by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. |
May 072005
In May 2005, writer and radio essayist Janis Jaquith interviewed Academy Award-winning actress Sissy Spacek at Charlottesville’s Paramount Theater. The event was the kickoff of the successful campaign to raise the funds for the construction of The Community Chalkboard and Podium: A Monument to the First Amendment. The monument was dedicated in Charlottesville in April, 2006.
Apr 122005
Every year on the birthday of our nation’s third president, the Thomas Jefferson Center for Free Expression honors the author of the Declaration of Independence by handing out the Jefferson Muzzle awards to organizations and individuals that, in their view, have somehow limited free speech.
This year, the Center has handed out a record-setting fifteen of the awards to such places as the Federal Communications Commission, the Virginia House of Delegates, and the Republican and Democratic parties for setting up so-called “free speech” zones during their national conventions last summer.
Last week, radio essayist Janis Jaquith sat down with the center’s director, Robert O’Neil, to talk about the importance of free expression in a democracy. Click below to hear her interview.
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